A new live Arthur Russell album titled Open Vocal Phrases, Where Songs Come In and Out, recorded at the late Phill Niblock’s Experimental Intermedia Foundation in Downtown NYC on December 20th, 1985, is to be released by Audika Records (North America: March 28th) and Rough Trade Records (UK/EU/Japan: April 18th).
Considering how low Arthur Russell’s profile remained during his lifetime, a series of posthumous releases have transformed that recognition into legendary status. Made using just voice, cello and effects pedals, World of Echo (1986), was Russell’s first and only solo album issued during his lifetime, the same year he was diagnosed with HIV. Within six short years, at the age of 40, Arthur was gone.
Thanks to the work of New York-based visual artist and Russell’s longtime partner, Tom Lee, in saving and organizing Russell’s considerable archive (over a thousand tapes and recordings in various formats), and a series of posthumous releases via Steve Knutson’s from Audika Records, we are still discovering the music of Arthur Russell.
Recorded on October 12th, 1985, Open Vocal Phrases, Where Songs Come In and Out, offers an intimate, unedited solo live performance recorded at Phill Niblock’s loft space known as Experimental Intermedia Foundation in Downtown NYC. Phill, who passed away last year, hosted numerous concerts in this loft space; one interview from 2016 states that nearly a thousand concerts had been hosted at the space since 1973. Experimental Intermedia (EI) remains one of the principal venues for the presentation of untried work in New York City (by both American and International composers and artists).
The recordings featured on Open Vocal Phrases, Where Songs Come In and Out were made soon after Phill filmed the incredible Terrace Of Unintelligibility on ¾ inch U-matic tape using a single phosphor-tube colour camera (September 22nd and October 27th, 1985). While it was filmed at EI, the close-up visuals of Terrace Of Unintelligibility (watch below) give no indication of that loft space, instead, you are presented with a very close-up intimate portrayal of an artist who was both camera-averse and shy. While you might assume such a situation would make for uncomfortable viewing, the opposite was true; it’s hypnotic and warm. You’re witnessing an artist totally at one with his music, something Tom Lee touches on when talking about the new album below.
That same connection and intimacy can be heard from the opening of Open Vocal Phrases, Where Songs Come In and Out, Russell wastes no time, interrupting the little audience banter with a very short introduction: “I’d like to play one song, That’s the Very Reason“. It’s all about the music.
Talking about the recordings featured on this new release, Tom Lee says: “Some of it sounds so pure and clear and I am picturing him huddled around all that gear, simply magical. In my memory he didn’t play ‘for’ the audience but was rather trying to perfect these various permutations of sound within himself…and a few of us just happened to be present.”
The accompanying notes share that the performance was recorded by Steve Cellum and overseen by Phill and Arthur. Arthur would later edit sections from this performance merging it with studio material recorded at Battery Sound to finalize the World of Echo album released in 1986.
There is a vinyl and CD version available:
2CD – Also includes the complete Sketches For World Of Echo (originally published in 2020 as a cassette and DL) available for the first time on CD.
2LP – The double vinyl LP includes the complete nineteen minute plus version of Tower of Meaning/Rabbit’s Ear/Home Away along with the previously unreleased songs That’s The Very Reason, and Too Early to Tell. Side four includes two instrumental tracks from the previously unreleased in the UK Sketches For World Of Echo – Changing Forest and Sunlit Water
Pre-Order ‘Open Vocal Phrases, Where Songs Come In and Out’:
Audika Records (North America: March 28th): https://audikarecords.bandcamp.com/album/open-vocal-phrases-where-songs-come-in-and-out-live-12-20-85
Rough Trade (UK/EU/Japan: April 18th): https://www.roughtrade.com/product/arthur-russell/open-vocal-phrases#51394078212427