I'm a sucker for singles that are themselves tiny pieces of conceptual art...the Dan Graham single at the Whitney, all Joe Colley's singles, the glow in the dark one with toy walkie talkie feedback...I feel all warm inside knowing these things are out there. Documenting an insane installation is obscure enough, but then to press it on 7" vinyl? Wow, there's no limits to what's going to end up on a 45. This piece... or 7" is especially meta-meta as Matt likes to say...basically it's the sound of two prepared turntables turning, grinding and ringing away. It's their swan song as they won't be playing any vinyl ever again, but I bet they never thought their own weirdo noises would ever be pressed into vinyl to be played on another turntable...oh the cycle of vinyl life. It's sad, but beautiful. They actually do make kind of a cool noise, the sound of the metal disc being struck by something, that 'shing' sound the aluminum platter makes when I drop that heavy weight thingy over the spindle...ooops. And does that really do anything for a tiny single by the way? How much vibration is it dampening? I'm a sucker.
The recordings on both sides of the vinyl sound layered, I don't think they are actually field recordings of the work playing in the gallery, which is ok, that has to exist by itself as one piece and here Stephen is taking those sounds and reorganizing them into something of a composition. It makes sense. (that's exactly what he did -ed)
I think this is on Permanent gallery records(?)...you can hear samples from both pieces on Stephen's site or at Mimaroglu....they would carry something like this.
Damn I wish I had more money.
They deserve more of it.
A 7" record published by Permanent Gallery on the occasion of my solo exhibition Works for Turntable. The record contains two compositions assembled from recordings of the amplified kinetic sculptures that featured in the show and is available directly from me or from the following friendly outlets: The Permanent Bookshop (UK), Mimaroglu Music Sales (US), Tochnit Aleph (DE), Sound 323 (UK) and Art into Life (JP).
brilliant (or dumb, or whatever, etc.). Thanks for the heads up, very interesting shit. Interesting little article, even if the record is decidedly un-music.
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