21 dicembre 2014

Mai a proprio agio in nessun formato, fin dal suo primo apparire - LP nel 1977, poi via via cd, cd-rom, concerto, performance multimediale... - né mai compiutamente risolto in alcuno di essi, Kew.Rhone. tenta la carta della pagina scritta, illustrata, letta, riletta e commentata (e ovviamente immaginata, osservata, ricordata...): se ne fa carico dal Devon (Regno Unito), egregiamente, UniformbooksPeter Blegvad, che con John Greaves ne è l'autore, benedice l'iniziativa con undici ulteriori pensieri: http://www.uniformagazine.com/2014/10/peter-blegvad-eleven-thoughts-re-kew.html

First released in 1977, Kew. Rhone. is an album by a mismatched assortment of musicians performing intricate jazz- and pop-inflected songs with lyrics about unlikely subjects and unlikelier objects, lyrics which refer to diagrams or function as footnotes, or are based on anagrams and palindromes. Kew. Rhone. would never trouble the charts, it aspired to higher things, and yet, re-released in various formats over the decades, curiosity about this categorically elusive work has grown. Now its authors and some of its connoisseurs have broken silence to discuss the record and to reflect upon the times in which it and they themselves were forged. Peter Blegvad, Kew. Rhone.’s lyricist and illustrator, excavates each song in turn, uncovering themes and sources. In the second part of the book, a consortium of writers and artists respond to the album in various ways, illuminating without dispelling the mystery of a work designed to resist interpretation even as it invites it.


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