I.S.O. were in Seoul and were very very good. They played one show as a trio, a complete and utter triumph, and then mixed it with the locals one night, fun, and then a night of solos. I had a set with Sachiko M. and Ichiraku Yoshimitsu, and a set with Otomo Yoshihide and Hong Chul-ki, as well as a big eight-piece group. Hearing Otomo was very good for me; he has outrageous command of his table setup, and he listens and makes musical choices in very interesting ways. I can only say that he is a master musician. I was surprised to be so impressed since he plays so many types of music, something that I usually find to have a negative effect on one's free playing. There are pictures here.
Found out that collective jyrk, the label that put out the Portland Bike Ensemble's debut as well as the recent Bird magnum opus, is planning a 5-cd $uper Unity box. I don't know much more about that, though, but I expect the contents will be extremely varied, from a duo with chairs to a 13-piece big fuck, from an electro-acoustic trio live on the radio, to vocals and dancing in a parking lot. Jyrk, I think, is run by the D. Yellow Swans & E*Rock.
Going to New Zealand in early June. I'll play with Simon O'Rorke and others. Working on it.
Andrew Lafkas of Minneapolis is in Corea for a few more days. I guess I'll maybe meet up with him today, and try to play tomorrow with him somewhere. Might try to come up with a bass or cello for him to play, if not, he can play with my electronics. I'm listening to you have a great estate, general; we will soon divide it amongst us right now (Lafkas duos with Davu Seru). The last minute of track 5 is so a09djcml.s.s.dkuf.
Finished reading Don Quixote in a shit translation, but I really loved it.
Been listening to lots of Morton Feldman, some Keith Rowe-related stuff, and the city. Mostly the city, which seems to have turned the corner lately, and is producing some of the most beautiful music I've ever been fortunate enough to notice.
That there should be absolutely nothing at all is utterly impossible, the mind Can never Let it stretch its Conceptions ever so much bring itself to Conceive of a state of Perfect nothing, it puts the mind into mere Convulsion and Confusion to endeavor to think of such a state, and it Contradicts the very nature of the soul to think that it should be, and it is the Greatest Contradiction and the Aggregate of all Contradictions to say that there should nt be, tis true we Can't so Distinctly show the Contradiction by words because we Cannot talk about it without Speaking horrid Nonsense and Contradicting our selve at every word, and because nothing is that whereby we Distinctly show other particular Contradictions, but here we are Run up to Our first principle and have no other to explain the Nothingness or not being of nothing by, indeed we Can mean nothing else by nothing but a state of Absolute Contradiction, and if any man thinks he can think well enough how there should be nothing I'll Engage that what he means by nothing is as much something as any thing that Ever He thought of in his Life, and I believe that if he knew what nothing was it would be intuitively Evident to him that it Could not be. - Dan Reynolds
