2023 | A year. Personally, very fulfilling. Otherwise, pretty heavy.
MUSIC
Keeping to the general scope of this quarterly communiqué, I was fortunate enough to make lots of music this year. I play in three bands, Watererer, How Things Are Made, and Else Collective, and we all released vinyl records this year. I collaborated with Cologne-based drummer Marcus Rieck on a split LP of our percussion works. And I was happy to release two choral/orchestral works by composer Douglas Starr and a cassette by the improvisation-based quartet Datamaster. All of this (plus 12 more years of recordings) can be found on my Ongoing Box label’s Bandcamp page. Quite proud of all of these records.
ARCHIVES
Earlier this fall, I finished three years of work at Carnegie Mellon University in the Oral History Program, and went on to co-found a new company with Katherine Barbera. It’s called Bright Archives. We’re an archival production house, providing archival solutions for small to mid-size projects, initiatives, and organizations and bringing their histories to life through creative media. We have a website. We have a podcast. And we are starting to line up a slate of fascinating clients and projects for 2024. Can’t wait to start digging into to all of it!
ART
Artmaking has been slow and infrequent since getting priced out of my Mine Factory studio. This was years ago, but I still like to gripe about it. To what end? Anyway, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying working with Haylee Ebersole at Meshwork Press to print up some of my letterpress designs. Two plates. A clever technique for gradients. Here’s the latest one, titled “Care for the World.”
OTHER?
1) I had four screenings of a new documentary film called Point of Beginning: In the Studio with Zoë Welsh.
2) How Things Are Made worked with The Space Upstairs to produce two four-hour concerts of drone music and movement. If that sounds interesting, HTAM is teaming up with First Light Reiki and NavusHouse to offer two hour-long sessions of reiki and drone music. Jan. 14, 2024. Message me if you want to reserve a ticket. Lauren Nakamura and I are working up the promo material, and will announce soon.
3) I started writing a monthly column for Petrichor, a new arts web magazine. My column is called Roaming. So, far I covered the Pittsburgh Arts Book Fair, the Platonic Solids exhibition, and the Terra Bubo performance piece.
I feel like this is getting obnoxious. Let’s talk about other people’s work. —>
TOP TEN ALBUMS that I liked very much:
01 Spektral Quartet, Julia Holter, Alex Temple - Behind the Wallpaper
Love a good song cycle. And Holter’s voice is exquisite.
02 Truth Club - Running from the Chase
03 Kali Malone - Does Spring Hide Its Joy
04 Sébastien Forrester - Bouôrgxo
Continually surprised by this one.
05 Kassel Jaeger Shifted in Dreams
06 Aselefech Ashine and Getenesh Kebret With Army Band - ሸገኔዎች = Beauties (reissue)
07 Deerhoof - Miracle-Level
Always good. Always inventive.
08 David Edren & H.Takahashi – Flow | 流れ
09 Jim O’Rourke - Hands That Bind
10 Wilco - Cousin
Their best in a long time.
A FEW FAVORITE BOOKS
Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger. Cal Flynn’s Islands of Abandonment. Melissa Catanese’s The Lottery. Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s Live Audio Essays. Kapka Kassabova’s Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe. Phillip Maciak’s Screen Time.
THANKS!
Much thanks for the various forms of support this year. I hope you all are doing well. Happy new year!
Dave