........ The Battersea Power Station Project .........

Exhibition (Salon Of Conviviality) and compilation cassette (Power  to  the  People, Music for a New Future)

Info: Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station, located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Nine Elms, Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is now transformed into a modern habitat, as a *positive* example how to update today's cities. I very much doubt all these activities, because they are only based on the aim of profit by so called *investors*.

LL: I first heard about the The Battersea Power Station project when I received this from STAALTAPE, Berlin.

Dear Sir,

Such a fine future we were all thinking of. And look around now, peak into social networks and personal blogs. The future is an abandoned space. People who go there come back with dystopian views of a world stripped of any human qualities.

The present offers a grim reality, a result of “the general breakdown of society, politics, law and order, the infrastructure of our cities, the environment, the world...and even good manners when you get on the bus” as one blogger puts it.

We need change. We need a new vision that is not based on old belief systems, old philosophies, old moral judgements or on old grumpy men.

We need a new future.

We can envision the new future in beautiful pictures. We can take the best from social realism, the national socialist dream of purity, from the way Jehovah’s witnesses envision the world after the second coming of Jesus Christ, yes we can even use the feel-good vibes of the romantic comedy, the advertising campaigns based on lifestyle. These views of a pure future can be freed from their ideologic, religious and commercial connotations. We simply take the best. We create a healthy place where every individual can grow not only in a spiritual sense but also in wealth and wellbeing.

Architects and city developers are spearheading this movement. The Battersea Power Station project is a fine example of how a negative place can be transformed into a positive living experience.

We bring you the humble cassette, known for its iconic and unique form and its raw and authentic sound. The cassette was once a mass product. It offered freedom of choice to the people.

The people could decide which music they wanted to hear at any given hour of the day. It was a product of the technologic revolution that gave power to the people. All the sounds on the tape connect into the historic fabric of the city, but each track has its own identity and integrity. The sounds on this tape can help to built a space where people can come together to run workshops, to create, to innovate – or simply to socialise with other residents.

We do this by creating negative space. Music has negative space. The sounds define a space that lies at the other side of the border, not a physical border, but the border between the now and the past. The negative space creates a happy awareness of an old future that will never arrive, and of a new future that we are all willing to work for.

We can work on this together.

Let’s do it.

Yours sincerely,
Rinus Van Alebeek


LL: I closely cooperate with Rinus van Alebeek, so it was no question, I had to take part.

I just had some pictures to get the feeling of today's Battersea. I saw  a futuristic space with ant_like humans, happily swarming about. In an odd way I was reminded on the Mall of Romero's second Zombie movie. The only difference was that today all is *positive minded* by order.

With this in mind I created a soundscape which later was descibed as:"...time travelers ...entered a space where everything was frozen in its movements."

My piece ends with a lonely human being shouting *Hello*, with no answer from other living beings.

Power  to  the  People, Music for a New Future

A selected crew of artists created soundscapes for this cassette release, which will be the soundtrack of an exhibition that goes along with The Battersea Power Station project.

Read about the attitude of the exhibition here:

SALON OF CONVIVIALITY
PV: SATURDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2019, 7-9PM
OPEN: 15-28 SEPTEMBER, BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
http://artlacuna.org/#secondPage

The STAALTAPE cassette compilation will be released later this year.

STAALTAPE Info:

All  the  artists  that  have  contributed  to  this  work  of  sound  are  real persons.  The  aliases  are  exclusively  used  for  their  appearance  on staaltape.  Whilst  in  their  professional  life  the  artists  are  bound  by  the rules  and  regulations  dictated  by  the  music  industry  and  the expectations of their fans, on staaltape they have found the liberty to act freely.

Notwithstanding  the  obscurity  of  the  previous  staaltape  works  to  which the artists contributed like The Kylie Golden Mixtape, Make Incest Great Again or Dear Concerned Employees, the international press managed to get  hold  of  the  audio  files.  Leading  newspapers  like  The  Independent, The  Washington  Post,  Die  Süddeutsche  Zeitung  or  The  New  York  Times gave four and five star reviews. There is mention of positively restoring our  memory, ravished  delight or  its  worth  reminding  ourselves  of  the precarious existence of some of our favourite things.

Power to the People, Music for a New Future is another compelling work of  sound.  Inspired  by  the  graphic  presentation  of  the  Battersea Power Station Project the artists have transformed the area into a sonic vision. They have created a vibrant new approach to music that we can all be proud of.

Staaltape has set out to make Battersea a showcase for the world's very best musicians and sound artists and the compositions we are unveiling on this tape demonstrate that commitment in action.

The  artist’s  aim  is  fully  achieved:  A  determination  to  create  a  genuine sense of place in which people are proud to make their home and work.

The  compositions  are  meant  to  be  heard  at  moments  when  you  don’t expect  them.  Be  it  from  the  giant  chimneys,  on  The  Electric  Boulevard, dripping  down  from  The  Skyline,  in  a  remote  corner  of  the  parking space,  or  twinkling  between  the  residential  buildings  on  Prospect  Place, the sounds will offer a short and heartfelt moment of London’s history.

The ravens of the Tower, The Battle of Britain, the punk explosion or the speakers  at  Hyde  Park  Corner,  the  British  Empire,  The  iconic  image  of Battersea  Power  Station,  MI6,  Hammer  House  of  Horror,  the  early vaudeville years, there is more to these sounds than meets the ear.

The  collection  of  compositions  on Power  to  the  People,  Music  for  a New  Future  create  humanistic  environments  that feel  good  to  live  in and visit.

https://staaltape.wordpress.com/ - http://staaltape.com/

PS:

Inside the new Battersea Power Station

First 100 residents move in to first batch of swanky flats as vast £9bn development starts to rise from the rubble at the south London landmark

Pop veteran Sting, celebrity survival expert Bear Grylls and 1,400 Apple office workers will soon be neighbours – living and working alongside each other at Battersea Power Station.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/13/inside-the-new-battersea-power-station

LL: I don't need more info to tell me that this *new Battersea* is NOT the people's (our) Battersea. I was right - it is already populated by zombies ...  am I the only one to see this in a very sceptic (lets be honest: very negative) way? ... as usual - this Battersea is by the rich for the rich.

https://batterseapowerstation.co.uk/

Battersea