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Tracking The Odds: Lary 7 and Tony Conrad (Audio)

May 24, 2021
Produced by Roulette Intermedium.

Concert recordings from two innovators in sound and media art: analog alchemist Lary 7 and filmmaker/drone music pioneer Tony Conrad, who supported each other’s work on and off the stage for decades. Lary 7’s work employs archaic and obsolete electronics and mechanics such as tube oscillators, spinning speakers, cannibalized turntables, and amplified gadgetry, often with light or projection effects, and embraces the struggles and failures of the gear for their surprising sounds and gestures. Tony Conrad’s work influenced the course of filmmaking and minimalist music with his “structural” flicker films and development of drone instruments and alternate tuning systems. In this program we hear Lary 7 in solo performances, the soundtrack from his hallucinatory Owl Movie, and in a duo with Tony Conrad on violin. Plus Conrad in a duo featuring his Long String Instrument with vocalist Jennifer Walshe, all recorded in concert at Roulette between 2003-2020. Image: from the documentary film on Lary 7, Not Junk Yet, by Danielle de Picciotto.