The Living Archive

The early experiences of

Anna Homler ( artist, collaborator)

Robin O'Brien ( artist, collaborator)

Anna Homler

Robin O’Brien

Robin O'Brien improvisations with keyboardist David Mitros. This was the third of three tapes they did together.

i was surprised to find myself in the middle of trading tapes. i don't like alot of contact, and i'm not a great big fan of music, actually. but i love artists. i love the creative process. there was a brilliant home-taper named kevyn dymond who i liked immediately, whose musicruled my car. and we wrote to each other. i cared about the personal angle. john bartles:what an amazing poet. and FUNNY! our communication brought me a deep joy. and don campau. it was like he took up an excess of intelligence and sexual vitality and whipped it against the wall--and that was his art, that was the song. i'm fascinated with the waypersonality relates to art.
who was i to them? to myself i wasn't even a person yet. my only value would be thati was a pretty girl. i resented that. i wish i had cultivated relationships with women home- tapers. i think it would have helped me to understand myself as a musician.

http://www.doncampau.com/lw2007robinobrien.htm

I worked out of Radio Tokyo, a tiny recording studio in Venice, run by by Ethan James...but I was a car taper....meaning I would record myself while driving in my car chanting song fragments which I would later develop into "songs"
with Ethan or more ambient pieces with Steve Moshier. I have to find a list of who was on that series of High Performance Audio...
performance poets and performance artists like Linda Albertano, Jacki Apple, The Dark Bob, Michael Peppe (Spelling?) among others...from that time + - there was also an LP label, Atzlan records run by an incredible singer, Cecilia . When i can actually get to the mailbox I will send you the LP she put out featuring LA underground bands that I am on with a song that doesn't exist anywhere else.
It was thru Cecelia that I met tapers Messy and Amandaman in the Netherlands, who turned out to be friends of Alain and Nadine's.
Now Cecilia is dead and so is Ethan, though I"m pretty certain they are quite active in the after-life!

The early Breadwoman material was very, very primal. Cellular. Who did I trade tapes with? Isn't sad, except for Messy and Amandaman,
i can't remember! But Steve Moshier (of Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra) also on the High performance series...
turned me on to African Headcharge and A. Produce. It was a very exciting time sound and art wise. There were lots of cool series at that time. I have boxes and boxes of cassette tapes...will have to look thru them. Did you know Time-Based Arts in Amsterdam? That was an extensive sound art archive that moved to Arnhem. The man who looked after it once was Armenio Alberts... maybe he still

Above, the cover for "Apple" by Robin O'Brien. This was the first solo tape I had heard by her. I had already been familiar with her amazing vocal improvs on her duet tapes with David Mitros but her solo tape floored me with folk and pop power unlike few I've ever heard before or since.

"Roothead" by Robin O'Brien is a classic of small studio production and artistry. One song after another of unbelievable grace, unforgettable hooks and emotional intensity recorded in central New Jersey by Greg Frey ( now of Ween fame)

does...

This remarkable recording introduced me to the world of Anna Homler. Secret , unknown languages, textured by the wet cement of her collaborators created a masterpiece. I bought my copy originally at Gelbe Music in Berlin after my friend Harald Ziegler told me about her music.