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WENT, JOHANNA - The Club Years

Format: DVD + CD Label & Cat.Number: Soleilmoon Recordings SOL 006DVD Release Year: 2007 Note: 80 minutes live performance footage (1977-1987) from this early west-coast industrial artist plus all of her studio-recordings! Price (incl. 19% VAT): €16.00 Warning: Currently we do not have this album in stock! More Info Acht extreme Performance-Mitschnitte / Filme von JOHANNA WENT (bekannt vom 'Industrial Culture Handbook' von RE/SEARCH) aus einem Zeitraum von 10 Jahren (1977-1987), die v.a. im kalifornischen Raum auch in der Experimental- und Industrial-Szene aktiv war und sich mit ihren bizarren, dadaistischen & wilden theatralischen Performances einen Namen machte; die DVD zeigt ihre ekstatisch-schamanistischen Grenzüberschreitungen mit grellen Vocals und manchmal meterhohen Verkleidungen und Bühnenaufbauten, mit meist rhythmisch-elektronoisigen oder Improkrach als musikalischem Background, zum Teil unglaublich bizarr, eine Art post-modernes "Theater der Grausamkeit! Dazu gibt es diverses musikalisches Bonusmaterial in Form auf einer extra-CD, Fotos, Kommentare, etc.. alles sehr professionell präsentiert und aufbereitet. "Johanna Went is a pioneering performance artist who began performing as part of a street theater troupe that traveled America and Europe in the 1970’s. Following her years on the road she settled in LA in the late 70’s and began transforming her street theater performances into what would become her signature style. Using found props and hand-sewn costumes she developed a wild stage act that included live musical backing from legendary performers such fas Z’ev and KK Barret of the Screamers. In 1979 she began working with the Wheaton brothers (Brock on drums and Mark on syntheziers) who arrived in LA that year from Seattle with their band Chinas Comidas. To this day Mark continues to work with Johanna as her musical director. Their next collaboration will be a series of performances at LA’s Track 16 Gallery in May 2007. Combining a wild, chaotic performing style packed with visual excitement, gallons of blood, streams of multicolored liquids, giant bloody tampons, enormous sewn fabric sculptures, wacky scary costumes and enough Styrofoam and found film stock to fill a room, Johanna packed the clubs in LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix and New York. For more than ten years she was known as an innovative performance artist, particularly for the visual richness of her on-stage characters. She was equally renowned for her use of live improvised music that crossed over from jazzy rock grooves and jungle beats to electronic soundscapes and industrial noise. And always, above all the wild, driving music: Johanna’s completely stream of conscience vocals. The DVD's main attraction is its 80 minutes of live performance footage shot on video tape at clubs and galleries in the Los Angeles area from 1977 through 1987. The eight performances range from an early and very raw solo performance by Johanna Went at a small store front club to a pair of performances video taped by Academy Award winning avant garde film director Shirley Clarke. Bonus material includes entertaining and informative audio commentary for each track, recorded by Johanna Went and Mark Wheaton, a slide show of classic live performance photos, and a page of web links accessible when the DVD is played in a computer. The recordings on the bonus CD reveal a wacky sense of New Wave insanity that reminds us of the Residents if they were a punk band backing Ornette Coleman. It collects for the first time all of Johanna Went’s studio recordings written and produced by Johanna and her musical collaborator Mark Wheaton. This includes the complete Hyena LP, first released on Poshboy Records and now remixed and remastered, as well as the songs from their first 45rpm single originally released on Boyd Rice’s Graybeat label." [label description] "....Johanna Went use a wide range of disciplines for her performances, from collage to painting, from sewing to gluing, resulting in shows that involves sex, fluids, liquids, meat to create extreme shows of filth, repulsion and destruction. Trashiness in its most beautiful form! Set against a background of very loud noise and rhythm textures, Johanna Went's show is more a furiously energetic trance-state than the performance of rational being. The sonic background of the performances is created by two of early industrial scenes strongest artists, Z'ev and Mark Wheaton, composing sound sculptures of noise and rhythmic complexity. Musical climax comes with the third chapter "New Wave Theater". Being the harshest contribution on the DVD the track is built on buzzing drones and screeching noises. The abrasive expression are assisted by some cool drum-patterns works of Brock Wheaton (brother of Mark Wheaton), impressively following the genuine performing sickness of Johanna Went. On the performing side the video peaks with the second chapter "The Box". Combinations of wild animal video recordings and the physical performances by Johanna Went make the artist seem like part of the intuitive and instinctive wild animal life. Absolutely amazing treatments of performances and manipulated videoclips. As top of the icing comes a bonus CD including the Hyena LP as well as tracks from their first 7"-vinyl, "Slave beyond the grave". For people, wanting to know more about the earliest stages of industrial culture this DVD-pack is a gem. Also for people seeking the extreme territories of art expression, sonically as well as visually, this video is a must-have. The highest praise for Soleilmoon Recordings for bringing these visually and sonically works of art back into daylight! For further readings about Johanna Went and her art collaborations with Z'ev and Mark Wheaton, check out the book "Industrial Culture Handbook" released by RE/Search Publications back in 1983; Another informative milestone in the history of early Industrial Music culture." [NM / Vital Weekly] www.soleilmoon.com