Arthur Russell: World Of Echo

Rough Trade LP 208 (Do LP) - € 45
Valuable, high-quality 2021 reissue of the seminal & radical, avantgarde masterpiece (remastered, revised w/ insert)

As I considered echo in various meanings, as acoustic reverberation or electronically as a single delay, it seemed that in it, concepts of time and space were expressed sonically, and the later case projected dynamically into a theoretical "world", with a more practical application: using currently available echo/delay guitar boxes to provide an independently generated world of time to move through, like a PA system that can process any input, introducing a concept of interchangeability of materials.
However, the idiomatic style i ended up using is not immediately reference-able, and use of any echo matrix, whether simple delay or layered computer devices, bears only incident reflection on the idiomatic sensibilities of listeners, apparently the ultimate focus of attention.
After listening to tapes of "World Of Echo" as well as foreign language singing. I've enjoyed the musical effect of words as sounds, but where the meaning is not totally withdrawn. As the intention is not determined by genre, nor meaning by dialect, thesholds of musical understanding can occupy any threshold defined within a style and musical structure, or outside of it. Breakthroughs can occur at any point in the chain.
When i have written songs, the functions of verse and chorus seem to be reversed for same unknown reason. It was my hope, through the various possibilities of a "World Of Echo" PA system, to redefine "songs" from the point of view of instrumental music, in the hopes of liquefying a raw material where concert music and popular song can criss cross.
Arthur Russell 1986

Tracklisting:

Tone Bone Kone

Soon-To-Be Innocent Fun / Let’s See

Answers Me

Being It

Place I Know / Kid Like You

She’s The Star / I Take This Time

Tree House

See-Through

Hiding Your Present From You

Wax The Van

All-Boy All-Girl

Lucky Cloud

Tower Of Meaning / Rabbit's Ear / Home Away From Home

Let’s Go Swimming

The Name Of The Next Song

Happy Ending

Canvas Home

Our Last Night Together