Like most people, I’ll often happily while away a couple of hours coming up with fantastically complex cut-ups in my head. While I dream of imaginary crumbs, Austrian percussionist and composer Martin Brandlmayr (Radian, Autistic Daughters) creates real-life, boundary-punching projects.
The 2018 recipient of SWR’s prestigious Karl Sczuka Prize for Works of Radio Art will see his ambitious audio play Vive Les Fantômes released by Thrill Jockey on June 14.
Shaped by Jacques Derrida’s 1993 deconstructionist treatise “Specters of Marx,” Vive Les Fantômes is built upon fragments of interviews and performances from Brandlmayr’s influences: Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Chris Marker’s “Sans Soleil,” Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” and many more. Just as Les Fantômes are never entirely invisible, Brandlmayr’s presence can be felt entering and leaving the audio rooms, weaving in and out of morsels of dialogue with percussive quick hits and manipulated found sounds as the extended track explores and questions conventional tenets of communication, memory, and repetition.
Pre-order the CD of Vive Les Fantômes and listen to an excerpt from the piece here.
Vive Les Fantômes tracklisting:
01. Vive Les Fantômes