I've been a little dismissive of the last couple of Unknown Public issues to feature on Music Arcades (1, 2), but, shucks, this is the last one — so far — so I feel like bidding them a fond farewell.
Will there ever be another issue of Unknown Public? Search me. As well as having a 'live' subscription of my own, I also bought a sub for D, which has only provided two of its four issues, so I feel I have a financial interest in the question. I have a letter dated March 2008 that speaks of an "eventual aim… to reinvent Unknown Public as a social media site for niche musics; moving from being a CD-book publisher to being a portal for creative music" and of a "membership scheme that will bring together music and listeners [!], helping you make the most of the best in contemporary creative music". "More details will follow in our next mailing."
I can find any email message sent to me in the last 15 years inside a couple of minutes, but such is the disarray of my physical filing systems that I can't say whether there has been a "next mailing". But the website still speaks of temporary hibernation, with no sign of the social media site for niche musics or the membership scheme, so it looks like the hiatus continues. The challenge is that the CD-book series was a distinctive offering; social media sites for niche anything are all around us and ten a penny.
The theme of this "Naked" issue is stripped-down music, and it's refreshing to be reminded that that doesn't have to mean either confessional, soul-bearing winsomeness or bombastic rockers parading their sensitive side. Avoiding ornamental and fussy arrangements doesn't have to be bundled up with a carefully constructed aesthetic of authenticity.
So what common aesthetic do these pieces for violin, double bass, saxophone, voice communicate? You're asking the wrong guy for those kind of insights, especially at ten to midnight. The editorial refers to music reinventing itself as a social practice, sound having allegedly become a solitary art. I don't know about that. A future age will ask of this one (if we leave any trace that they can discern) why we were so obsessed with this neverending reinvention, why we couldn't just do stuff well without having to meddle with it all the time. But this CD sounds well put together, and I like listening to it.
Details of this album at the Unknown Public site
Rate Your Music entry for this album
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