PONDFLOORSAMPLE
GEN KEN MONTGOMERY
STUDIO DISC 1
1
Static/Hiss(1982) For as long as I can remember I have been attracted to sound and noise the way many people are attracted to music. I have my favorites. In my East Village apartment in the late 70s, I remember throwing parties and instead of playing music I turned on kitchen appliances, tape players, fans, radios and a TV tuned between stations. I made my first audio installations before I knew that audio installations and sound art existed.
Using a Korg MS-20 synthesizer, primitive home-made electronic devices and toys, tape recordings, and various music instruments that I really didn't know how to play, I made twisted and distorted sound landscapes for performances, home recording projects and mail art correspondence. I began self-producing limited edition cassette releases in 1981 (hear Gen Ken - The Cassette Years 1981-1990^1 www.generatorsoundart.org). Static/Hiss was released on cassette in 1982 and features only static and hiss from my equipment. I think Static/Hiss is an early indication of where my sound sensibilities and composer tendencies would evolve.
2
Father Demo Swears (1989) This is a live recording made in David Lee Myers' studio (aka Arcane Device) in 1989 using amplified violin, voice, a microphone hung outside the window, and four cassettes designed to be played simultaneously (read about Cassette Concerts at www.harvestworks.org/creativec/Montgomery/MusiclnTheDark/index.html). This material was processed live using David Lee Myers' incredible feedback inventions (pulsewidth.com).
Many thanks go to the late Peter Harrison who originally released Father Demo Swears on the cassette, Endogeny, Direction Music, Wales, 1990.
3
Radiator I, excerpt (1990) Created in collaboration with Scott Konzelmann, aka CHOP SHOP, one of the most dedicated sound artists I know. This is one of my earliest recordings which uses Domestic Release sounds, in this case my radiator, as the primary sound source. Recorded at the CHOP SHOP in Boston, Radiator I was originally published in 1990 on Fragment No. 4, the audio magazine companion to NO Magazine, Austin, Texas.
4
Keystone Model CC W (1992) Around 1990 I bought a 16mm film projector at a thrift store purely for its industrial beauty. Placing contact microphones in and around the moving parts I discovered a fantastic variety of sounds. I have used the Keystone Model CC 16 in Mechanical Medium with Zoe Beloff, Droneskipclickloopw'fln Andrea Beeman, solo concerts, and a recording session with the rock band God is My Co-Pilot (hear Getting Out of Boring Time Digging Into Boring Pie on Quinnah Records, 1993). Keystone Model CC 16 was my contribution to the State of the Union CD produced by Elliot Sharp in 1992. For years I naively enjoyed playing this "instrument" until Zoe Beloff introduced me to the novel idea that I could also use the projector to watch films!
5
Egnekin 's Fridge - from The Beat of the Refrigerator, Freezer Side, excerpt (1994) Originally released in its entirety on my home grown label, A.T.M.O.T.W. (Art is Throwing Money Out The Window) in Brooklyn, NY in 1994.1 made this recording of my refrigerator as a plea to my landlord to buy me a quieter refrigerator. It worked. Afterwards I rediscovered The Kenmore Symphony by Komar & Melamid, a cassette in my collection I had prized and then forgotten about, though it must have embedded itself into my unconscious. Since then I have met others who have made interesting audio works with refrigerators. Anyone who has worked with the sound of refrigerators should contact me, I imagine releasing a CD inspired by refrigerator recordings. The Beat of The Refrigerator is a reference to an essay * The Deadbeat Goes On & & On & On... by anonymous (see http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_deadbeat.html) formerly known as tENTATIVELY, a CONVENIENCE. See review of Egnekn's Fridge reprinted from Musicworks #63 (Fall 1995).
6
Bath Drain(1994) In 1992 I began labeling my recordings of everyday activities and objects Domestic Release. These recordings —a bath drain, a coffee machine, a toaster, a radiator, moths in a window, termites in a shed, etc.—have been left "as is," while others have been slightly processed to bring out the sonic characteristics and inherent musical qualities that inspired me to make the recording in the first place. I have used sounds from the Domestic Release archive in compositions for CD, CD-ROM, multi-speaker concerts, and installations. Four programs of Domestic Release sounds were heard in Red Dive's amazing theatrical production One Less Sense (April 13-30,2000) in which the audience was led blindfolded through a constellation of non-visual experiences. Additional audio processing for this track took place during my Artist's Residency at Harvestworks in 1997.
