Kendra Steiner Editions (Bill Shute)

BRIAN RURYK

“Actual Size…degress again”

KSE #334 (CDR album)

full-sized CDR’s ($8.00 each, ppd. in US—outside US minimum order of TWO albums….first two albums are $20.00 postpaid, then $8 each postpaid after that )

payment via paypal to django5722(at)yahoo(dot)com

please provide a note with your order listing the items you’ve ordered and your mailing address….thanks!

It’s always a joy to invite someone whose work I admire to create an album or a poetry chapbook for KSE. Such is the case with Toronto’s BRIAN RURYK. I first heard his name back in the Factsheet Five/OP-era back in the 80’s. Artists working today in any discipline could learn a lot from the work done by the lo-fi DIY sound collagists of that period who issued their work on homemade cassettes with edgy cut-up xeroxed covers and who may have edited the release on their boom-box. A few years ago I had the privilege of seeing some of the 64-65 period Warhol films screened from 16mm copies from the Museum of Modern Art. The muddy sound, inattention to traditional focus and framing, and the square 16mm image truly grabbed the viewers and pulled us into the world of the film….those who did not want to be  pulled into that world walked out (Lisa Cameron saw one of them with me, and she was similarly blown away). What was most exciting for me was the insight that THIS CAN NEVER BE “CLEANED UP” AND RELEASED ON A BLU-RAY. The film and its technique are one–why would you WANT to separate them? Warhol guaranteed that those of us in the future would experience the film as he created it/documented it. Incorporating intentionally limited technology into one’s aesthetic is a fruitful area in the arts. Just ask Andy Milligan….or D.A. Levy…or Fred Cole…or Fossils….or yours truly!

BRIAN RURYK, for over 30 years, has carved out his own corner in the experimental music/sound-art world, with dozens of releases featuring his unique guitar work (his approach is as original as Jandek’s–it’s as if he approaches the instrument with no preconceptions whatsoever and strives to find out what it’s capable of, and he also takes full advantage of the percussive possibilities of the instrument, particularly when he’s playing an acoustic) and punk-influenced cut-up DIY art, often packaging the releases in found or throwaway materials. Thus, the packaging and the sound and the presentation and the overall aesthetic are one.

In 2015, Fossils did an album for KSE dedicated to Brian (and they have certainly continued in the vein Brian pioneered), and then they did another album WITH Brian. I got in touch with Brian directly when sending him copies of those albums, and I started investigating his rich back catalogue…fortunately, he agreed to record a new album for KSE, ACTUAL SIZE…degress again (do I need to put a “sic” after that? If you “get” Brian’s work, you’ll see I do not–he molds and re-creates language as he does sound).

This album length sound-collage is so rich and multi-textured and edgy and witty, sourced from a wide variety of audio flotsam and jetsam, mixed with Ruryk’s trademark guitar work (both acoustic and electric), I can’t help but play it again and again. And like all good assemblage or bricolage or whatever, the closer you look, the longer you listen, the deeper you go, the more you are amazed at the artistry there….and the more other approaches tend to seem stale and rote and limited.

David Payne of Fossils has followed Brian Ruryk’s work for some time and of course has been influenced too by Brian’s aesthetic (and worked with him on a collaborative album, FOSSILS WITH BRIAN RURYK)….and also HIS EXAMPLE. He doesn’t talk about it…he DOES IT. Here are some of David’s thoughts on Brian’s work:

I discovered Brian Ruryk shortly after moving to Hamilton in 2002. In fact I discovered a copy of his 1997 LP “Guitar Obstacle Course” in the 99-cent bin at a local record shop. It was the most insane beautiful guitar noise I had ever heard and I was hooked (or sunk). It has been a pleasure to work with Brian over the years and see him perform but as a fan of his releases I got ultimate rocks. Brian is a true inspiration, a unique artist which is so rare in the land of consumerism, hipsterism and phonies. He operates in a realm of cut-up chaos that is a cut-above without pretense or bullshit. He delivers his guitar-garbage worldview – however foolish – often downright hilarious – recycling himself in stereo thru broken speakers and a bouquet of ghetto-blasted flowers.

