Fossil Aerosol and Postmodern Egypt

A new Fossil Aerosol recording for the close of 2013 – released December 15 on bandcamp.com.

“Three Days at Qurna” considers the commodity of antiquity and the fakery of the ancient. The title refers to the Egyptian village of Qurna, which was recently destroyed by Egyptian authorities to provide a "cleaner and safer" environment for tourists approaching the Valley of the Kings. The village was built atop and within a series of ancient tombs - used for dwellings, workshops, and (many years ago) sources of antiquities. For generations, many of the residents of this village made their living by selling relics found literally beneath their homes. More recently, craftsmen in the village had taken to making reproductions and fakes of ancient Egyptian artifacts.

There are no synthetic sources in this piece. It is composed primarily of fragments of vintage Egyptian folk recordings, processed and mixed live in the studio. Falsified ethnography

http://fossilaerosol.bandcamp.com/

More Fake Resurrection from Fossil Aerosol

The earliest Fossil Aerosol Mining Project recordings, made during the mid-1980s, utilized literal “found sounds” such as fragments of open reel 1/4” tape and 35mm film recovered from burnt out warehouses and abandoned drive-in theaters. One of the first loops was made from a fragment of the film “Zombi 2”, cut out of a reel by a sloppy projectionist. Spliced into a length of leader and run through an old projector (with no bulb but a convenient audio output), the damaged audio track became artifact.

Over the years, a number of Fossil Aerosol recordings were produced using sonic fragments from the zombi film genre of the late Cold War era. Some of the first pieces were included in the “Cassette Recordings” release, compiled in 1995. The 2005 “if you enjoyed the dawn of the dead” was composed almost entirely of damaged and mutated artifacts from Romero’s original zombie trilogy. “The First 15 Minutes of the Second Sequel” (2007) was composed of processed fragments from the first 15 minutes of the second unauthorized Italian sequel to Dawn of the Dead. Fake resurrection, left for dead and resurrected again.

In 2009, some the older theme-based recordings were revisited. “Resurrection Remixes”, just released on iTunes, represents a revision of Fossil Aerosol’s zombi past. A mildewed journey that begins in a dead mall in 1978, passes through a dying Midwestern drive-in theater in 1983, and ultimately gets lost in translation in the midst of a fake Italian apocalypse.

You can hear a sample here:

http://www.fossilaerosol.com/ResurrectionRemixes.html

Listen to A Duck in a Tree

If you haven't yet heard it, "A Duck in a Tree" is a weekly internet radio show programmed by :Zoviet*France: and broadcast by Basic.fm. The show features some remarkable music, much of which you will have a hard time finding elsewhere. We are pleased to report that this week's edition includes an unreleased Fossil Aerosol track - a Duck in a Tree exclusive. Have a listen at Mixcloud.

If you haven't heard this kind of music before (but as a reader of this blog are interested in post-industrial or post-apocalyptic culture), you will probably find something of interest here. Much of the work is relevant for the simple fact that it often begins with the intentional collapsing of most forms of musical or cultural convention.

Sonic Damaged Goods

We've uploaded another playlist on Mixcloud. "Damaged Goods" includes more sonic artifacts, debris and compromised environments. Also a previously unreleased track by the Fossil Aerosol Mining Project. Grab your headphones and have a listen HERE.

New Fossil Aerosol Mining Project Release

I'm pleased to announce the release of a new set of recordings by the Fossil Aerosol Mining Project.

Very Early Fragments is the second release to observe our 25th anniversary. Recent tracks created from very early fragments: bits of tape and recorded experiments made a long time ago. Pieces of late twentieth century media, decomposing to the quiet roar of chromium dioxide as it clings to the tape heads. 

You can find it HERE.

Podcast for October

We have uploaded a new podcast at Mixcloud. "Certain Contexts for the Use of Modified Bone Tools" features artists such as :Zoviet*France:, Mnemonists, Jeff Greinke, as well as a few selected audio artifacts. 40 minutes of music for October. Hope you enjoy....

Post Punk at the Drive-In

So, previous posts have examined the postmodern relics of drive-in theaters, as well as the ruins of punk-scene landmarks. Now for some appropriate music to complete this rather odd thread.

Perhaps you have noticed how some of the guitar and synth work on early 1980s post punk recordings (for instance some of the stuff on the Cherry Red label, or even a few of Wire’s early melodies) had a jingle-esque sound to them? No, you probably didn’t. Well, right or wrong, we did notice....

