Welcome adventurous listeners to the 18th episode of Anechoic Chamber. This will be the first in a two-part exposition of the work and thoughts of our guest Andrew McKenzie. Working since the 1970s, McKenzie is particularly known for his pioneering efforts to expand the vocabulary of recorded sound, which itself expanded into a mission to enhance all modalities of perception - this has been carried out with his flagship project The Hafler Trio as well as in collaboration with artists such as Clock DVA, The Anti Group, and Psychic TV.
Though certainly not the only arrow in his McKenzie’s quiver, his extensive performing and recording career has both informed, and been informed by, a host of other creative activities drawing upon knowledge from both techno-scientific and esoteric realms: working as a computer program before (as he reminds me) there were “pictures” on computer screens. Teaching Tibetan language and caligraphy (and some Sanskrit). Writing books, editing video, designing everything from graphics to instructional materials, and working as both a hypnotherapist and psychotherapist. One of his more recent and significant ventures, dubbed by him “complementary education,” fuses insights gleaned from all of these distinct experiences, and involves conducting 14-hour long sound workshops aimed at re-discovering the creative process in a world obsessed with nominalization (in other words, with the act of devaluing a process by conceptualizing it as a thing or object). After fruitful residencies in the Netherlands, Sweden, Iceland and elsewhere, McKenzie now resides in Estonia, from which he joined our host for the following conversation.
This comes with the disclaimer that, despite capturing several hours worth of useful material for these next couple episodes, we still emerge with little more than a snapshot of a legitimately eclectic and evolving personality.
Additional audio segues provided by Thomas Bey William Bailey
intro music: Pierre Bastien, "Caravan" and "Au Prado" from Meccanium
Artist link: linktr.ee/simply_superior
Anechoic Chamber links
Host: www.thomasbeywilliambailey.net
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Anechoic Chamber episode 18