Books and Magazines


Archive Books, 2021 published in February 2021 English edition 13 x 20 cm (softcover) 264 pages   ISBN : 978-3-948212-11-7 EAN : 9783948212117A collection of essays, librettos, lyrics, memories, photos, personal anecdotes by musicians, visual artists, researchers and archivers that pays homage to the work and life of African-American composer, musician, performer, activist Julius Eastman.   The book investigates his legacy beyond the predominantly Western musicological format of the tonal or harmonic and the framework of what is today understood as minimalist music. By trying to complicate, deny or expatiate on the notions of the harmonic, tonal hierarchy, the triadic, or even the tonal centre, Eastman's compositions explore strategies and technologies of attaining the atonal. One might be tempted to see Eastman in the legacy of Bartok, Schoenberg, Berg and others, but here too, it is worth shifting the geography of minimal tendencies and minimalism in music. It is worth listening and reading Eastman's music within the scope of what Oluwaseyi Kehinde describes as the application of chromatic forms such as polytonality, atonality, dissonance as the fulcrum in analysing some elements of African music such as melody, harmony, instruments and instrumentation.   This publication constructs a non-linear genealogy of Eastman's practice and his cultural, political and social relevance, while situating his work within a broader rhizomatic relation of musical epistemologies and practices.   ---   Julius Eastman (1940-1990) was an American composer, pianist, vocalist, and dancer whose work fell under minimalism. He was among the first composers to combine minimalist processes with elements of pop music.   There was some for John Cage, then came Christian Wolff, and finally Morton Feldman, from this school in New York. Only Julius Eastman remained outside the game, the last figure, the most solitary and enigmatic—undoubtedly also one of the most powerful. In the 1970s and 1980s, Eastman was one of the very few African-Americans to gain recognition in the New York avant-garde music scene. He was politically committed, a figure of queer culture and a solar and solitary poet whose melancholy influenced his genius as well as his tragic destiny: suffering from various addictions, declared missing, actually homeless. During Winter of 1981-82, he got deported from his apartment by the police, who destroyed most of what he owned—including scores and recordings. He was found dead in 1990, on the streets of Buffalo, after years of vagrancy.   ---   Edited by: Federica Bueti, Antonia Alampi, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung. Contributions by Antonia Alampi, Rocco Di Pietro, Kodwo Eshun, Federica Bueti, Sean Griffin, Sumanth Gopinath, Jean-Christophe Marti, Josh Kun, Elaine Mitchener, Malak Helmy, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Marie Jane Leach, George E. Lewis, Berno Odo Polzer, Pungwe, Christine Rusiniak.   ---

Julius Eastman – We Have Delivered Ourselves From the Tonal – Of, Towards, On, For Julius Eastman

An account of an album about Albania by British experimental musicians made in the eighties. Also involving stories about the Albanian Society, William Bland, A. L. lloyd, RCPB ML, and Cornelius Cardew.From Scratch is a story of Albanian Summer: An Entertainment, an LP album released by Practical Music in London in 1984. The album was composed by Dave Smith, musician and a member of The Scratch Orchestra, and performed by Janet Sherbourne and Jan Steele, improvised and classical musicians. Through interviews, archival materials, and hard-to-find essays the publication contextualizes the background of British experimental musicians’ interest in socialist Albania. It includes new interviews with Dave Smith and Jan Steele, three essays by Smith on Albanian music and culture, an essay by Gavin Bryars on Smith’s music, discussions on the influence of A.L. Lloyd and Cornelius Cardew, and the role of the Albanian Society in the UK.The book will introduce new insight into the leftist internationalist background of British experimental music influenced by the work of Cardew.Apart from the musical internationalism, the book also includes a section of nine abstract slogans depicting the political and artistic contradictions of socialist Albania; annotated bibliography of books published in different languages on Albania; the collection of images taken from the biweekly Zëri i Rinisë (The Voice of Youth) published in 1984 and 1985.Designed by Ott Kagovere, the book is edited and co-published by Pykë-Presje, a collective from Prizren, Kosovo.The book is commissioned by Manifesta 14 Prishtina.

