:: A Very Emotional Post From Adam Naworal During my existence I have experienced a lot of loss. Family members, friends, personal belongings...... you name it, I've lost it over the years. About a year ago I lost my one constant in Florida before Aimee Grace Naworal came along: my beloved orange tabby Roger. He passed away due to humane reasons (his cancer got so bad I morally couldn't let it continue) around the same time my folks' boxer Daisy passed away, literally within days of each other. If Aimee wasn't here I would have been a mess. Through all my losses, one song has provided consistent comfort: Roy Montgomery's "Jaguar Meets Snake". To me this is the VERY embodiment of loss and acceptance. IE, yes, you lost something, but life goes on because those you lost would want it that way. Give somebody a hug today, fellow Electronic Cottagers. Tell someone you love them. On the hopefully-later-than-sooner occasion that you feel how I do, come back to this song. I promise you, it's transcendent. Roy recorded it after the love of his life died and he dealt with it by taking a trip to Temple IV in Guatemala. I recommend the whole album, but in this strange state of nostalgia I'm in I WILL focus on "Jaguar Meets Snake". Take care, all, and love those close to you. You never know when they'll be gone.
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There's not much I can say about Lord Litter that he didn't say better himself here. What follows is the second part of our co-interview. Enjoy, dear reader!
Adam- Having your own radio program, do you find much difference between the classic airwaves radio and the now-common internet radio formats? What would you say are the advantages and downsides of each?
LL- The advantages are sure the variety of the shows. There is almost anything one can think of that has a special radio show. You just need to be clever enough to find it. And don't use GOOGLE - there are always alternatives 1. http://www.duckduckgo.com 2. http://www.startpage.com - use one of those and you'll be astonished how different the world is if you DON'T use Google. Whatever your very special taste may be, there is always a show to give you information and entertainment. The downside is the quality. In the old days radio was mostly well researched and curated. Today it's too often just a accumulation of sound. An hour of not really curated noise or power pop is not what I call a radio show. This is why I think shows like Charles Rice Goff III is producing are so good and important! All very carefully researched and presented! Adam- In your track for the EC Compilation, you mention how if you don't succeed you'll be just another noise-maker on the internet. Was this a true feeling you have or purely tongue in cheek? Either way, do you find there is a fine line between genuine artistic expression and recording yourself fooling around?
LL- Well I guess it is a bit true feeling and a bit tongue in cheek. Since *everybody* can produce at home there is definitely a mass of non *unique / inspired* stuff on the internet. And I'm not only talking about *experimental* artists. There are so many pop-rock loops around that *everybody* can quickly compile something that sounds WOW and extremely professional but it's nothing but a uninspired tutorial on how to combine files. Since everybody can offer this via Bandcamp and similar websites, the internet explodes with this. Don't get me wrong basically the structure/idea of sites like Bandcamp is sure ok .. but ... all this is meant in *Workshop*.
Adam- You have mentioned your opposition to social media due to its potential for toxicity. Do you feel that more private social communities such as EC and Encyclotronic are the positive future of social media, as I do? What would you suggest other social media platforms implement to reduce the toxic potential? LL- Definitely! Sites like EC go directly to the core of the interest, so you really gain if you take part as artist that fits to the core. Again, the basic idea of so-called *social media* is sure okay. The big problem is that it is a tool to make nothing but profit. All the toxicity is based on this. If the *social media* sites were curated as a worldwide pro_life forum (as Zuckerberg once tooted), all the poison would be eliminated .. but it isn't .. it's a tool to make as much profit as possible and you make much more profit with the ugly / negative side of things, so .. the official *social media* scene will NEVER eliminate the toxic potential because this is how they make their profit. How to reduce the toxic potential? Very simple - set up rules that *define* a pro_life platform, this would exclude hate etc mongers. Adam- Please tell me one or two of your favorites in the following categories: audio artists, visual artists, cinematic artists. What draws you to their works? Do you find they inspire your own work? LL- The easy part of the answer is cinematic artists because here I am more or less just a fan. If you want me to mention two names it would be Luis Buñuel and Jess Franco .. odd both movie directors from Spain. One who extremely careful creates and one who just spits it all out. Some of their movies I can watch again and again. Come to think about it - I was involved in movie making. I created the soundtracks for *art house* short movies. Here is one example: Chapter 14' the dream of the disembodied birds' -"Soundtrack composed by Lord Litter on excerpts from over 60 acoustic film sequences https://vimeo.com/18294834 - I even won a prize for this. But you better not ask me about cinema .. I could start talking .. and never stop again.
LL- Visual artists didn't inspire me that much and I don't want shove cliche names around. But well - I'm more into the classics like Jan Vermeer and Caspar David Friedrich. Sure I'm also inspired by Dada and inventors like Dali ... but that's more *in general*.
