Bruce Rustell Left-handed blows ‘Writing on sound 1993-2009 Clade, AvekandCode PO Box 68187, Newton, Auckland 145, Aotenos New Zealand wreclonds.cone (Copyright © 2009, Brace Ruse and contributors Allright reserved, Apt rom fir dealing forthe purposes opiate ray, research, crtcim or eviews ss permited under che Coprigh Act. no part ofthis pubistion may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publishers. ‘Acatalogue ecord for this book i sraable fom the Nasinal Library of New Zealand ISBN 978-0-95839814-8 Design: Warren Olds Subediting Gaynneth Porter “This publication hasbeen made possible wth the generous support ofthe following: Creative New Zealand Ti Aotearoa CCPIT Faculty of Creative Industries RMIT Schoo! of Are ‘All photography by Bruce Russel, Lytelton and New York, 2008-2009, Contents Acknowledgements Preface I. Left-handed blows: towards a technique of incognito IL. Ten aphorisms in lieu of an editorial policy for Logopandocy 19 IIL. Whats free?: a free noise manifesto 21 IV. A little aesthetic discourse: a dialogue between Alastair Galbraith and Bruce Russell 25 V. Contra-Fludd/contra-Kepler: the disharmony of the spheres extolled inten theses 29 VI. Heaven on earth is always a beguiling prospect: a dialogue between Danny Butt and Bruce Russell 33 VII. To think is to speculate with images: Rosicrucian linguistics revisited as semiological discourse 41 VIL. Tulpas 47 IX. PoiSon + Lie$ = Money + Death — the Axe interview 51 X. On the guitar: practical materialism — lesson one 61 XI. The real ‘Driver UFO" — Douglas Lilburn: complete electro-acoustic works 67XIL Thinking my head to the sky: practical materialism — lesson two 7! XIII. Points of reference: here to go. 75 XIV. Midnight crossroads tape recorder blues 77 XV. Concerning the duende: practical materialism —lesson three 8r XVI. Celestial disharmonies: retuning the ears of the world with sound art 85 XVII, Time under the rule of the commodity: notes towards an epistemology of tape music 89 XVIII. Silver machines and stone henges: pumping the pipe organ of psycho-social mind control 93 XIX, Battering down all Chinese walls 97 XX. Dub me tender: a brief personal history of the sound recording as an artistic medium ror XXI. Why I make recordings 105 XXIL. Caution: analogue artist at work! 107 Acknowledgements A project like this has, in reality, too many actual authors to name them all individually. Writing in its widest sense is simultaneously both a solo and a social undertaking. However, there are a few that must be thanked by name — firstly, and ‘most importantly, my family, who have lived with this work whether they liked it or not. My wonderful wife Kate McRae foremost, without whom none of this would have been possible, and also my children: Max, Louis and Olive, for whom, in a very fundamental way, al this has been done. Alastair Galbraith, Peter Jefferies, Michael Morley, Robbie Yeats, Ralf Wehowsky and Marco Fusinato need take no responsibility for the content, but they gave me crucial impetus to do this kind of work. Without them I would not have had the confidence in my own abilities to even begin this My teachers Richard Mulgan and Jim Flynn at the University of ‘Otago set me on the improbable path to write this book when I was very ‘young — before I had any idea what work I might do, they set me a model Of scholarship which I will never forget. In various ways Jimmy Johnson, Byron Coley, Tom Lax, Nick Cain, Seymour Glass, Jérdme Noetinger, Matthew Wascovitch, Alan Licht, Dean Inkster, Jean-Jacques Palix, Tony Herrington, Brian Morton, David Keenan, Tony Conrad, Peter Gutteridge, Thurston Moore, Danny Butt, ‘Marc Masters, Edmund Epple, Luke Wood, Michel Henritzi, Lasse ‘Marhaug, Campbell Kneale, Kate Montgomery and Vanessa Coxhead at the Physics Room, Greg Malcolm, Philip Samartzis, Jon Bywater, Zita Joyce, Oren Ambarchi, Bill Hammond and Mattin have inspired, colluded in, commissioned, facilitated, given permission for, encouraged, appreciated and fuelled the creative processes essential to the realisation of this book. ‘Gwyneth Porter and Warren Olds at Clouds have undertaken the practical burden of making this such a beautiful book, for which they