When so many artists turn to rare or expensive equipment, boutique pedals and fancy post-production to polish their final product, [Brian’s releases] are the raw deal. Not to say they were not edited with care but Ruryk works with material at hand, found in the street, broken and breaking down. If you like the sound of breaking down, get the real thing

you can buy Brian’s releases here:
https://www.discogs.com/label/764915-Eyeofth-Ephallus

Ladies and gentlemen, we are happy to offer you the newest creation from DIY bricolage master and guitar original BRIAN RURYK….Brian is such a welcome relief to the self-serious and pretentious approach so many take nowadays. Now having worked with him on an album from conception to completion, I can attest that everything about him is consistently spontaneous and DIY and full of absurdist humor. I loved the old days of DIY noise cassettes edited on a boom box. We could use MORE of that honesty and in-your-face straightforwardness today. That’s why I’m so excited about putting out his album, which you will love if the above descriptions appeal to you. And when the album is over, why not watch one of Jerry Warren’s “patchwork” films such as FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF or one of Godfrey Ho’s “ninja” films with a random assemblage of footage from various projects finished and unfinished….you’ll be a few steps closer to the world of Brian Ruryk’s work….and it’s a world I enjoy living in! Never a dull moment! In those films as in Brian’s music, the juxtapositions somehow “crack the egg” of normal everyday life and scramble our usual trusted coordinates. Thanks for that!

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This is the second of our new releases (not counting the compilation album) in the 2016 schedule. Ernesto Diaz-Infante’s “Tunnels” came out last week. In about 10 days to two weeks, we’ll issue the new album of a vintage Reverend Raymond Branch radio broadcast, and then we will take a break for the second half of May and come back with three more new albums in June, including ones from Alfred 23 Harth and Massimo Magee. Please stay tuned….and thanks for your support of KSE over the last ten years!

While ordering ACTUAL SIZE, why not also score some of our other albums and poetry chapbooks:

**********KSE WILL BE CLOSED DURING THE PERIOD 15 MAY- 1 JUNE 2016….You may order during that time, but it will not be shipped until 2 or 3 June….thanks for your understanding….

 full-sized CDR’s ($8.00 each, ppd. in US—outside US minimum order of TWO albums….first two albums are $20.00 postpaid, then $8 each postpaid after that )

KSE #333, Ernesto Diaz-Infante, “Tunnels”  solo 12-string “mantra strumming” guitar from this West Coast innovator

KSE #331, KSE 10th Anniversary compilation album with Alfred 23 Harth, Sarah Hennies, Derek Rogers, Massimo Magee, Vanessa Rossetto, Rambutan, Graham Lambkin, Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Brent Fariss, and Matt Krefting.

KSE #320, MIKE BARRETT & TOM CREAN, “Casual Luddites”

KSE #328, LISA CAMERON & NATHAN BOWLES, “Liquid Sunshine” percussion duo

KSE #327, BELLTONE SUICIDE (aka Mike Barrett), “Wave Table Erotica”

KSE #324, FOSSILS, “Modern Architecture”….cover art by Wyatt Doyle

KSE #326, MORE EAZE (aka Marcus M. Rubio), “Abandoning Finitude”….cover art by Bob Bruno

KSE #322,  WEREWHEELS (Sir Plastic Crimewave & Dawn Aquarius), “Live, Raw and Psycho In Japan”

KSE #318, ALFRED 23 HARTH & JOHN BELL, “Camellia”

KSE #316, MASSIMO MAGEE & DAVID W. STOCKARD, “Interrogatories”

KSE #314, BELLTONE SUICIDE, NON-CONFORMIST SESSIONS

KSE #310, MORE EAZE (Marcus M. Rubio), “Accidental Prizes”

KSE #296, THE GARMENT DISTRICT (featuring Jennifer Baron), “Luminous Toxin”

KSE #293, MORE EAZE (Marcus M. Rubio), “Stylistic Deautomatization” (reissued)

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NEWEST POETRY CHAPBOOKS:

($6 US ppd/$7 elsewhere ppd)

KSE #325 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Trickle-Down City Limits”

KSE #329 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Good To Do, Good To Have Done”

KSE #319 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Sculpture Garden In The Snow” Creel Pone Sound Study #11

KSE #317 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Inventing One’s Own Land”

KSE #306 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Manipulating Ambiguity”

KSE #302 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Satori In Lake Charles”

payment via paypal to    django5722(at)yahoo(dot)com

Please include a note with your paypal order including the items ordered AND your mailing address (which Paypal often fails to provide me)….thanks!

Also, in April, May, and June 2016, orders of 3 or more items will receive (if specifically requested, be sure to mention it in your note with Paypal order) a free private-release KSE album (our choice from about 10 different ones, and we keep track of who gets what, so you will be guaranteed to get a different one with each order…NO repeats!) of rare vintage public domain archival recordings, all of which are on albums in editions of under 20, and some under 15, which are not for sale anywhere….only as free gifts to friends of KSE. 

Questions? Write to  django5722 (at) yahoo (dot) com   . Thanks for your support!