As a 100% DIY artist I’ve thought long and hard about the best way to independently release and distribute my music in the 21st century. Reflecting on that often-repeated conversation on how people wish they could just hand their favourite artists money, I decided to do just that. From here on people who like what I do have a simple way to show their appreciation and support my efforts. For a $10+ donation per year you can access my back catalog and enjoy any new music I make as it’s created. By becoming a subscriber your support will help me continue as an independent working musician helping me; stage international tours, produce new recordings, create installations etc.
The genesis of this is partly due to my creative transition from Justice Yeldham to Granpa. Honestly, the difference between the two is subtle, in both I perform free-noise on shards of broken glass turned into crude musical instruments. The difference being; Yeldham was centered on ecstatic pure improvisation often resulting in maniacal performances, while Granpa is an attempt to rein in the instrument and take it in a more musical direction. My hope is the difference helps dispel some of the negative connotations my bloody forays as Yeldham have created, the blood for some overshadowing what I consider a truly unique musical output. However, it must be told live this transformation is far from complete, Yeldham being the Hyde to Granpa’s Jekyll, occasionally taking over my subconscious.
As part of this I have been making a concerted effort to rehearse, an activity I’ve rarely partaken in my first 20 so years or so of making music. I’ve always felt improvised music should be made in that moment of raw energy that’s produced between performer and their audience. This philosophy has led me to only make music on stage without any preparation beyond making and testing instruments and equipment. An approach that has resulted in some good shows some bad shows and some incredible shows where the power of the performer / audience feedback loop has driven me to perform ecstatic stream of consciousness pure improvisations.
The only problem with this technique is that I rarely remember how I produced this sound or that and can rarely repeat some techniques discovered in the fog of performance. So now as Granpa, I’m trying to find that mean point between true improvisation and being prepared enough to improve my musical output and in doing so hopefully eliminate those occasional bad shows. My new rehearsal regiment has resulting in some unforeseen consequences, non-live recordings, which up until now have been a rarity. Some of these recordings aren’t bad so I thought I should make them available, deciding the subscriber model as the best way to share this output in an equitable way with the people that truly give a shit.
As a noise artist I’ve never been as prolific as others so don’t worry I’m not about to start releasing everything I fart out, these new offerings will be carefully curated from the best moments these sessions produce and then made available to subscriber’s exclusively, along with any new live recordings that emerge and access to my back catalogue including all the Justice Yeldham, Peeled Hearts Paste, DJ Smallcock, Rice Corpse etc releases. Monthly newsletters will let subscribers know when new material is added along with giving details of any up and coming tours and exhibitions.
The first subscriber exclusive material is the recently sold out GAGU tape which was recorded during in a single collaborative session with Rully Shabara (Senyawa / Zoo, Indonesia) and Ramberto Agozolie (Zoo, Indonesia) in Yogyakarta way back in 2010. Heathen Harvest describes the tape as “a series of short convulsive improv jams that are like Ruins meets Melt Banana meets Naked City meets Justice Yeldham. Free-jazzy noise in bite-sized pieces, it displays everything great about Abela’s broken-glass mastery, proving once and for all that it’s way more than a crowd-pleasing schtick”
This should be worth the $10 cover charge alone but along with it you’ll be receiving at least 11 more offerings if not more over the next year. Additionally subscribers will be offered free entry into shows & exhibitions*, discounted physical product when released and carte blanche permission for credited creative common use of anything in my archive for non-commercial activities.
Lucas Abela
*dependent on agreements with individual promoters.
TO BECOME A SUBSCRIBER PLEASE VISIT
http://dualplover.com/
