A lifetime of flipping. Records, books, ephemera, where did all start? I begged my mother to take me to the (at that time minuscule) Hamden public library. A cramped building from the 50s next to the police station had their shelves. I was amazed to be able to procure a 1000pg coffee table book on King Tut by just handing over my tattered library card. Did I read them? Sadly , no, but I did start a life of flipping. The person on the other end of the card pass was a family friend named Lou(ise) Brundage. Immortalized by this branch in the bank section of town, I was pleased to see that it was a building from the 50s next to a package store. The Hamden Library system is a great network of knowledge and interaction. Happy to see them host an experimental music series organized by a pair that go by the name Strategy of Lakes. The series supports “ a tacit network of experimental musicians working in New England, with a particular focus on New Haven and Hamden.” The May installment had Stella Silbert an “ improviser, curator, cook, disorganizer of sounds, and an organizer of multi- sensory gatherings in western Massachusetts.” Stella got moving with two turntables and some contact microphones. The platters were bare so that metal discs rotated at 33 and 1/3. Stella applied mallets and scrapers and even a wire brush to elicit a wide variety of sounds. One passage sounded like someone dragging a metal trash can down the hall while another sounded like a hubcap rolling down the street. The sounds were hypnotic and varied, I notice one of the Lakes guys marveling at her technique. The second piece incorporated fellow artist Nat Baldwin. Stella put on an oversized red hoodie, Nat had a red shirt on. They moved toward the audience with a small speaker wired to the board and a microphone. They slid them on the carpet while tapping the mic giving off a tribal beat. Stella put the mic and a large dried bean in the hoodie pouch and jumped around. Multi- sensory gathering indeed, this had a whiff of performance art. The final piece had Stella putting a record on the platter. She scraped and tapped with a dried plant and a knitting needle and a spring pilfered from a flashlight. About twenty sonic voyagers strapped in for the set. Listening to some pre show banter, I realize that many attendees are also sound artists. At the Q and A, I ask Stella what record did she use? A friend gave her some old rock records, Grand Funk Railroad, she replied. Looking around at this lot, I would pick no one for my softball team. Thankfully, we weren’t playing ball, we were experiencing sound in an old timey library….perfect.
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