This new song (link below) recycles and artificially mutates old drive-in intermission relics, while incorporating/grafting some choice riffs from the Golden Age of post punk. As camouflaged as they may seem, all guitar melodies on this track are actually from the world of rock and roll, not hot dog retailing. Test your Hi-Fidelity quotient, and see how many you can identify.

Damaged Reel 1982

Fossil Aerosol Mining Project

The track is from our as-yet-unreleased album The Day 1982 Contaminated 1971. Meanwhile, be sure and check out the new 25-year retrospective of Fossil Aerosol’s work, Decades of Fake Resurrection,  available NOW at the iTunes concession stand….

Fab Four Appropriation

The Fossil Aerosol Mining Project makes music from audio artifacts. The idea is essentially one of a sonic version of an archaeological midden – a suite of interrelated artifacts, fragmented and decayed to various degrees, and lacking most of their original contexts. The Project has a penchant for sounds from 1980s post-apocalyptic and zombie films, for their double-whammy of irony and postmodernism.

There have been other themes, however – including the deconstruction of pop songs to create new sets of dislocated artifacts. These can be rearranged and artificially decomposed in such a way as to create a certain distance that allows for new perspective on familiar icons.

The Blank Album was one such project. Recorded in 2009, a suite of songs and soundscapes was modeled from fragments culled from an iconic White Album by a certain Fab Four. This had been done before - notably the Grey Album by Danger Mouse five years earlier.

The Blank Album was a little bit different. Some of the tracks were little musical Frankenstein monsters with a beat, and others were more elongated passages of heavily decomposed Beatlemania.

For obvious reasons, the album was not commercially released. But here are two tracks. The first is an example of a more pop-related song (unusual for Fossil Aerosol), and the second will be more recognizable to those familiar with their 25+ year catalog. There was also a music video, even.

Click on the track names below, and as the backwards record once said, “turn me on deadman”…. Enjoy.

THE WALRUS

Fossil Aerosol Mining Project

2009

SAVORY ENTROPY

Fossil Aerosol Mining Project

2009

If you like the material, check out more Fossil Aerosol HERE.

A Dead Drive-in and Resurrected Intermission Sounds

One more dead drive-in before the summer closes. This is the Airway Drive-In, in St. Ann, Missouri (now an old suburb of St. Louis). I shot these as they were taking the thing down in 1990. However, the developer left the lovely marquee standing. It was repurposed for the shopping center that was built on the site of the theater. A nice bit of retail postmodernism…

On the subject of drive-in decay, the Fossil Aerosol Mining Project is working on a new set of recordings that reconfigure badly damaged segments of audio from drive-in theater intermission films. Decomposed jingles, big splices, and artificially mutated refreshment slogans. You can have a listen HERE

More songs about the artificially-enhanced past tense……

Fossil Aerosol Mining Project Anniversary - Moog

Celebrating 25 years of obscure recordings of very damaged things, here is a preview from  an upcoming Fossil Aerosol Mining Project release. Its actually older than 25 years – recorded with a Moog Prodigy back in 1983, four years before the naming of the band. Listen for the Zombi 2 relics, found at the abandoned drive-in. Click on the Moog to listen.

Enjoy, and please visit iTunes for more songs about the decay of us.

New Fossil Aerosol Mining Project CD

We are pleased to announce the release of the new Fossil Aerosol Mining Project album, Decades of Fake Resurrection. Celebrating 25 long years of making obscure electronica, this is a retrospective survey of material dating from 1986 - 2011. Dead places re-imagined, and contaminated things reactivated.

The Project began producing audio recordings during the mid-1980s, using literal “found sounds” such as fragments of open reel 1/4” tape and 35mm film recovered from burnt out warehouses and abandoned drive-in theaters. The earliest compositions involved physical tape loops and analog signal processes, which were gradually replaced by digital delay treatments and multi-track manipulation. All of Fossil Aerosol’s work is fashioned from multiple layers of audio artifacts, which are both naturally and artificially decomposed.

The new compilation is composed of unreleased or substantially remixed tracks. Included here are two tracks from the If You Enjoyed the Dawn of the Dead sessions – one remixed and one unreleased. Also an unreleased track composed for the 30^th anniversary of the Three Mile Island incident (Shango Over the Island) and for fans of Zoviet France, the tribute track Smuggled Through Zoviet France.

Find the new album on iTunes or Amazon.

And find a freebie not included on the new album here:

http://www.fossilaerosol.com/ArchaicSoundtrackRedux.mp3