Anish Kapoor
Dear Readers,
[#a general remark#] I am proud to present the first 45SIS (45 sentences, infinite sounds) featuring the absolutely amazing american sound artist DREKKA. The 45 SIS is a Questionnary consisting of 45 sentences to be completed. This feature tries to close or at least bridge the gap between contemporary philosophical theories and contemporary sound-production by asking their most important contributors. The public reception and perception of sounds/music seems to be stuck in a weird consumer-convenience and commodity-oriented approach since ages. But music and sound are and should be more than this: an excess of the minimal and the maximal: the invisible and the secret, maybe. Over the months and years a serious encyclopedia of debatable positions in the aforementioned field will be build up by giving leading artists and theorists a space to present themselves without further commentary by the editor.
[#the portrait#] DREKKA is one of the most versatile and poetic sound artists today. He is a master of "camparative accoustomology" to say it with James Joyce. He uses his recording machines like a canvas - close to Robert Rauschenberg's "White Paintings"(1951) - letting sounds arrive, come and go like clouds in the sky. Allowing them to build up patterns on their own, disappearing or re-forming themselves again and forever. For DREKKA sounds have aerial roots - they are close to insubstantial almost virtual. They need air to breathe and to resonate - without air no sounds. Without differing or different ears no sounds either. Consequently listening and producing sounds is a trance-personal and trance-generational contract for him. No chance ever to be an owner or an originator of sounds in an absolute sense. There will always be an excess of aural possibilities. This excess will have always already transcended the final recording. Further re-writings, re- and de-codings, re- and re-re-cordings and re-re-mixings are inevitable and an integral part of DREKKA's projects. In this DREKKA follows the deepest traditions of American Music from John Cage 4'33'' to La Monte Young "Eternal Music" (being themselves rooted even deeper in a now almost lost tradition of music) having at least a few reservations about commodifiying sounds. Consequently Mkl Anderson opens processual windows and unforseeable futures for him, for "his" sounds, for the other and for future and virtual others having yet not even materialized and countersigned his works. His highly impressive discography gives testimony to this co-operative idea of music and sounds. So please take a closer look into his list of archived performances (here) that documents his working procedures so well. His working ethics and procedures seem to be close to La Monte Young, who once wrote: "I could see that sounds and all the other things in the world were just as important as human beings and that if we could to some degree give ourselves up to them, the sounds and other things that is, we enjoyed the possibility of learning something new. (...) If we are really interested in learning sounds instead of trying to force them do things that are mainly pertinent to human existence. If we try to enslave some of the sounds and force them to obey our will, they become useless."
[#discography/links/contacts#] I highly recommend to take a deep look into DREKKA's impressive and cooperative anarcheology of soundworlds - or shorter his disco-graphy. Among his most recent works are "DREKKA reworks ANNELIES MONSERÉ - 'Verjaardag'" (May 2016),"Funkhouser reworks DREKKA - Within the Realm of The Unknown"(April 2016), "Unknown Labor - (Drekka Rework by FIIT)" (April 2016) and his most recent work under the name DREKKA called "Unbeknownst to The Participants at Hand"(September 2015). Please consult all his internet sites to learn more about the poetic world of DREKKA, his friends and affiliates. Click on the links to get access to:the DREKKA-facebook, the sounds of DREKKA on DREKKA-bandcamp and DREKKA-livearchive-bandcamp, his video channel DREKKA-youtube, his label and the sounds of Bluesanct on Bluesanct-bandcamp, Bluesanct-The-Label and on his Bluesanct Tumblr.
[#the presentation#] The white font shows the grid of my 45SIS-questionnary, that will remain unchanged for each featured artist. This makes each contribution at once singular and comparable. The answers by each featured artist in this case DREKKA will always be presented in green font.
[SKG]
This is The 45SIS, No.1
brilliantly completed
by DREKKA
[1] “Music” and “Musician” are concepts ... what one person considers "music" and another considers "annoying sound" is very subjective ... and much of what people generally consider music, I find just annoying sound; high pitched, ultra-compressed annoying sound. I used to tell people I was a musician, or that I played music, but now I generally refer to myself as a producer or composer or sound artist. Many people want to understand what I do, but they understand the cultural reference points needed to explain it succinctly. I have found the easiest way is to explain that I do modern experimental composition... and then I ask them if they have ever listened to the sounds in the background of a horror of sci-fi movie. I explain that this is sound art, and this is what I do.
