Huge thanks to David Grubbs for donating a copy of the limited-edition LP of Susan Howe's and David's "Thiefth". This was issued as a limited edition of 100 copies on Distributed Objects (the brief ISSUE Project Room-related label run by Lawrence Kumpf, now of Blank Forms) with a print of Susan Howe's work made at the Grenfell Press and signed by Susan.
Full description below:
* * * *
Originally released on CD in 2005 and out of print for a decade, Thiefth is the first of four collaborations between poet Susan Howe and musician David Grubbs. Limited to 100 copies, this special edition includes a 12x12 inch letterpress print by Susan Howe, produced by Grenfell Press, accompanied by a hand-stamped LP in letterpress sleeve. Howe and Grubbs were first brought together when the Fondation Cartier in Paris proposed a collaborative performance. Grubbs had been a dedicated reader of Howe’s for more than a decade, and the opportunity to work with Howe’s poetry and her voice immediately intrigued. In late 2003, the two set about to create performance versions of “Thorow” and “Melville’s Marginalia,” the two of Howe’s longer poems that comprise Thiefth.
Drawing from the journals and letters of Sir William Johnson and Henry David Thoreau, “Thorow” evokes the winter landscape around Lake George in upstate New York and the historical violence of our national identity. Howe and Grubbs engage the lake’s icy surface as well as the voices that haunt the unseen world beneath. “Melville’s Marginalia” explores Herman Melville’s notations in books he owned and loved— marginalia in which he sometimes argued with the authors. Grubbs brings together a diverse collection of sound sources, referencing Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata, Howe’s splitting of words, melting snow, and flight patterns overhead. Thiefth features contributions from Swedish reed player Mats Gustafsson and Greek cellist Nikos Veliotis.
A: Thorow (15:08)B: Melville's Marginalia (19:46)
Susan Howe: readerDavid Grubbs: piano and computerMats Gustafsson: baritone saxophone and fluteophone on “Thorow”Nikos Veliotis: cello on “Thorow”
Recorded by Ross Bonadonna at Wombat Recording Company, Brooklyn, with additional recording by Tim Iseler at Soma, Chicago, and Mats Gustafsson in Gustavsberg, Sweden. Mixed by DG at Black Faurest. Initial mastering by Doug Henderson at micro-moose. Mastered by Rashad Becker.
Edition of 100 on 150g vinyl.Special edition 12x12 letterpress print produced by Grenfell Press.
Online bidding ends at 11:59pm BST on 13th April 2020. There will no longer be a live room auction. We will contact anyone who has won on the 14th of April. Winners can either collect in person or have their item posted to them, though unfortunately due to the current situation we are unable to do this immediately. We will be in touch as soon as OTO is open again and we are able to post items or arrange a collection. Thank you.
