William S. Burroughs : Break Through in Grey Room
https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/break-through-in-grey-room
Notes on Break through in grey room
The idea of making a disc with William S. Burroughs germinated after meeting the writer in Brussels in the beginning of the 80s – it would be a solely voice-based disc. Then there was a reading in Melkwek in Amsterdam – the night a glass door shattered to bits. in the dressing rooms, Burroughs and Grauerholz. the idea took form – ideally another form of reading and production needed to be created.
Burroughs and Giorno at the Plan K, this time – readings and concerts on different floors – the public circulates at will. a lot of energy and noise. in the small hours of the morning, passing rue de Manchester, dark and deserted, in an old Peugeot 304 – the wave of a hand.
The first piece we finally published is on the first volume of Myths Foundation – which is also Sub Rosa’s first reference. It’s a ten minute piece, with for the first time an electronic background conceived by Martin Olson – Burroughs’ text names the five stages for the destruction of a state.
After many exchanges and letters of clarification, Break through in grey room is released in summer 1986. it is no longer a question of simple readings, but of work on the Burroughs archives in Lawrence, Kansas. The research and selection was carried out by Bill Rich – under the supervision of Grauerholz who also wrote the introduction – a text tuned into the issues of the time. it has been re-edited in extenso.
The work is a re-composition of sound material recorded by William Burroughs himself. A work of sound experimentation – cuts in the recorded voice or any other sound source – explorations wholly contemporaneous with the literary cut up that emerged in Soft machine, Nova express and The ticket that exploded.
Thus it was that, in the beginning of the 60s, in some hotel room in London, Paris or New York, William Burroughs recorded his own voice on a tape recorder – cut up the tape – recomposed it at random – scraps of voice mixed with the shrillness of the short wave, with the news – the future issuing forth through the chinks.
Impossible today for a reader not to recognise the writer’s voice – the sonority of this voice – a sonority also present in the silence of every text by his hand. An extension of the domain of emergence – the notion of an explosion of styles also – the sound works themselves as they are presented here are a blasting of borders – like the idea of the silent canva (after the detonation of the gunshot) – the overtaking of the fetishized word – from the exploded painting to the cut tape.
We are now approaching the essence of the cut up. Almost all of this disc is the consequence. it starts with a piece of more than 13 minutes, recorded around 1965 with Ian Sommerville probably in New York and London – K-9 was in combat with the alien mind-screens, including various monologues, radio short waves, news captured on several levels of recording, music, probably tape doctoring.
A theoretical text follows this practicalapplication – with a tribute to its inventor Brion Gysin. the theory and examples of the literary cut up.
Silver smoke of dream is a pure marvel in itself -recorded with Ian Sommerville in the beginning of the 60s using the drop-in method – it’s a sound piece of great purity, of unsurpassable formal beauty – with its halted breathing, that suspension of phonemes – the whole thing produced with such summary means. undoubtedly a pinnacle of tape music.
There follows a tangle of Moroccan Jajouka panic music recorded by Burroughs himself (in January 1973), other examples of cut up such as Present time Exercise (on tape cassette, recorded in 1971), Working with the Popular Forces (recorded in London around 1965, including extracts of Dutch Schulz’s last words) and Sound Piece (produced in the early 60s by Ian Summerville using the inching technique), early routines such as Interview with mister Martin (extract from a reading at London’s ICA in February 1963) and Burroughs called the law (recorded in the mid-60s) – and finally Curse go back, an incantation where Burroughs sends back a spell on a background of distorted Jajouka music.
Lock them out and black the door
Bar them out for evermore
Lock is mine and door is mine
Three times three to make up nine
Curse go back – curse go back
Back with double pain and lack
Curse go back – curse go back…
Then there was august 2, 1997… At the reading of Burroughs’ Last Words – The Final Journals – his unaltered notebooks. one sees clearly, and for the first time no doubt, the un-reworked flow of Burroughs’ thought processes – in the jottings of his hand – and these jottings become like a taut thread between things happening at the time of the writing, returning memories, dreams, profound desires, fears and unarticulated pain… the technique of mind cut up. Annulling the notion of the single reading – fragmentation and dissipation – a continually renewed reconstruction.
Our thanks to James Grauerholz who has endeavoured all these years to maintain this expansion.
february 2001
notes sur Break Through in Grey Room
l’idée de faire un disque avec William Burroughs a germé après une rencontre avec l’écrivain au début des années quatre-vingt à Bruxelles – ce serait un disque basé uniquement de voix. puis, ce fut une lecture au Melkwek d’ Amsterdam – une porte de verre avait volé en éclats. dans les loges, Burroughs et Grauerholz. l’idée se précise – il faudrait idéalement créer une autre forme de lecture et de production.
Burroughs et Giorno au Plan K, cette fois – des lectures, des concerts sur différents étages – les gens qui vont et viennent. beaucoup d’énergie et de bruit. aux petites heures du matin, passant rue de Manchester, sombre et déserte, dans une vieille Peugeot 304 – un salut de la main.
la première pièce qui fut finalement éditée par nous se trouve sur le premier volume des Myths Foundation – qui est aussi la première référence de Sub Rosa. c’est un morceau de dix minutes avec pour la première fois un fond électronique conçu par Martin Olson – le texte de Burroughs nommait les cinq étapes pour la destruction d’un état.
après pas mal d’échanges et de lettres de mise au point, Break through in grey room paru en été 1986. il ne s’agissait plus alors de simples lectures mais d’un travail sur les archives Burroughs à Lawrence, Kansas. recherche et sélection furent menée par Bill Rich – supervisée par Grauerholz qui écrivit également le texte d’introduction – un texte en prise directe sur l’actualité de l’époque. celui-ci est réédité in extenso.