From Scratch – Albanian Summer Picaresque

'Tweenty–Nine Thousand Nights: A Communist Life is an unusual chronicle of the personal journey of Nan Berger through her writings, intelligence reports and visual images. From a wealthy middle class Northern family, Berger was drawn to the Communist Party in the 1930s because of her horror of fascism. Shocked by the tactics of the British police at an anti- fascist meeting, she became a lifelong campaigner for Civil Liberties. World War Two brought her into the civil service and she was awarded an OBE in 1948 for her work in the Ministry of Fuel. Nevertheless in the changed post-war world she found herself regarded as lacking qualifications. Through the Communist Party and the National Assembly of Women, Nan Berger became an early critic of gender inequality, writing Woman Fancy or Free? with Joan Maizels. This intriguing exploration of documents from one woman’s life conveys the many unexpected byways of left political commitment in the Twentieth Century, bringing to the surface a wider social history.’ ­– Sheila Rowbotham ‘Nan Berger is no Rosa Luxemburg or La Pasionaria but a conventional Englishwoman with not much in her head, from a respectable Tory home in Southport. Joining the Communist Party emancipates and educates her, opening her eyes to the world’s suffering and inequalities. With its collage of documents, MI5 surveillance reports and contemporary photographs, this is a vivid account of the transforming power of progressive politics in one woman’s life.’ – Alison Light Commissioned for Beyond Words, Ruth Ewan has unearthed an unpublished manuscript of Nan Berger (1914–1998) – international activist, writer and editor, and lifelong member of the Communist Party. Now a forgotten figure she gained brief public recognition for her work in the Ministry of Transport, resolving the coal crisis in the winter of 1947–48 for which she was awarded an OBE. Her autobiography is unfinished, consisting of contemporary notes alongside more detailed accounts of parts of her life: the anti-fascist struggles of the 1930s, pre-war USA, post-war life in Poland, China and her activities with the National Council of Civil Liberties and the anti-apartheid struggle. The gaps are filled by Ruth Ewan with archival material that ranges from MI5 surveillance files, family photographs, archived journals and publications, that presents evidence of an extraordinary life of radical politics and compassion for others. Ruth Ewan is an artist based in Glasgow, and is known for creating context specific artworks. She works with found material, history, collaborators and participants to realise her projects, which are often grounded in focused research into hidden social and political histories.

Ruth Ewan – Twenty-Nine Thousand Nights, a Communist Life by Nan Berger

Cornelius Cardew was a musician of genius for whom Life and Art were as one. He was a radical, both artistically and politically, becoming a tireless activist and uncompromising Marxist-Leninist. Passion and imagination governed all he did: his boldness and humanity continue to intrigue and inspire. John Tilbury, whose close friendship with Cardew dates from their first concert together, in January 1960, has worked for many years on this biography, and brings his subject vividly to life. In doing this, he has drawn extensively from Cardew’s journals and letters, and obtained first-hand accounts from friends and colleagues. The handling of this material is thoughtful and meticulous. Tilbury is a master story-teller and this particular story is of epic scale and character. We begin in 1932, appropriately on May Day, with the first meeting of his parents. Later, we encounter the intrepid schoolboy and student, who impressed sufficiently at the Royal Academy of Music to receive funds to study in Cologne with Karlheinz Stockhausen. The narrative during this period is delightfully picaresque, a colourful prelude to the years of family responsibilities and extraordinary musical endeavour and achievement (AMM, Treatise, the Scratch Orchestra and The Great Learning). As events unfold, discussion of the music is given due weight, but is never unduly weighty. Towards the end, there is an implacable gain in momentum as Cardew’s political work makes increasing demands on his time and apparently limitless reserves of energy. A life unfinished? The final chapter is entitled “12/13 December 1981” and eloquently “vibrates in the memory”.Softcover, 1020pp, 1.5kg Copula Books, Harlow, 2008 Matchless Recordings

