inicio mail me! sindicaci;ón

Happy New Year!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted back here — amidst holiday travels, I’ve been mostly blogging at Logos Graphics. For friends who have been patient with me, a very happy belated new year!

Here are a few photos snapped yesterday at SFMOMA’s 75th Anniversary Party, where Matmos and Nate Boyce performed to a packed audience. Earlier, I went to the Legion of Honor for the opening day of the Cartier and America exhibition where crowds came to ogle the extravagant collection of jewels.

SFMOMA's 75th Anniversary Party

SFMOMA's 75th Anniversary Party

SFMOMA's 75th Anniversary Party

SFMOMA's 75th Anniversary Party

This week will be exciting too — Someone Else and Robag Whrume are coming back to SF for more fun times. See some of you there!

Sounds of the Russian Avant-Garde

About a month ago, I stopped by Aquarius Records to pick up Baku: Symphony of Sirens / Sound Experiments in the Russian Avant-Garde. It’s a fantastic a double disc collection of poetry, music, and agitprop accompanied by a 72-page book with detailed notes on the Russian avant-garde movement from 1908 to 1942.

There are works from some of the best known names of the era — El Lissitzky (see his Soviet poster, below), Malevich, Kamensky, even Lenin and Trotsky — though to my great delight, I learned of seemingly countless other groups and their often humorous counter groups:

El Lissitzky
El Lissitzky, “Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge” (1919)

The somewhat staid Ego-Futurists, mostly in the literary camp, were later superceded by the Imaginists who indulged in long, deeply metaphoric poetry; there were also the painterly Cubo-Futurists, who counted Malevich and Mayakovsky as primary leaders. Then there were the Acmeists, the Suprematists (Malevich at his finest), the Neo-Primitivists, the Rayonists, the Bicosmists, the Luminists, the Electroorganists, the Constructivists and the Productivists.

The funniest groups were the Eggists, who formed as a joke in a newspaper article; the Everythingists, who embraced all styles of expression; and the Nothingists, whose slogan was “Write nothing! Read nothing! Say nothing! Print nothing!”

But these groups seem disappointingly shallow when compared to artists like Iakov Chernikhov, who is worth mentioning here as one of the most imaginative minds in modern architecture — even if his perspective is missing from Baku. Though best known for the Flying City, his body of work (especially his collection of Architectural Fantasies) is well worth a peek.

Iakov Chernikhov, Fundamentals of Modern Architecture (1925-30)
Iakov Chernikhov, Fundamentals of Modern Architecture (1925-30)

One of the album’s highlights is About Two Squares – A Suprematist Story by El Lissitzky (1920-22), a children’s tale about a red square and a black square. They travel toward a red circle (Earth) and smash into each other, creating abstract forms on Earth.

El Lissitzky, About Two Squares (1920-22)
El Lissitzky, About Two Squares (1920-22)

It’s a futuristic narrative that combines experimental typography with the fun of reading aloud “colour-blocks of Word”… a synesthetic experience from one of the Russian greats! View the entire story here.

New York Pix

Here are some pix from a trip back to New York. It was so good to soak in the sights, sounds, food and culture once more:

Guggenheim Museum

Guggenheim Museum

Whitney Museum

Whitney Museum

High Line Park at Night

High Line Park at Night

Making Candy at Papabubble

Making Candy at Papabubble

Butterflies!

Butterflies!

Kuboaa Wallpapers

The new Barton collection from Kuboaa offers fanciful wallpapers that conjure up the glamour of Art Nouveau and Deco. There’s a splash of Miami thrown in for fun, too!

From delicate mint green florals (see Rhododendron, below) to bold, black-and-olive geometric prints such as Hepburn, there is something for everyone in this thoughtfully conceived collection. Here are some of my favorites:

Wistaria - Vin Jaune

Wistaria - Vin Jaune

Fuchsia & Humming Bird - Fuchsia Pink

Fuchsia & Humming Bird - Fuchsia Pink

Ginko - Liquorice

Ginko - Liquorice

Coco - Light Slate

Coco - Light Slate

Rhododendron - Frosted Slate

Rhododendron - Frosted Slate

Circulations

Most friends know that I’m a big fan of Jan Jelinek and his fuzzy analog music, found on labels like Klang Elektronik~scape and Faitiche.

So I’ve been hanging out with Ripley lately, and her research in music and copyright issues reminded me of Jelinek’s second release on Faitiche. Under a new moniker called G.E.S. (Gesellschaft  zur Emanzipation des Samples, or Society for the Emancipation of Sampling), Jelinek output a collection of brief, mirtfully sampled snippets into an album called Circulations.

Circulations, image from Faitiche.de

Circulations; image from Faitiche.de

Jelinek pre-selected and then played a range of material in various public spaces, recording both the selections as well as the ripples of conversation, traffic, and other sounds commonly found in field recordings. In doing so, he challenged the notion of music copyright violation within the public domain.

You can preview the tracks at Faitiche’s website; ”hawaiian machine chant” is a new favorite.

Now I wish he’d visit the Bay area again, and visit the Musee Mecanique for even more incredible audio samples! Creepy puppets (like the one I caught below in 2006) would undoubtedly make rich fodder for another album.

Also, if you haven’t found it already, Faitiche’s recent mix for Wire’s Adventures In Modern Music radio series is fantastic. It has Ursula Bogner, Jeff Mills and Ennio Morricone! Listen now!

Next entries »