Category Archives: Musicians

Who is Anima Anonima? P.1

Interview by Jim Hoey

(courtesy of Anima Anonima)

Anima Anonima light up the stage as a trio, ideally, or when their drummer isn’t available, they go it as a duo. What results is a barrage of creeping sonic exploration, mixing an array of effects, noisemakers, live vocals, delay, samples and live drumming with drop beats and jungle tangled together, to form cinematic rock-disco soundscapes that might find you dancing or zoning off, perhaps simultaneously. Embedded in the neighborhood of South Williamsburg for years, they can mix anything into a noisy beat and bounce it out to a crowd live, electronica with real multi-instrumentalists at the helm. Here’s what Heidi and Gus had to say about Hope St. in Brooklyn, MIDI machines, electroclash, sleeping with spiders, and possibly-poisonous Catholic convents…

Can you talk about the beginnings of Anima Anonima?

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Soprano Saxophonist Steve Lacy Recalls the “Multifarious” Brion Gysin

An Interview by John Kruth

 

Brion Gysin was a Renaissance man in a century with a 15-second attention span. In a world where people are known for “doing one thing well,” Brion mastered a variety of disciplines which he employed to express himself at any given moment. Gysin was a painter, author, editor, musical anthropologist, inventor, philosopher, mystic and restaurateur. And to add insult to injury, he wore each of those hats with ease and remarkable panache. Surrealist ringleader André Breton, Beat novelist William S. Burroughs and Rolling Stone Brian Jones all recognized his brilliance, yet Brion’s work for some reason went virtually unnoticed by the public.

As an artist, Gysin painted otherworldly figures that danced around the canvas like cryptic Arabic and Japanese calligraphy. He was embraced and then quickly expelled (for vague reasons) by the Surrealists. In truth, Brion simply wasn’t the type to espouse the party platform, no matter how bizarre the doctrine. (Although he’s been associated with the Beats through his connection to Burroughs, Gysin would never claim to be one of that clubby bunch either.)

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