John Tilbury – Cornelius Cardew: A Life Unfinished BOOK

The final iteration of Rainer's dance rant A Truncated History of the Universe for Dummies, accompanied by texts offering a real-time account of Rainer's creative process. Choreographer and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer has long investigated the ways in which movement can be a political act in and of itself—on the stage, on the screen, or at the lectern. In Revisions, Rainer pushes her interest in embodied activism to a new arena: what she calls the “dance rant.” This volume includes the final iteration of Rainer's latest dance rant, entitled A Truncated History of the Universe for Dummies. This performance piece evolved in live presentations in Dublin, Stockholm, and New York before being expanded and adapted in written form here. In this now-completed work, Rainer mobilizes her rage and bafflement at contemporary political events through the guise of Apollo, Leader of the Muses. Revisions also includes a compilation of emails and diary entries that provide a real-time account of Rainer's process of creating and workshopping a dance. “Pedagogical Vaudeville 3” reveals Rainer's consistent interest in reworking and reconsidering material across multiple mediums, formats, and contexts, and offers a unique glimpse at the working methods of one of this century's preeminent dance artists. Bookended with an introduction by artist and scholar Gregg Bordowitz and an analysis of Rainer's AG Indexical with a Little Help from H. M. by dance historian Anna Staniczenko, these texts serve not only as a revision of the conventional understanding of five decades of Rainer's production, but also as a timely manual for performance as an act of resistance.

Apollo Musagète, Yvonne Rainer, and Others by Yvonne Rainer – Revisions Essays

180 x 255mm, 24 pages, two colour risograph printed interior, saddle stitched, letterpress printed softcover, 2023   Published by The Grass is Green in the Fields for YouTHEY SAID! simmers, boils and simmers again on the 1981 solo vocal composition Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc. Language, listening and voice are at the core of the essay. As is the relationship between Julius Eastman and Joan d’Arc which, as readers, we’re invited not to divide into two individual histories but encouraged to consider a singular position which both figures may have inhabited across distances. The essay opens with an exclamation mark which weaves through the text, alive with an open sense of speculation and inquiry as we explore the many facets of Prelude. Letter (writing) is a central reference — given Eastman’s penchant to put pen to paper, bringing the personal into the open — and the text itself reads like a letter being written or a conversation unfolding. It is swift and agile, carrying us along as it joins the dots, while breaking at times for a moment of improvisation, silence, or a prompt to speak. Formally, we hear the voices not just of Jessica, but of Eastman (of course!), Joan of Arc, Gertrude Stein and scholars of Eastman’s life, which offer a gentle introduction for those who may not be familiar with his life and work. An engagement with letters — as in correspondence as well as units of language — are at the core of our reading of the song. Complexity and simplicity were central to Eastman’s practice and character in the same way a letter can “tell all”, an exclamation mark can give a little more.

jessica higgins – they said! on Julius Eastman's Prelude to the holy presence of joan d'arc

published by Tenement Press & Prototype, 2023 Paperback; 140 x 216mm; 444pp; black-and-white images throughout Mario Dondero, Erica Baum, Jess Cotton, Rebecca Tamás, Raúl Guerrero, Stephen Watts, Helen Cammock, Salvador Espriu, Lucy Mercer, Olivier Castel, Lucy Sante, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Ryan Choi, John Yau, Nicolette Polek, Chris Petit, Sascha Macht, Amanda DeMarco, Mark Lanegan, Georgia May Jaeckle, Vala Thorodds, Richard Scott, Jonathan Chandler, Joshua Cohen, Sandro Miller, Hannah Regel, Nick Cave, Matthew Shaw, Daisy Lafarge, Jeffrey Vallance, Holly Pester, Matthew Gregory, Emmanuel Iduma, Joan Brossa, Cameron Griffiths, Levina van Winden, Imogen Cassels, Hisham Bustani, maia tabet, Aram Saroyan, Velimir Khlebnikov, Natasha Randall, Edwina Attlee, Jason Shulman, Aidan Moffat, Lesley Harrison, Oliver Bancroft, Lauren de Sá Naylor, Yasmine Seale, Will Eaves, James Hugunin, Glykeria Patramani, Cass McCombs, Will Oldham, Antonio Tabucchi, Elizabeth Harris, Nina Mingya Powles, Isabel Galleymore, Preti Taneja, Stanley Schtinter, Sophie Seita, Ralf Webb, Wayne Koestenbaum, Iain Sinclair, SJ Fowler, David Grubbs, Agustín Fernández Mallo, Pere Joan, Thomas Bunstead, John Divola, Adrian BridgetSeven Rooms brings together highlights from Hotel, a magazine for new approaches to fiction, non-fiction & poetry which, since its inception in 2016, provided a space for experimental reflection on literature’s status as art & cultural mediator. Co-published by Tenement Press and Prototype, this anthology captures, refracts, and reflects a vital moment in independent publishing in the UK, and is built on the shared values of openness, collaboration, and total creative freedom.

Anthology edited by Dominic J. Jaeckle & Jess Chandler – Seven Rooms