Grey Scale: Vinyl LP

Pre-Order Item. Release Date Subject to Change.
Label: Superior Viaduct
Release Date: 3rd March

I'll be honest, I don't know how to sell you this record on what I say here? It's an avant garde, experimental, minimalist, art, compositional record. It seems like it should be hard work but David Cunningham has produced for This Heat and had that mega-hit with The Flying Lizards cover of 'Money', he's an artist who can perfectly mix the abstract, the unorthodox and turn it pop, so it comes as no surprise his debut album is wildly experimental yet immensely listenable.

For those who dig: Cornelius Cardew, Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman as well as free improvisors Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, David Toop and Paul Burwell. Also his other acts The Flying Lizards and This Heat.

David Cunningham was born in Ireland in 1954. His work ranges from pop music to gallery installations including several collaborations with visual artists. His first significant commercial success came with The Flying Lizards' single "Money," an international hit in 1979. Originally released in 1976, Cunningham's first solo album Grey Scale has become a landmark statement of DIY minimalist composition – continuing in the vein of the wild explosion of arthouse experimentation from the early '70s. Cunningham, then a student at the Maidstone College of Art in Kent, drafted fellow student non-musicians and (using whatever instruments available) crafted an endlessly shifting sonic palette with an improvisor's keen sensitivity to space, texture and tone. As Cunningham states in the liner notes, his approach was to "pursue something (which may appear trivial or meaningless) so rigorously or relentlessly to the point that it reveals something new." Cunningham was influenced by live performances he was attending at the time by English composers Cornelius Cardew, Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman as well as free improvisors Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, David Toop and Paul Burwell. The inaugural release on Cunningham's own Piano label, Grey Scale was indeed "something new" in 1976. The artist quickly integrated his experimental sensibilities to produce art-rock pioneers This Heat, whose debut appeared on Piano in 1979. His popular success performing as The Flying Lizards (with two electro-punk albums on Virgin during the New Wave era) was presaged by this seminal work of fascinating sound collage and tonal freedom. First-time reissue.

Tracks

A1. Error System (BAGFGAB)
A2. Error System (C Pulse Solo Recording)
A3. Error System (C Pulse Group Recording)
A4. Error System (E Based Group Recording)
A5. Error System (EFGA)
B1. Ecuador
B2. Water Systemised
B3. Venezuela 1
B4. Guitar Systemised
B5. Venezuela 2
B6. Bolivia