I Saw it All Happen From Beginning to End….
Life Everlasting, Amen
Firework Editions
Conceptual recordings are difficult to reconcile with. On a recording of this nature, the listener is forced to look beyond their immediate perception and into a whole new context. The sound itself is only part of the work, which is a stumbling block for many. With a conceptual sound work, the artists tries to impart upon the listener more than just a singular experience; they try to convey a deeper meaning. Conceptual artists abound in the visual art world, so this tradition had filtered into to the sound art community.
The complete name of the project is “I Saw it All Happen From Beginning to End and Sometimes I Still Can’t Believe What I Saw.” Life Everlasting, Amen was taken from a six-hour recording of a life support machine keeping a dying man alive. The album is a commentary on the sickness of the world, and our reliance on technology. In the author’s words: “This symbiotic relationship is a metaphor for the relationship between ‘nature’ (or organic life) and ‘science’ (or inorganic). When is the patient of nature or of science? At what point are we becoming less than human and more a part of the machine?”
Speaking personally the most significant aspect of this recording is the voyeuristic one. When listening to this CD, the listeners are privy to an intensely intimate, almost sacred event. What is recorded is literally a matter of life and death, with the listener paralyzed from action. Is this a reflection of the growing voyeurism of society? How we have been frozen from any action at all and are content merely to watch the world go by without participating? Is in all art, it’s a matter of interpretation. http://www.algonet.se/~tankred/fer.html
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