Jim Haynes // flammable materials from foreign lands LP [COLOR]

Jim Haynes, head of post-industrial label Helen Scarsdale in California, USA, released this record in 2018 on Elevator Bath, an experimental label in Texas.

Contains 4 drone songs - a collage using electromagnetic waves and radio collected in the ruins of Estonia.This is a clear disc. DL code included. 

The following is a commentary by the writer himself.

"Most of this album was written, recorded and sketched while in Estonia at MoKS for a program called ``Active Crossover'' organized by Simon Wissam and John Grzynic.The purpose of this program was to bring together a variety of artists directly or indirectly involved in environmental recordings.When John asked me before I arrived what kind of spaces I was interested in exploring, I said I wanted to explore places with significant radio-recordable electromagnetic disturbances, as well as places of psychological distress.
Estonia's landscape is dotted with sizable, decaying ruins.Many of the excursions for the active crossover involved large crumbling Soviet-era buildings.The electricity was cut off in many of these places, so they had to rely on shortwave waves to pick up the electromagnetic disturbances, rather than the fluctuations caused by shitty wiring and weird Soviet transformers... and identify them. At that time, the radio reception from that particular location (namely southeastern Estonia) was eerie and unsettling.The crackles, drones and noises are unlike anything heard in America, looming with the (perhaps perceived) paranoia that the Russian state is just a few miles away.By the way, Estonia had experienced an invasion from Russia.The Russian military had kidnapped and handed over an Estonian intelligence officer who was in Estonia, not far from where I was staying.The incident left many Estonians in suspense, given Russia's modern military campaign to retake Crimea from Ukraine.
Side A of Flammable Materials reflects this aestheticized paranoia through bursts of static electricity, pulsing noise, and streaks of atonal sustained frequencies. The B-side is more introspective, cutting phonemes, disjointed phrases and cryptic dialogue from Estonian radio broadcasts.The few words you can hear in Estonian are about the power of globalization.To someone who barely understands Estonian, these fragments of women's voices look like surrealist collages or Dada poems.Compositionally, I was very conscious of Robert Ashley's ``Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon'' and ``Nurse With Wound,'' which is a recontextualization of this kind of sound. "

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12" clear vinyl. Includes DL code.

Tracklist:

1. Of Blast and Bleach 05:10
2. Nyet 03:53
3. E. Kohver 08:04
4. Electric Speech: Nadiya 20:24

Elevator Bath:

"The new LP from Jim Haynes is a haunted and provocative endeavor, rust-covered and mysterious. It is the result of an immersive listening / recording process through which Haynes' singular techniques intersected with an unfamiliar, disquieting landscape ....

Based in California, Jim Haynes has exhibited internationally at the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art, the Lausanne Underground Film Festival, the Berkeley Art Museum, WestSpace (Melbourne, Australia), and Diapason (New York). Recorded media has been published through Editions Mego, Ghostly International, Drone Records, Hooker Vision, Intransitive, Semperflorens, Elevator Bath, and The Helen Scarsdale Agency. He has also been awarded residencies at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program (California), Recombinant Media Labs (California), Jack Straw Productions (Seattle), and MoKS (Estonia). He has participated in a number of fruitful collaborations with Loren Chasse, Keith Evans, Steven Stapleton, and MS Waldron. Until 2015, Haynes was the Vice President and Curatorial Director for 23five Incorporated, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development and increased awareness of sound arts within the public arena. He is also the lone occupant at The Helen Scarsdale Agency."

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Artist statement by Jim Haynes:

"The album was mostly composed, recorded, and sketched during an Estonian residency at MoKS for a program that was hosted by Simon Whetham and John Grzinich called Active Crossover. The goal of that program was to bring together various artists whose work pertained directly or indirectly to environmental recordings. When John asked me about what kinds of spaces I was interested in seeking out before I arrived, I mentioned that I would like to investigate sites that had a considerable amount of electro-magnetic disruption which I could capture on radio along with sites of psychic distress.
The Estonian landscape is pocked with abandoned buildings of considerable size and decay. Many of the excursions for Active Crossover engaged the large crumbling Soviet-era structures. Given that the electricity was off in many of these sites, I had to rely on shortwave to capture any electro-magnetic disruptions instead of any fluctuations from shitty wiring or weird Soviet power transformers ... and the radio reception from that particular time and That particular place (ie southeastern Estonia) was eerie and unsettled. The crackle, drone, and noise is unlike that which is heard in the United States, looming with a (possibly perceived) paranoia of the Russian state just a few kilometers away. said, Estonia had experienced an encroachment from Russia as the Russian military kidnapped / extended an Estonian intelligence officer who was on Estonian soil at the time not too far from where I was staying. Given the contemporary military actions of Russia reclaiming Crimea from Ukraine, this incident put many an Estonian on edge.
The A-side to'Flammable Materials' reflects this aestheticized paranoia through bursts of static, pulsed noise, and atonal sinews of sustained frequency. The B-side is wholly more introspective, cutting up an Estonian radio broadcast into phonemes, disjointed phrases, and cryptic speech. What few words that can be recognized from the Estonian pertain to the forces of globalization. From the context of someone who understands very little of the language, these snippets of a female voice clip like a surrealist collage or a Dada poem. Compositionally , I was thinking very much of Robert Ashley's'Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon' and the Nurse With Wound recontextualization of such sounds. "

artist: Jim Haynes

label: Elevator Bath