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Having been built on sand. With another base (basis) in fact (1978)

Lawrence Weiner

Lawrence Weiner

Ti­tle of the com­pi­la­ti­on/album: Having been built on sand. With another base (basis) in fact
Ti­tle: Song (Track 06)
Publisher: Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich
Da­te: 1978
Me­di­um: re­cord 30 cm
Cover: L.Weiner
Performers: L.Weiner, Tina Girouard, Richard Landry, Britta Le Va

 

The record Having Been Built On Sand With Another Base (Basis) In Fact. Auf Sand gebaut. Tatsächlich auf anderem Grund. is a collaboration between Lawrence Weiner and the US artist and musician Richard Landry, who was part of Philip Glass' ensemble. The record contains eight pieces featuring spoken voices underpinned by seemingly improvised flute music. Two speakers incessantly repeat a small repertoire of phrases and poems, including in particular the title of the album, "Having Been Built On Sand With Another Base (Basis) In Fact. Auf Sand gebaut. Tatsächlich auf anderem Grund." as well as the poem "Maikäfer flieg. Der Vater ist im Krieg. Mutter ist in Pommerland, Pommerland ist abgebrannt". Other pieces on the album function similarly but are each provided with different musical additions and are conceived with varying texts. The recited texts are folk poems and children's poetry of the war and post-war period of the Second World War and are continuously repeated in different volumes and intensities, overlapping each other, always in an unemotional, factual voice pitch that has no connection whatsoever with the content of the spoken text. The album title is the constant throughout the entire album and is repeated several times in its English and German versions in each piece.

The album was published in 1978 by the Munich gallery owner Rüdiger Schöttle, who had turned to conceptual art in the 1960s and showed and promoted conceptual artists such as On Kawara and Joseph Kosuth alongside Lawrence Weiner. In the same year, Weiner exhibited at the gallery together with Ed Ruscha, Douglas Huebler and On Kawara.

PS