Zara Joan Miller and Ute Kanngießer // Blue Monday LP

This is a collaborative record by British poet Zara Joan Miller and cellist Ute Kanngiesser, released in December 2023 on the experimental label Reading Group in New York, USA.

Contains two tense improvisational songs, one for sound poetry and one for cello. DL code included. 

Below is a commentary by the label.

“This LP is about poet/artistThe result of Miller and cellist/improviser Kanngießer's first live collaboration, it was recorded at London's Cafe Oto in January 2023. Kanngießer's exploratory, focused cello pave the amorphous terrain that passes beneath the fragments of Miller's poetry (from the poetry collection of the same name, published in 1 by JOAN Publishers), dotting the internal freeway of liminal perception. It will become an advertising tower in the city. The spectral and textural details within the cello's sound seem to dramatically or mirror the microscopic world of unspoken meanings left between the threads of language. At times, these worlds create a dull anxiety or a quiet frenzy, but at other times they are poetic, reminiscent of slow-motion jokes ("I once saw a sign on the side of the road that said 'SLOW DUST'"); It's just left at the mercy of chance errors (``A seagull pooped on my face'') and mysterious interruptions of domestic boredom (``Someone's girlfriend called and told them not to come out''). The progression of the dates, which are inserted from time to time, gives the feeling of running through the year of Blue Monday, as the cello wanders around like the seasons. The live set is accompanied by a literal slideshow of a stack of fictional vacations, adding to the sense of looking back on the year. But the imperceptibility of the spaces (tonal and narrative) between these entries/fragments takes us beyond the strict view of the calendar to something that cannot be measured: the space of syncopation. There is. "Watching your life unfold/is the key to getting stuck," she said. "

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Includes DL code. 12" black vinyl. 

Tracklist:

1. Blue Monday Side A 22:54
2. Blue Monday Side B 23:38

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Reading Groups:

"Reading Group is very happy to announce the release of Blue Monday, a new LP from Zara Joan Miller and Ute Kanngießer. The LP is the result of the first live collaboration between the poet/artist Miller and the cellist/improvisor Kanngießer, recorded at London's Cafe Oto in January of 2023. Kanngießer's searching, intensive cello lays an amorphous terrain beneath passing fragments of Miller's poetry (from her 2022 book of the same name from JOAN Publishing), billboards dotting the interior freeway of liminal perception. The micro-world of spectral and textural details within the cello sound seems to dramatize or mirror the micro-world of unspoken implications left unsaid in the gaps between threads of language. At times, these worlds produce a dull anxiety or a quiet fervor, only to be scattered by the occasional swerve to a poetic delivery reminiscent of slow-motion jokes (“I once saw a sign on the side of a road it said SLOW DUST”), a fortuitous error (“a seagull shitting on my face is home”), a mysterious interruption of domestic boredom (“someone's girlfriend called to say don't answer”). Occasional dates progressing through time give the sense that we are being driven through a year of blue Mondays, the cello wandering as if seasonally. The live set having been accompanied by a literal slideshow of some cumulative, fictive vacation adds to this sense of the year in review. But the imperceptibility of (tonal and narrative) space between these entry/fragments bring us beyond the stark view of the calendrical and into something less measurable: the space of a syncope: ' to witness your life unfolding she said / is the key getting stuck.'"

Artist: Zara Joan Miller and Ute Kanngießer

Label: Reading Group