keith rowe / seymour wright “3d” triple compact disc-recordable set

• david reid’s view (central, edge of stage) (41:56)
  
  
• chris trent’s view (right, front row) (43:05)
  
  
• jeff cloke’s view (extreme left, three rows back) (42:56)

w.m.o/r press release...

keith rowe & seymour wright 3d 3d: three views of guitar and saxophone on a november evening at the dance centre in derby, 2002. documents such as photographic, tape or digital recordings of works of art and improvisation are canonically problematic, even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence where it happens to be. (benjamin 1936 [1999:214]) specifically, documents such as tape recordings of improvisation are essentially empty, as they preserve chiefly the form that something took and give at best an indistinct hint as to the feeling and cannot convey any sense of time and place. (cardew 1971 [2006:127]) accepted. yet, by extension: are several documents such as tape or digital recordings of one improvisation, juxtaposed, equally empty, unable to convey any sense of time and place? or, are several documents such as tape or digital recordings of one improvisation, juxtaposed, exponentially more empty, serving to convey nothing but deficit time and place? or are, in fact, several documents such as tape or digital recordings of one improvisation, juxtaposed, actually cumulatively less empty and, thus, able to convey some relative sense of time and place? possibilities, for me, rest in the relative time and place relation created by and between these several juxtaposed documents. each document affords a different, but related, view and purchase on the others; cumulatively they delineate a relative, loco-temporal frame within which listeners position and reposition themselves, are positioned and repositioned and perceive canonically; where, potentially, the same subject seen from a different angle offers subject for study of the most powerful interest and so varied that [... one ...] could occupy [...one...] self for months without changing place, by turning now more to the right, now more to the left. (cézanne 1906 [2004:164]) perhaps, then, various documents such as tape or digital recordings of one improvisation, juxtaposed, are essentially different to a single document of an event, as they preserve, relatively, multi-dimensionally something of the form which that improvisation took, give at least a respective, relative distinction as to the feeling and cohere within their own relative dimension of time and place. perhaps, too, various documents such as tape or digital recordings, juxtaposed, from their respective essential emptiness – which i conceive as a one-dimensional ‘flatness’ – require us to fill them with a more substantial, experiential canon of time and place. in recent years i have been troubled by a growing and oppressive orthodoxy of complacent superficiality and one-dimensional, product-based accord. what is especially and specially interesting about these three recordings of this one improvisation from 2002 is less the respective discrete ‘flat’ objective documents themselves than the cumulative subjective space and time i find between these three views, juxtaposed. it is within this void space and time between these views and the listener that i suggest something more substantial and profitable may, with work, take shape perhaps echoing, simultaneously illuminatingly and obscurely, (laozi: xi) * seymour wright _ 28/03/08 ... * interpretation, translation and readings of documents such as the daodejing of laozi are canonically problematic, illustratively: [...] cut out doors and windows in order to make a room. adapt the nothing therein to the purpose in hand, and you will have the use of the room. thus what we gain is something, yet it is by virtue of nothing that this can be put to use. (lau (trans.) 1963: 64) 1. [...] by cutting out doors and windows we build a house and on that which is non-existent [on the empty space within] depends the house’s utility. 2. therefore, existence renders actual but non-existence renders useful. (carus (trans.) 1913 [1994:342]) [...] we pierce doors and windows to make a house and it is on these spaces where there is nothing that the usefulness of the house depends. therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not. (waley (trans.) 1958 [1995:23]) ... bibliography: benjamin w. 1936. ‘the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’ in w. benjamin. (h. zorn (trans.)). 1999. illuminations. pimlico; london: 211-44. cardew c. 1971. ‘towards an ethic of improvisation’ in e. prévost (ed.). 2006. cornelius cardew: a reader; copula. harlow, essex: 125-33. carus p. 1913. ‘the canon of reason and virtue’ selected translations in, j.d.a. yohannan. 1994. treasury of asian literature; meridian; new york: 340-50. cézanne p. 1906. ‘a letter to his son paul’ in r. kendall (ed.). 2004. cézanne by himself; time warner; london: 164. lau d.c. (trans.). 1963. lao tzu tao te ching. penguin; london. waley a. 1958. ‘the way and its power; a study of the tao te ching and its place in chinese thought’ selected translations in h.s. fu (ed.). 1995. lao zi. hunan chubanshi; changsha, hunan. keith rowe: guitar seymour wright: alto saxophone 3d: three views of guitar and saxophone on a november evening at the dance centre in derby, 2002 1 david reid’s view (central, edge of stage): sony ecm-999pr to a sony pd150 video camera. 2 chris trent’s view (right, front row): a pair of oktava mk-012s to a tascam da-p1 dat machine. 3 jeff cloke’s view (extreme left, three rows back): sony stereo ecm-ms907 on adjacent seat to a sharp md-mt80h(s) minidisc recorder. w.m.o/r 33