Have you had the experience of listening to a new record and thinking—I wish I knew the person who made this wondrous music.
Arthur Russell was born (on May 21, 1951) and raised in Oskaloosa, Iowa where he studied cello and piano, moved to San Francisco at 18 where he lived in a Buddhist commune and studied North Indian classical music at the Ali Akbar College of Music and Western composition part-time at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, accompanied Alan Ginsberg on cello while Ginsberg sang or read his poetry, moved to New York and enrolled in a formal degree program at the Manhattan School of Music, cross-registering in electronic music and linguistics classes at Columbia University, became music director of The Kitchen (1974-75), was a member of The Flying Hearts band, wrote and co-produced the first disco single released by Sire Records (1977), founded Sleeping Bag Records (1981), wrote and released Tower of Meaning (Chatham Square, 1983) in a limited pressing on Philip Glass’s private label, released his only solo album World of Echo in September 1986 while writing, recording, and performing voice-and-cello songs. He died of AIDS-related illnesses on April 4, 1992, at the age of 40.
“In outer space you can’t take your drums – you take your mind” Arthur Russell
Picture of Bunny Rabbit, released on Audika Records last week, features Russell on Vocals, Cello, Keyboards, Guitar, Harmonica, and Echoes and was culled from an apparently vast collection, thousands of tapes, of unheard music.
From the liner notes:
Picture of Bunny Rabbit’ features nine previously unreleased performances from this era compiled from completed masters culled from two unique test pressings, including one, dated 9/15/85 by Arthur, provided by his mother and sister. A further four tracks were discovered in his tape archive. The track listing includes an exceptional and dramatic solo recording of “In The Light of a Miracle” and the enigmatic title instrumental “Picture of Bunny Rabbit”, written especially for a friends pet rabbit. The bulk of the material was recorded with engineer Eric Liljestrand at Battery Sound Studios, New York, which was located directly opposite the World Trade Center and at Arthur’s apartment studio in the East Village.
We have Russell’s partner Tom Lee and Steve Knutson of Audika Records to thank for this, and other, magical Russell moments.
Lovelier music I’ve yet to hear.
