Interview to Alan Courtis and David Grubbs.
I met Alan Courtis through his music several years ago when I was producing Latin Waves for Resonance FM. Then I discovered his work with Reynols, a band whose leader, the drummer Miguel Tomasin, created a completely new music world outside of the experimental music scene. Alan is from Argentina but he travels around the world improvising with different artists including the neurodiverse French band Les Harry’s, the Canadian classical trained composer Pauline Oliveros and the Japanese Seiichi Yamamoto from the noise/rock band The Boredoms. David Grubbs started playing with punk bands such as The Happy Cadavers and Squirrel Bait but I knew him through his work with Jim O’Rourke in Gastr Del Sol in the mid-nineties.
The interview was about their recent work, Braintrust of Fiends and Werewolves, released by Husky Pants Records (available at Bandcamp). The record is a kind of dream journey through Andean and Kentucky forests, mountains, lakes, and beautiful spots but also full of storms, lightning, werewolves howling at the moonlight and the noise of New York and Buenos Aires’s city chaos. During the interview, they looked like two musicians from totally different cultures meeting and understanding each other using just sounds and noises. They talked about the album concept, NYC and Buenos Aires music scenes, their work as improvisers and university teachers among other topics.
In June, Alan released, Sin Comentarios, an album with the acousquantics artist Romain Perrot (VOMIR), under the French label L’Eau des Fleurs. In March Reynols (Alan plus Miguel Tomasin and Roberto Conlazo) published, Peloto Cabras Mulusa Olve by Calar Music, available at Bandcamp and on 17th November, the record label Beat Generation will release the vinyl Minecxio Greatest No Hits with the collaboration of many musicians such as Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Pauline Oliveros, Damo Suzuki (Can), The Nihilist Spasm Band, Michael Snow, N U Unruh (Einstürzende Neubauten), Alan Licht, Pajarito Zaguri, Acid Mothers Temple, John Oswald among others.
Next year, David is playing in London at Café Oto on the 12th & 13th of January, and in Cambridge at The Blue Moon, on the 15th of January. Soon the record label ROOM 40 will release an album with Loren Mazzacane Connors both playing piano and guitar.
This interview was broadcast on Clear Spot, Resonance FM 104.4, on 30th October 2023. Please listen and enjoy it:
The video:
https://www.thewire.co.uk/video/watch-alan-courtis-david-grubbs-braintrust-of-fiends-and-werewolves
For more information about Braintrust of Fiends and Werewolves:
(bandcamp.com)https://huskypantsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/braintrust-of-fiends-and-werewolves
For David Grubbs:
https://www.dragcity.com/artists/david-grubbs
For Alan Courtis:
https://eaudesfleurs.bandcamp.com/album/sin-comentarios
REYNOLS : Minecxio Greatest No Hits – LP – BEAT GENERATION – Forced Exposure
Magik Circles 