The February Tapes

SAMSUNG SAMSUNG February will be the month of a d.i.y. tape release: 15 cassettes that are continously recorded in more or less one large session.

some projects start with a vague idea which gets more and more in shape. some projects are inspired by this and that.  The ones  I like most and pursue with a different Qi level are the ones that blop out of the vacuum. They occur.  accompanied by an inexplainable inner necessity.  maybe your heating broke down and you have your morning coffee at your kitchen table with two pullovers and a jacket and you have some troublesome time behind you and the calendar still shows january. . It s a tape series. Cassettes with transparent cases and 20 minutes on each side. it is a Kefir.  A life collaboration  of yeast and lactic acid bacteria. It s a picture containing nudity. SAMSUNG

4th of feb: The internet / web is an analogy which has to serve for everything that is (re-)discovered like the  mushroom webs communicating over large distances , like the whales talking to each other through SOFAR channels. would you also think the moon is just a selfie the earth took 4.5 billion years ago? the tapes evolve. I have a base now of 10 tapes. recorded mostly in the last year. 3 loop tapes. found tapes. metal tapes with former recordings of deep purple b-sides, erased  spanish progrock, german  & swedish lessons. they serve as a base for the new 15 tapes. tapes are always personal memory. the unrepeatable magnetization of the played back , re recorded and mistreated tape. DSC08728 the recordings go on, usually at night after coming back from the studio. 13-2-15 5 tapes are done. The c-15 tapes are not easy to handle for the short duration.  in a performance there s more time.  on a short release you have to condense down what you wanted to do. recording times usually after midnight. DSC00293 a first tape aid. 18-2 performance at loopsider III yesterday with real life stress test of some of the new recordeed tapes. it seems to work. 24-2 the shortest month of the year.  feedback and more feedback than i thought. tapes have an open end. it is surprising: breaking through the “roof” of a digital recording gives you just zeros instead of 1,0,0,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,. breaking trough the roof of an analog recording gives me indefinite variations of harmonics, clippings, harsh and warm noises. DSC00343 I added the mixer to my setup to  feed back sources from the recording tape back into the set up with some unexpected sounds as a result.  tonight XT (Cross Talk) will be the source of sound, i want to just record the channel crosstalk , not the source itself. just the communicating inductions. just a view days left. new pictures. new sounds. the word fieldrecording makes me think of this, although it might have nothing to do with it: DSC00307 25-2-15 Kefir DSC00455 Exchange Hermanstrasse corner to Boddinstrasse. Laura brings an Einmachglas with some Kefir grains.  My Kefir I lived with since 2010 passed away this winter. not exactly sure why but think I had it too long in the fridge with not much to eat.. It became my pet and travel companion since we met in Barcelona, la okupa de la playa en la  barceloneta. It changed flat with me maybe 5 times. more no-input: DSC00446 and a kefir conspiracy is growing. DSC00526 DSC00520 still cold in my kitchen, so kefir needs time. I bought Demeter Heumilch to get best resulsts, hope the kefir will like it. 28-2-15 more photographers are contributing. I ll post a view pics the next days. It is exciting how unpredictable everything gets. Thats what art for me is in a raw, “original” sense.. Field recordings of rain. 6-3-15 time is over. I m still working. waiting for a pair of microphones with primo capsules to do some direct field recordings to tape. every day in a project is different, the ideas wander off, find new destinations. Like The lost color, a film project I m thinking and working on for a long time already. It gets filled up with Quijote, purple colors and ancient easter marches meanwhile working on the cassettes. Have_You_Ever_LauraFIzuzquiza_18 a photography by laura izuzquiza that stays in my mind for long times, one of the photos i received. empty cigar boxes DSC00537 what hunts me these days is the title melody of Hals über Kopf a 80 s tv series for children, where adults are usually horrible stressed people which do mean things and don t make sense.

9-3-15

post process, re editing re recording some tapes. re listening, re re.

Isabelle Hanikamu just sent me her beautiful images.  the spring is coming with birds singing and smiles on people s faces. how things can change with a little sunlight from above.

 

9-11-17

Instead of publishing them  I used the tapes for my live performances and concerts and my soundtrack work. after a long period of time I look back on my desk with cigar boxes, tapes, pictures. I get back to it, with so much in between that has happened that i cant just continue but have to change. The pictures where one key to the project and as I work on film ideas i see the stills from one specific shoot that fit into the project exactly. I have to change the route, change everything. this happens. you wont believe me that it is about reptiles and horror and self optimization. about strange rites and post apocalyptic survival.  You will see and get it, I m sure.

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