JARROD FOWLER
JARROD FOWLER
(CD, 22mins, 32pg booklet, product code: 5-060163-970010).
“ Jarrod Fowler’s ‘Percussion’ As Percussion is uncanny. On one level, it is utterly surprising, unanticipated
and unsettling. It takes the work of reading — the time, the pace, the modes of attention — in directions and to places it rarely goes. Yet for this very reason I found it strangely familiar, utterly attuned to one of the driving theses of the text, the intricately differentiated yet coherent rhythm of the percussive field. Here, reading and listening touch one another in ways that question our relations to both.”
— John Mowitt, Professor of English at the University of Minnesota
“ Situated halfway between squall of The Velvet Underground’s Sister Ray and the crash of the Twin Towers collapsing, Jarrod Fowler’s Percussion As Percussion upon first listening is nothing short of
ear-shattering; just when you thought the genre of noise had been pushed as far as it could, Fowler turns the volume up to 11. However, a closer listen reveals a subtle tonal symphony of dense textures and colors, weaving fragments of shattered guitar chords, spoken word, and pop-song choruses into an audio equivalent of a Pollock painting. The end result is nothing short of a body shock, yet oddly one is left with the feeling of serenity and contemplation: this is an indisputably beautiful piece of music. Taking his cue from Eastern philosophy, where music acts to liberate both body and mind, Jarrod
Fowler might be the La Monte Young of the iPod generation.”
— Kenneth Goldsmith, Founding Editor of UBUweb & Senior Editor of PENNsound
‘Percussion’ As Percussion is a sonic reading of John Mowitt’s book Percussion: Drumming, Beating, Striking, and an attempt to grasp how rhythm makes sense in music and society. Fowler charts the encounter between theory and practice implied in Mowitt’s book to produce a critique of the ontological delimitation of percussive theory and it’s social consequences for ‘drumming’.
This CD, co-produced with Nick Thurston, features a foreword by musician James ‘JLIAT’ Whitehead, an introductory essay by poet Bruce Andrews, an appearance by vocalist Liz Tonne, and an afterword with Mowitt himself.
Jarrod Fowler is an artist living and working in New England, USA. He is also the author of Translation as Rhythm (2006) published by Errant Bodies Press.
