When the quartet of Luke Martin, Gabriel Salomon, Klaus Janek and Andy Graydon gathered to record an afternoon of sessions in Andy’s studio, it was both the result of years of cultivation and an afterthought. Klaus and Andy had been long-time, and now long-distance, collaborators since their shared years in Berlin. That city was also where Andy was introduced to Gabriel at one of his solo performances by their mutual friend, the painter Paul McDevitt. Years passed, and cities. After meeting and working together in Boston, Luke and Andy both found themselves transplanted to Minneapolis. And by happenstance Gabriel arrived a few years later. A new conversation was just starting to emerge when Klaus announced his arrival, stopping by on a North American tour. Suddenly the four got a chance to listen and play together performing on a bill at a local gallery, in one configuration or another, for the first time. Packing up after that show, Klaus leaned over to ask, “isn’t there a moment we could meet again, to play?”
“When?”
“It would have to be tomorrow.”
“I’ll be in the studio.”
“Where’s that?”
“Old brewery building, the bottling house.”
Nothing was expected, and so anything was possible. The circumstances lent their gathering an impromptu but grounded feeling, a unique mix of chance encounter and reunion. As befits an opening encounter, the focus was as often on listening to the unfolding sonic conversation as it was on making a recording. Everyone seemed to intuit the direction despite not knowing where they were headed. The four faced each other in a loose circle surrounded by speakers and microphones pointed haphazardly, as likely to catch the dog padding around curiously as the bowing of strings or rattling of a cymbal. The permissive spirit of the day was declared early, just before rolling, when Gabriel asked if we should close the studio windows or leave them open. “You know what my answer is,” replied Luke. If it’s in the nature of a recording to become fixed, to be bottled up, let us at least leave open the windows to hear what might be coming next.
Andy Graydon is an artist and filmmaker. His work is concerned with natural and social ecologies and with sound and listening as creative practices. His work has been presented internationally including shows at the New Museum; Mass MoCA; Berlinische Galerie, Berlin; Frye Art Museum, Seattle; and the Honolulu Biennial.
Klaus Janek practices composition and performance on double bass and electronics in real time. In his work he searches for the balance between aesthetics and discourse. Klaus has performed at concerts and festivals in the EU, USA, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Russia, China, Malaysia, Brazil and Rwanda and has collaborated with dance, theatre, sound and radio art and album formats.
Luke Martin is an experimental musician and writer living in Minneapolis. He plays guitar, sine generator and no-input mixing board, often with people in and around the Wandelweiser Group, and is part of the ensembles Ordinary Affects and Short Americans. Luke’s work focuses on silence and the relation between music and truth.
Gabriel Saloman is an interdisciplinary artist, musician and scholar whose work explores the relationship between noise, protest and power. For over two decades he has performed and recorded experimental music under his own name and in collaborations, performing internationally, composing for film and dance, and producing nearly 100 recordings. His solo work has been released by Beacon Sound, Infinite Grayscale, Miasmah, and Shelter Press. He currently records and performs with transmission artist Anna Friz, and as one half of the allegedly legendary noise duo Yellow Swans.