Music is also very difficult to answer. I guess we're all influenced by names that were around when we grew up. Big names? Well - Frank Zappa (structure) and The Kinks (lyrics) really *taught* me many things. But that became more and more irrelevant as I was diving into the underground since the 1980s. I stopped buying new records and people I know personally became more important. Basically from the *names* section one musician became very *close* to me with the years because he went the other way. *All* musicians go from innovative, challenging, wild to lame and radio-friendly. There is one who went from Boy Pop to Avant garde - Scott Walker. Well - how did they all inspire my own work? I guess they all showed me something that I thought was interesting / inspiring / fascinating / talking to me - so I thought lets go there too and check out what I can find. One thing I have to admit - what I really found was that there already was someone before me .. I still don't know what that really means to me.
Adam- Outside of experimental media, do you have any interest in more mainstream art forms etc.? What draws you to them?
LL- There is one mainstream art form that really fascinates me and that's *endless/ongoing* TV series' story telling. Some kind of art form that did not exist before. I sure prefer the more *surreal* topics like X-Files, LOST etc. Of course in times of as much profit as possible moneymakers like Netflix have already started to destroy this art form. Adam- Lastly, please tell us something we should check out that might be previously unknown to us. Thank you for taking the time for this interview! LL- What I realised as I was growing older; I learned immensely by looking on *the other side*. A example I like to tell again and again. There were decades in my life where I never would've listened to Bert Kaempfert, the German master of easy listening. I guess it started about 10 years ago when they re-released all his LPs on CD and something drove me to - in the end - buy them all. I started watching documentaries and read books dealing with him. I learned so much about music, production, creating etc etc .. probably more than I ever learned before. One example: whenever he didn't hear one of the musicians not well in the general sound of his orchestra, he did not say "play louder", he said "play quieter" ... to all the other musicians - which taught me so many aspects of creation and about a way to live! Yep that would be probably my hint - check out the other side - wherever you are - check out the other side .. for 30 years I more or less only explored the *underground*. Only recently I started to take a closer look at *the other side* to be really smashed by what I found after eliminating my cliches. cheerz .. bye and thanks!! LL
by Adam J. Naworal, Professor Of Swamp Studies
Read, look and listen to Hal McGee's report on Apartment Music #30 show
by clicking on the pic above
Aimee and I arrived at Hal's a bit after noon for the festivities. We were greeted by him and Dylan Houser, and then by the other participants as they made it there. Much fun was had, many jokes and stories and good discussions were made, and then it was showtime!
Dylan Houser — A slightly creepy electro-acoustic soundscape. The repeating vocal sample reciting "Things evolve in swamps" was a perfect opener for the sets. Dylan's four-stringed guitar with added alligator clips ("things evolve in swamps", alligator clips...... I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE!) provided some nifty dark ambient-esque touches. I really enjoy this new direction Dylan is pursuing and encourage him to develop this even further. As it stands this is great stuff!
Hal Harmon (as Vasectomy Party) — Huh! After hearing mostly harsh works from Double H Bluto Electronics, he surprised us greatly with a very atmospheric set! The use of a Language Master card reader was particularly inspired! I was enthralled and captivated by the mix of card-driven sounds and other electronics. Again, I would love to hear more of this from Double H (perhaps I just haven't found other material like this?)
Lumen K -- The always entertaining Lumen K delivered with what I can only describe as minimal electronics meets Beefheartian vocals. A fun and surprisingly bluesy experience! Lumen really knows how to engage his audience and does so with aplomb. I'd love to see him do this kinda thing as a series of videos or such. He's THAT entertaining.
Shatter Wax (as Fiver's Stereo) -- EXCELLENT multimedia experience! Jay played a video of him encountering manatees whilst tubing/ snorkeling while improvising on a snorkel and a Micromoog synthesizer. Truly immersive audio-visual goodness that I am glad to have witnessed. Lumen helped out by holding a political poster of Jay Peele's design.
Tomokie's Cup -- This is me and Aimee Grace Naworal, so I ain't gonna review ourselves XD You tell me how we did, dear reader; fair?
Jeremiah Paddock (as Shapes With No Names) -- A great electronic experience! Jeremiah's work is always enthralling in a downtempo way, and this was no exception. For what it's worth, this was my first time meeting him and his wife in person (Emily Mann) and both were super friendly and gracious; they even gave us three mini-comics they made! Great to meet my fellow EC writers in person ?
Penny Grune-Fae -- Florida's queen of ambient noise does it again! I cannot praise the talent of Penny enough. Whether she's making visual or audio art, she always succeeds. This set was no exception. One of our friends compared her work to gamelan in a rainforest; I think that's the best and most flattering description possible. Much love to our noise sistah!
Hal McGee -- Last but not least, the man of the hour, the genius behind EC and Apartment Music and HalTapes, Hal McGee himself! Contributing a very low-key but effective improvisation on Korg Minilogue, Hal ended an amazing even on a high note. Like I expected anything less. He's Hal mofo McGee donchaknow!
Afterwards, much discussion and such was had (and Stanley made it clear he disapproved of us smelling like our cats) before Aimee and I once again shuffled (or is it schnuffled?) back to Jacksonville, feeling like our time in Gainesville was most certainly well-spent. This weekend (10/20 to be precise), we're performing at Apartment Music 31. Expect another abstract-ish report from yours truly!
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Adam Naworal
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