I was very sad to learn this morning that German sound & installation artist Rolf Julius has died, just a few days short of his 72nd birthday. His work dealt with what he labeled 'small music': tiny sounds conjured up from unlikely sources, from tea cups to insects, otherwise unnoticed or discarded, are magnified, looped and layered, played through small speakers, and juxtaposed with colours and objects in minimalist settings. Poetry drawn from the humblest material. I always thought his work connects in many ways with that of Steve Roden, and he seems to agree. Julius' passing is a great loss to the contemporary art world.
I got to know his work with this album, 'Für einen kleinen See' (which translates to 'For a Small Lake'), back in 2003 when it was released on Because Tomorrow Comes, a small, now defunct label from Cologne (Köln). A second volume of archival work is due out any day now on Western Vinyl. A flexi 7" was just attached to the latest issue of The Wire.
320kbps.
Here.
Some sort of podcast of works by Rolf Julius can be listened to or downloaded here: http://lix.in/-9db6fe.
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