Bret H. Hart - "NC maverick outsider artist"

"I have worked with Bret by mail before, both as assistant engineer on two Hipbone albums, on Blind Pineapple Philip's "Bee Spit Architecture" and Kudzu's "Incest Is Bad." So I am used to the snail mail process. There is obviously an element of Zen imagination applied to the proceedings, i.e., one imagines the performance taking place in real time and tries to anticipate the curves. I don't think it's consistently an advantage to be in the same environment when collaborating. The newer technology has made this especially true. There are advantages and disadvantages to any and all creative situations. This process allows for an interesting "blind" reading. The results are less influenced by outside criteria and slightly more true on spontaneous improvisation. I sent him mostly early material culled from four-track tapes. A lot of it was somewhat abstract. Bret is not afraid of abstract material. So he was very able to add appropriate content. I also think he did a lovely job in choosing sounds to apply to what I had sent. The process was a bit more outré than most of my working procedures. However I have done previous experiments in found sound and audio sculpting, so there was a context that I could place the process within." - Steve Blake

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