Isolated Field Recording Series: Lary 7
Thursday, April 16th, ISSUE is pleased to stream a cassette recording from Lary 7, the first project in the Isolated Field Recording Series. The series commissions artists to produce field recordings to be streamed over the course of this challenging and isolated time. Lary has given ISSUE a cassette tape containing a room recording of his “droney tone” piece, an unrepeatable sound and light “rewind” work that hybridizes the worlds of film editing (rewinds) and repurposed light sensor tubes originally intended as synchronizers for photo studio flashbulbs.
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Originally set to be performed at ISSUE during March, on a program impacted by COVID-19, Lary 7’s tape recording captures the pulsing, hypnotic rewinds and perpetually shifting rhythms of his film equipment. The tape also offers a sonic view into Lary’s practice and his apartment, where he remains isolated during the pandemic. Filled wall-to-wall with arcane film and analog equipment, the apartment is notorious for being a kind of “museum” of overflowing vintage and forgotten instruments and technologies.
In the past, Lary 7 has taken the unique approach of modifying these household appliances and equipment from the worlds of film and industrial design in order to give them a musical voice. In this case, the audio source is derived solely from the mechanical vibrations of the film rewind units. The light source comes from two strobotac laboratory oscillator-driven neon tubes originally designed under contract of Harold Eugene Edgerton, known as “Papa Flash,” the inventor of the modern day strobe in the 1930s. The result is a highly technical unison of technologies to form something hypnotic, atmospheric, and in Lary’s words “pretty hard to describe without seeing-hearing.”
Giving further context, Lary describes: “The execution of the film rewind performance would have been more theatrical if performed live—perhaps a 5 minute intro in total darkness starting in total silence then bringing in just the mechanical vibration sounds of the rewinds as if someone were editing a film in a dark room all by their lonesome ... then the strobes come on & the moray patterns in sound would begin. What we have now is a more atmospheric version based more on its life as an installation, happening where it can be taken as just audio. One thing I discovered is that this one works best with any kind of headphones providing the lower register of frequencies or even decent speakers. The tiny / tinny speakers typically on laptops etc. will relinquish next to nothing.”
The stream of the recording is featured alongside video documentation of Lary 7’s installation and performance of the piece at Audio Visual Arts gallery in 2014 in the Lower East Side. Special thanks to Justin Luke for providing documentation from these activities.
Born in Buffalo, New York, Lary 7 is a multimedia artist who coaxes profane, inscrutable sounds and images from various mysterious devices. Eschewing the digital, his work mainly features vintage and forgotten electronic instruments and technologies. In the past he has taken the unique approach of modifying household appliances in order to give them a musical voice. Lary is a co-founder of Plastickville Records and has been a major figure in the New York experimental underground music scene since 1970. He has worked on exceptional musical projects with diverse artists including Jimi Tenor, Jarboe, Foetus, Tony Conrad, Alexander Hacke, Larry Mullins, Dorit Chrysler, Bernhard Gal, Jacob Kirkegaard, Gen Ken Montgomery, and Gordon Monahan. In 2016, ISSUE commissioned Lary 7 to create Owl Movie, his first-ever fixed media film.
