Horde of Two's `abstract instrumental landscapes'
Radical politics meet experimental sounds
As heroes of the anti-fascist movement go, José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (18961936) is a big name.
Born in León, Spain, he co-founded an anarchist defence unit called Los Justicieros (the Avengers) long before the comic heroes existed. As a key player in the Spanish Civil War, he led a large force — later to be known as the Durruti Column — in defence of the democratically elected Republican government against the Fascist Nationalist forces of future dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco.
Facing the combined military might of Franco's forces as well as his allies Hitler, Mussolini and Salazar, the defence of democracy was a failure.
Durruti died in the Battle of Ciudad Universitaria in Madrid under suspicious circumstances in 1936.
Vancouver experimental rock duo Horde of Two opens its second album, I Knew I Was A Rebel Then, with Durruti: A Life in 8 Parts.
This nearly 23-minute-long suite sets the tone for the music that guitarist David Lester of Mecca Normal and solo experimental bassist Wendy Atkinson craft on the six-track collection of “abstract instrumental landscapes.”
Followup pieces include such inspirational titles as the driving No One Owned Anyone or grinding Courage and Fortitude. Think of this as ambient music for activists rather than Brian Eno's Music for Airports.
Lester, also an accomplished historic illustrator, designer and graphic novelist, contributed hundreds of pencil, pen and watercolour drawings done over the years to the six-minute-long animated video for Durruti: A Life in 8 Parts (parts 1 & 2).
The film has its debut at this weekend's Vancouver Comic Arts Festival.
An accompanying 42-page book published by Bamboo Dart Press to go with the album includes more illustrations and writings from both musicians. The book/CD package is sold via the publisher.
“Many of the drawings came from a graphic biography project I've been working on for a number of years about anarchist and revolutionary Emma Goldman, who did work around the Spanish Civil War,” said Lester.
“So I had those and brought out a bunch of new ones that just happened to work out perfectly with the subject of the music which was about Durruti. The album connects to the rise of fascism in the 1930s, which was everywhere and included parties such as the German-American Bund which had tens of thousands of members who wanted to see a version of the Third Reich in the U.S., to today's embrace of authoritarian figures and denial of democracy all over the world and, particularly, in the Republican party.”
Many of the musical ideas explored on the recording had their formation in previous years.
Call it an unfortunate case of kismet that Durruti: A Life in 8 Parts fit so well with contemporary political reality.
“Durruti was put together on Mayne Island during a period entirely on our own spent improvising around ideas,” said Atkinson.
“Others were expanded from pieces I had originally done as a solo work live, such as the field recording of the sounds of the Toronto subway we used in a completely different way on The Third Rail. Whenever David and I get together and improvise, I try to capture the moment to see if we can come up with something we like out of it.”
Moving between musical, visual and literary forms has always been a part of both artists' work.
Lester's long-running duo Mecca Normal, formed in 1984 with artist-writer Jean Smith, mixed spoken word and punk music with visual art to chart a course for what became the riot grrrl movement of the '90s.
Atkinson's avant-garde solo explorations into concepts such as composer Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening involve music, literature, visual art and other media in pursuit of a meditative state of higher consciousness.
Horde of Two backed poet Bud Osborn on his album Hundred Block Rock. The two are presently exploring ways to best present I Knew I Was A Rebel Then in a live setting, and see visuals as key to the experience.
“At the moment, the CD/ chapbook package is probably the best way to deliver the project,” said Atkinson.