Various recordings exploring the bodies of various instruments and environments as aktions dedicated to and inspired by Bryan Lewis Saunders and the Viennese Aktionists.

I began wanting to make music similar to Nitsch’s organ recordings, but the project ultimately turned into some of that mixed with a lot of other approaches to sound art, and my own intuitive approaches to performing and/or capturing aural aktions.

I recorded so much material because I was inspired by the prolific output of Nitsch, and how there’s a 51-disc boxset of Nitsch’s Bryan’s told me about numerous times, and especially because Bryan told me he attempted, or succeeded, in listening to all 51 discs uninterrupted, which must’ve been an intense aural peregrination . So I felt I needed to shoot for the fath(((o)))mless depths of the Xtrastellar metatranscendental nethre-reaches if I was going to hold a tiny candle to the legacy of the Vienna Aktionists, and also this is to challenge Bryan to listen to the whole thing uninterrupted.

Happy Birthday, Bryan, and thank you for turning me on to the Vienna Aktionists, and for being so inspirational yourself, hope you enjoy these recordings!

I: an improvisation on (dis)harmonium

II: I recorded a walk from my house around the neighborhood and town and kept everything how it sounded as it was as I walked around in the spirit of aktionismus, how all actions are art, everything that happens is art, including just the ordinary sounds of Denton, TX. this includes a restroom break in the park, and me sticking the microphone of the field recorder under the handdryer for 20 seconds or so, this occurs at about 22’40”

III: amplified (dis)harmonium

IV: improv using my macbook, an eq with bass cranked, digidelay, hall-of-fame reverb, and two mixers with bass cranked ran into two bass halfstacks with the bass turned all the way up

V: no-input mixing with Human Fluid Rot Circuit Bent EQ ran into vocal processor then into reverb, pt 2

VI: no-input mixing… pt 1

VII: field-recording-manipulation improvisation on macbook

VIII: first time experimenting with Red Panda Tensor, i view pure experimentation to be using a piece of equipment for the very first time so it’s entirely myself experimenting with it and learning its behavior, then I took that recording, slowed it down to 33% of its regular speed, ran the slowed down file through Argeïphontes Lyre, took the mix of those two and ran them through Audio Hijack to create the droning/trailing sounds, and felt it sounded finished with all these parts mixed together.

IX: 1960s Magnus Super Deluxe Electric Chord Organ that’s been abused over six or seven years by being used as an incense holder, and all the sticks now make the keys difficult to press down, and they stay down, some of them, when pressed down, and some come undone over time, perhaps by the vibrations of the sound shaking it slowly loose, i think it sounds pretty amazing so i improvised with it for this project, this recording is unedited

X: no-input mixing with Electrolobotomy Super Collider and custom Electrolobotomy gain+feedback, ran into my macbook and recorded live with no edits, the quick changes were done intentionally

XI: acoustic junk percussion improvisation

XII: field recording of a construction project going on through the wall

XIII: processed track XII Through Tensor, PLL, EQ, Digidelay, Mixer, Bass Half Stacks

XIV: piano improvisation into laptop utilizing digital techniques to improve(?) sound quality

XV: a musique concrète sound collage of all the previous recordings meticulously pieced together for over a year.

XVI: a harsh noise processing of all previous recordings, recorded live with no afteredits.