Travels Over Feeling: Arthur Russell, A Life

Richard King

★★★★

Omnibus Press, £20

ISBN 9780571379668, 296 pages Labour of love biography elevated by archival visuals When it comes to documenting the life of the late genreshredding New York polymath, Tim Lawrence’s Hold On To Your Dreams: Arthur Russell And

The Downtown Music Scene, 1973-1992 set the definitive benchmark in 2009. Any new biography would be hardpressed to bring any new angle to the extraordinary story of the introverted genius who blew into New York’s vibrant downtown scene in 1973 from Oskaloosa, Iowa via the Californian

Buddhist commune where he’d befriended Allen Ginsberg.

Discovering Arthur’s bewitching genius working at Revolver Records in 1994, Richard King forensically examined the bulging Russell archive at New York’s Public Library, donning rubber gloves to go through the scribblings, manuscripts, personal letters and memorabilia that add visual evidence and often astonishing new perspectives on the workaholic composer, cellist, vocalist, disco maverick and producer who released one album in his lifetime (1986’s World Of Echo), along with dancefloor-friendly 12-inch singles that slaughtered the coolest clubs.

Starting with his birth certificate, King works through Arthur’s story from Iowa childhood through New York’s pre-gentrification melting pot to falling as an early victim of the late 80s AIDS epidemic, supported by interviews with family, friends, collaborators, life partner Tom Lee and eternal champion Geoff Travis, who supported Russell’s final years of fevered creativity. Kris Needs