SJ Fowler and Ben Morris at Liverpool Music Week
by Nathan Jones
An experimental, highly affecting experimental poetry and music performance for unsuspecting audience at Liverpool Music Week, commissioned by Mercy.
We asked SJ Fowler to produce a new performance, to accompany Jon Davis's new setting of Dustin Wong's seminal Infinite Love album, for guitar orchestra. In this collaborative show with Samizdat, we decided to produce two complementary works which explored 'trance', 'hypnosis' and the loop in relation to performance.
Steven asked his friend Ben Morris to collaborate with him on this project.
With language-based work, there is always a difficult hurdle to climb when we consider what is happening with something which tries to be 'abstract' and let the mind wander, while we use a concrete 'signifying' language. Steven changed the nature of this relationship by using an invented 'cod-yiddish' to perform his work. It's a really powerful peice, set of by Ben's finely balanced drone music.
SJ Fowler and Ben Morris - A Spy Vanderung Inem Vildness from Mercy on Vimeo.
Some information and discussion around this work here.