NVP017: Dead Edits: Opaque Staggeries

Very excited to announce a new dead edits (Blake Edwards and Eric Lunde) release that, had we better sense, would be the final dead edits ever issued forth into the world—we’re that excited about it.

Opaque Staggeries is, perhaps unsurprisingly, our take on Oblique Strategies, Peter Schmidt and Brian Eno’s lateral thinking exercises. We have come up with 112 ideas to get you thinking / unblock creative processes, housed in two delightful (and I dare say refined) jewelry boxes. We intended to replicate both the size (7 cm x 9 cm) and color (black text on white side, all black on the flip) of the original edition of cards, but, inadvertently taking one of our own suggestions (“measure once cut twice”) it soon became apparent the box wouldn’t shut if we had kept the same size. So, they’re a little bit smaller.

Of course, dead edits also creates audio, so enclosed with (technically sandwiched between) the boxes is a 3” CDR, the audio upon which is a tri-layered recording of me typesetting the Opaque Staggeries in Quark 4.0 on an iBook G3 while one of Eric’s “opycay” devices recorded and played back intermittently, a microcassette recorder recorded and played back intermittently, and a microcassette with audio from Eric played back intermittently; the 60-ish minute process was captured on a zoom recorder (non-intermittently) and then layered to create the final product.

As a side note, as all of the cards were cut by hand, there were some glitches in the matrix, so a few editions have one or two “replacement” cards: the same strategy, but a different card backing and paper finish.

This lovely little item is in an edition of 22 copies, signed and numbered, and it’s going to be $32 ppd in the US. Overseas orders, please email for shipping costs.

Please note, this will be ready to ship by December 18, and payment can be made by that point.
thanks much,

Blake

Recent Reviews of NVP09, 13, and 14

Frans de Waard had some kind words about the recent batch of ballast releases (Vertonen: stutterer 2CDR + book; Vertonen: No. 6 6 x 3” CDR and texts; Dead Edits: Three Degrees of Dead Edits 3 x 3” CDR and book).

The complete review can be read here, but below are some of my favorite excerpts:

stutterer: “I am most reminded of the earliest experiments by Esplendor Geometrico, at their most brutal noisiest rhythm, and probably their most minimal phase and least danceable.”

No. 6: “Vertonen took the iconic opening theme [of The Prisoner] as a source and created no less than six (but really, what other number should it have been?) 3 inch CDR releases, so that is close to 120 minutes of music. This sees the many musical interests of Vertonen spread out over these two hours. Much of it goes quite deep into the drone territory here, but not exclusively a fair bit of the material is rhythmic and noisy, and sometimes a combination of both. Of course at no point whatsoever I recognized the tune of 'The Prisoner', as such things go in these cases."

Three Degrees of Dead Edits 3 x 3”: “Brutal, noisy, lo-fi, and estranged...Dead Edits love to use and re-use spoken word,  tapping in on the lowest means possible and playing it back into the same space, and this ad infinitum. It works very well in this particular piece I think."

Three New Ballast Releases Available Now

When it rains, it pours! Here are three new releases available now.

NVP09: Vertonen – stutterer (2 CDR, 48 page book, edition of 45, signed and numbered) 
NVP013: Vertonen – No. 6 (6 x 3" CDR, 17 text inserts, edition of 24, signed and numbered) 
NVP014: Dead Edits: Three Degrees of Dead Edits (3 x 3" CDR, 64 page book, edition of 15, numbered)
 

NVP09: Vertonen – stutterer (2 CDR, 48 page book, edition of 45, signed and numbered)

This is a bookend to NVP03, utterer, in that is also uses source material provided by Anthony Dunn (Terran Wretch). However, after my recent mechanical rhythmic works, and in contrast to NVP03, I decided to explore some rhythmic noise flavorings. Although your mileage may vary, you might catch a few wafts of Esplendor Geometrico, Sat Stochizmo, or SPK. I also included the original source material as a coda to the stutterer disc. The second disc, Three Situational Drownings, uses the same source material but the execution is more drone-based. The accompanying book contains some texts, but is primarily visuals based off modified stills from a 1988 Eric Lunde videocassette, applying reduplicative strategies via Photoshop.

NVP013: Vertonen – No. 6 (6 x 3" CDR, 17 text inserts, edition of 24, signed and numbered)

My homage to the UK TV series The Prisoner, using only samples from the TV program’s opening theme to create six different compositions. Each composition was created using parameters linked to numerical corollaries with the series (degrees of panning, duration of compositional elements, percentages of processing). In addition, the release also contains 17 texts based on OULIPO-esque writing constraints (each text uses only letters that must appear in at least six of The Prisoner’s episode titles, for one example), which are outlined on a supplemental  insert. All contained in a jewelry box.

NVP014: Dead Edits: Three Degrees of Dead Edits (3 x 3" CDR, 64 page book, edition of 15, numbered)

In 2016 Dead Edits played two shows in Chicago, and this release documents three “degrees," or variants, of Dead Edits “live." 

Disc 1, "An Evening with The Happiest Men in The Room" is a document of Dead Edits live, December 2, with both members in the actual flesh. 

Disc 2, "Dead Edits Present a (Re)presenting Permutation Presentation of: 'Dead Edits Present: Stefan Weisser’s Poextensions and Contexts: a Forgery' (Encore)," was composed from live and processed elements of our first Chicago show, which was performed by one only Dead Edit. At the last minute, Eric was unable to attend but sent a DVDR of himself as a proxy, which I further permutated as part of the live set that evening. I then further mutated and subsequently modified ~that~ recording to create this “reconstruction” of that evening’s performance.
Disc 3, "unheard until written," is me reading a passage from Eric’s 1991 book LLND, processed using tape methodologies Eric had shared previously with me, set to a mutated tape loop.

The final package that accompanies the release contains the "tale of the tape" (recording information / processes about the content of each disc) as well as the text recited on the third disc.

The book that accompanies the discs itself is a capture / end result of Eric’s "drill poem," which opened our December 2 show.

**  **  **  **

The pricing for each release is as follows and includes shipping in the US: for the rest of the world, contact me first so I can get an price based on your location.

NVP09: Vertonen: stutterer (2 x CDR and book) - $20 

NVP013: Vertonen: No. 6 (6 x 3" CDR, textual support) - $24

NVP014: Dead Edits: Three Degrees of Dead Edits (3 x 3" CDR, book) - $20

Thank you for your interest,

Blake