From The Archives #6 John Duncan.

 

I have spent the last few days compiling a playlist for the next MuhMur Radio Broadcast, I have decided to make it a 'touchcentric' programme featuring artists / projects that have been released by and appear on  Touch / Ash International and The Tapeworm labels. Also some non Touch artists but I consider them to be 'touchcentric'. 

John Duncan has had his sounds released by Touch over the years. I think their collaboration began in 1993 with the album 'Send'. So I dug out some of my John Duncan collection (v. small) and came across the Book/CD "John Duncan Works : 1975 - 2005" and was surprised to find it came out in 2006. Then, thinking about it I surprised myself to discover that 2006 was 18 years ago ... it only seems like yesterday. I guess this is a sign of growing old. 2006 and I played the Wave-Gothik Treffen Festival in Leipzig and Barden's Boudoir in London and those gigs don't feel like eighteen years ago. 

I think it was early 1980's and reading about the actions, performance art actions of John Duncan in ND Magazine that drew me to his work. Actions such as 'Scare' and 'Blind Date' I found utterly intriguing. Then Dan (of ND magazine) and another friend, Tim, started mailing me cassettes of his audio work. "Riot" and "Dark Market Broadcast" spring to mind. Dan also mailed a cassette of Paul McCarthy talking about his exploits with John which is hilarious as it is fascinating as it is unbroadcastable (which is a shame). Since these days I have always kept an eye and ear out for John's releases. I was fortunate enough to see John Duncan live at the 'Lowest Form Of Music' event that happened in London in 2010. 

The book features artwork by John Duncan as well as contributions from Leif Elggren, Paul McCarthy, C.M. Von Hausswolff and Brandon LaBelle amongst others. There's a comprehensive strip down of John's early performance work and releases with additional photographs and sketches. It is more than a beginners guide if you know what I mean? The CD that accompanies is audio work from 1980 to 2003. It is (mainly) an audio guide to John's work using shortwave radio and field recordings. It begins with the EP "Creed" released in 1980 on All Questions Music (AQM). The five tracks have been mixed as one 10 minute piece.  The LP "Riot" from 1984 that was also released on AQM, and a track from the compilation album 'A Fault In The Nothing' called "Trinity". This wa originally released by Touch ... which is why I dug out this CD/Book in the first place. The CD ends with two pieces released in 1998 and 2003 on the German Die Stadt label. Like the book contents, the CD is a great overview to the work of John Duncan. The publisher is Errant Bodies Press. They also published an excellent book featuring the works of Stefan Roigk  last year that came with two CDs. https://errantbodies.org for more information. I also recommend the John Duncan Early Works vinyl box sets that Vinyl On Demand released a few years back, but they are probably harder to come by. 

                                                                         'Scare' 

And, strangely enough there'll be no John Duncan on the radio programme ..... I'm planning on giving the work of John Duncan a more 'thorough overview in a later broadcast.