SENSATIONAL FIX ZINE #2 ‘noise’

while continuing work with michael morley on his zine in the series - planned for july 2009, to coincide with his european solo tour as GATE - i just invited a next group of thirteen artists from the SENSATIONAL FIX exhibition to contribute a double page to a second compilation zine titled: SENSATIONAL FIX ZINE #2 ‘noise’.

until they confirm their participation i cannot tell you the names, but i got the first confirmations in from marco fusinato, john olsen, my cat is an alien, and christian marclay.

now that i'm seriously continuing the series - 4 more issues are planned, roughly between may and november - i think it's fair that you could subscribe to it. as of now i cannot fix the prices for all zines to the same as for #1, as it depends on the number of pages, colour vs black and white, if it contains a DVD (as planned for morley's) etc. how much it should go for to cover production cost and continue the series. but i could guarantee the lowest possible prices as - again - we're not innit for the money.

thanks for your continuous support. subscribe now to sensationalfix@yahoo.com and be assured to receive your future copies of SENSATIONAL FIX ZINE! (subscriptions for up to 3 copies per person)

kool things

now that the zine is out and getting good response, i thought it would be good that you also know about other cool stuff and info available on the artists who collaborated on it.

michael morley just opened an exhibition with new work in dunedin. congratulations michael! yesterday he wrote me the following: "It is a crazy weekend here in Port Chalmers, we are hosting an experimental music festival "Lines of Flight", a whole bunch of friends from around NZ all converging on our sleepy little port town to play at a local pub for three days and nights, The Dead C play tonight." wow, wish i were there!

alivia zivich told me that she and nate young are working on new editions, soon available from their website. thurston always offers new stuff on his ecstatic peace site, among others a new t-shirt by dennis tyfus, who, like zeloot, and maya miller has a cool site about his work. check out chris habib's for info on his activities. then there's a site that offers the last copies of editions by cameron jamie, and for more info about john miller, richard kern or tony oursler, and news about their exhibitions visit their websites.

after SENSATIONAL FIX the exhibition comes THE ETERNAL the album

the youth are back – and very inspired, i must say!

leaving geffen records – basically because the major label was not beneficial nor harmful for the band – to record their first album for indie landmark label matador might have been debit to the freedom with which sonic youth attack the material on ‘the eternal’. there’s a teaser of the record made for newsweek that condenses the 56’34” album in 2'34" of sonic sound, which in itself is a great collage in the spirit of likes such as john cage, but doesn’t give you a real clue about the album’s content. receiving my promo copy yesterday unravelled the mystery of the teaser for me. here’s a first reaction to what my ears fed my brain listening to the album in its entirety.

the first song, ‘sacred trickster’, opens with atonal sonic chord strokes that go over in an up-tempo rocking song with kim chanting as a first line “i want you to levitate me...”. what a start! it’s straightforwardness in just 2’11” is contrasted by the following song, 'anti-orgasm' (6’08”), which already showcases new developments in the band’s sound explored on the album: the focus on the use of vocals and vocal harmonies combined with the bass back up that mark ibold provides. kim and thurston or kim, lee and thurston sing verses and/or choruses together or phrases in answer to each other on much of the album, and the three vocalists are further present with back up vox and harmonies. this may sound scary to hardcore SY fans, but it really adds great richness to the songs and opens up the possibilities first explored in 1987 in ‘cotton crown’.

beautiful dual-guitar sonic soundscapes are poured out over us in songs such as ‘antenna’ (6’13”), ‘malibu gas station’ (5’39”), lee’s ‘walkin blue’ (5’21”), or the 9’43” end song ‘massage the history’. ‘thunderclap for bobby pyn’ is a punky thurston sung 2’39” elegy for darby crash (aka bobby pyn), co-founder of the germs, who committed suicide in 1980. lee’s ‘what we know’ (3’54”) last phrase is: ‘that’s what we know about us’. Well, they know, but for the fans there’s a whole lot to explore and get to know about SY on ‘the eternal’!

it would be my democratic belief that each and everyone of you should be able to listen to this great album right now as well, but unfortunately that is not yet possible. why not post it online? well, it’s also my belief that artists should get paid for their work, so in nowadays download culture i’d buy the official download offer from matador, already available on 28 april instead of 9 june, the release date for the double vinyl or cd.

zine interest

i can't complain about the interest in SENSATIONAL FIX ZINE #1 so far. thank you all for making future zines possible with your donations (see earlier entry about the philosophy behind the zine series).

i got a taste for it for sure. i'm currently talking to michael morley - of dead c and gate fame, if he needs any introduction - for a follow up on ZINE #1. he wrote a thesis on his work in relation to silence and painting. a different cup of tea than number 1 of the series, but maybe not that different. the idea is to include a DVD with a videowork by michael in a limited edition.

