Ballast NVP032 and 31 out now!

I'm pleased to announce the last two ballast releases for 2020.

 

NVP032, Hali Palombo: Homer & Langley c-20 cassette. 

Hali’s work focuses on processed 78 RPM records and cylinder records, shortwave, CB, and field recordings. Her releases and live performances are immersions into odd liminal worlds, where signals and ideas crossfade and collide, distorting originals forms just beyond the brink of familiarity yet retaining enough grounding to recall familiar forms.

“Homer & Langley” is an audio tour (of sorts) of the Collyer brothers’ mansion in New York—often considered one of the first examples of “hoarding” brought to the public’s eye in America. Reflective of the literal impenetrability of the property given all the obsessively collected materials inside, these two short tracks offer intriguing slivers of an aural glimpse inside the mansion. 

 

For a more immersive “visit,” the first 20 copies come with a bonus flash drive containing the following:
1) a 15 minute narrative (with accompanying soundtrack) by Hali about the Collyer brothers (in both .wav and .mp3 format)

2) select contemporaneous newspaper articles

3) select contemporaneous photographs

The 15 minute narrative comes in both .wav and .mp3 formats.

These first 20 copies come in a hand-stamped cloth bag with an envelope filled with early 20th century ephemera assembled by Hali.

Edition of 52 copies. $10 ppd US; overseas, get in touch for shipping.

NVP031, Boris Einhoff: Suicide Meditations 1951-2001 (booklet and CDR)

For fans of Fluxus, Vienna Actionists, Chris Burden, and Vagina Dentata Organ. The 20 page booklet features the transcript of the in-depth, illuminating, and often entertaining conversation between curator David Dierman and Einhoff in Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern as part of the 50 year retrospective of Einhoff’s Suicide Meditation installations. The attendant audio covers all 50 years of the works, with an emphasis on the recordings that did not manifest as installations.
Edition of 22 signed and numbered copies.

$10 ppd US; overseas, get in touch for shipping.

Three New Vertonen Releases!

And please note, I will happily "bundle" pricing if you order all three releases.

Ballast NVP027: Jeanne the Maid, Daughter of God (CDR, inserts)

I’m not particularly interested in religion, but there are some personas, Joan of Arc being one of them, that I will contend eclipse any belief system. I had finally sat down to read through her trial and, while I knew some of the key turns in it, I was amazed by her sheer force of will and fortitude in what was a completely loaded trial.

The audio is drawn from a processed, computer-generated woman’s voice reading, in French, what is arguably her most famous utterance during the trial. Asked if she knew whether she was in God's grace, she answered: "If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.” Of course, the question was a trap: she could not answer yes (because according to doctrine, no one could “know” they were in God’s grace) and she could not answer no, for then she would admit to being in a state of sin. Her deft response “left the court stupefied.”

The audio is fairly dronish / minimal, and I am extremely satisfied with it. This has become one of the few releases of my own that I’ve listened to repeatedly after editing.

Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies in an envelope with a stamp of Joan of Arc’s signature and a insert that includes (in 21st century, re-translated French) all the quotes directly attributed to her during the course of her trial.

$13 ppd in the US; for folks overseas, please contact me so I can calculate shipping.

NVP029, Vertonen: Disorientation Studies (book and 4 x 3” CDR), focuses on geographic surveys. The text explores the history of cartographic studies in three ways: definitions (from the Bureau of Land Management), an overview of key historic moments in surveying, and the surveying “notebook” of a rather uncertain (and perhaps slightly unhinged) surveyor: consider Donald Crowhurst’s ship log as a starting conceit. The artwork in the book reflects this “surveyor’s” mapping as it evolves over the course of the process.

The audio on the four discs reflects the contents of the book: two unprocessed field recordings, one slightly processed field recording, and one heavily processed field recording. Edition of 33 signed and numbered copies.

$20 ppd in the US; for folks overseas, please contact me so I can calculate shipping.

NVP030, Vertonen: Disassociation Studies (book and 4 x 3” CDR), focuses on erasing. The book, besides some introductory framing texts, is focused on erasing and asemic writing: prepared / processed texts treated as graphics / visuals. Samples are included in this email. The audio primarily explores aspects (and shortcomings) of analog erasing as well as the idea of processing audio (either by analog or digital means) well beyond their starting point. (Note: there are no blank discs: there is audio!) Edition of 33 signed and numbered copies.

$20 ppd in the US; for folks overseas, please contact me so I can calculate shipping.