A friend of mine once came into my office to see if I was listening to something. She said that she thought the refridgerater was broken, but that it was just whatever I was working on in my office. So, with friends of mine I joke that I make "refridgerator music".
[3] Like a film maker, a Sound Artist, or at least some of us, becomes hyper aware of the sounds or the world around us. I have always been very interested in sound, always aware of the sound in things like movies, TV... the sounds around us and how it changes the mood or feeling of a situation.
[4] I love finding pre-existing sounds, either things I field record myself or take from various sources, and juxtaposing them, altering them, re-using them in different ways... inventing implied narratives and sort of... films without images, where each listener has a different idea of what they are hearing.
[5] I grew up poor and strange. The other kids, in their brutal youthful honesty and social hierarchy, did not take much interest in me. This forced me occupy myself and find where exactly I did fit. Over time, awareness of the sounds around me, the sounds within me, and the sounds I imagined, all helped me find my own sense of self and place.
[6] The obvious tensions between classical systems of musical notation and composition, sound-sourced field-recordings, free-improvised-real-time-composition, and technology based sound processing makes me glad I never went to conservatory to study more formal approaches to music.
[7] For me, composition is more like writing a screenplay... and editing is where I spend most of my energy, honing and sculpting the finished work... which is never totally finished because I endlessly revisit works and combine elements of past compositions into new constructs.
[8] The main theoretical aporia, existential tension or trigger that keeps me producing and/or made me produce (and/or: writing about) sounds is …………..………
[5] I grew up poor and strange. The other kids, in their brutal youthful honesty and social hierarchy, did not take much interest in me. This forced me occupy myself and find where exactly I did fit. Over time, awareness of the sounds around me, the sounds within me, and the sounds I imagined, all helped me find my own sense of self and place.
[6] The obvious tensions between classical systems of musical notation and composition, sound-sourced field-recordings, free-improvised-real-time-composition, and technology based sound processing makes me glad I never went to conservatory to study more formal approaches to music.
[7] For me, composition is more like writing a screenplay... and editing is where I spend most of my energy, honing and sculpting the finished work... which is never totally finished because I endlessly revisit works and combine elements of past compositions into new constructs.
[8] The main theoretical aporia, existential tension or trigger that keeps me producing and/or made me produce (and/or: writing about) sounds is …………..………
[9] The immense scope and variety of musical inventions forced into canonized music history and its basic distinction of music and non-music in the XX.Century (say) since “Arnold Schoenberg” and the counter-explosions of new underground music paradigms, non-europeans traditions and playing techniques since the 1940’s …………..……
[10] Time, Space and Volume: Time x (Space + Volume) = Drone.
[11] A musical instrument can never be fully explored or its potential exhausted as long as technology exists to add new possibilities to its voice and interaction w/ others.
[12]The musical encounter of my dreams would be something I would spend many hours attempting to replicate after waking.
[13] The point zero ..……………………
[14] Sounds present invisible sculptures, and these sculptures will be perceived differently depending on where they are perceived, by whom they are heard, and by their relation to the space around them.
[15] Sounds(capes) should be allowed to exist and play with others. Sometimes they get a long very well, other times... not so well.
[16] Sounds and destruction are ………………………….
[17] The human voice ……………….. disappear ………
[18] Listening is more important than anything. If more people would simply quiet themselves and not be afraid of silence, they would realize there is never true silence (outside of anechoic chamber). That is not to say that the human voice should disappear. Just that if one sits and listens, they might learn a lot from the people they have been talking over all the time... and one might also realize that the timing belt on their car is shot.
[19] The commodity factor of monetizing one's work is something I am not very interested or good at. Perhaps if I were better at it, it might interest me more. But, I have never had much luck the times I have tried to 'get my stuff out there'... and it only made me feel crazy and alone. Additionally, I have no mind for social media and that end of things. I have grown over the years to simply make myself focus on the work itself, and focus on the tours I do to support the works ... and to leave it at that. Being on tour and having a chance to directly interact with and discuss things with audiences is the most satisfying part of creating things. As for commodity, I do like to make tour tshirts and whatnot to make the money for the fuel to get to the next show... but, is that commodity, branding, or just good business sense? I am not sure about any of that. I just think it is really cool when I see someone wearing one of the shirts I designed.
