|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
PD 038CD
|
Coming eight years after Volume 2 and 23 years after the first installment, Volume 3 of Music And Words is the fourth solo release by Adam Bohman on Paradigm Discs. All four releases have focused on his earliest recordings, mostly from the '80s, mostly domestic and all using cassette recorders. There are four principle styles that are employed in this early phase of Adam's work -- most unexpectedly there are songs, often constructed with trumpet as the lead instrument, then more typically there are improvised experimental pieces using homemade stringed instruments. Thirdly, you have "pause pieces" -- consisting of rapid edit collages using found media (typically radio and bargain bin LPs), and the fourth element is Adam's spoken word recordings. Anyone who has met Adam will have seen him recording his observations and thoughts onto a small tape recorder, documenting his way through life. In fact, the Music And Words CD series is roughly 50% composed from these peripatetic "talking tapes". On Music And Words 3, you hear him at the seaside in both Brighton and Clacton-On-Sea. Overall, the CD ranges widely over these various styles, and bursts with ideas and humor. In addition to the four solo releases on Paradigm Discs there is also a compilation track plus his contribution as a member of Morphogenesis on three further CDs. Six-panel card wallet with a four-page insert; Edition of 500.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
PD 030CD
|
"Music and Words 2 is the much-delayed second installment in an ongoing series of archival documents of Adam Bohman's early work. As with the first volume, this CD is divided into two separate areas of his work. Adam is probably best known as an improviser, playing prepared instruments and objects, but the music here uses little of these purely-improvised techniques. On this CD, the musical sections consist of idiosyncratic lo-fi songs alongside short collage pieces and other experiments, recorded on stereo and 4-track cassette recorders. Most of these pieces date from the early '80s, but the earliest recording is from 1977. The spoken-word sections on this CD are centered on excerpts from three talking tapes -- a trip to Southend, a concert series in Wiesbaden and a day in the life, in London. Anyone who has known Adam for any length of time will know that he frequently records his observations to a small portable cassette recorder. These are often recorded for friends and music contacts from all over the world. As with the musical contributions, all of these cassettes exist in very small quantities, and often they are editions of only one copy. Although there is an obvious difference in these two types of recorded material, there exists a light and humorous common thread that runs through many of the 28 tracks. This is the third solo release from Bohman on Paradigm Discs. He also appears on all three of the Morphogenesis CDs, and contributed to the first-ever Paradigm release, Variations, a compilation of London-based artists from 1995." --Clive Graham
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
PD 009CD
|
2013 repress, originally released in 1999. When did you last hear a laugh-out-loud avant garde album? Paradigm Discs is hard-pressed to think of any. Roland Topor's Panic is a goodie, or some of the antics of the Selten Gehörte Musik gang, but this is funnier, and the label's own personal favorite Paradigm release. Bohman's personal approach to music has always shown a preference for the raw and unprocessed, although his three releases on Paradigm with Morphogenesis often use signal processing. On his first solo recording for Paradigm all the played music (except for one piece that uses slowed down and backwards sounds), consist of unprocessed sounds from the surfaces of a wide variety of objects that utilize a broken violin at its core. This CD attempts to cover the full variety of his different working practices which have been slowly evolving since the mid-'80s. In particular there is a total of over 30 minutes taken from one of his many "talking tapes," previously only heard by the few as audio letters, and much treasured by their recipients (there is also an example featured on the first London compilation on Paradigm Discs). These tapes consist of on-the-spot lo-fi cassette recordings of his observations, both humorous, mundane and personal. Special attention is given to colors, signage and vernacular architectural detail, and favored locations include: overseas visits, public toilets, restaurants and public transport, but it is the unpretentious wit and dedication that make these tapes so enduring. The sounds of the environment, the faulty recording mechanism and the frequent use of the pause button give these pieces an almost concrète, sound text feel. This "talking tape" dates from Christmas, 1994. There are also three "pause pieces" dating from 1990, which are multi-tracked, rapid collages of pre-recorded sound material, also recorded on cassette recorders. This uses a similar technique (although independently developed), as that used by Anton Bruhin on his InOut CD on Alga Marghen. Finally there are four multi-tracked studio recordings, and one live concert recording. Crucial to all these pieces is the element of improvisation. Bohman has collaborated with a diverse cross-section of improvisers, from Lol Coxhill to Joseph Hammer, and is one-half of the ongoing theater/improv duo The Bohman Brothers.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
PD 019LP
|
2006 release. 1980 was an incredible year for London's experimental music scene with many different strands. Recommended records were re-releasing the first two Faust LPs, L. Voag had found "the way out," Swell Maps were "in occupied Europe." Throbbing Gristle and other industrialists were giving plenty of live actions. Nurse With Wound had just released their first LP, as had This Heat. The other great LP on Piano Records by Steve Beresford was also on the shelves. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the capitol, Adam Bohman was making his first recordings working with two budget cassette recorders. Bunhill Row was the first complete album of material, but while the aforementioned artists were pressing up their sounds and making them easily available at Rough Trade or the Recommended Records shop, Adam's releases remained in tiny cassette editions made for friends or exchanged on the mail-art network. So here is Bunhill Row, released as it should have appeared at the time -- on vinyl. It must be said that this is quite unlike any of Adam's other releases, and quite unlike his work with Morphogenesis, or his work as one-half of The Bohman Brothers. This is "songs" -- 30 in all, and the main instrument used is a trumpet (an ordinary trumpet), along with a variety of other acoustic instruments and objects, many of which are still part of the Bohman armory, as known. Somehow it all works, and all-in-all opens another window onto the incredibly fruitful astral alignment that occurred over London at this time.
|
|
|
|