next to more theory-oriented zines i will continue to edit the good old compilations with great artists from the SONIC YOUTH etc. : SENSATIONAL FIX exhibition. so stay tuned for more sensational publications!

order SENSATIONAL FIX ZINE #1 now

ZINE #1 could now be ordered by sending an e-mail with your name and address and the number of copies requested (max. 3 per person) to sensationalfix@yahoo.com.

the zine is a non-commercial venture. minimum donations are as follows (package and worldwide postage included):
1 copy = 8,50 €
2 copies = 15,00 €
3 copies = 22,00 €

the edition is limited to 500 hand-numbered copies and requests are handled on a 'first come first serve' basis. the order will be reserved upon receiving your e-mail order and sent upon receiving the donation (exclusively via paypal and in euros).

if you wish to sell the zine through your store, requests for copies could also be sent to this e-mail address.

next to the kunsthalle düsseldorf, the zine is momentarily exclusively available from the van gennep bookshop in rotterdam.

SENSATIONAL FIX exhibition on Flickr.com

i just posted images of the presentation of the düsseldorf version of the exhibition on my flickr.com page. the exhibition is still on at the kusthalle and KIT until 10 may 2009. don't miss it!

OUT NOW!

SENSATIONAL FIX ZINE #1 ‘silence’ is out now!
contributions by chris habib; cameron jamie; richard kern; john miller; maya miller; thurston moore; michael morley; tony oursler; lee ranaldo; leah singer; dennis tyfus; nate young & alivia zivich; and zeloot.

i got the first 33 copies delivered this afternoon, fresh from the printers. those copies will be numbers 176/500 to 208/500 and available at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf by the end of this week.

in the near future, copies will also be offered through the Malmö Konsthall and the webshop of Sonic Youth. ordering details from SENSATIONAL FIX will follow in a later entry on this blog, so stay tuned!

david byrne on SENSATIONAL FIX show

in his journal david byrne concludes that:

"The exhibit posits Sonic Youth more as an art/media collective than simply as a band — which is probably accurate, though most people know them through their more accessible recordings, of course. But this is closer to how they must see themselves — as the hyphenate legacy of both the Beat and performance art worlds, and the wacky fringes of pop culture — death metal, freaky cults, underground comics, vinyl junkies and the dark side of Madonna and Karen Carpenter. What’s nice about it is the thread that ties together the art world with the pop music world with the Beat poets and a million others — and it stretches through time, backwards, forwards and sideways. It’s also a world of fandom — in a way, Sonic Youth are impresarios presenting the work of others that they love.

I might be imagining it, but it seems to me that in Europe, the mixing of pop culture and high art — as evidenced in this show, put on in a big, state-run museum, as opposed to an alternative art space — is more accepted as an idea than in the US. It could explain why the show originated here, and might only reach the US after traveling elsewhere for a while. Here, it seems that Sonic Youth can be perceived as an arts collective that happens to occasionally make accessible recordings, rather than as a pop band that dabbles in art."

perhaps he's right, as despite our efforts we still didn't find a US museum to take the show accross the ocean to the band's homeland. we keep on trying and bring you the news whenever there is news.

SONIC YOUTH etc. : SENSATIONAL FIX on youtube

to escape the 90 seconds video limit of flickr.com i started posting videomaterial of the exhibition on youtube as well. the first one, of the exhibition at LiFE, is available now. there are also some fellow youtubers who posted material on the show that surfaces through the searchmachine on youtube, among which the program ARTE TRACKS made for the show in düsseldorf (with interviews with kim and lee). keep your eyes on the band's website as well as lee ranaldo is about to post video material on the show these days.

images on flickr.com

photos of the exhibition SONIC YOUTH etc. : SENSATIONAL FIX at LiFE, saint-nazaire, france, are now available on www.flickr.com/people/sensationalfix, as are jpeg movies of excerpts from some of the performances held on te occasion of the exhibition. both sunburned hand of the man and my cat is an alien were joined by michael morley and lee ranaldo, while thurston moore and steve shelley also joined the sunburned performance's grand finale. furthermore, lee ranaldo and sister iodine are seen performing together in an intense sonic outburst. click on the slideshow to be linked to flickr.com. the quality is jpeg movie from a simple still camera and flickr has a 90 seconds limit per video, but still, enjoy!

SONIC YOUTH etc. : SENSATIONAL FIX

This exhibition focuses on the multidisciplinary activities of the groundbreaking experimental guitar band Sonic Youth since its formation in 1981. From day one, Sonic Youth has been exploring and mapping unknown cultural territories through their activities as a band and as four individual musicians, visual artists or cultural entrepreneurs, each member with his or her specific ties to and within the international cultural scene. The exhibition features the band’s collaborations with visual artists, filmmakers, designers and musicians, as well as a choice of other works selected by the band. Through the multidisciplinary output of Sonic Youth and related works by other artists in the exhibition, an alternative history of contemporary culture is being told, in which issues are explored such as teenage rebellion, adolescent wanderlust, gender, fame, fashion, sexuality, and religion.

