Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever
“His intensely obsessive ongoing project documenting the bands and musicians he listens to, has developed an avid following of art collectors, curators and music fans around the world”. This is what Matt Distel wrote for a exhibition announcement in Cincinnati in 2009, exaggerating my profile to attract visitors to his gallery.
That “intensely obsessive ongoing project” is called Top 100, and evolves around a yearly list of 100 recordings based on a ranking system I use in which recordings are awarded points on a weekly basis. The Top 100 is now in its thirtieth year and for the occasion I figured I’d up the obsessiveness by another degree or two. I compiled a list of 100 recordings that played a significant part in those 30 years: The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever. The list consists of all the old numbers 1 (and the new one as well), all songs that accumulated more than 100 points in those thirty years, and then a bunch of recordings subjectively selected because I felt they needed to be part of the list. The order in which the recordings appear is also subjective. The list is similar, but far from identical, from the list Continued Count, that is a simple and objective list ordered by accumulated points that I’ve kept up to date in all those years.
And it would be very unlike me if I weren’t to make illustrations for every entry in this new The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever list. So I started with a brand new sketchbook at number 100, watercoloring my way all the way down to number one.
Compiling the list and illustrating it meant for me in many cases revisiting music I hadn’t heard for a long time. Reading up on musicians that I used to follow closely but didn’t keep track of any more. I hadn’t been following their music let alone keeping up with the facts of what happened in their lives. In the case of Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed (who happen to be right beside each other in the list) I found out that they got married. They’re both musicians whose music I used to follow closely and whom I both saw perform live . In many cases I illustrated recordings with images of the musicians in question many years older than when they recorded it.
Over the next few months I will forward all 100 Greatest Recordings Ever.
All drawings are 10” x 8”, the materials used are ink, watercolor, ballpoint pen, and pencil, and all are from 2012.
That “intensely obsessive ongoing project” is called Top 100, and evolves around a yearly list of 100 recordings based on a ranking system I use in which recordings are awarded points on a weekly basis. The Top 100 is now in its thirtieth year and for the occasion I figured I’d up the obsessiveness by another degree or two. I compiled a list of 100 recordings that played a significant part in those 30 years: The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever. The list consists of all the old numbers 1 (and the new one as well), all songs that accumulated more than 100 points in those thirty years, and then a bunch of recordings subjectively selected because I felt they needed to be part of the list. The order in which the recordings appear is also subjective. The list is similar, but far from identical, from the list Continued Count, that is a simple and objective list ordered by accumulated points that I’ve kept up to date in all those years.
And it would be very unlike me if I weren’t to make illustrations for every entry in this new The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever list. So I started with a brand new sketchbook at number 100, watercoloring my way all the way down to number one.
Compiling the list and illustrating it meant for me in many cases revisiting music I hadn’t heard for a long time. Reading up on musicians that I used to follow closely but didn’t keep track of any more. I hadn’t been following their music let alone keeping up with the facts of what happened in their lives. In the case of Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed (who happen to be right beside each other in the list) I found out that they got married. They’re both musicians whose music I used to follow closely and whom I both saw perform live . In many cases I illustrated recordings with images of the musicians in question many years older than when they recorded it.
Over the next few months I will forward all 100 Greatest Recordings Ever.
All drawings are 10” x 8”, the materials used are ink, watercolor, ballpoint pen, and pencil, and all are from 2012.
Monday, May 7, 2012
More Creation
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| Lennie Hibbert 24" x 12" oil on board, 2012 |
Jonathan Ward, of Excavated Shellac fame, described his modus operandi as academic anti-academic in one his analyses of yet another excavated 70 year old disc. Brilliant, if you ask me; it doesn't describe just his outlook on things but that of the whole avant-garde as well. It could be the name given to a whole new period: modernism—post-modernism—academic anti-academic, it captures in two words a brand new reality. It contains affirmation and negation, it can be used as an excuse and as an incrimination. It's both self loathing and self congratulatory. Insiders become outsider, and outsiders insiders. The intellectuals are enamored with the non-intellectuals while the non-intellectuals become intellectualized. Books have been written by philosophers on the subject but I had never heard it summed up in two words: Academic Anti-Academic. What has this to do with the vibraphone impregnated reggae sounds of Lennie Hibbert, you may ask, and I say "everything and nothing". For reason that it is being so different from "all or nothing". What comes after Creation for Lennie Hibbert is More Creation, and more is better than less (when it comes to creation).
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Sandwidi Pierre
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| Sandwidi Pierre 24" x 12" oil on board, 2012 |
Je Suis un Salaud is the name of a song by Sandwidi Pierre that could have well been a contender for the Eurovision Song Festival if he had been European. It's a chanson in the tradition of the great chansonistas. He could have contended with
Buranovskiye Babushki and Engelbert Humperdinck who are probably around the same age as Mr. Pierre. But Sandwidi Pierre is not from Europe and I'm not even sure if he's still alive today. Sandwidi Pierre hails from Burkino Faso and is nicknamed Le Troubadour de la Savane which is precisely the title of the record Je Suis un Salaud is found on. It was recorded in Nigeria around 1984. After looking up the meaning of the word "salaud" I intuitively likened the song to some hits I heard growing in the Netherlands: Ik Ben Gerrit and Mijn Naam is Haas, songs that should have been contenders in the Eurovision as well. I don't know who won the contest this year but I sure hope it was the
Buranovskiye Babushki group of old ladies that sing traditional Russian songs. Somehow I don't think they've gotten many votes though. You can listen to Je Suis un Salaud via the great excavators of the on-line site Ghost Capital.
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