Voice and concepts
by William S. Burroughssampled from the movie Commissioner of Sewers by Klaus Maeck (ShaKe Edizioni)
recorded and mixed at Ambaradan, Milan, in 2000
The first statement I made on the Internet is this page, written on aug. 26th 1997 to commemorate William Burroughs, passed away 3 weeks before. I remember aug. 3rd, 1997 very well: I got a call from Syd with the bad news, and he suggested we meet to go and make some noise at Breda, a former factory in Milan - then squat and performance space. That night the atmosphere was amazing: hundreds of people came to play and mourn WSB; the sadness and disbelief (despite his old age) were palpable. Few thinkers have had the impact he's had on my generation, and a few before and after mine. What's more, his voice was always sharp and full of meaning (and common sense) - a powerful antidote to the widespread stupidity that is one of the marks of the past century (and this one too, it seems).
2000: I was tinkering with an odd, jazzy bass sample (the first sound you hear), and watching Commissioner of Sewers (which is a great movie, for WSB fans and regular audiences alike) where he explains in detail one of his most famous intuitions: "Language is a virus" (also the title of a Laurie Anderson tune). I've always been fascinated by this idea, and found WSB elaboration extremely helpful and far-sighted (plus of course his voice, impeccable and charismatic like no one). So I put the two together and made Organism.
Then, in 2017, I made another, totally different piece, using the same sample, for Radio Radio, a piece I made for Kunstradio.
Once again, due to unresolved © issues this one is also for listening only.
Organism 2'53