SHELLEY HIRSCH "SINGING" (APOLLO, 1985-87)

I grew up in an apartment building in East New York, Brooklyn.
I remember my father coming home after a long day of manual labor, putting records on the turntable, and creating enchantment. I remember capturing a piece of a remembered song that we danced to, and singing it in the reverberant hallways. I was fascinated by how the sound transformed as I moved through different locations in the building and out onto the street, recycling narratives while collecting sonic and visual images along the way.
My work today, conjuring locations, landscapes, personas, finding language, streaming consciousness, forming stories—is an extension of these childhood investigations, which I channel through my compositions, improvised vocal performances, staged multimedia and site-specific pieces, narrative radio plays, and sound installations. The work reverberates in real and imagined places inside and outside of the body which is my recorder, and the storage house of memory.
(Shelley Hirsch)




Shelley Hirsch, voice, live electronics, Mercurius Wagon Instrument(A5)
David Simons, percussion, drums, prepared guitar, jew's harp, chinese zither (A2, B2, B3, B5)
Samm Bennett, drums, electronic drums, percussion (A4, B4, B6)



A1. HmmmHaaayHaaa     3:25
A2. Utanussa (For Uta)     4:20
A3. Caspian Diva     3:31
A4. Hand Ball     3:49
A5. In The Mercurius Wagon 6:10
B1. Rosenberg Sisters     2:04
B2. Crackerbrain     2:59
B3. Conference Call     2:58
B4. Oh Death! (Traditional)     4:04
B5. Occidental Dreams Of A Geisha     2:33
B6. Why Do You Go There?     3:21


A1, A3, B1, B2, B3, B5 recorded during an Artist-in-Residence grant at Studio P.A.S.S. in New York, early 1985.
A2 recorded live in concert at the Kunstverein in Stuttgart, West-Germany, December 1985.
A4, B6 recorded at The Institute for Audio Research, New York, July 1986.
A5 recorded at the Kammer Theatre in Stuttgart, October 1987 (Mercurius Wagon built by Horst Rickels, Holland).
B4 recorded live in concert at Het Apollohuis, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, January 1987.
Additional re-recording at Such A Sound Studio, Brooklyn, New York.


Apollo Records AR 118706 (Netherlands, 1987)
(vinyl rip)