The Alan Sondheim Mail Archive

May 28, 2009


pre-sent

from the viewpoint of the one, here i am writing this with closed eyes,
concentrating on the thought putting itself forth, as if i were elsewhere,
and from this point of view, all is interiority, just as sight records a
permanence unlost in time as hearing is lost, as touch is not, and warmth
is intermediate; smell is a motion and a process, just as taste; smell
might remain, but taste disappears with the capacity to ingest perhaps.
you can see the embeddings of time in the senses, and in the roiling of my
constructions in virtual worlds, time is dissipated just as hearing is
always already a disappearance and smell or taste are embodied only in
memory, only present in memory, never presented, never in a present: the
knowledge of the organism is the knowledge of the present as pre-sent.

http://www.alansondheim.org/pov1.png
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http://www.alansondheim.org/pov3.png
http://www.alansondheim.org/pov4.png
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http://www.alansondheim.org/pov6.png
http://www.alansondheim.org/pov7.png
http://www.alansondheim.org/pov8.png

but what i give you, can give you here, are the captured screens, the shot
snaps, the death of the imaginary, the dead-roiling always on the move,
ghosts without feet, just ghosts.

(Review of Julu Twine from Aquarius records)


Porter Records
  to me, myk_saintdirt

show details 12:59 PM (3 hours ago)


Reply

 	Follow up message
Hi guys, really nice review from Aquarius records...

Alan Sondheim is a legendary writer and critic, he's also quite the
accomplished musician, his fantastic Ritual-All-7-70 album was recently
reissued on ESP which we should get around to reviewing quite soon. This
collaborative effort is in fact not archival but a brand new record,
released on the insanely prolific and always impressive Porter Records, on
Julu Twine Sondheim teamed up with lap steel guitarist Myk Freedman for
some improvised folk, that manages to bristle with energy, sounding quite
abstract at moments, but surprisingly composed at others.
Incorporating a unique arsenal of instruments, including zither, banjo
slide guitar and even something called a parlor guitar, the duo crafted
this gorgeous songsuite, the playing is often quite percussive, and
aggressive, subtle strumming and abstract finger picking is all tangled up
with intense strumming, and atonal scrabbling, here and there the
instruments are wreathed in thick buzzing feedback, other times the
melodies are spidery and abstract and allowed to unfurl lazily. Sondheim
contributes a kick ass banjo solo, that sounds simultaneously like classic
bluegrass, but also slightly chaotic and seat-of-the-pants sounding.
Freedman counters with a gorgeously languid slide guitar solo, all drifty
and woozy and ethereal, but the record works best when the two play
together, and off of each other. Lots of reverb and room sound, strange
haunting Eastern sounding melodies, occasional squalls of detuned
hillbilly psych freakouts, stumbling lurching atonal melodies drifting
into soft shimmering avant Appalachia, squiggly slippery slide wound all
around off kilter chromatic riffing, and once in a while, the two come
together perfectly and unfurl a warm washed out drone-y guitar raga, that
we wish would just go on and on and on.
Everyone into Blackshaw and Rose and Bishop and Baldwin and Ahmed And
Akiyama and other modern acoustic guitarists should definitely check this
out. Same sort of sound, but way more tripped out and otherworldly and
mysterious and jazzlike. RECOMMENDED!!!

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