Mobius Strip II (1963) by MC Escher.
• Old music: Warp Records is reissuing two recent Jon Hassell discs later this year: The Living City (Hassell’s ensemble playing live in NYC, 1989) and Psychogeography (Zones Of Feeling) (remixes from City: Works Of Fiction), which will be available as standalone releases or bundled together as Further Fictions together with Hassell’s Atmospherics book.
• “His library is an immense and enviable wellspring, a demimonde of objects by murky creators who for decades have gnawed away at the inner organs of polite society.” Steven Heller talks to Glenn Bray about Library, an 800-page collection of scans from Bray’s trove of books, comics and print ephemera.
• New music: Tsathoggua, the latest in the Lovecraftian series of Cryo Chamber Collaborations which reminds me that I’m still missing the more recent entries. Also the non-Lovecraftian Coil by Ian Boddy.
• “Music is a way to express yourself beyond words,” says Hildur Gudnadóttir.
• See this year’s winners of the annual Close-up Photographer of the Year competition.
• At Dennis Cooper’s: Spotlight on…Ishmael Reed The Last Days of Louisiana Red (1974).
• A few new photos of Michael Heizer’s City in the Nevada desert.
• City Of Night (1994) by David Toop & Max Eastley | City As Memory (1995) by John Foxx | City Appearing (2013) by Julia Holter
I saw there were new Jon Hassell releases and then felt very disappointed when they turned out to be vinyl versions of the City triple CD released the other year. I did, however, track down this unlisted KCRW radio session from 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bETZD2a3Gs0 which is wonderful. I wonder whether we will ever get to hear anything previously unreleased by him.
Thanks for that link. Yes, the “new” ones are just reissues but the live set is at least worth releasing as a standalone concert. I’d expect a reissue of The Vertical Collection at some point seeing as it’s always been hard to find. You could also do a good collection of Jon’s shorter pieces for compilation albums, plus rare things like the Lurch single.
Yes. Also, Jon had a lot of his own concert recordings. Would love to see some of those released e.g. the unrecorded band that toured in 1999, the concert he did with Baaba Maal and Howie B, the concerts from 2009 to 2014 (which I believe is where he reached a real, late-period peak) and who knows what else. Also, one of his most overlooked albums, Dressing for Pleasure, I reckon would have some great out-takes like the City band did. A vinyl version of Fascinoma would be great, just to see the lovely artwork at a larger scale. And finally, I saw recently that K-Lone did a Hassell mix. Not sure it adds anything, but interesting to note. https://soundcloud.com/crackmagazine/jon-hassell-mixed-by-k-lone-1