1. What have you been listening to lately?
SH: Omit, Andrey Kiritchenko, Sum of R, KTL "IV", Alva Noto, William Basinski, Cecil Taylor, Old Earache releases - Godflesh, OLD, Scorn, Carcass, etc.
JM: Good Morning Vietnam--rather harrowing field recordings from the Vietnam War, released on Folkways in 1972. Machine gun fire, radio chatter, bombing, psychological warfare tapes, etc.
Music Therapy with the Developmentally Handicapped-Edith Hillman Boxill (also on Folkways).
Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers--Complete Specialty Recordings
Masayoshi Urabe-Flag of Midsummer
AS: Early Globe Unity Orchestra, Hecker, Poison Idea (Feel the Darkness), The Haters (Breakthrough), It's Casual, Bernard Parmegiani (La Creation du Monde), Organum/David Jackman (various 7"s), C.P.E. Bach, Mathias Spahlinger, and the new Khanate record (Clean Hands Go Foul).
2. Have you been to any interesting concerts recently?
SH: Lately? Not really. The last two that stick-out are David Daniell at the Empty Bottle, and Ben Frost in Krakow, Poland. David's for being beautiful, fragile, and dense all in one set. Ben's for being one of the most moving performances I've seen in years. Again, beautiful and glacial, but transforming into a huge dark mass that filled a 600 year old gothic church with a massive throbbing pulse, and a eerie dark fog that filled the space and it's 6 second natural reverb. Brutal!
JM: Adam Sonderberg/Olivia Block/Christian Weber at Enemy
AS: sadly, no.
3. Can you name a favorite film, or two (or a television program), from the last few months?
SH: I re-watched "Lost Highway" and "Logan's Run" a few days ago, does that count?
"Encounters at the End of the World" by Werner Herzog
Television:
Battlestar Galactica
JM: Berlin Alexanderplatz
AS: The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard by Leonard Bernstein; Paranoid Park (Van Sant); Calcutta (Malle).
4. Have you read a good book lately?
SH: "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman. What happens to the planet, and all that we created - both good and bad - when people (suddenly) disappear?
JM: Best recent reads: 2666 by Roberto Bolano, Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolano, The London Hanged by Peter Linebaugh, The Life of the Spider by Jean-Henri Fabre.
AS: Currently reading Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) for pleasure, a pile of books on Gustave Courbet, and Soviet Politics 1917-1991 (McAuley).
5. Have you attended any recent art shows worth mentioning?
SH: Oct 2008
Andreas Eriksson - "Walking The Dog, Lying The Sofa"
Vienna, Austria @MUMOK
and..
Joseph C. Mills
at his house. Incredible work!
JM: Apparently not.
AS: The Martin Puryear retrospective + Francis Alÿs's video installation entitled, re-enactments (2001), both at SFMOMA. Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle at Donald Young, Chicago. All outstanding.
6. Do you have any current obsessions of note?
SH: Trying to find a way to move out of the country.
JM: The game of Go. Feedback. Texture. Thomas Bernhard. The War Between the States.
AS: Surveillance studies, the judicial branch, Leo Tolstoy, YouTube (an ongoing obsession), and a renewed interest in both glitch and hardcore (basically, music with pulse).
7. Please tell me what recordings, projects (any medium), etc., you are working on right now, if anything
SH: The new ON record w/Sylvain Chauveau, Christian Fennesz and Stephen Fiehn.
New record with Stefan Nemeth (Thrill Jockey).
WORK (duo project with Stephen Fiehn).
Haptic, always working on Haptic...
JM: Haptic has a record (LP and digital download, with accompanying film by Noise Crush) coming out next month on FSS (The Medium) and a CD (Trebuchet) coming out on Entr'cte later this year. At the moment, I'm also working on a soundtrack to a short film by poet/filmaker Carrie Olivia Adams.
AS: A couple of solo recordings (a split 3" w/ Loren Chasse + a full-length) + preparing a score and brushing up on my meager conducting skills for the Chicago Sound Map commission premiering in late February at the Cultural Center (CCC).
8. What do you hope to accomplish this year?
SH: Haptic in Europe. A few collaborations/shows in Europe. Music. Travel. Quit smoking... start running.
JM: Haptic is hoping to get to Europe this summer; details currently being worked out. Also: more writing.
AS: I dare not enumerate.
9. Is there anything else that you would like to mention, announce, or hype?
SH: Yeah, the LMT ED CASS, "Repetition" out now on Bloodlust!. GET IT!
Haptic "The Medium" LMT ED LP/Digital download out on FSS -
www.flingcosound.com
Pan American "White Bird Release" out on Kranky Records in Feb.
Haptic "Trebuchet" CD being released in May 2009 on Entr'acte -
www.entracte.co.uk
Greg Davis + Steven Hess "Thirty Thirty" CD out on Presto?!.
01/27/09
NÉMETH (With Steven Hess)
Club Transmediale (Berlin)
CTM.09 - STRUCTURES
www.clubtransmediale.de
02/05/09
Haptic w/Lisa Slodki (visuals)
@The Gene Siskel Theater
164 North State Street
Chicago, Illinois 60601
Tel: 312-846-2600
JM: Haptic plays a record release show at the Gene Siskel Center on February 5th, as part of their "Conversations at the Edge" series, with live video mix provided by Noise Crush.
AS: Haptic - The Medium (FSS) LP/download, available 16 February.
