There’s an occasional discord that happens when an artist’s music doesn’t easily coalesce with the venue in which he or she is performing, and just as you might not expect a pale-faced choral outfit to hit up the underground rap clubs on the wrong side of 8 Mile, you might not expect Eli Keszler and his typically improvised percussion exports to find their way into a venue that otherwise plays to the rambunctiousness of weekend nights. It’s not necessarily an unfamiliar environment for Keszler though, and made noteworthy by him and a press release is the fact many of these clubs have speakers set up to potentially vibrate internal organs from points 360 degrees. There’s “an attempt to negotiate a delicate balance between the materiality of his acoustic instruments and the hyper-mediated sonic ecosystem of the club sound system,” and if it works, I have to imagine it sounds genuinely amazing.
Keszler’s upcoming 2xLP Last Signs of Speed is partly a reference to his various club experiences, and it’s also his first solo release since the PAN venture Catching Net, which was borne of the “selected installations” that might be considered the natural habitat of abstract acoustic adventures. The new Berlin-based label Empty Editions (from The Empty Gallery, Hong Kong) is sponsoring Last Signs of Speed, so presumably they’re cool with joining Keszler on the unpredictable frontier of the Serengeti. Watch out for carnivorous fist-pumpers!
Pre-order the new one, out November 17, on a webpage that doesn’t exist yet.
Last Signs of Speed tracklisting:
A1. sudden laughter, laughter without reason
A2. corresponding probably to quanta
A3. streaming down. streaming down.
B1. the immense endless belt of faces
B2. no iodine, no breeze
C1. breaches breaches
C2. the next day, in the afternoon
C3. is strategist
D1. is stage director
D2. holes, parts missing
D3. willing to be open
D4. fusillade of colors
More about: Eli Keszler