[20] Programs and algorithms and modifications can all wait until later. I like to just press record on my field recorder and deal with it later.
[21] Names, words and titles of compositions give the listening a suggestion of my intent or narrative for a piece, but ultimately they are just suggestions and whatever conclusion the listener comes to for themselves regarding a piece is equal to my own conclusions.
[22]Duplication, sampling, sound-sourcing and manipulation create an endless source of reworking ideas into ever flowing takes on what eventually become archetypical concepts within my work ... possibility, memory (and lack thereof)... works becoming the source of new works becoming the source of new works, until the original material is unbeknownst even to myself, never mind the participants at hand.
[23] Replay-Machines, architecture ……… the listening…….
[24] Knowledge can interfere with intuition if one is not careful. Thurston Moore once said that the worst thing he ever did was to really learn to play the guitar (he said something to that effect). At the same time, knowledge can help with the fluidity with which one can manifest ideas... I have been using the same live gear set-up for over a decade now, and the fact that I know exactly where everything is on the table and what every piece of it is capable of - that I can literally perform without even looking at the table if I want - means that instead of worrying about the physical aspects of performance, that I can immerse myself in the sound and be open the possibilities that each room, each night, each audience offers.
I always make a setlist of ideas which I plan to present at a show. But, over time this exercise has become more of a last ditch safety net or just a sort of vague suggestion on how a show might go... but, once the sounds starts to flow, I quickly stray very far from the original flowchart I had in mind.
[25] The materiality of sounds ………………………………
[26] To connect sound and psychology …………………
[27] The eye, the ear and the brain all work in conjunction when listening to music whether we realize it or not. Auditory information, such as sound and musical tones, are processed by our two temporal lobes. When lyrics are involved, our language centers and frontal lobe interpret the words and suggest their conveyed meaning. In these Drekka soundscapes, a narrative is constructed. If we use the musical narrative as a tabula rasa onto which we project our own characters or plot, we use our occipital lobe, ironically located in the back of our heads, away from our eyes, to imagine visuals of the narrative. The Drekka film soundscapes take advantage of our brains' capacities for imagination and invention. (guest answer by Drekka archivist, Andrew Eley)
[28] Sonic processes …………………… mimesis…….
[29]Life and Death should both include a healthy relationship with and appreciation of silence.
[30] My deepest ……………………………. audible……
[31] The distinction sound/music/noise is subjective, and to worry or focus on such distinctions is to create a constant underestimation of the potential for new ways of seeing and hearing the world and its people.
[32] The ……………. to a constant underestimation of …………
[33] Live performances is where I present to the audience my intention and my narrative; where my mind interfaces with those around me, inviting discourse, community, and tribe building. Live performances are also the genesis for most Drekka works, whether it is the performance itself that creates the song, or is a recording of a Drekka live performance that then becomes sampled, modified, and reorganized as a catalyst for a new and completely different Drekka song. Old, forgotten demo cassettes are rediscovered as found sounds and a source of inspiration for new tracks, sometimes decades later.
[34] Sounds travel from hand to hand, ear to ear, through space and time, with each interception bringing a new perspective for the receiver... even if received multiple times.
[34] Sounds travel from hand to hand, ear to ear, through space and time, with each interception bringing a new perspective for the receiver... even if received multiple times.
[35] …...…. 4’33” ………. a window …..……..
[36] Privacy, Secrecy & Sounds ……...
[37] Singularity, originality …………...… musical genres……...
[38] The total liberation of sounds is silence, and/or death.
[39] Free form music or sound …….. into …..
[40] Cryptic minimalisms …….. techno …..
[41] Outsider sounds belong to my tribe. We come before and linger long after.
[42]Electronics, electro-acoustic, Modular Synths …… interstellar …….
[43] Sounds …….…. time-space manipulations ……...
[44] The severest misconceptions about me and my sounds, my music, and my theories is that I am working towards commercial ends (mostly this misconception comes from my well meaning parents). While I would like nothing more than to have the luxury and priviledge of supporting myself financially from my works, I have always worked under the assumption that my ideas has no commercial potential.There are ways to make things fiscally viable, but that involved a drive and hustle that I do not have. I am pretty much solely interested in present moment interaction and communication of ideas.
[45] The sentence(s) I wanted to see published for an eternity is/are the ones signed "L.Cohen".
