Slowscan #49 now available from Sea Urchin:
Willem de Ridder – All Chemix Radio 2LP
Willem the Ridder (1939) is a prolific storyteller, cassette freak and Fluxus artist. George Maciunas made him chairman of Fluxus for Northern Europe and in this role he organised several concerts and Fluxfestivals. He cooperated with Nam June Paik and presented his Piano for all Senses in Amsterdam in his gallery Amstel 47. De Ridder was a co-founder of the Mood Engineering Society (MES) with Dick Raaijmakers, Louis Andriessen, Peter Schat, Ton Bruynèl, Rob Dubois, Jaap Spek and Misja Mengelberg. He also founded the European Mail Order House and Fluxshop and started the Society for Party Organizing (SPO) to introduce audience-generated theatre. Together with Wim T. Schippers he founded the Association for Scientific Research in New Methods of Recreation (Afsrinmor International) and they organised and participated in Fluxus events in different European countries. In the early 1970s De Ridder was on the board of the infamous European sex paper Suck together with William Levy, Heathcote Williams, Germaine Greer and Jim Haynes but moved to Hollywood after having concluded that the days of the printing press were over.
De Ridder produced the All Chemix Radio series transmitted by various radio stations in America, Canada and Australia. These narrative pieces were produced on the spot and include spoken word, field recordings and electronic sounds. Previously released on cassette in very limited editions, these pieces have now been released on vinyl by Slowscan for the first time. Eight radio plays have been mixed into four long pieces including collaborators such as Cora Emens, Stefan Weisser, Andrew McKenzie, Nick Nicole, Annie Sprinkle, Alvin Curran, Julia Romanov, William Levy & Hessel Veldman.