“But if nostalgia as a political motivation is most frequently associated with fascism, there is no reason why a nostalgia conscious of itself, a lucid and remorseless dissatisfaction with the present on the grounds of some remembered plenitude, cannot furnish as adequate a revolutionary stimulus as any other.”
– Frederic Jameson
An unnecessary nostalgia:
The seductive quality of the past — particularly of one not so great — is a curious trick of the psyche. Perhaps it is the desire for maintenance, or, in the language of McLuhan, demanding the new medium do the work of the old. Sometimes it seems like an attempt to resuscitate the past using whatever Frankenstein methodology our technology can muster. This unnecessary nostalgia is completely ahistoric and frighteningly reductive. Let’s plug our ears with wax and forget everything we ever learned.
A necessary nostalgia:
The past could be worth so much more than a destination we desperately try to visit. Why must nostalgia shore the status quo? Rather, can we not use nostalgia to recover what was marginalized or unobserved, what was threatened to be erased by our obsession with victors and their monuments? Many seem set on shackling ourselves to the past. Instead, we might find greater benefit in leveraging what was lost toward the future. This is what Jameson might refer to as the “revolutionary stimulus” of nostalgia.
A present affection:
That’s why I consider myself a bit grateful to Mark Templeton for this mix. Having just completed his Heart triptych, Templeton finds himself eyeing both past and future, delivering himself to a constructive nostalgia in this electroacoustic dreamspace. Constantly blurring past and future, the man himself says,
In my Heart trilogy, each release acts as an emotional response to a major change in my life. The theme of nostalgia is prevalent, as is the idea of waiting expectantly for the future. Gentle Heart marks the shift towards the future. This mix incorporates artists that have been present during these changes, ones who have influenced my process and folks that I am more recently intrigued by.
A true oneiric trip from the heights of delicacy (Cilio & Budd) to the low-down and in it (Fujita and Jelinek) to the outer reaches of imagination (Atkinson and Hassell). Sprinkled in for good measure are a couple of choice cuts from Gentle Heart, including “Cab Lights,” a TMT-certified banger — check out Alex Brown’s mix after this.
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[00:00] Luciano Cilio - “Terzo quadro da ‘Dialoghi del presente’”
[01:20] Robert Ashley - “The Fox” (excerpt)
[03:22] Phonophani - “Life’s White Machine”
[07:52] Michèle Bokanowski - “Tabou” (excerpt)
[10:07] Ahnnu - “Found”
[11:33] Harold Budd - “Bismillahi ‘Rrahmani ‘Rahim” (excerpt)
[13:31] Mark Templeton - “Pond” (excerpt)
[14:47] Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek - “Botuto”
[19:47] Semuin - “greetings prelude”
[22:50] Mark Templeton - “Cab Lights”
[25:52] Visible Cloaks - “Bloodstream”
[29:11] Leo Kottke - “Owls [Instrumental]” (excerpt)
[30:55] Mark Templeton - “Horizontal Plane”
[34:27] Andrew Pekler - “Seascape / Ship”
[36:40] Jon Hassell - “Air”
[40:41] Inventing Masks - “3’11””
[43:42] Ezekiel Honig - “August Rooftop”
[44:28] Nicola Ratti - “w6”
[48:11] Félicia Atkinson - “Curious In Epidavros”
[51:05] Nikolaienko - “Wir Bauen Eine Neue Welt”
[53:58] Mark Templeton - “Burning Brush”