The Squid's Ear Magazine


Montgomery, Gen Ken: Endogeny (Tribe Tapes)

Sound and visual artist Gen Ken Montgomery released this album on cassette on the Directions Music label in 1990, here reissued in 2020; the two side-long pieces were performed live and then remixed, creating a fascinating and elaborate tapestry of tapes, concrete and mechanical sounds alongside instrumentation of percussion, violin, voice, &c.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Gen Ken Montgomery-amplified drum skin, brass pipes, violin, answering machine, synthesizer, electronics, violin, voice, field recordings


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Label: Tribe Tapes
Catalog ID: TT-21
Squidco Product Code: 28628

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2020
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at Gencave, in New York City, New York, 1989.



Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Originally issued in 1990 by Direction Music, 2020 reissue authorized by Gen Ken Montgomery. "



"I am not entirely sure, but I don't think I reviewed Endogeny when it first came out on Direction Music in 1990. Hearing the music I am not even sure I heard it, even when being in contact with the label at that time. I surely heard Gen Ken Montgomery's music by then and was always fascinated by that, his connection to Conrad Schnitzler and his Generator space in New York, which was a venue doubling as a shop (or vice versa) for weird music. The pieces here are for various instruments that were mixed.

'Gattertor' on the first side has "amplified drum skin, brass pipes, violin, answering machine and synthesizer" and which was played in concert and later mixed. It has all the markings on Gen Ken Montgomery, using mechanical sounds, tape-loops and synthesizer to provide a more ongoing mix of sounds, set against the more impromptu playing of the violin or voice treatments. The piece is divided into sections where one instrument is the dominant sounds, be it bell sounds in the beginning, scraping the violin, the machines and the synthesizer drone towards the end.

'Father Demo Swears' on the other side is a recording of "processed electronics, violin, voice with additional live recordings made outside the window of D. Myers during mix down" and is a more continuous action of scraping the violin in front of the open window while in the background various degrees of sound effects are applied, mostly delay. This is a form of direct music that shows the influence of Conrad Schnitzler, I think. This is unconventional music, certain brutality in playing the instruments and right at the moment, direct action. A nice revived document, hopefully, to be followed by more of that."Frans de Waard-Vital Weekly


Get additional information at Vital Weekly

Artist Biographies

"Ken Montgomery is a New York-based visual artist and "sound/composer" whose involvement in the cassette-culture and mail-art movements of the late seventies led to the creation, in 1989, of the first and arguably still the most important sound art gallery in New York City: Generator. Located first in the East Village and later in Chelsea, Generator's wide scope and novel approach toward audio art made it a vector-point for some of the most interesting and important artists from around the world. Ken was also the founder of A.T.M.O.T.W.- Art is Throwing Money Out The Window - and Generator Sound Art Inc., and he co-founded the seminal experimental labels Generations Unlimited and Pogus Productions. As a composer in the early eighties Ken was creating multi-channel sound works often performed in total darkness. More recently Ken has been focusing on visual art, collage, bookmaking, and international correspondence art. As The Minister of Lamination (a.k.a. Egnekn) he is the world's foremost practitioner of sonic Lamination Art. Montgomery has collaborated with a wide variety of artists including Conrad Schnitzler, Andrea Beeman, David Lee Myers (Arcane Device), Zoe Beloff, Michael Zodorozny, and Ishtvan Kantor (a.k.a. Monty Cantsin).

As a sound artist Ken Montgomery finds novel ways to work with sound. He has created an audio-only CD-ROM (Inner Eye / Outer Ear), a record label for experimental music (Generations Unlimited), the first sound art gallery in NYC (Generator), and a Ministry devoted to conducting one-on-one listening rituals (The Ministry of Lamination). Since 1985 he has been performing multi-channel sound concerts in intimate settings, often in total darkness. Montgomery began creating soundtracks for non-existent films in 1979 and distributed them on cassettes through what became known as the International Cassette Network. In composition and performance Montgomery has employed an ice crusher, an aquarium, a refrigerator, a hand massager and a laminator, to name a few.

In 2008 Montgomery was a visiting artist and taught Sound Art and New Media at the University of Cincinnati - College of DAAP. Montgomery has presented his sound work in Europe, Canada and the U.S. In New York his sound work has been heard at The Whitney Museum, P.S. 1, The Kitchen, White Columns, Rotunda Gallery, Issue Project Room, Pierogi 2000, Experimental Intermedia, P.S. 122, Roulette, Lotus Music & Dance, Gargoyle Mechanique, and The Pyramid Club. Montgomery was Artist in Residence at Harvestworks in 1992 and the Spritzenhaus in Hamburg in 1999. He received a Sound Art Fellowship from Media Alliance and The Jerome Foundation in 2000, and in 2003 he was awarded a NYFA Fellowship in Computer Arts.

Montgomery's music has been released on the finest labels in the world - De Fabriek, Esplendor Geometrico, Staalplaat, Banned Productions, Firework Editions, XI Records, GD Stereo, Pogus, Tellus, Touch, XV Parowek, Generations Unlimited and Generator Sound Art."

-Gen Ken Montgomery Website (https://www.genkenmontgomery.com/bio.shtml)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



SIDE A



1. Gattertor 31:32

SIDE B



1. Father Demo Swears 31:28

Related Categories of Interest:


Electro-Acoustic
Organized Sound and Sample Based Music
Field Recordings
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Improvised Music
Solo Artist Recordings
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
New in Experimental & Electronic Music

Cassettes
Electro-Acoustic
Organized Sound and Sample Based Music
Field Recordings
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Improvised Music
Solo Artist Recordings
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
New in Experimental & Electronic Music

Search for other titles on the label:
Tribe Tapes.


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