Art is weird. Strange things happen. Some weeks ago an friend of mine, artist Eero Yli-Vakkuri, asked if he could include my Kumea Wood USB drive in his sound art exhibition, “Sound of Work”. My release would serve as a part of a reference collection of silent sound works.
Why not, I thought, and there it is: my Kumea Sound discography on a USB drive, hanging on the wall of Akusmata sound gallery. You can read more about the exhibition here.
There is something cool about showing a small tech-filled piece wood in a gallery. It is easy to think that it is in a wrong place as it was never meant to be shown as a piece of art. But think of it as a conceptual reference and suddenly you start asking questions about sound archives, recording formats etc.
I don’t want to overanalyze it, but I’m glad it’s there. Go see it if you’re in Helsinki!
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For the last couple of days I’ve been thinking about a dream I had, in which I had released a gigantic album, consisting of at least 20 records and over 200 songs. This made me think why don’t we have extremely long pop records… Sandinista! by The Clash is 144 minutes long. Shaking The Habitual by The Knife is little less than a hundred. But where are all the 300 minute long albums? Max Richter’s Sleep is over 8 hours, which is actually quite good.
Brian Eno released some generative music apps, including his latest immensely beautiful Reflection, which lasts as long as your phone battery does. But I don’t count generative music app as a recording.
And then there is, of course, John Cage’s “As Slow As Possible” that lasts 639 years. Performance is happening now in St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt, Germany, and will end in 2640. You’ve got plenty of time to catch a note or two of it.
