Zibaldone III Of Cvx (12")
Zibaldone III Of Cvx (12")
Cat No: BH047
Media condition: NEW
Sleeve condition: NEW
CVX - Zibaldone III Of Cvx
A1. Protesta Humana
A2. Fleurs Pour Simone (Part 1)
A3. Every Tyrant In History
B1. Invectors
B2. Fleurs Pour Simone (Part 2)
B3. Exhibit 'A' Smartphone
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CVX - Zibaldone III Of Cvx
"Marx’s famous assertion that history would repeat itself first as tragedy, then as farce, seemed to come to its full predictive fruition in 2017. Perhaps––in the case of the Euro-Atlantic democratic project––as a result of our systems of governance becoming so comprehensively untethered from the ancient idea whose name they continue to use and abuse. The parasites of neoliberalism are killing the democratic host… Plutocracy is thriving…
In this third instalment of the Zibaldone series, Rupert Clervaux’s CVX alter-ego impulsively fills his audio notebook with musical settings for those ideas––namely sortition and anarchism––that present real alternatives to the dire political landscape of our time, and for the words of some who have made it their life’s work to challenge the foundations, assumptions and presumptions of the status quo. As with its predecessors, Zibaldone III draws freely from a wide span of performance and production techniques––tapping, for what it’s worth, creative roots before they can be grouped together into a stylistic formula.
Explosive percussions pay homage to the anarchists of Argentina; Malcolm Muggeridge syllogises the grim logic of government, power and tyranny into a mantra of dissent, driving a stream of electro-jazz drums and synths to its rapturous disintegration; a saturnine piano improvisation leads the way to clattering protest drums as David Graeber shrewdly inveighs against the absurd but sadly pervasive neoliberal illusion that creativity and ingenuity are dependent on economic incentives; then, as a dancefloor footnote, a withering Gore Vidal wryly warns against the strict conflation of artistic methods with political theories in a smartphone-produced rafter-shaker that echoes Joey Beltram’s Orbital-sampling classic…
Ultimately though, this record is a dedication to the work of one person, a musical wreath to be laid at the grave of the great thinker (and doer), Simone Weil––tragically so young in death, but thankfully so active in the brevity of her life. Here, as a looped fragment of another late-great ‘Simone’ reminds us that change is inevitable, unfolding piano and double-bass elaborations set the stage for Coline Cornélis to recite two key excerpts from Weil’s scathing and brilliant valedictory essay, ‘On the Abolition of All Political Parties’ (1943). Seventy five years later, the farcical horror of egregious corruption, misguided referenda and prevailing post-truths surely serves to strengthen the thrust of her prognosis and prescription––both of which are as sensible as they are radical."
Music by Rupert Clervaux
Artwork by Coline Cornélis
With thanks to James Marrs, John Coxon, Dan ‘EZ’ Lea and Max Henderson.