thomas bey william bailey
la production interdite
(eeaoa049) cassette
Thomas Bey William Bailey is a researcher and author of several books (e.g. "To Hear The World With New Eyes," "Micro Bionic") as well as a dedicated sound artist: in whatever medium he chooses, he focuses upon the extremes of information in order to determine both their liberating potential and their hidden dangers. Over a period of time that has seen him collaborating with the sonic arts communities of Japan, Central Europe and several distinct regions of the United States, he has developed an unorthodox style not beholden to any single popular or 'avant garde' genre: his embrace of the whole sonic spectrum has, in recent years, resulted in a high-intensity form that cohesively joins bracing noise and sidereal ephemera to seductive silences.
TBWB's debut for Elevator Bath, La Production Interdite, carries on a tradition of albums themed around under-reported 'threshold' states of consciousness. Following on the heels of the previous year's A Desperate Expediency - an 'enhanced interrogation'-themed album on Brazil's Seminal Records - La Production Interdite takes its inspiration from the phenomenon of autoscopy, i.e. the visualization of doppelgängers or phantom doubles. Split into a purely instrumental half-hour side and a vocally-enhanced side in which TBWB narrates accounts of autoscopic events, this new album oscillates between moments of narcotic consolation and moments of sharp poignancy in an attempt to present the many different emotive 'faces' of autoscopic phenomena. A full complement of analog and digital tools, including the famous Buchla modular system at Stockholm's EMS studios, are brought into play in order to make this a thoroughly compelling listen. Ambience and anti-ambience symbolically vie for dominance throughout, in the same way as one might struggle to determine whether their 'primary' self or their autoscopic double is the 'real' source of their consciousness.
La Production Interdite is expertly mastered by Elevator Bath alumnus Alex Keller, and comes in a lush pro-printed cassette package with original collage artwork by TBWB in a limited edition of just 50 copies. A seven-page PDF text supplement is included with the download.
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