The Tale of Desertshore
Chapter One: The Recording
In 2007, avant-industrial legends Throbbing Gristle worked to record an album based on their interpretation of Nico’s album Desertshore. After having recorded three days of public sessions at London’s ICA, the band released the entirety of the sessions as a limited-edition 12 x CD-R box set, entitled The Desertshore Installation. Founding member Peter Christopherson continued work on the fully realized Desertshore up until his death in 2010. At that point, surviving members Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti worked to finish the record. Other founding member Genesis P-Orridge was not involved with Gristle at that time.
Chapter Two: AV Remembers Sleazy
Before Christopherson’s death, AV Festival had commissioned Christopherson to compose a work for the 2012 spring Equinox, to be staged at Durham Cathedral, where his father was University Vice-Chancellor from 1960–1979. After his death, it was instead decided that three “performance sketches” of the work would be presented by Christopherson’s original collaborators for the commission: artist Alex Rose, sound recordist Chris Watson, and vocalist Attila Csihar (sunn 0))), Burial Chamber Trio).
In addition to this performance, AV asked Carter and Tutti to perform a selection of live remixes from Desertshore, scheduled a screening of Philippe Garrel’s The Inner Scar (the film for which Desertshore was the soundtrack and inspiration) and Derek Jarman’s The Angelic Conversation, for which Coil created the soundtrack, and wrapped it all up in a bow and called the event Wishful Thinking: In Remembrance of Peter Christopherson.
Epilogue
The event will take place at the AV Festival in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, on Saturday March 17, 8 PM–12 AM, and will be the premiere performance of Desertshore. Grab tickets here.
• Throbbing Gristle: http://www.throbbing-gristle.com
