Also got to mention in book topic:
https://murderousvision1.bandcamp.com/merch/murderous-vision-softcover-bookQuoteMurderous Vision Softcover Book
This 168 page book traces the history of the long running death industrial project. The story is told through writings by Stephen Petrus, Pauline Lombardo, Rebecca Potter, Richard Stevenson, Mitch Ribis, Amanda Howland, Andrew Grant, Tom Orange and Jeff Curtis. Also featuring a treasure trove of high quality images depicting live gigs, touring, flyers and ephemera from every era of operation. The book is supplemented by a digital download card that gives access to a 5 hour Anthology of material, hand selected by Stephen, giving a peek into the 30 years of audio activity. This 8.5 x 11 inch book is printed on heavy paper and finished with a silk matte coating. Released in conjunction with Germany's Dunkelheit Produktionen, who in the coming months will be producing a European edition in order to keep shipping cost lower for our friends overseas. I will ship the American edition outside of the USA, but the cost will be high. Best wait for the European edition. For this 30 year anniversary, the book is but one of the many special releases to surface throughout the year.
edition of 100
$35 USD
Haven't seen it yet. I believe there will be euro edition of book too, to keep costs better.
I know there is The New Blockaders book still under work. Progressing, and hopefully will be ready this year?
It was mentioned elsewhere, 2022 book: Jeph Jerman in Conversation with Aram Yardumian
Quote"This oral autobiography of the underground experimentalist also serves as a history of the 1980s tape and electronic music scene in the US
Since 1980, Jeph Jerman (born 1959)―sound artist, field recordist, percussionist and visual artist―has released over 200 sound works, under his own name, under the moniker Hands To and with countless collaborators, improvising with natural found objects, crude homebuilt devices, tape machines and occasionally traditional instruments. He now makes his home in Cottonwood, Arizona.
This book-length interview traces Jerman's life and work, from his earliest sound experiments, free rock and jazz units, and postal collaborations, to his more recent work with decaying matter and landscape. Illustrated with previously unpublished photos, this highly readable conversation also sketches the 1980s American home-taping and electronic music scenes in which Jerman was a key figure, convening a community of anti-luminaries such as G.X. Jupitter-Larsen, Eric Lunde, Mark Schomburg, Tim Barnes, Dave Knott and Dan Burke. Listen also includes a selection of Jerman's visual art."
Book looks and feels very good. Fairly quick to read. Photos and lots of text, but the text is basically long interview with Jeph. Like the title says, "in conversation with Aram Yardumian". That format is very good actually.
That made me think how many things changed their nature in noise/experimental sound. Tapes are no longer what they used to be. Connection to self publishing, mailart and such become very minimal. CD is no longer expensive luxury product. LP became expensive luxury product. Zines are no longer really the means of "promotion" and very rarely they are like easy platform for unknown newbies to get attention. More often historical documentation, than promoting new. Depending where you live, gigs may have used to been these ultra rare occasions and gatherings of people around the country - or even world. Now it might be something very casual that happens every other weekend, hah..
So, leading to: Nature of BOOK.
For me it seems that in past if you had real book published about you, that used to be like.. Throbbing Gristle, Laibach, Merzbow, Psychic TV.. some sort of collection of legendary artists like in Englands Hidden Reverse was. Now, we live in times when publishing book is at least theoretically easy. You barely needs funds to make a book. Just a lot of passion and energy to really get it done. I don't feel that books need to be anymore "history books". Or that artists would need to be exclusively from early days of artform, something commonly agreed to be almost museum quality.
Of course, Murderous Vision, he celebrates 30 years, so not a new guy either. Jeph/Hands To, been around for ages. However, at this point, I would also welcome books consisting way newer acts OR broader selection and perhaps even very tightly narrowed topics.
Lets say,
*American Tapes - visual documentation. The era of handmade / rubbish / mailart type of noise.
*MSBR - visual documentation of dadaist packaging
*Basement touring - stories and documentation of the DIY "venue" noise touring
*Cold Meat will have documentary about it, but I would suspect there must be wealth of source material that can not be included in documentary movie, and book could expand it vastly.
*Noise gear - very much like the Vital Organ magazine is. It could have been book about noise gear, but magazine about noise gear and making of noise surely good.
*Erotic/Perverse noise - documenting the phenomena that people often say there is so much, but you don't find much, nor can easily do it online without having all sorts of restrictions on your site.
and so on and on...
Some may know, the original intent of SPECIAL INTERESTS magazine was that each issue is focused on one theme like that. Some concept, be it good old classics of sex, death, occult, psychedelia, politics, abstract art, field recordings, tape-noise, whatever.. Therefore name of magazine was "special interests", that it would take something very particular that may be interest of very very few, even within realms of noise. However, at the time there wasn't any magazine with broad scope covering all things noisy and promoting whatever happened in the "scene", so name stayed, but idea changed into goal of advancing noise and related in all its forms and expressions.
Now that nature of book doesn't seem to be something absolutely definitive and historical, it could be just doing
anything interesting in that form that is (at least in my opinion) very handy and neat.
