16mm celluloid experiment by Charles-André Coderre
We’ve been fans of Jeremy Young‘s work, as a solo artist and band member, for as long as we’ve been doing this blog; we reviewed a Sontag Shogun split and a solo szilárd record way back in 2012, and before that we were writing about (the) slowest runner (in all the world) at The Site Before. When Jeremy released Filaments on Eliane Tapes in 2020, we invited him to put together this mix, which was followed shortly after by his excellent solo record, Amaro. We’ve been loving his new record, Cablcar (read our review), and so it seemed like the right time to welcome Jeremy back for another mix, which, like the record, incorporates various voices alongside textural studies and concrète experimentation. We’re honored to share with you “With all our knowable ills, in airs thickened by electricity, we reset our chessboards.” (Joseph Sannicandro)
MINI-INTERVIEW
Please introduce yourself.
Hi friends, this is Jeremy Young, I’m a maker of analog concrète electronic tape music from Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, Quebec. For those who care, I make use of a sine and square wave oscillator system, 1/4″ magnetic tape loops, filtered radio and EMF signal, and foley-inspired sound treatments from amplified surfaces and objects, influenced by chance practices and deep listening. For those who don’t, I use antiquated half-broken machines to make works of audio that fall between bad music and good-sounding sound.
Tell us about this mix.
“With all our knowable ills, in airs thickened by electricity, we reset our chessboards” is an eclectic mix tape that features new and unreleased tracks by me, some work made by friends of mine and pieces across various shades of minimalism that have inspired me. To some degree this is just a lot of what I’m listening to these days, but it’s also a clash of older works by pioneering but not widely-known composers and artists, and more contemporary artists working with innovative approaches to sound while maintaining a wide aesthetic appeal. In some ways, the older I get and the deeper I slither into my career this blending of avant-garde exploration in composition, production, or performance with a “pop” sensibility to the listening experience, has become more interesting and valuable to me. I think listeners today are sick of hearing the same old stories told in the same old ways, and that’s where analog approaches and aesthetics (among other things) does a really interesting job breaking the expectations around contemporary work-making.
So, in a way this mix is really nothing more than stuff I’m appreciating right now, but in another it’s a nod to folks who I think don’t get enough credit for how strong their artistic voices are in my opinion.
You know we love that. So, does this mix connect with your new record in some way? Anything else you want to tell us about Cablcar?
My new record, Cablcar (out now on Halocline Trance), is a collection of pieces which each began from scraps of rando reel-to-reel tape material, sampled by loop splicing and adapted collage techniques and influenced by the Fluxus expressionism of Joseph Beuys. This elemental tape matter was then supplemented with tone clusters, ostinati, and legato melodic phrases sputtered out by very cranky hardware machines (as usual).
I often think about “organization” of pitch and pace, how tones and intervals interact with each other vertically, as well as horizontally mapped across time. I think this concept fuels a central tenet of minimalism — it’s especially fun to explore in the space of magnets. A nice moment, I find, happens when my track “Whirld, Pt. I” blends into Bill Nace’s tape collage for tuba extracts, both occupying a similar cyclic brooding feel where in each case eventually playback speed and demagnetization techniques alter our perception of a “tonal status quo”.
I also focus a lot on time flow and pacing in my work, to me it’s pretty important to design across a complete listening experience (whether an album, EP, live performance or mixtape such as this one). Time is elastic, artists should always be on the hunt for ways to stretch and tug at the perception of time. For me specifically, this comes directly from my interest in working with tape, which is such a malleable medium for adjusting playback speeds. Cablcar does a pretty good job establishing pace and then breaking it down throughout, almost like a misdirection of listener attention, but tracks like “Das Schweigen” for example are more focused than others on that experience than others. Some moments to listen out for are “Pink Shirt I” moving towards “Liquid and Starch,” “Realm Monk”‘s sharing of pace with “Bring Me the Check, Waiter” before breaking, and the trio of “Synchronisms No. 1,” “Global Warning,” and “Oldest Memory” as well.
Lastly, have you got any upcoming shows or tour dates or anything else you’d like to plug?
Yes! Thanks for asking, I’m on the road a lot in the coming months. Here’s a few of those dates 🙂
4.29 — Geneva, Switzerland @ àDuplex
4.30 — Biel, Switzerland @ Le Frigo
5.03 — Vienna, Austria @ Vekks
5.04 — Žilina, Slovakia @ Stanica
5.06 — Graz, Austria @ Café Wolf
5.08 — Zagreb, Croatia @ Suputnici
5.09 — Belgrade, Serbia @ Kvaka22
5.11 — Novi Sad, Serbia @ Kulturni Centar Lab
5.15 — Rijeka, Croatia @ Filodrammatica Gallery7.12 — Guelph, Ontario @ Silence
7.16 — Paw Paw, Michigan @ The Lucky Wolf
7.17 — Lafayette, Indiana @ The Spot
7.18 — Indianapolis, Indiana @ State Street Pub
7.19 — Rock Island, Illinois @ Rozz Tox (Outlet Series)
7.20 — Iowa City, Iowa @ Trumpet Blossom Café (Ox Cart New Music Series)
7.24 — Minneapolis, Minnesota @ Center for Performing Arts (Crow With No Mouth Series)
7.25 — Madison, Wisconsin @ Common Sage Arts
TRACKLIST
Nikki Giovanni & the New York Community Choir – “Mothers”
Jeremy Young – “Whirld, Pt. I”
Bill Nace – “Les Echos (Piece for Tuba)”
myst milano. – “No Shade”
Jessica Ackerley – “Nature Morte (Time Is Fleeting)”
The Floating Mountain Band – “Pink Shirt I”
Autistic Daughters – “Liquid and Starch”
Mario Davidovsky – “Synchronisms No. 1 for flute & recorded electronic sounds”
SlowPitchSound – “Global Warning”
Marsha Fisher – “Oldest Memory”
Leonie Roessler & Jeremy Young – “Tone Cluster In C” (unreleased)
Realistic Monk (Carl Stone + Miki Yui) – “Realm Monk”
Danny Small – “Bring Me the Check, Waiter”
Síria – “Mahe Man” (produced by Jeremy Young)
Ian William Craig – “No Cradle for the Whole of It”
Cassie Watson Francillon – “A Sunken Moon Is a Crescent Still”
Roger Reynolds – “Traces”
Orquesta de Las Nubes – “Para Que Pasen Las Termitas”
Engone Endong – “Dve”
Nikki Giovanni & the New York Community Choir – “Like a Ripple on a Pond”
a closer listen 