John Duncan, Graham Lewis

condition (disc/cover): M / M

The spark for this collaboration ignited several years ago when John Duncan saw Graham Lewis perform with Carl Michael von Hausswolf in Vienna. Having been very keen on Dome, John suggested working together by using recordings of Graham’s voice as a springboard. This continues his vocal manipulations with Elliot Sharp and Asmus Teitchens. Originally from the US, now based in Italy, John Duncan is a high calibre sound artist. He has a substantial catalogue of work published by Staalplaat, Streamline, Touch, Trente Oiseaux, Die Stadt, and his own label, Allquestions. He has worked with Andrew McKenzie (Contact) Francisco López (Nav), Bernhard Günter (Home: Unspeakable), Max Springer (The Crackling). Mention of these names alone is a good indication of the radical sonic territory being mapped out. Along with his trademark use of shortwave signals, Duncan’s modus operandi is to abstract source sounds quite considerably, creating smeared masses of sonic granulation, like vapour trails. It is only on the opening and closing tracks that Graham’s voice is recognizable, bookending the whole with typically intriguing texts. Elsewhere, it’s completely ground through the mill. Purpose Stimulated opens, like some kind of perverse prologue, with a rippling, buzzing, texture out of which emerges a slithering timestretched text. Both liquid and brittle. The beheaded Ian Holm in Alien. A slippery soliloquy. Ventriloquised verbals. On valium. This makes way for Fall, a gateway into the abyss. This substantial track (33′ of the album’s 46′) evolves like a colossal wind, rushing the listener headlong into a vast open void, to arrive, about half way through, into a more meditative space created by the warm crackle of shortwave signals that fluctuate in a strangely reassuring way, punctuated by various pops and cracks. A lively medium. A carrier. From virtual space to radio space. Ether. The invisible flux out there. An energy field. A space that Duncan has been navigating for many years, once described as using the tuning band like a divining rod. Duncan’s digital dowsing locates resonant spaces. Finely formed frequencies. The listener bobs like a cork in a pond. The source sound for a significant part of this was a minute and a half recording of a controlled rant by Graham on foot of meeting a rather objectionable character. Not that you’d remotely recognize it as such though. Anger vented becomes vent (drone).