The exhibition departs from an ample selection of Sonic Youth paraphernalia that illustrates their comprehensive heterogeneous output and collaborations with other artists, while at the same time it already introduces themes that are explored in depth in further sections of the exhibition. Among the materials exhibited are: artwork for Sonic Youth album covers, a selection of early flyers, fanzines, posters, and writings by the band members, as well as photos of the band by artists such as James Welling, Sofia Coppola, and Richard Kern.

By the early 1980s, an alternative scene emerged in downtown New York City in which music and visual art were tightly connected. Both the raw and rebellious attitude of punk and the atonal, violent guitar music of no wave inspired artists like Richard Prince, Lee Ranaldo and Kim Gordon to play in bands. Since that time, Sonic Youth has successfully combined the rebellious attitude of punk with experimental music and concept art. Works by artists who were active in the New York art scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s are combined in the show with works by succeeding generations of artists who are closely connected to the band. These artists include Dan Graham, Vito Acconci, Tony Oursler, Cindy Sherman, John Miller, Christian Marclay, Jutta Koether, Isa Genzken, Tony Conrad, Reena Spaulings, Maya Miller, and Rita Ackermann.

In the early 1980s, Sonic Youth performed for the first time on the West Coast, where they met and acquainted both musicians and visual artists. West Coast society of the late 1960s is an important point of departure for the creative work of many of these West coast artists like Mike Kelley, Todd Haynes, Dave Markey, Marnie Weber, Raymond Pettibon, and Cameron Jamie, who are in their work informed by the contrast of the glamorous world of Hollywood, radical subjects like Charles Manson and the aggressive Californian hardcore punk of the early 1980s.

The band’s interest in counterculture movements like the Beats and subsequent underground poetry movements resulted in Thurston Moore collecting broadsheets and visual art by poets and other alternative poetry publications. In the exhibition, works by Allen GInsberg, William Burroughs and Ira Cohen are shown next to those by D.A. Levy, Joe Brainard, Gregory Corso, and George Schneeman.

Finally, in a pavilion especially designed for the exhibition by Dan Graham, Sonic Youth’s complete audio output, live recordings of late 1970 and early 1980’s bands recorded by Graham, and rare videos of Sonic Youth and bands from the era are presented.

The exhibition is presented jointly by the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and KIT – Kunst in Tunnel (until 10 May 2009) and has been organised by Dutch curator Roland Groenenboom in close collaboration with Sonic Youth. It was produced by LiFE in St. Nazaire and the Museion in Bozen, where it was presented before Düsseldorf. From 29 May to 20 September 2009 it will be shown at the Malmö Konsthal (Sweden).

An ample publication has been edited by Roland Groenenboom in collaboration with Sonic Youth and has been published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter König, Museion and LiFE. It is available in German, Italian, French, and English. In addition to interviews, catalogue texts, and archival material, the catalogue includes two vinyl singles. Each of the four sides is devoted to the work of one member of the band.

SENSATIONAL FIX ZINE #1 ‘silence’

the first publication of SENSATIONAL FIX will be the zine SENSATIONAL FIX ZINE #1 ‘silence’ to which thirteen of the artists who participate in the exhibition SONIC YOUTH etc: SENSATIONAL FIX contributed a double page each. these artists are: chris habib; cameron jamie; richard kern; john miller; maya miller; thurston moore; michael morley; tony oursler; lee ranaldo; leah singer; dennis tyfus; nate young & alivia zivich; and zeloot.

being the first of a series, SENSATIONAL FIX ZINE #1 ‘silence’ sets the standard for the following volumes: its size is 148 x 148 mm and the edition 500 numbered copies in offset print. the first zine will be printed in black and white, and has 28 pages (cover included). it’s about to go to press these days and you’ll read about its birth in this blog.

the idea behind the series of zines is that they pay for their own production by their sales without any of the participants – including the organiser – making any profits. the small margin – if any – on the sales of the first volume goes towards the production of the next one, and so forth and so on. this will keep prices low, which guarantees distribution, (fairly) frequent new volumes and happy customers, while nobody pays taxes!

SENSATIONAL FIX ZINE #1 ‘silence’ will initially be sold at the kunsthalle/KIT düsseldorf, where the exhibition is on show right now, and the malmö konsthall, where the exhibition will travel next, opening 29 may 2009. possibly also through the sonic youth webstore. right now SENSATIONAL FIX is studying the feasibility of further online distribution of the zines. read all about it and about future volumes in a next blog issue.

p.s. sonic youth will perform in respectively april and may on the locations of the exhibition.