Thursday 6 February 2020

Robert Ashley ‎– "Automatic Writing" (Lovely Music, Ltd. ‎– VR 1002) 1979


The only album I know of that uses Tourettes syndrome to compose music,involuntarily, or automatically as the title suggests.
Ashley used his own involuntary speech that results from his mild form of Tourette's Syndrome as one of the voices in the music. Ashley was rightly intrigued by his involuntary speech, and the idea of composing music that was unconscious;the unconscious verses the Conscious.It took five years apparently to get enough speech that he felt was truly involuntary,but with enough control so as to make the piece coherent.Satisfied that the recorded speech was unconscious enough ,this was then translated into French and performed alongside the recorded voice of Ashley.

In the background there seems to be the muffled music of a party in another room,which kind of suggests how Tourettes can put the sufferer outside of society.Not so much outsider music, but music about outsiders.
The two Bonus tracks are worth the price of admission alone.Taken from a couple of compilations that Ashley donated work to."Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon" describes ambiguously consensual oral sex with the thousand-yard stare delivery of a trauma survivor. Which is...dare i say...a bit Rude!
Great,great,Stuff.

Tracklisting:

1.Automatic Writing (46:01)

Bonus tracks:
2.Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon (10:15)
3.She Was a Visitor (5:56)

DOWNLOAD automatically HERE!

11 comments:

albrecht koschnik said...

Robert Ashley is endlessly fascinating! Aside from the early recordings JZ posted so far I strongly recommend PRIVATE PARTS (Lovely Music 1978), which can be found on a popular video hosting site, along with a ton of other RA recordings and videos--treat yourself to the first parts of PRIVATE LIVES ....

rev.b said...

"Upload still in progress… Download not available yet because the upload for this file is still in progress." What th'...

northfieldhat said...

Automatic Writing is very soothing to fall asleep to.

Jonny Zchivago said...

Whoops!
I think i must have fallen asleep on the job. I can't fix it until i get home later,so the link will be fixed in about four hours of so!
Apologises
JZ

Jonny Zchivago said...

Private Lives is next by the way in 320k

parmalee said...

Thanks! I've always intended to track this one down, just never got around to it. I've always admired both Ashley and Lucier for fully appreciating what can be gotten out of perceived "flaws" (Tourette's, stuttering)--I've attempted the same with epilepsy, with varying success. In my defense, it's a bit harder to "plan" around a seizure. Still, just acknowledging the potentialities when things are seemingly gone awry is great.

kevinesse said...

is you posting "wolfman"? that one's NUTS!

rev.b said...

@ northfieldhat, you say AW's good for dropping off with? I'll have to give that a try. Here recently I've been falling off to Hitomi by John Fahey. I find myself in a sort of catatonic despair. Perhaps it's the music. Perhaps it's current events. Perhaps it's current events driving me to Hitomi. In any case, thanks for the heads up.

parmalee said...

Also--and of utmost importance--that This Heat gig at Action Space from '81 is really fast and more than a semitone sharp. It was really buggin me, so I fixed it. Sound quality's not great--no low end--but the geetar parts are right up front, so... Didn't know where to post this game-changer, so I'll link here for now--perhaps a mass notification plan or something like an "amber alert" is warranted?! Anyhows, here:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/9nwxufv227ykbpc/This_Heat_-_Action_Space%2C_London_-_17.07.81.zip/file

Jonny Zchivago said...

Why Thank you young man....you have done a noble and almost self-less thing.
I'll update my post and promote the fucker on Facebook....need to be done.

Jonny Zchivago said...

Yes Kevin,and it is verily certifibly and officially 'NUTS' too.