le corps du travail est une recomposition de la matière sonore enregistrée par William Burroughs lui-même. travail d’expérimentation sonore – coupure sur la voix enregistrée ou n’importe quelle source – explorations absolument contemporaines au cut up littéraire qui émergent dans soft machine, nova express et the ticket that exploded.
ainsi, au début des années 60, quelque part dans des chambres d’hôtel, à Londres, à Paris, à New York, William Burroughs enregistre sa propre voix sur un magnétophone – il découpe la bande magnétique – la recompose au hasard – grains de voix mêlés aux stridences des ondes courtes, aux actualités du temps – le future surgit dans l’interstice.
impossible aujourd’hui, pour un lecteur, de méconnaître la voix de l’écrivain – la sonorité de cette voix – aussi, celle-ci, se manifeste-t-elle dans le silence de tout texte issu de sa main. extension du domaine du surgissement – idée d’éclatement des genres, aussi – les travaux sonores en soi tels qu’il s’en présentent ici est un dynamitage de ces frontières – de même, l’idée du tableau silencieux (après la détonation d’une décharge de fusil) – dépassement du mot fétichisé – de la peinture éclatée à la bande magnétique coupée.
nous avançons maintenant vers l’essence du cut up. presque tout ce disque en découle. cela débute avec une pièce de plus de 13′ enregistrée vers 1965 avec Ian Sommerville probablement à New York et Londres – K-9 was in combat with the alien mind-screens, incluant différents monologues, ondes courtes de radio, infos captées sur plusieurs niveaux d’enregistrement, musiques, probablement, manipulation de bandes.
un texte théorique suit cette pratique – avec l’hommage à l’inventeur Brion Gysin. théorie et exemples de cut-up littéraire.
silver smoke of dream est une pure merveille en soi – enregistré avec Ian Sommerville au début des année 60′ using the drop-in methode – c’est une pièce sonore d’une très grande pureté, d’une beauté formelle insurpassable – avec ces coupures de respirations, cette suspension des phonèmes – le tout réalisée avec des moyens si sommaires. sûrement un sommet de la tape music.
suit un emmêlement de la musique panique de Joujouka enregistrée par Burroughs lui-même (en Janvier 1973), d’autres exemples de cup up comme Present time Exercice (sur cassette, enregistré en 1971), Working with the Popular Forces (enregistré à londres vers 1965 incluant des extraits de Dutch Schulz’last words) ou Sound Piece (produced early 60′ by Ian Summerville using the inching technique), des early routines comme Interview with mister Martin (extrait d’une lecture à l’ICA faite en février 1963) et Burroughs called the law (enregistré mid-60′) – Curse go back, enfin, incantation où Burrought retourne un envoûtement sur fond de Joujouka distorsionné.
Lock them out and black the door
Bar them out for evermore
Lock is mine and door is mine
Three times three to make up nine
Curse go back – curse go back
Back with double pain and lack
Curse go back – curse go back…
puis il y eu le 2 août 1997. à la lecture de l’ultime texte écrit – des cahiers d’écritures non retouchées. on perçoit clairement, et pour la première fois sans doute, le flux non retravaillé de la pensée de Burroughs – tel que sa main le trace – et ces traces deviennent comme un fil ténu entre les faits qui se passent à l’instant où l’on est, des souvenirs qui réapparaissent, des rêves, des désirs profonds, des craintes, des douleurs non tout à fait exprimées… la technique cup up de l’esprit. annuler le sens de la lecture unique – fragmentations et dissipation – une reconstruction sans cesse renouvelée.
en remerciement à James Grauerholz qui tente depuis toutes ces années de maintenir cette expansion.
february 2001
The conditions of the story by James Grauerholz.
During the 1960’s William Burroughs was in europe and England. The Vietnam War, the Cultural Revolution, hippies and the acid gospel, the U.S. in tumult, all these were dispatches to him. Living between Paris and London, his only excursions to America were in 1965, when he lived a year in New York at the Chelsea Hotel and 210 Centre Street, and revisited St. Louis and Palm Beach; and in 1968, when he covered the Democratic Convention in Chicago for Esquire in the company of Genet, Southern and Seaver. Burroughs had quit the States in 1953 exactly because he foresaw these police-state conditions.
But now the wild boys were in the streets, in London and Paris too, and Burroughs was inspired to hope that the world could really change. In the creative world-switchboard of the Beat Hotel, in various London hotels, in a house in the Arab Quarter of Tangier, he experimented with tape recordings, hoping to cut the pre-recorded time line of present time, and let the future leak through.
Many of these tapes are as much lan Sommerville’s work as Burroughs, or even more. lan’s technical background tribute to the early development of sound-and-light shows in London, and at one point, he worked in a studio furnished by Paul McCartney.
Ian was a sorcerer’s apprentice, and the other sorcerer was the late Brion Gysin. The development of all the early cut-up techniques was a pure collaboration between Gysin and Burroughs. lt was Brion who led the way on a crusade to rub out the word, and with Anthony Balch the cut-up was applied to film, in Towers Open Fire, The~Cut-Ups, and Ghosts at No. 9.
It is a long way back to the 1960’s, and sometimes hard to remember now the sense of urgency and revolution then of danger of discovery, that informed the literature of opposition. That there is now, in1986, a market for these archival materials now seminal, even though it has been little distributed until recent years. And with such current national obscenities as the Meese Commission Report on Pornography, the War on Drugs crusade, the PMRC hearings for censorship of record albums, the Supreme Court sodomy decision, and the yelps of the Christian far-right and the like, surely a new literature of opposition is in the making.
James Grauerholz, summer 1986