Music Dropping Out of the Sky
And art objects appearing out of nowhere
Mark Rushton’s Perseverance in the Arts is a weekly email on Substack where I talk about my ongoing work as a recording artist and visual artist.
This week’s topics:
New Music: Stop Updating
Compact Disc Prototypes
Brightness in the Distance on eBay
Quick News
New Music: Stop Updating
I made this during Wednesday's live stream. It's one of those music tracks that seems to have dropped out of the sky. I know it's not perfect. About halfway through it nearly goes sideways, but then I saved it. Editing helped cut out my mistakes at the start.
When I'm working live, I'm really in the flow. I'm just trying to keep it all together. The apps I use, along with the chained effects, are like a house of cards. The late Holger Czukay, of the German krautrock band Can, has this great quote, and I'm paraphrasing, about how if you're going to change something in music to make it different, just change it slightly. That's the gist of what he said And that's something I do.
Looking back, the other thing that probably subconsciously inspired this piece of music is a live version of Beck's Bolero by Jeff Beck from the past decade that's easily findable on YouTube, along with the vinyl of Ravel's Bolero that's in my mom's basement. What I made is definitely not a cover, because I can't do covers, but I think it takes cues from it.
Compact Disc Prototypes
I’m working on offering compact discs for some of my newer albums. These will show up on my Bandcamp first. I’d like to create a kind of “original art object” with the box. It’s been forever since I burned a CD, but it seems that people still like this format. My computer today doesn’t even have a CD burner, so I had to buy an external device, download software, and get a bunch of supplies.
Here I am on YouTube rambling about it and making a prototype: https://www.youtube.com/live/2_V9CMut5Ec
Brightness in the Distance on eBay
My original artworks are coming back to eBay - first up is Brightness in the Distance, matted and framed, acrylic on spunbonded olefin, the price listed or on offer. This beautiful 8” x 10” painting sits in white matting and a white matte wood frame with hanging hardware. Worldwide shipping is available.
Quick News
I am enjoying Substack Notes.
Here’s a sneak preview of the ambient track Sleeping on the Airplane on my DISCO site.
Pandora is where I’m doing most of my streaming listening since abandoning Spotify. I do somewhat miss Release Radar, but I’ll find alternatives.
Everybody is still talking about “AI”. I would rather focus on making unique art objects. And mocking everything about so-called “AI”. My nickname for ChatGPT is “ChatGarbage”. Google and Bing get worse and worse, and I’m trying to abandon them. I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks this.
Sometimes I wonder whether I’d like modular synths, but they seem a little complex. My thing is to try to keep it simple.
My favorite site for discovering “old music” is Yesterday’s Papers on YouTube.