Let’s start with the beginning. The impulse that becomes an idea, the idea that turns into form, form that is filled with more of the named-above. 60 days of virtual insanity and the hope that it might get deleted for ever or at least vanish after a sixth of a year into a black hole with three w’s. But it’s the year of the horse and I’m in a good mood whatever the ride may be. Everything I write, enter or attach for the next two months will be linked to a place (remember the Talking Heads song?) in Basel, Switzerland. The name of the bar I’m talking about ain’t pretentious or fancy. It’s just called Ladybar (since it used to be a whorehouse – originally founded for old women looking for young boys). In summer 2011 we turned it into a bar with a hidden club downstairs and a restaurant with a french chef next to it. Everything changed all the time for the last two years but the place is still chaotic and vibrant and there a lot of new things going on. And that’s were 60pages and Ladybar meet each other like day and night around 5am in the morning. Call me rasender reporter or voyeur but I will try to get you an idea about what we’re up to.
It’s the 6th of january, the twelfth day after the night of perath and I demand you shall not stop looking for those little things inside a crown of cornbread and make weird thoughts, ideas and motions! At least try.
Take Laurel Halo as a start. I just recently read this interview with her in the latest Electronic Beats Issue and I’m drawn even more into her way of creating sound and sense in this chaotic cosmos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNiweradFLg
‘Don’t trust anything that’s well documented! Case in point the Voyager Golden Records; the sort of divide between the desire to be futuristic and being limited by your current knowledge set, your limited perception that informs you of the difference between traditional, contemporary or futuristic. The fact that you basically send a record into space and assume that, in case anyone ever finds it, they will have the capacity to play it. Or what music will sound in a thousand, ten thousand years if it hasn’t been fully transformed into a corporate tool, if humans still exist then even. I think they did include explanations for how to play it but what good are instructions if an alien civilisation doesn’t use technology, or better, exists as a cloud of sentient gas. The record has a nice inscription though, it says: “To the makers of music – all words, all times”. That’s quiet lovely. Even if it is a bit obsolete and presumptuous to think aliens would be able to play a fucking record sent up to outer space.’ (Laurel Halo Interview in Electronic Beats – Conversations on essential Issues N° 36)