 Voice
and concepts by William S. Burroughs
sampled from the movie Commissioner
of Sewers by Klaus Maeck (ShaKe Edizioni)
recorded and mixed at Ambaradan, Milan, in 2000
One of the first traces I left on the Internet is this
page, written on aug. 26th 1997 to commemorate William Burroughs,
passed away 3 weeks before. I remember aug. 3rd, 1997 very
well: I got a call from Syd
with the bad news, and he suggested we meet and make some noise at Breda, a
former factory in Milan then squat and performance space. That night the
atmosphere was amazing: hundreds of people came to play and mourn WSB;
the sadness and disbelief (despite his old age) were palpable. Few
thinkers have had the impact he's had on my generation, and a few
before and after mine. What's more, his voice was always
sharp and full of meaning (and common sense) - a powerful antidote
to the widespread stupidity that is one of the marks of the past
century (and this one too, it seems).
2000: I was tinkering with an odd, jazzy bass sample (the first
sound you hear), and watching Commissioner of Sewers
(which is a great movie, for WSB fans and regular audiences alike)
where he explains in detail one of his most famous intuitions: "Language
is a virus" (also the title of a Laurie Anderson tune). I've
always been fascinated by this idea, and found WSB elaboration extremely
helpful and far-sighted (plus of course his voice, impeccable and charismatic like no one). So I put the two together and made Organism.
Once again, due to unresolved © issues this one is also for listening
only. |
