Part I: old pair of highhat cymbals, plastic bowl filled with marbles, electric guitar, synthbass, synth, congas. Part 2: bass guitar, electric guitar, synth, tambourine, drumkit played by Brian Helmkamp. Samples from womens choral groups, Kitka and Gori Female Chorus.
I visited Adrian Symes in December 2011, and we explored altered landscapes in the Sunny Corner, Lithgow, Newnes, Portland area (NSW). Abandoned mine sites and an abandoned cement works. Decaying buildings in a state of transformation, returning to some kind of organic state as vegetation reclaims and brings in a new life. The individuals who lived and worked in these places made thier mark on a landscape, which still resonates some kind of collective energy.
I decided to use the words (via Youtube!) of H G Wells from his colossal work of futuristic doom : The Time Machine (1895). The story predicts humanities inevitable fate as mechanised war, overpopulation and human savagery reduce civilisation to a basic canibalistic state involving two human species. One placid -the Eloi, farmed above ground to feed the regressive trogladyte species – the Morlocks, who funnel them down to the call of an ominous airaid siren, into their subterranean abattoir, like drones in trance. This story has effected me greatly since I first came across it as a child.
See also