Kuhl Goyim Chien

Art is not the recreation of what is exterior rather the expression and clarification of what is one=s interior emotions, thoughts and sub-conscious. Music should not be a tool for pleasure or a pastiche of worldly things rather it should explore the fundaments of one=s soul. Each note should not belong to the world but to the soul. The musicians do not spring from the minds of the individuals but instead the brain should remain passive while the soul is explored. The in explicable elements of a human transformed into music. The sub-conscious impulses taking over the body and rendering the human as a passive character, a mere halfway house between the beauty of inner sounds and the reality of these desires being turned into music.

Kuhl Goyim Chien have been described as the ideal martyrs of themselves in total submission of the music. Although a Kuhl Goyim Chien recording is rare the main core of the band; Gordon Sweeney and Chris Lowe, often joined by Adam Kirkman, have made it clear that their submission to the inner impulses of their soul is not just something that can be turned on and off but is instead a constant and infinite state of being. A recorder is not necessary for this process to be taking place and even when they do not have instruments to hand the music is still happening. Each footstep they take, each word they mutter, each breath they take is a direct correspondence to the impulses exorcising themselves. To watch the members is a fascinating experience, they do not show emotion apart from as a musical tool and help use this to express their state. Instead of acting as human beings tend to - an apathetic squalor influenced by external elements, trends, peers and society - they live in a kind of trance. Their very presence on this earth is a musical trend. Sweeney has spoken at great length about how this state of being is nothing elitist rather anyone is automatically a musician in the gesamkunstwerk of the world, the ability to translate what is within to what is produced is not a special talent it only takes the protagonist to live in submission to the sounds and impulses of their soul, desire and being.

Lowe does not restrict this translating power to music as he also corresponds the impulses into art, Kirkman dances to the sounds within - a fascination to watch as he jerks discordantly in time to what is within, and also what is exterior.

When the group do form together with instruments the resulting recordings are as spontaneous as one might expect. The music is based on improvisation but often the music is not restricted by the instruments that they possess. For example Mismoreklizapivatiovdje demonstrates this seeming random desire to produce these sounds without instruments being a hindrance. This particular piece, their latest actually recorded earlier this year, takes the form of a street improvisation where Sweeney and Lowe (Kirkman was behind the sound desk) started banging on some woodblocks shaped like frogs but this rhythm based instrument could not fulfil their hunger to express the very impulses that control them so they moved around stroking walls, beating metal and tapping hollow tubes lost in the polyphonic textures of their souls. Everything was an experiment to develop the sounds and give them a worldly voice.

The group originated in 1990. Sweeney had just recorded the first, and as it turned out last, Pacifist Riot album and was signed to the underground label #3.02. The label had been formed in the 1970's by Ree Piztonna to accompany the >second renaissance= in all arts fields. #3.02 was the musical sub-division of this movement and amongst acts signed were Ree Piztonna=s own project, Fragmenta Minimus Levo, musical performance artists, and the divisor of random harmony and counterpoint Johnny Weiz. However since 1980 it had tended to specialize in underground music such as Muzyka Zalobna and Giusto who worked alongside the survivors of the movement of the 1970's. The label turned to the extremist avant-garde of ambient music and coupled this with art and poetry. In the early 1980's a lot of success and acclaim was achieved with the multimedia nights and long running exhibitions the label put on but in 1983 #3.02 was struck with tragedy as Ree Piztonna and Fred Bedwell died in a car accident. The label remained relatively quiet apart from the odd performance or street improvisation until Sweeney was signed in 1990.

This marked a turnaround for the label and in 1991 Thom Rousseau, a performance and video artist from the movement was confirmed as the new controller of #3.02. Shortly after making the Pacifist Riot album Sweeney decided on a radical direction which resulted in the submissive state he is in. He lived like this until solidly with each day a musical meditation until meeting Chris Lowe.

