Arthur Russell HHV Records 19 Artikel

Originally released on LP in 1986, "World Of Echo" is a deeply intimate and meditative work of awe-inspiring grace and remains a timeless work of sublime beauty. Arthur's aim was to achieve what he calls "the most vivid rhythmic reality", with just cello, voice, and echoes. Arthur achieved all of this and more on one of the most amazing albums you will ever hear.

Before Disco, and before the transcendent echoes, Arthur studied to be a composer. His journey began in 1972, running away from his home in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Heading west to Northern California, Arthur studied Indian classical composition at the Ali Akbar Khan College of Music followed by western orchestral music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, before ending two years later in New York at the Manhattan School of Music. Traversing the popular and the serious, Arthur composed "Instrumentals" in 1974, inspired by the photography of his Buddhist teacher, Yuko Nonomura, as Arthur described, "I was awakened, or re-awakened to the bright-sound and magical qualities of the bubblegum and easy-listening currents in American popular music". Initially intended to be performed in one 48 hour cycle, "Instrumentals" was in fact only performed a handful of times as a work in progress. The legendary performances captured live in New York at The Kitchen (1975 and 1978) and Franklin St. Arts Center (1977) feature the cream of that eras downtown new music scene including Ernie Brooks, Rhys Chatham, Julius Eastman, Jon Gibson, Peter Gordon, Garrett List, Andy Paley, Bill Ruyle, Dave Van Tieghem, and Peter Zummo. Pitchfork lauded "Instrumentals" Vol. 1 as a masterpiece and one of Arthur's "greatest achievements". Americana touching on Copeland, Ives, and maybe even Brian Wilson. "Instrumentals" Vol. 2 is a moving, deeply pastoral work performed by the CETA Orchestra and conducted by Julius Eastman. Also included are two of Arthur's most elusive compositions, 'Reach One', and 'Sketch For 'Face Of Helen' '. Recorded live in 1975 at Phill Niblock's Experimental Intermedia Foundation, 'Reach One' is a minimal, hypnotic ambient soundscape written and performed for two Fender Rhodes pianos. 'Sketch For 'Face Of Helen' ' was inspired by Arthur's work with friend and composer Arnold Dreyblatt, recorded with an electronic tone generator, keyboard and ambient recordings of a rumbling tugboat from the Hudson Rive...

"Calling Out Of Context" features 12 previously unreleased tracks of Buddhist Bubblegum Disco Electro Pop including the anthemic 'That's Us/Wild Combination', 'The Platform On The Ocean', 'Make 1, 2' and 'Arm Around You', all recorded during Arthur's prime years 1985-90.Collaborators include Mustafa Ahmed, Walter Gibbons, Steven Hall, Jennifer Warnes, and Peter Zummo. 30 years have passed since Arthur Russell left us, in relative obscurity, from AIDS complications in 1992. Yet his work-as composer, songwriter and dance music innovator-is better known now than ever before. Since Audika Records and Arthur's partner Tom Lee began excavating and curating Arthur's vast archive beginning in 2003, critics worldwide have hailed Russell as a visionary. Countless younger artists cite him as an influence. There has been an internationally acclaimed documentary film (Matt Wolf's Wild Combination) and biography (Tim Lawrence's Hold onto Your Dreams), a critical study (Matt Marble's Buddhist Bubblegum) along with various tribute albums, concerts and events. In 2016 Arthur Russell's archive was acquired by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center as part of their American Music Collection. If Arthur Russell isn't quite the pop star he imagined he would be, he is at least widely considered one of the most significant figures in late 20th century American music. The majority of the material selected for "Calling Out Of Context" comes from two sources. The first was a completed album which dates from 1985, entitled "Corn" of which three very different test pressings remain (complied and reissued in 2015). The second source was material earmarked for Rough Trade recorded between 1986 -1990. Both 'Make 1,2' and 'Hop On Down' (originally titled 'Hop On Down To Petland') are two songs that Arthur wrote specifically with the plan of releasing as singles. Sadly, Arthur was faced with an unsympathetic market which viewed his material as uncommercial or too eccentric. In the case of the aba...