7
Bird Eating, excerpt (1995) I woke up in the middle of the night to make this recording of a parrot eating nuts in a cage. As with all Domestic Release recordings, I think it's far more interesting to listen to them without knowing their sources (so listen to this track before you read this!), I am delighted when sounds familiar to me transform into other sonic realities for other ears. Ordinary sounds become extraordinary when heard out of context. Using Domestic Release recordings, I like to give intimate concerts in total darkness surrounding the audience with these sounds. I installed an eight channel sound system at my Generator Sound Art Gallery specifically for creating these kinds of immersing listening experiences.
Bird Eating is one of my favorite recordings from Domestic Release and my contribution to Constriction, a group sound art show curated by Brian Conley at Pierogi 2000 in Brooklyn in 1996. Knowing that 18 sound artists would fill the sonic space of this small gallery, I originally wanted to submit a blank cassette in homage to John Cage. Instead I concealed a portable cassette player playing a recording of Bird Eating behind the wall in a corner of the gallery. Motion sensors activated the artists' sounds as people walked through the gallery. The only way to hear Bird Eating was to stand with your forehead wedged in the corner that concealed the cassette player when no one else was in the gallery.
8
Crayoning Around, excerpt (1997) This is a recording of the action connected with the drawing I made for Ear As Eye, a sound art show curated by Brandon LaBelle at L.A.C.E. in Los Angeles in 1997.
9
Laminator Model 2291 (1998) Since 1989 I have been dedicated to preserving ephemera while listening to the Sound of Lamination. When I was invited by Skip Elsheimer in 1998 to participate in an exhibition called QUIET! Noise Devices at Lump Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina, I decided to send the Model 2291 to emphasize my use of the laminator as a sonic activity. Not wanting to part with my main laminator I sent one of the 4 mini laminators I have acquired in hope of creating a laminator quartet. I never laminated anything with the Model 2291, but it sure made a lot of noise, especially when amplified by contact microphones attached to two fire engine red alarm speakers. The sound of the Model 2291 was also heard on the CD document of the show (www.wifflefist.com/intro.html). For more information about the Ministry of Lamination and to hear The Sound of Lamination using my favorite laminator go to: www.ministryoflamination.com or www.harvestworks.org/creativec/Montgomery/ LaminationRitual/index.html. For a 10 year retrospective of my work with the Ministry of Lamination go to (http://user.tninet.se/~ore291s/feMamination.html).
Tracks 10 thru 14 were composed and recorded at the Spritzenhaus in Hamburg, Germany during my Artist's Residency in 1999. All the 8 channel pieces were performed at the Spritzenhaus on May 9,1999 in their octophonic glory.
10
Egg Slicer and... (1999)
IU Felix Knoth invited me to be on Radio Gagarin in Hamburg and asked me for CDs to play during the show. I quickly realized that I had very few stereo recordings of my sound work, though I had brought several octophonic compositions that require 4 CD players in order to hear them. My last full-length stereo release was Beyond My Ken published in 1988 by Discos Esplendor Geometrico in Madrid, Spain, and it was on vinyl. It was interesting for me now to return to the idea of composing in stereo for a CO — it felt so traditional!
11
Fusebox-Contemplating Columbus (1999)
Compared to New York City, Hamburg seemed almost silent (www.pop.ac/silentfridge007.html). There was a mysterious box on the wall. When the box began clicking I found myself involuntarily rising and walking to it. I even put my ear on the box; eventually I also put my microphone on it. Fuseboxwas inspired by Heinz Weber, unexplainable journeys and that mysterious box on the wall.
12
Goafishbreath(1999)
In Hamburg I was given a beautiful 7-inch limited edition record called Peltzwurstleider, by Ditterich yon Euler-Donnersperg. I was fascinated by an audio poem about fish called Knurrhahn. Returning at dawn from my first Goa party and contemplating the absence of gaps in the music I heard there, I got the idea to work with the sounds between the words of Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg's spoken text. I spent hours meditating on the breath, the pulse of the air, the fish, the voice.the sound of aquarium pumps, and the sounds in between the words. This is a remixed and edited stereo version of the 25-minute, 8-channel piece that I performed at the Spritzenhaus.
13
Shortwave Band (1999)
When I first arrived at the Spritzenhaus I became intrigued by the short wave band on the radio. This piece combines crude recordings I made by simply holding a microphone at different distances from the radio. I also used these recordings in Public Hearing on GD Stereo's The Architecture of the Incidental CD. This is a remixed and edited stereo version of the original 8-channel piece.
14
Storage Devices (1999)
I was trying to find a unifying theme for my sound work at the Spritzenhaus. Really I couldn't, but to appease myself, I decided that everything I was working on involved some sort of device which stored information. For this piece I wrestled sounds from a blank DAT tape, a cassette player, a computer hard drive, and the motor of a Telefunken M5 tape machine.
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