"We put chemicals in one end so our customers can get memories out the other."
― unidentified former Kodak employee
Photograph: Bettina Herzner, 1994
Contact negative from paper print, 8” x 10”
Production material, 1994
"We put chemicals in one end so our customers can get memories out the other."
― unidentified former Kodak employee
Glassine jacket for Jim O’Rourke
Production material, 8” x 10”
John Fahey, 1996
“Now that John Fahey, the Great Koonaklaster no longer walks among us, it may be possible to review this final period of his amazing trajectory with the requisite objectivity. There is no more New John anymore; no more Old John. There is only John Fahey—Immortal Motherf*cker of the 20th Century.
"And it's time for you to eat his dust.”
—Byron Coley
Photograph: Bettina Herzner, 1996
www.tableoftheelements.org
— with John Fahey.
John Fahey, 1996
“Now that John Fahey, the Great Koonaklaster no longer walks among us, it may be possible to review this final period of his amazing trajectory with the requisite objectivity. There is no more New John anymore; no more Old John. There is only John Fahey—Immortal Motherf*cker of the 20th Century.
"And it's time for you to eat his dust.”
—Byron Coley
Photograph: Bettina Herzner, 1996
www.tableoftheelements.org
Tony Protests La Monte, 1990
Tony Conrad standing outside a concert by La Monte Young in Buffalo (Hallwalls) with a picket sign declaring “Composer La Monte Young does not understand ‘his’ work”, 1990.
COMPOSER LA MONTE YOUNG DOES NOT UNDERSTAND “HIS” WORK …
Tony Conrad / 1990
1. The “Theater of Eternal Music” (“TEM”) of 1964 was collaboratively founded - and was so named to deny the Eurocentric historical/progressive teleology then represented by the designation, composer.
2. Young is suppressing the recordings of “TEM,” which do not flatter him. He has specifically denied access by members of the collaboration (Tony Conrad, John Cale) to the collection of recordings for 25 years. Two members are already dead (Maclise, Jennings).
3. Young himself now ignorantly insists on the artistic demolition of this body of work by claiming that it is a series of “compositions” (by him).
4. The “TEM” introduced an influential preoccupation with just intonation. “TEM” was anti-rationalist and non-electronic, but did focus on perceptual and conceptual aspects of small intervals. Young himself misunderstands this development as neo-Pythagorean rationalism (after the scientific idealism of Helmholtz).
5. Each “TEM” member had an interest in carefully structured improvisation and long durations. Young’s early eurocentric compositional innovation - the use of long notes - appears in his String Trio. However, nowhere do his compositions show “TEM”’s crucial understanding that long durations are small intervals.
6. Young’s neo-Futurist (“Fluxus”) work aside, his Orientalism and romanticized personality-cult mark him among the most regressive of contemporary artists. His conservative gutting of “TEM” has paid off (for him) in a multimillion petro-dollar bonanza, which he uses to perpetuate his exploitative and artistically mindless enterprise.
7. Money paid to Young is valuable resources wasted on ignorance, false self-representation, service to Young’s ego at others’ expense, and a colonial image of American cultural expression.
YOUNG – OUT OF BUFFALO NOW!
www.tableoftheelements.org
From 1993, US recording label Table of the Elements has staked its claim on a massive enterprise. It intends nothing less than to rewrite the history of American music in the second half of the 20th century. The label’s 150-plus releases are a vital contemporary chronicle, a survey of meaningful eruptions across a broad horizon of improvised, experimental, minimal and outsider sounds.
~~o0o~~
"The supremacy of Table of the Elements as an unwavering outpost of ultra-experimental strains can be attributed to its concomitant adherence to valiance. Most of the Table of the Elements catalog has no broad commercial appeal, and many of its projects are risky ventures, even with respect to the experimental marketplace. Yet, this philosophy of risk works because everybody associated with the label feels like they're doing important work releasing important records, and they're willing to go for broke to make it happen.”
—Pitchfork
"The music made and cultivated by such artists as Tony Conrad, Captain Beefheart, John Fahey, Cecil Taylor, Rhys Chatham, Charlie Feathers, Dock Boggs, Jim O’Rourke, Faust, Derek Bailey, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Keiji Haino, Arnold Dreyblatt, Charley Patton, Harry Smith, and scores more, is at once among the most radical and deeply rooted of the 20th century, transcending time and place through the agency of the vibrating string, the resonance of the drone, the terrifying beauty of electric amplification, the hypnotic power of repetition, and the revelatory genius of cranky individualism.
"How does someone begin to represent that in a visual manner? The trick involves some old-fashioned alchemy. Everyday commodity has to be constructed as both miniature museum and theater. No longer a mere object, it now becomes a site in which one can endlessly indulge a sense of wonder, love and, yes, obsession. It’s not often that someone can cast an influence on a broader design aesthetic — think Blue Note in the 1960s, with its hip Reid Miles album covers — but as this sizable body of work took shape, that’s exactly what happened.”
—Steve Dollar
“The hallmarks of this New Archivism [are] beautiful and innovative packaging, elaborate and idiosyncratic liner notes, rare and obscure recordings ... Working with graphic designers such as the Grammy-winning Susan Archie, [the label] produced a collection that combines varied textures, lavish finishes, and period details with art from the era of the original source recordings. Their treatment of Robert Longo’s late 1970s photographs for Rhys Chatham’s releases could, for instance, measure up to what’s on view at most contemporary art centers. In addition to its archival endeavor, TotE also releases the new work of its avant-garde heroes and their devotees. TotE’s active support of the work of sonic pioneers ensures that theirs are living traditions – not ossified museum objects.”
—Art Papers
"Hubby's film captures Conrad in all his facets ... broadly as a man determined to make 'abstract art funny, happy, energetic, joyful.' Conrad lived long enough to see his early recordings, barely or never released, get the reissue and the attention they deserve. ... [Completely In the Present] is a sharp, sweet, eloquent documentary about the merriest, most artistically expansive minimalist on record. His work and his life asserted the importance of listening for the sounds nobody else has heard."
—Chicago Tribune
“Joyous, exhilarating, and transformative, Tyler Hubby’s documentary is essential viewing for anyone involved in the history of music and visual art.”
—Artforum
"Conrad was 100 percent badass. Without Tyler Hubby’s documentary and Table of the Elements ... one of the great stories of American music and art might have gone underappreciated.”
—Henry Rollins