At once kaleidoscopic and intimate, Iowa Dream bears some of Russell's most personal work, including several recently discovered folk songs he wrote during his time in Northern California in the early 1970s. For Russell, Iowa was never very far away. "I see, I see it all," sings Russell on the title track: red houses, fields, the town mayor (his father) streaming by as he dream-bicycles through his hometown. Russell's childhood home and family echo, too, through "Just Regular People," "I Wish I Had a Brother," "Wonder Boy," "The Dogs Outside are Barking," "Sharper Eyes," and "I Felt." Meanwhile, songs like "I Kissed the Girl From Outer Space," "I Still Love You," "List of Boys," and "Barefoot in New York" fizz with pop and dance grooves, gesturing at Russell's devotion to New York's avant-garde and disco scenes. Finally, the long-awaited "You Did it Yourself," until now heard only in a brief heart-stopping black-and-white clip in Matt Wolf's documentary Wild Combination, awards us a new take with a driving funk rhythm and Russell's extraordinary voice soaring at the height of its powers. On Iowa Dream, you can hear a country kid meeting the rest of the world-and with this record, the world continues to meet a totally singular artist.

Over the past decade, the visionary musician Arthur Russell has entered something close to the mainstream.



Sampled and referenced by contemporary musicians, his papers now open to visitors at the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center in New York, and his name synonymous with a certain strain of tenderness, Russell is as widely known as he's ever been. Thanks to Russell's partner Tom Lee and to Steve Knutson of Audika Records, who have forged several records from Russell's vast archive of unfinished and unreleased work, the world now hears many versions of Arthur Russell.There's the Iowa boy, the disco mystic, the singer-songwriter and composer, and the fierce perfectionist deep in a world of echo. While all of these elements of Russell are individually true, none alone define him.



Now, after ten years of work inside the Russell library, Lee and Knutson bring us Iowa Dream, yet another bright star in Russell's dazzling constellation.Blazing with trademark feeling, these nineteen songs are a staggering collection of Russell's utterly distinct songwriting. And although Russell could be inscrutably single-minded, he was never totally solitary. Collaborating here is a stacked roster of downtown New York musicians, including Ernie Brooks, Rhys Chatham, Henry Flynt, Jon Gibson, Peter Gordon, Steven Hall, Jackson Mac Low, Larry Saltzman, and David Van Tieghem.Musician Peter Broderick makes a contemporary addition to this list: more than forty years after Russell recorded several nearly finished songs, Broderick worked diligently with Audika to complete them, and performed audio restoration and additional mixing.



Several tracks on Iowa Dream were originally recorded as demos, in two early examples of Russell's repeated brushes with potential popular success—first in 1974, with Paul Nelson of Mercury Records, and then in 1975, with the legendary John Hammond of Columbia Records.For different reasons, neither session amounted to a record deal.Russell kept working nearly up until his death in 1992 from complications of HIV-AIDS.



At once kaleidoscopic and intimate, Iowa Dream bears some of Russell's most personal work, including several recently discovered folk songs he wrote during his time in Northern California in the early 1970s.For Russell, Iowa was never very far away. 'I see, I see it all,' sings Russell on the title track: red houses, fields, the town mayor (his father) streaming by as he dream-bicycles through his hometown.Russell's childhood home and family echo, too, through 'Just Regular People,' 'I Wish I Had a Brother,' 'Wonder Boy,' 'The Dogs Outside are Barking,' 'Sharper Eyes,' and 'I Felt.'Meanwhile, songs like 'I Kissed the Girl From Outer Space,' 'I Still Love You,' 'List of Boys,' and 'Barefoot in New York' fizz with pop and dance grooves, gesturing at Russell's devotion to New York's avant-garde and disco scenes.Finally, the long-awaited 'You Did it Yourself,' until now heard only in a brief heart-stopping black-and-white clip in Matt Wolf's documentary Wild Combination, awards us a new take with a driving funk rhythm and Russell's extraordinary voice soaring at the height of its powers.On Iowa Dream, you can hear a country kid meeting the rest of the world—and with this record, the world continues to meet a totally singular artist.