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'The Art of K7', vol. #1

jan 11, 2022

X^o=1 is what (I think it was) Rébus proposed to name our impromptu quartet of cassetteurs, made up of he, me, Anton Mobin and Blenno Wurstbrücke performing electro-acoustic pieces that are v e r y strictly 'cassette-only'. Like Cassettes, Candles & Champagne", the cassette ritual that formed the (unPublic) closing parenthesis to our '2013=C50' performative celebrations of the 50th birthday of the audio compact cassette.

A first trace of the /formula/name/—X^o=1—dates from a few months later. It can be seen in pictures, like the one above, made during a performance that the four of us did on Saturday May 3rd, 2014, in the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, as part of the program of performances and other interventions that accompanied Thomas Hirschhorn's grand solo expo there that year, Flamme Éternelle.

And yes, the occasion was memorable, indeed, for many a reason.

[ « Une réunion d’intellectuels libres de concevoir leur intervention ou leur simple présence en dehors de toute obligation d’animation culturelle de l’institution ou du son », the artist himself observed on our contribution to his show. ]

It was about a year after, in 2015, that on two consecutive evenings (on Tuesday May 26th and Wednesday May 27th) we settled in La Générale Nord-Est (at the time still on the avenue Parmentier, Paris XI) with the still-(more-or-less)-functioning ones among our cassette machines and dictaphones, and—most notably— with large selections of items that each of us had made from his personal collection of found and self-recorded compact and micro-cassette tapes; recordings some of which (in my case) dated as far back as the mid 1970's, made at various occasions in a whole lot of different places, in different countries, or found and kept, plucked wherever tapes get (or rather: got) discarded, on flea markets, at garage sales, in thrift stores, or just as part of the regular house hold rubbish in our city streets.

Here is an impression of what it looked like back then in La Générale.

Xo=1 à La G, manipulant le temps perdu... Du côté de chez Har$ ↓

Du côté de chez Mobin ↓

Du côté de chez Rébus ↓

Du côté de chez Wurstbrücke ↓

What came out and remained of these two nights of improvised recording, is a series of fascinating collages; cut-ups of our combined sonic memories, bits of life-times re-lived and electrono-mechanically manipulated in random constellations, made memorable thru being memorised...

The resulting collection of audio-documents, besides being a great work all on its own, also is a great illustration of and companion to its written namesake, still awaiting its finalisation and publication.

Ross Scott-Buccleuch selected 8 pieces from these very recording sessions, and released them, as a first volume of 'The Art of K7', on his Steep Gloss label: a digital download accompanied by a limited edition pink 'n' blue cassette (dedicated to Lou Ottens), wrapped in a cover collage by Blenno Wurstbrücke and Hey Noh.

Thank you Ross and Steep Gloss for all the great work!

We hope to get the second volume out and over to you later this year... !

Then go and catch them all ;-) ...

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tags: cassette, K7, X° = 1

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