now available: ballast nvp077: Eric Lunde: Shoulda killed me when you had the chance...... (8 x cs, book, prints, and more!)

When it rains at ballast, it pours at ballast...

Eric Lunde: shoulda killed me when you had the chance…… (8x cs, book, thumb drive, hand printed postcard, hand-printed cassette artwork, two short essays, temporary tattoo) 

Housed in a wood recipe box with Lunde’s logo branded on the lid, this is the salient collection of Lunde’s earliest—and long unavailable recordings: 

Expositions of the Virus (1987)
Infected Text (1987)
Scramble (1987)
Form’s Forced Surrender (1987)
Operative (1987)
Live Censor / Censure Live (1988)
LLND reading—Sept. 20, 1991, Lower Links, Chicago IL (1991)
Bruise Grind Kill [as Accelerator] (1988) 

Making these releases available again is, for me, cause for celebration alone. I could easily talk about the merits of each cassette for longer than most people would appreciate. So, I’ll call attention to three elements. First, the Bruise Grind Kill cassette. This project of Eric’s is unlike the other recordings here in that there is no voice present: it’s all electric motor apparatuses on bass guitar and drums. The resulting audio has an aggressive Chop Shop feel, and it hits me just right. Second, the 1991 recording of Eric reading his book, LLND. Many moons ago Eric had mentioned he thought he had a recording of this but knew not where it was. 

Well, he found it, and as I was able to patch in a small element (24 seconds, from when the tape flipped over) from Karl Paloucek’s audience recording, we now have a complete recording. Which leads me to item 3, the reprint of Eric’s book LLND. I picked up a copy of this perhaps in 1991 or 92, a year (give or take) after it came out. The binding has seen better days, and there were some pages missing (which Eric included as part of a stand-alone erratum sheet). This edition brings everything together in one volume. (And for those wondering why there is a digital version—anathema to ballast—of all the audio included on the branded flash drive, it’s because this is a co-release with Eric’s label.) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edition of 50 signed and numbered copies, $87 ppd in the US. rest of world, please get in touch for shipping.

now available: Steve Fors: it’s nothing, but still: japan/us tour, 2023-24 DVDR (ballastnvp070)

I saw Steve perform these pieces in Chicago in 2024 and immediately asked if he had an interest in releasing the material asa DVDR.
The audio, which sweeps seamlessly between field recordings, drones, and other electronic and electroacoustic elements is lovely, but the video elements accentuate and elevate the audio and provides a layer of densely personal and simultaneously opaque narrative to the performance.
When viewed sequentially, the archival home video, nature imagery and themes, medical processes, what may (or may not) be found footage from abandoned locations (think Priyapat), abstract geometric patterns, and Stan Brakhage-esque painted film cels create an overarching voyeuristic, eavesdropping puzzle of a narrative. Not unsurprisingly, the packaging for this release is also a wonderfully personal puzzle of artifacts that I am excited for folks to dig into and piece together.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edition of 32, $22 ppd in the US. please get in touch for shipping.

ballastnvp079: Blake Edwards & Simon Whetham: Uncultured Media (2x3" CDR)

After trading releases with Simon for about a year, he asked if he could process some of my sounds for one of his live performances.
When he sent me a recording of one of the performances, we agreed the next stop would be a formal, studio-composed collaboration.

This 2 x 3” CDR set unites our interest in the sounds of malfunctioning and repurposed equipment, found and salvaged equipment, and electroacoustics… and I daresay the result is exactly what we’d hoped for: audio that isn’t quite like what either of us would do individually yet complements each of our sound sources and composition aesthetics.

The release comes is a petri-styled dish sealed with medical tape and some resinous “uncultured” materials…

 

 

 

 

 

Edition of 24 numbered copies: $12 ppd US, rest of world, get in touch for shipping info!