Absolutely amazing, large ensemble wildness from American born, London based intermedia artist, Dustin Ericksen, via Copenhagen's Polychrome (run by Blue Lake's Jason Dungan), channelling the Circle Jerks, Camper Van Beethoven, and radical methods of spontaneous composition and performance.

WASTED JUDGMENT - LP - 2022

The music on this album was originally conceived to elaborate in specific spaces through specialized placement of musicians during performance. Using a collage of compositional and stylistic methods determined in a rules-based manner, each part was performed in self-arrangement. The melodic, rhythmic and sometimes dronic ‘free music’ techniques overlapped in combinations surprising to its makers. Through mixing and mastering by Pape Arce, an attempt has been made to carry through the spatio-temporal effects of these rules and the musicians’ personal contributions, but mostly to produce something new we’d like to listen to.

LPs have two sides, are made over a period of time and their grooves are articulated through a process that resembles casting. They have a detailed, engraved surface texture, and these details reveal something through turning or moving around the object. Plus they’ve got a great tiny hole through the middle to look through. It all makes me think about sculpture. This vinyl album is an analogue for two sculptures made about five years ago. The problem was raised: to make music which plays through the formal elements of sculpture. My own interest in sculpture comes out of a political interest in agency. Agency is in this case about what it means to develop ways for informed individuals and groups to constantly renew an active set of formal relations. To accomplish this, making something in which the viewer’s relative position is aestheticised is paramount. A unique experience is molded by the viewer’s specific position in space. How? By distributing the players throughout two buildings and timing their soundmaking in a series of sensible order.

This music was made in 2017 and 2018 by performers from all levels of musical ability. They volunteered their time and materials in some cases, to make the performance happen and, in turn, this album. I am totally grateful to all of their hard work, seriousness and support towards a nondenominational international notional freak disconsortium.

Recorded on:
Roland R26
Zoom r16
Zoom H6
Mixed bag of mics

WASTED

The performance took place at the midpoint of the exhibition:
NAMING RIGHTS AT THOMAS DANE GALLERY
13 September 2017
Thomas Dane Gallery
11 Duke Street St James’s
London SW1Y 6BN


Instructions:
The music is loosely based on Camper Van Beethoven’s cover of the song Wasted by The Circle Jerks, (lyrics below) which was chosen because it related to the theme of the exhibition: How the artist’s life is evident in the artwork.

Performers:
Laurie Anderson, Music Director, conducting, viola
Jason Dungan, clarinet
Dustin Ericksen, voice
Damian Griffiths, guitar
Felicity Hammond, voice
Paul Hookham, drums
Lee Johnson, bass guitar
Julian King, guitar
Gary McDonald, guitar
Carolina Ongaro, voice
Sam Porritt, electric piano
Philip Serfaty, voice and guitar
Jue Sota, pvc tube
Jan Hamilton Sota, fiddle
Jameela Yaghoob, voice


WASTED Performance
Section one - solos
The players form a circle on the outer edges of the largest room of the gallery. Viewers are able to enter and leave the circle of players comfortably. Each musician plays a phrase from the song as a solo with a simple, dry, minimal sound. Singers sing a verse.
Performers are encouraged to diverge from the music and improvise if they would like to. The conductor will indicate when to play and help to keep in time.
[There will then be a 10-15 sec pause before the next section which is part of the performance]

Section two - performance of “Wasted”
Everyone plays the solo together (no vocals)

Verse 1
I was a surfer
I had a skateboard
I was so heavy and I lived on the strand
I was a dumb shit
And I was a fuck-up
I was so napped out I was out of my head
I was so wasted
Verse 2
I was a hippie
And I was a burn-out
I was so wasted I was out of my head
I was a punker
I had a mohawk
I was so gnarly and I drove my dad's car
I was so wasted
Everyone plays/sings the solo, ending with an extra, quicker “ I was so wasted”
©Greg Ginn & Keith Morris 1979

Section three - drone
Players disperse through the other four rooms of the gallery moving as independently as possible with their instruments. Drone plays for ca. 10mins. There is then 5 mins of solo drone after which performers sporadically improvise/interject on their own accord. Though the intensity of the music can build, the music should not get louder.

__________________________

JUDGMENT

A soundtrack performed serially by multiple musicians,
spread out in earshot in a circuit.
6 September 2018
The Averard Hotel
10 Lancaster Gate
London W2 3LH
[Text Wrapping Break][Text Wrapping Break]Instructions:
The performance creates a sculptural soundtrack for a still image. The soundtrack elaborates a musical, melodramatic theme in a sculptural, and architectural manner by ‘moving’ around the space. The music is a simple chord progression with a basic rhythmic composition, lyrics and the music is self-arranged by the musicians.

The spatial arrangement of the players in the building, and the order of their playing is intended to create movement of sound around the viewers to develop a complex and unique experience; sometimes tuneful, sometimes noisy, often silent. The musicians are spread, distantly, but within earshot of each other, over two floors, 15 rooms and connecting hallways. They are arranged in a circuit. The performance begins with one player or singer playing one note or ‘hit’ of music, then the next player (in space) plays the same (first) bar and continues. Each time around the music gains notes until several bars are played as a theme. The theme overlaps for each player by one bar. In this way, there is a serial expression of sound or quiet throughout the space in both start, playing and finish. The music travels through the buildings like a giant snake with a belly full of canon. This spatial experience of the music mimics the sweeping sound effects in melodramatic cinema, but in this case, the metaphorical ‘sweep’ is replaced by a coordinated physical movement of production of sound across and up and down the building.

Performers:
Aaron Allerton - guitar
Adam Bonser -double bass
Emma Christian - vibes
Chloë Dichmont - voice
Myles Egan - software
Dustin Ericksen - banjo
Anthony Faroux - drums
Damian Griffiths - guitar
Paul Hookham - drums
Marc Hulson bass
Lee Johnson - bass
Julian King - guitar
Henri Kisielewski - chargé d’affaires
Gary MacDonald - guitar
Leonardo Muller-Rodriguez - bass
Edward Nash - Music Director, guitar
Fabian Peake - alto saxophone
Neena Percy - alto saxophone
Rob Pratt - drums
Jue Sota - singing pipe
Hugo Trouiller Varaldi - guitar
Isabelle Utzinger - keyboard synthesizer
Martynas Vaikasas - guitar
Alex Vaos - percussion
Katie Wilkes - keyboard synthesizer
Jameelah Yagoub - voice
Maria Zahle - electric piano and voice