henry andersen: stanzas or the law of the good neighbour

Henry Andersen is a Brussels-based visual artist and composer. Trained as a minimal and reductionist composer under the wings of Peter Ablinger, he moved from music into visual art, writing, and sound performances. His debut vinyl is a recording of the long-running piece "Stanzas" or "the Law of the Good Neighbour". On each side, a pair of his friends read simultaneously from a list of words. The list is an unfinished result of a word game Andersen has been playing for several years. Stanzas seems to be a precise text-sound composition, a liquid and elegant piece of concrete poetry that reveals the individual qualities of the voices and their interpersonal relation. But what sounds like a hardcore conceptual and idealist composition has a lot more to it. Being an heir to a playful and prosaic Cagean and Ashleyan tradition, the list of words is a score that acts as a field for an infinite amount of possibilities. Andersen documents some of these many possible outcomes, expressing an urge to be a human body in space, interrelated with others. The composer reveals on the record another face of conceptualism: as a material, personal and truly moving beauty. Text by Henry Andersen; Mastered by Christophe Albertijn; Recorded by David Stampfli; Printed by Gerard Herman and Henry Andersen; Design by rr-jw and Henry Andersen. Handmade sleeve; Includes download code; Edition of 300.