Label: Ants - AG22

Cornelius Cardew、David Jackman、Eddie Prevost、Michael Nymanといった英巨匠勢が数多く参加したThe Scratch Orchestraの一員であったJohn Whiteの面白物件がイタリアAntsから登場！！基本は作曲家、ピアニスト、チューバプレイヤーとして知られていた氏が1984年からひっそりと(?)残し続けていたらしい、なんと電子音楽ワークスのみを纏めた2CD集成。ローファイなDIYシステムで制作されたチープな音源はどれも良い意味でヘロヘロで芯のないユニークさを持っており、英BBC関連及びライブラリー系のファンには間違いなくお勧め。Antsの特徴でもあるガッチリした帯付きダブルジャケ。

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Here is a new, exciting, step in the discover of the genius of John White, the maverick master of British Experimental Music. This double CD represent one of a thousand in between the musical facets of his enormous output.

As Dave Smith says in his liner notes: "Most of the pieces recorded here date from the period 1984-6. They reveal a delight in exploring areas of contradiction, particularly linear and rhythmic, within an unlikely sound-world in which parameters such as volume, timbre, texture and speed remain fixed. As a contrast, scattered through the album are five brief, apparently zany Nintentions from 1993.
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John’s attitude to electronic machinery has often been relatively lo-fi (at times, decidedly so) as demonstrated in the recordings of Livebatts! – a performing trio featuring battery-driven instruments with Jiggs Coldiron and Andrea Rocca. The sound sources used on the present recordings are closer to those of pop musicians of the time and the general approach can be considered in opposition to the laborious and expensive world of institutional electro-acoustic music."

In the words of John White: "(Electronics) It’s like flower arrangement — just picking out things which were there before you... it’s a perfect medium for irony".

These pieces are the perfect counterpoint to the visual works of Surrealists and Dadaists, whose unusual, ironic and disturbing beauty is well summarized by the infamous Lautréamont's quote: "Beautiful like the chance-meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella".