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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.พ. 2025
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STRLP-027
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From the album “A propos d’un paysage” (1986)
Benjamin Lew: electronics
Steven Brown: clarinet, soprano sax
Vini Reilly: guitar
Engineered by Gilles Martin
Produced by Lew, Brown, Hollander & Martin
Written by Benjamin Lew, Steven Brown
“Benjamin Lew was an enlightened amateur, in the noble and almost Renaissance-like sense of the word: he dabbled with equal grace in photography, writing, visual arts ... and worked part-time as a cocktail mixer in a tropical bar which was one of the favourite watering holes of Brussels’ thriving artistic community of the early ‘80s. Tuxedomoon had just moved to Brussels, and Steven Brown was among the many musicians, designers & artists who patronized the bar. Benjamin had a secret passion: he wasn’t a musician, but had acquired a small analog computer, with which he had started creating these strange mysterious little pieces. Benjamin played them to Steven and asked him if he’d agree to record with him. Steven was taken with them and accepted. The Douzième Journée was largely created in the studio by both protagonists, with the help of Gilles Martin and myself, in the spring of ‘82. Listening to his albums (he went on to record four more with Crammed) is like embarking on a dream journey to the Sahara or the Far East. You’d think that some of the pieces feature non-European musicians or samples but: no... this is just Benjamin’s imagination, his synths, and his friends…”
Marc Hollander, Feb. 2019
Benjamin Lew's musical career started with the publication of a one-off fanzine called Fossile (subtitled ‘100.000 ans d’art et de culture, son influence sur la pensée et la litterature’). The newspaper included a flexi-disc featuring two recordings by a certain Benj Lew: the sound pieces were sampling news reports on the war in Vietnam, cut and paste techniques inspired by William S. Burroughs’ and Brion Gysin’s literary beat experiments.
Lew: ‘Fossile was a one-off project I did with my housemates, with whom I was making posters for gigs at Plan K (*) in Molenbeek back then. The newspaper was supposed to serve as some sort of portfolio for our graphic work. It was conceived as a fanzine, we printed 5000 copies, 2000 were at my place but I’ve lost them during one of the many times I moved apartments. The other 3000 were at the printing company, but they got burned in a huge fire. Apparently it was an attempt to shut the place down, presumably by right-wing activists/terrorists, because the company was printing “POUR”, an extreme left-wing publication which was investigating les ballets roses (pink ballets) and the Brabant killers, amongst other shocking events at the time. So most of the newspapers and the flexi-discs never reached anybody, but Marc Hollander of Crammed Discs got hold of a copy, and he proposed to make a record for him.’
Plan K, the cult Brussels concert hall in Molenbeek, where the underground scene thrived between 1979 and 1986, with groups like Joy Division, Alan Vega, the Slits playing legendary concerts.
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next level!
Thank you for this xlnt post!
Thankx for this Post ....Is it Steven Brown playing clarinet (well i guess..), if u r interested i have some very early stuff, that Steven has pass over to me ...20 Years ago....go...go & Thanks to Benjamin for his conception of 'What it sounds like, at the other side of the mirror' ....My dream ..an encounter between Benjamin & Brian Eno ....It s a colored dream....THNKX