1980 was an incredible year for London’s experimental music scene with many different strands. Recommended Records were rereleasing the first two Faust LP’s, L. Voag had found ‘the way out’, Swell Maps were ‘in occupied Europe’. Throbbing Gristle and other industrialists were giving plenty of live actions. Nurse With Wound had just released their first LP, as had This Heat. The other great LP on Piano Records by Steve Beresford was also on the shelves. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the capitol Adam Bohman was making his first recordings working with two budget cassette recorders. Bunhill Row was the first complete album of material, but whilst the aforementioned artists were pressing up their recordings and making them easily available via Rough Trade or the Recommended Records ‘shop’, Adam’s releases remained in tiny cassette editions made for friends or exchanged on the mail art network.
So here for the first time is Bunhill Row, released as it should have appeared at the time - on vinyl.
It must be said that this is quite unlike any of Adam’s other releases, and quite unlike his work with Morphogenesis, or his work as one half of The Bohman Brothers. This is ‘songs’ - 30 in all, and the main instrument used is a trumpet (an ordinary trumpet), along with other acoustic instruments and a vast variety of objects and junk, much of which is still part of the Bohman armoury. The overall feel sits somewhere between R. Steevie Moore and Caroliner, but this is British of course. Somehow it all works, and all in all, opens another window on to the incredibly fruitful astral alignment that occured over London at this time.
Archived from the cassette master in 1999
Numbered edition of 500 copies
Adam Bohman has been operating on the outer fringes of underground music for decades. Working with home-built instruments, found objects, tape cut-ups, collages, ink drawings and graphic scores. Favouring acoustic sounds over electronics, he explores the minute tendrils of sounds coaxed from any number of non-musical instruments and objects. He is a member of British experimental groups, Morphogenesis, The Bohman Brothers, Secluded Bronte, and The London Improvisers Orchestra. Adam's music is unique and experimental, incorporating Fluxus japery, musique concrete, sound poetry and free improvisation.