At the Kansas City Art Institute, Ellen Fullman studied sculpture and started to become interested in the sonic qualities of metal, electronically manipulating acoustic sounds, and defining the reality of space via art. Along with this, she was particularly influenced by the Judson Dance Theater and the way they took banal, everyday actions and made it the foundation for their performances. Both of these eventually led to the The Long String Instrument, a large scale musical sculpture which consisted of long metallic wires anchored by a wooden resonator. You can check out the technical information of the sculpture here.
A performance of The Long String Instrument was recorded in 1985 during her residency at Het Apollohuis in Eindhoven, Netherlands. It was then released via their Apollo Records but hasn't been reissued since. Super Viaduct is changing that on October 23rd, and pre-orders for the LP are available now. The tracklist and an excerpt from the record can be heard below.
There are also a slew of other great releases that Superior Viaduct are releasing soon and I'd personally recommend snagging the Harry Pussy debut, Ilitch's 10 Suicides, and L. Voag's The Way Out. If you live near Oakland, I'd also suggest you check out their brick-and-mortar store. When I visited a couple months ago, they had some rare LPs like Friction's debut and Wolfgang Dauner's Output.
In other sound sculpture-related news, Important Records is releasing an 11 CD boxset containing the entirety of Harry Bertoia's Sonambient LPs. You can pre-order that here. If you're in Chicago, make sure to check out Olivia Block's Somnambient Pavilion sound installation in Millennium Park throughout the month of November.
The Long String Instrument:
1. Woven Processional
2. Langzaam
3. Swingen
4. Memory Of A Big Room (For Matthew)
5. Dripping Music
