Sylvain Chauveau — “Far From Any Road” / “Ichi”
On Sunday 24 April 2014 Sylvain Chauveau will release a new two-track record on the label I Will Play This Song Once Again. As with every release on the label, Chauveau will re-record the pieces for each individual order, creating a unique one-off edition pressed to CD-R or 7″ vinyl; unlike previous releases, there will be no limit on the number of potential re-recordings. The label concept perhaps offers a nod to philosopher Walter Benjamin’s classic 1936 essay “The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, in which the author notes both the loss of psuedo-mystical ‘aura’ from an artwork as its image is replicated millions of times for a mass audience, and the particular social critique and revolutionary potential offered by art’s new aura-less circulation. Having interviewed Chauveau a little while ago, I’d guess that the label’s ‘one-off reproductions’ are less a way of trying to recover the lost aura of uniqueness, and more about the differences that emerge from repetition, pointing to a specificity and particularity that doesn’t require underwriting by a primordial and perhaps politically suspect oneness.
The pieces chosen by Chauveau for this release are “Far From Any Road”, a cover of the song by The Handsome Family which became famous this year as the opening of worldly acclaimed TV series “True Detective”, and “Ichi” is a new, short instrumental composition for glockenspiel, Hapi drum and ebow on guitar.
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http://iwillplaythissongonceagainrecords.com/
Photo credit: Jérémie Kerling