04: G*PARK
SEISMOGRAMM
(SCHIMPFLUCH LP, 1990)

FACT: Who or what is G*Park?

DD: “G*Park is a guy in Switzerland named Marc Zeier who records sounds in caves and natural settings, and also quiet, unobtrusive noises from everyday life that are often gentle, soft and mysterious. He folds them into these freeform tape collages that have a very esoteric, beguiling quality – it’s not like French academic musique-concrete at all, it has a kind of dreamy, rural quality sometimes and at others a slightly perverse feeling. You feel like the music is shrinking you down to the level of microscopic events.”

Where does Seismogramm fit in the G*Park oeuvre? What’s special about it?

DD: “This was the first record by G*Park that I ever heard. I got it as a ‘thank you’ for donating money to KALX, the college radio station in Berkeley. Knowing nothing about it, I put it on and heard these sound collages made out of the sounds of agitated wires, the sound of a tree trunk twisting in the wind, the sound of a cat (named Buxy!) mewling softly. It was completely original and sui generis, a very rare and esoteric record, and kind of perfect. The other G*Park albums (Geopod and Yack Park) are also great, but this is my first love and a long favourite of mine.

“You feel like the music is shrinking you down to the level of microscopic events.”

Much of G*Park’s work seems to have been released on cassette. There seems to be a resurgence of underground cassette culture lately. Is the cassette a medium you feel any attachment to, or nostalgia for? What about vinyl?

DD: “We have a tape deck in our car and I love cassettes. The noise scene is awash with great tapes…some I have been rocking lately: Sixes, Dog Lady, Emeralds, Needlegun, Sick Llama, DJ Dogdick.”

MCS: “The hardcore practical side of me is very frustrated when I encounter these fondnesses for old media, but I try to listen and understand why people have these feelings. It’s true that it’s hard to love a compact disc  as an object…they just don’t seem to have any, um, soul, but technically, as a reproductive medium, they beat the crap out of cassettes and vinyl records, so the two parts of my personality are at war over this issue.”

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