The last couple of years have felt fairly lax artistically for me, although a fair amount has been done. The Nostalgia Demon releases, La Mer / Storm Summer Girls and Bright Lights and Cold Wet Sand releases under the Eucci banner last year are two of my favorites in a long time, but they're the most painfully personal of all the Eucci material. I've never given them the advertising they deserve. Last year also saw the rising of aodl, where the noise focused side could bloom. I have few memories of 2002's achievements. And I haven't really painted since I left Fredericksburg two and a half years ago.
Until now. I have yet to really lay anything down to canvas, but there have been some other (and more fun) visuals done this year.
- Block Printing - All of the aodl, Redbox double CD sets include a hand printed transparency (using tracing paper) over the main box cover. It had been a long time since I carved and printed, but it was fun.
- Photocopier Art / Collage - The second layer of the Redbox cover was primarily layed out at Kinkos, tearing pieces of paper (off of initial designs and typography) by hand and taping them down. My only regret is that I lost my master copy, and had made just enough photocopies to fill the 50 boxes. All of those were trimmed down to fit - but the excess area had its own interesting designs and overlays. But being back at Kinko's and doing this reminded me of my first tape releases and flyers done back in 1994 in a similar (but more crude) fashion.
- Spray Painting CDR's - This suggestion came up on a message board when someone was looking for something lighter than normal CDR labels (which tend to get stuck and/or wobble in slot loading CD players). I decided to give it a try, and have really enjoyed the results so far. There's some weight in the paint, but it's not bad. And visually, it looks great.
- Ink Painting - For the upcoming Eucci online EP, Lime Kilns (to be released on Nishi), I long had an image in my head of green painted hills, and the title in a narrow green sans serif font. I finished this up the other night, and after some minor tweaks in Photoshop, I love the final result. It's the bottle of green ink I got for this that makes me happiest.
This spring is also launching with five releases between Eucci and AODL.
- aodl, Redbox - 2CD box set of big analog / electro-acoustic noise. Some of it from raw jams and performances, others carefully composed. All of it loud. Covers material from 2003 to 2004, including some work used in the installation piece Kate Cheuffer Sleep Experiments
- Eucci, Laa 3 - A very limited 62 minute CDR release (9 copies) of very very minimal electroacoustics. My best description is "slow bubbles in tepid water." No rhythms, some pulses, few drones. The material spans from 2001 to 2004.
- Eucci, apt - Performance piece for a generally empty apartment. 60 minute CDR
- aodl, If you really love us - online single of forgotten pieces from the Redbox year. Almost literally - Scrap Lucky is built from a noisy jam that never moved from minidisc to computer during the Redbox sessions. I don't know why I discarded it initially. I was about to erase the minidisc and was just checking to make sure I had all the raw files on the computer, and I was surprised to find that I didn't.
- Eucci, Lime Kilns - 13 minute environmental recordings. Cold distant machinery in dark tunnels.
It's good to start spring off with a good wash of old and new material. Hopefully it will translate into a productive year.