Act 2: Debrism

Anonymous

Summary

»ACT 2 | DEBRISM« is the first release on Martin Hossbach’s newly-founded sub-label Martin Hossbach Word which will release readings and audio plays only. Scott King recorded »ACT 2 | DEBRISM« using his dictaphone in one afternoon at home.

King writes:
»On the afternoon of February 28th, during the long, locked-down winter of 2020/21, I sat at my desk and looked through the files on my laptop. I have hundreds of incomplete ‘projects’, thousands of ‘emails to self’ - ‘new idea for a novel, ‘new idea for a public sculpture’, ‘new idea for an opera’, and so on. None of these ideas ever got made, because somewhere along the line, I had lost the ability to ‘just do’. What went wrong?

For as long as I have known it, I have always loved and believed in the famous Kippenberger maxim: ‘Heute denken, morgen fertig’ (‘Think today, be finished tomorrow’). Though my own maxim had become much closer to: ‘Heute denken, morgen denken. Und übermorgen auch’ (‘Think today, think tomorrow. And the next day’). I had become so reliant on the skills of others (‘makers’) – and worse – even more reliant on the opinions of others (‘gatekeepers’) that my output had dwindled to virtually nothing. This had to stop, so I set myself a challenge: RECORD A SPOKEN WORD ALBUM THIS AFTERNOON. I also set myself some rules: Must not be edited. Must be done at this desk (album cover included). Must not ask for any help. Must not worry about what anyone else thinks (they are wankers).

I bought a dozen cans of pale ale, found my dictaphone, sat at my desk and began. I had no idea what I was going to say, but whatever I did say would be ‘the album’.

By 6pm, I had finished, and I was elated – what I’d recorded might be shit, I didn’t care – because for the first time in many years, I had ‘just done’ something. ‘Heute denken, heute fertig’ (‘Think today, finish today’).

Duration: about 1 hour (00:53:48)
Publishing date: 2021-06-08; Unabridged; Copyright Year: 2021. Copyright Statment: —