(ER001 C40 Cassette Tape) Aleks Jurczyk - Brutal Britain Out Now

ER001
Aleks Jurczyk – Brutal Britain
C40 Cassette Tape

Side One: Brutal Britain (Movement One)
Side Two: Brutal Britain (Movement Two)

Sound Clips and Pre-Order
Shipping April 2013

The work ‘Brutal Britain’ was originally created as a soundtrack for a series of photographs that formed part of a piece on Brutalist Architecture by textiles designer, Emma Shannon. In keeping with the work it was created as an accompaniment to, the soundtrack was made using a field recording taken from a key example of Brutalist architecture in Glasgow, the Wyndford estate in Maryhill. This recording formed the basis for the soundtrack. It was then woven together with several live synthesised performances to form the completed piece.

The images that inspired the soundtrack were captured as part of research undertaken to creatively document examples of Modernist and Brutalist architecture around the UK. These estates are considered by many to be depressing, ugly carbuncles and many of them currently face the threat of demolition. At one time, they were full of hopefulness and represented a bright, new future for those who were lucky enough to move from slums and into these new examples of modern housing. As we lose many of these examples of this architecture, there are precious few documents to show that they ever existed. The soundtrack ‘Brutal Britain’ seeks to establish an audio response to this loss and create a memory of these brutal buildings, one that encapsulates all of our feelings towards this example of architecture, from oppression and claustrophobia to hopefulness and a new found appreciation for what these buildings can represent.

- Aleks Jurczyk

The piece was made using the following equipment:

Tascam DR-100 MKII
Rode NTG-2 condenser microphone with PG-2 pistol grip
Analogue Solutions Vostok semi-modular analogue synthesiser
Chimera BC6 analogue synthesiser
Doepfer Dark Energy analogue synthesiser
Waldorf Pulse analogue synthesiser
MOTU 828 mk2 audio interface
Apple Powerbook G4 running Logic Pro 7