Jeremy Blake’s series of ’scripted drawings’ has been accompanied by this soundtrack by British electronic musician Neil Landstrumm and Mike Fellows (formerly of groups The Royal Trux and The Silver Jews). The two musicians combined Blake’s lyrics, Bebop samples, bootlegged celebrity interviews and heavy beats to create “the perfect audio compliment to the script”.
Synopsis: New York artist Jeremy Blake’s latest ’script’ (series of scripted drawings) ‘The Forty Million Dollar Beatnik’ stars a fictitious beatnik poet turned Hollywood power-hitter who, in the process of writing the text for an upcoming autobiographical book-tape, begins to revisit his past. Accompanied by this unnamed protagonist’s alternately self loathing and self aggrandizing narration (a la Robert Evans) the superiority of American pop culture over the literary tradition in which he is embroiled, and his subsequent overnight success. The modernist fortress (called “Falling Everything”), the poolside orgies, and the painful social entanglements which serve as rewards for his success are documented here as well. As the protagonist occasionally hallucinates, Blake’s drawings follow suit: architecture that should be solid melts away, and a pair of wind-up Mick jagger lips begin to reveal disquieting truths. This project expands on Blake’s long running interest in exploring the potential for psychological specificity in unfinished narrative, and in expanding the boundaries of 2 dimensional artworks by introducing issues of duration and suspense. Jeremy Blake has added dimension to ‘The 40 Million $ Beatnik’ by collaborating with British electronic musician Neil Landstrumm on a soundtrack album. Landstrumm’s own heavy, mechanized beats and hallucinatory atmospherics, are expertly mixed with Blake’s lyrics-as well as samples derived from be-bop and bootlegged celebrity interviews-to establish the perfect audio compliment to the script. Musician Mike Fellows formerly of The Royal Trux, and The Silver Jews, joins Landstrumm on this limited edition Scandinavia Records release.
Jeremy Blake has added dimension to his ’script’ (series of scripted drawings) ‘The Fourty Million Dollar Beatnik’ by collaborating with British electronic musician Neil Landstrumm on a soundtrack album. Landstrumm’s own heavy, mechanized beats and hallucinatory atmospherics, are expertly mixed with Blake’s lyrics-as well as samples derived from be-bop and bootlegged celebrity interviews-to establish the perfect audio compliment to the script. Musician Mike Fellows formerly of The Royal Trux, and The Silver Jews, joins Landstrumm on this limited edition LP/CD
