For those who have been waiting: here it is . This will very likely be either a.) my final album recorded in the style I'm "known" for b.) my final album as a solo artist or c.) my final piece of public musical output, period. We will see what happens in the coming months and I'll make a determination at that point.
We do not live in "normal" times, and the grinding stress of daily work, compounded with an uninviting global future, is making it harder and harder for me to find the time to musically compose anything which I deem sufficiently unique and therefore deserving of a public hearing. Nor is massive inflation in the U.S. and larger, looming economic crisis a great set of prerequisites for "building an audience," which is of course the only reason I release anything rather than keep it localized to my hard drive. This material is, and has always been, intended as the key to unlock "deeper" discussions on phenomena and issues that mainstream culture does not even have the conceptual vocabulary to discuss.
Nevertheless, let's focus for now on the present, and discuss the work at hand. Hyperart Thomasson is an “art movement” conceptualized by Genpei Akasegawa, and based upon the aestheticization of “useless” man-made structures and landscapes. In Akasegawa’s estimation: “art is actually a utilitarian thing that serves a purpose...Hyperart, on the other hand, doesn’t even serve an artistic purpose. It serves none of the myriad purposes that a thing can serve in life.”
Thomasson was in fact the surname of an American baseball player brought to the Japanese major leagues as a ‘designated hitter’: while highly touted in the beginning, his subpar output eventually led to his being shipped back home after a single season, and his earning derisive nicknames like “the electric fan” for his propensity to swing at the air.
Parallels could of course be drawn between the failure of a baseball player’s career and the failure of architectural features to rise to any kind of utility: the more notable examples of “Thomasson” (alternately Tomason or トーマソン) include staircases leading up to solid
walls, so-called “pure tunnels” no greater in length than a single car on a passenger train, and other humorous forms that seem to have arisen of their own free will rather than as the result of any considered “urban planning”. Another interesting fact arose from Akasegawa’s
observation and cataloging of these “hyper-objects”: in spite of their uselessness, most or all of these seemed to be “beautifully preserved.”
I’ve taken the liberty of fusing my own given name with the name of this movement, as I feel that the study of - and paradoxical valuation of - uselessness has been one of the main planks of my creative program over the past two decades. “Uselessness” and the lack of public interest in things designated as such may become, in the present world, the key to much greater personal freedom, particularly as we see the pathologies that result from constant attention and digital monitoring of behavior. It will become more and more imperative to create without expectation of attention and certainly without deliberately courting the same.
NOTE: the intent was always to release this as on a so-called "physical" medium, but...this seems a bad idea in a time of hyperinflation. However; for that anyone who DOES purchase this in "digital" form, your contribution will go towards the pressing of a physical release and I *will* put your name down for a 'promo' copy of whatever eventually manifests. Thank you for your support!