PRICE:
$15.50
IN STOCK
ARTIST
TITLE
Music and Words
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
PD 009CD PD 009CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
3/19/2013

2013 repress, originally released in 1999. When did you last hear a laugh-out-loud avant garde album? Paradigm Discs is hard-pressed to think of any. Roland Topor's Panic is a goodie, or some of the antics of the Selten Gehörte Musik gang, but this is funnier, and the label's own personal favorite Paradigm release. Bohman's personal approach to music has always shown a preference for the raw and unprocessed, although his three releases on Paradigm with Morphogenesis often use signal processing. On his first solo recording for Paradigm all the played music (except for one piece that uses slowed down and backwards sounds), consist of unprocessed sounds from the surfaces of a wide variety of objects that utilize a broken violin at its core. This CD attempts to cover the full variety of his different working practices which have been slowly evolving since the mid-'80s. In particular there is a total of over 30 minutes taken from one of his many "talking tapes," previously only heard by the few as audio letters, and much treasured by their recipients (there is also an example featured on the first London compilation on Paradigm Discs). These tapes consist of on-the-spot lo-fi cassette recordings of his observations, both humorous, mundane and personal. Special attention is given to colors, signage and vernacular architectural detail, and favored locations include: overseas visits, public toilets, restaurants and public transport, but it is the unpretentious wit and dedication that make these tapes so enduring. The sounds of the environment, the faulty recording mechanism and the frequent use of the pause button give these pieces an almost concrète, sound text feel. This "talking tape" dates from Christmas, 1994. There are also three "pause pieces" dating from 1990, which are multi-tracked, rapid collages of pre-recorded sound material, also recorded on cassette recorders. This uses a similar technique (although independently developed), as that used by Anton Bruhin on his InOut CD on Alga Marghen. Finally there are four multi-tracked studio recordings, and one live concert recording. Crucial to all these pieces is the element of improvisation. Bohman has collaborated with a diverse cross-section of improvisers, from Lol Coxhill to Joseph Hammer, and is one-half of the ongoing theater/improv duo The Bohman Brothers.