Lowe had been a well known experimenter with sounds and had been with his project >Zderzenia-Scontri=. The band were never short from controversy and their hedonistic lifestyles and they exploded in a heat of controversy in late 1993. James Grassic, the bands sculpture and artist had a violent exchange with Lee Dean, the lead choreographer, resulting in the latter losing an eye and 4 digits off his left hand. This was the catalyst for the imminent break up and they disbanded just days before their largest ever tour was about to take place. Lowe vowed never to return to his old band and burnt all master copies of tapes, including the latest material which had just been recorded. Spectators have suggested that it was Lowe=s masterpiece but will now sadly never be heard.

He then laid low until meeting Sweeney in 1996 at an exhibition of the contemporary avant-garde photography of Annie Trewick. Sweeney was performing a series of short improvisations on a Calimba but halfway through the last improvisation of the night threw the instrument down and started screaming, dancing and assaulting members of the audience, he later explained that this was an attempt to exorcise the impulses he felt. A few days after the incident Lowe contacted him and the two got together.

The first recording was surprisingly prompt and only a month after the two met a half hour long improvisation was recorded using guitars and records. Along with the recording a press release was put out and also available on a specially created website which explained the philosophy they were following and also announced their complete submission to impulse. It has been criticised by many that they should record the music due to the fact that why keep certain impulses when others are forever happening. It is argued that they should follow a path more akin to Fragmenta Minimus Levo who refuse to have their music recorded but Lowe explained that >although the impulses are always happening sometimes it feels right to capture a snapshot of these onto record and the recorded music can be differentiated from the everyday impulses thus forming music which can be used by others as a channel to their own sub-conscious=. He is quick to point out that >as a Western culture we are caught up in the idea that music is used for entertainment and for show but music is universal and in other cultures it is not used just for the entertainment but is used on spiritual levels and becomes an integral part of society. The whole culture revolves around the possibilities of the music and it can capture people into a trance and can be used to induce all kinds of states. Our music is from within and is always happening but through that which is recorded people can use it on many levels and I would be sick to think that someone could abuse it by sitting down and listening for enjoyment. Music is so much more and it is always happening.=

Despite these views official recordings are rare and although spontaneous street improvisations are often performed and everything the members do is to emit the impulses and transform it into music - therefore their lives are a concert - established studio recordings are far and few between. In fact only two are in existence; Gestalt, the first recording, and the epic Meditations on Posterity, Culture and Composition. Bootlegs are available but only 2 (Live in Vienna and Mismoreklizapivatiovdje) are recognised by #3.02.

The later studio recording features Adam Kirkman. Kirkman has been playing with his project, Dismissed for 210 for the last 8 years but tension has been growing and Kirkman often explained the claustrophobia he found in pre-thoughtout music, he made it clear that he needed something new to express himself in. His virtuosic record playing in Dismissed For 210 brought him to Sweeney and Lowe=s attention and when he expressed a desire to explore something more than just music the founder members of Kuhl Goyim Chien arranged to meet him and started teaching the philosophies they were ruled by. Kirkman clicked with this instantly and immediately switched over to his sub-conscious and impulses of the soul. He started dancing to the sounds of nature and to the impulses in a freeform style he christened >Manicata Lacandium= (movement to resign oneself to one=s desires). 6 months after Kirkman was taught and had learnt he joined Kuhl goyim Chien for what was planned to be the most ambitious studio work to date. His record skills were noted during the recording of Meditations and he has fitted in well with the band. Despite this Kirkman declined the offer extended to him to pursue a full time career with the project deciding instead to draw on his creative talents with poetry and dancing. He called a years sabbatical for Dismissed after the other members refused to take music to another level with him and was given the honoury title of >Sycopoent= at #3.02. He also accepted a part-time membership of Kuhl Goyim Chien but it is unknown how often he will perform and record with them, although his silent contribution to the latest street recording was noted.

Kuhl Goyim Chien are one of the few remaining true pioneers of modern music. Having decided that external sources have been exploited to the limits they are constantly reinventing the ways which they can express the inner urges and impulses. Listening to Gestalt is completely different from listening to Mismoreklizapivatiovdje and this spirit of revolutionary recording and reinvention is not worldly.