Category Archives: Audio Leter

Excellent experimental post – punk cassette from this American D.I.Y. band. In 1979, long before Seattle was known for Cobain and Cornell, vocalist/violinist Sharon Gannon and guitarist Sue Ann Harkey formed, as Gannon describes it, “a stream-of-consciousness experiment” which they dubbed Audio Letter. Although other musicians would drift in and out of their orbit, the duo remained a constant as their experimental nature allowed Gannon to incorporate her interests in alchemy, meditation, and Eastern philosophy into their work. Relocating to New York in 1983, Gannon and Harkey became fixtures in the downtown experimental and world music scene, finding fellow musicians such as John Zorn, Fred Firth and Ikue More to be kindred spirits. Audio Letter’s wholly improvised gigs in East Village venues like Life Café and 8BC attracted a growing number of fans including legendary jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, drummer Denis Charles, and artist/musician David Life. Collaborations with Cherry, Charles, and Life resulted in It Is This, It Is Not This, Audio Letter’s first album, released in 1987. The album garnered enthusiastic critical acclaim in the underground music world exemplified by future Rolling Stone critic Ann Powers who, then writing for The Rocket, described it as a “philosophical and musical stew different than any other aural communication in Seattle.” However, the world had not yet awakened from the Reagan years and Audio Letter disbanded in 1988. Gannon and Harkey simply waited for the times to catch up to them. You can download there first album and the split recording with Attrition and much more directly from Sue Ann Harkey. Invention: Romance Of Entropy was released as a cassette on CNLF, Calypso Now ! in 1982. Released in a transparent casing with Audio Leter painted on the front. The tape cover is a 24 page booklet with lyrics and foto’s. The Booklet is included in the zip file.

Tracks:

1. In The Bathroom
2. Civic Raga
3. Matter
4. They Can Read But They Can Not Write
5. We Are The Gods
6. I Want To Kiss
7. Angles/Angeles This Is The World
8. Already Read
9. Living In A Corner
10. Spirit Tus
11. A Situationists Chant
12. Deran Dream
13. Transendence
14. St Augustine
15. Spiritooso
16. No Longer Have To Explain Why
17. I Am Only Waiting

(Tracks 4 & 5 – 6 & 7 and 16 & 17 are recorded together)

“Download”

enjoy