Wizard Apprentice, Freedom and Computer Folk
This is a translation of an article i did for Musique Journal mid '19.
Since the first minute, their invisibility take the whole space. Its confidence, taken in the freedom of never have a fear to fail, give to their voice and lyrics a certain genuinety. A sincereness put out by the lack of music, a lonely voice without effect, litteral, tonaly false but frankly perfect.
Wizard Apprentice, artist based in Oakland, is not at their first try with I am invisible released on Ratskin Records on october 13th 2018. That album, like their other albums are an exploration of a genre also seen on the releases under the label Practical Records where they also released stuff : a genre called Computer Folk, a minimalist music created with simple apps and beginner composer softwares. Low quality virtual instruments, digital sonic textures, mixed on Garage Band or other tools considered as non professionnal : Computer Folk is lofi and low-tech. Wizard Apprentice claims they are not a techno-head but are definitely curious of visual and sonic arts. In their - now deleted - Youtube Channel U.R.L.G.U.R.L., we can see them performing live in front of a green screen, chosing hypnotizing visual patterns which resonate with the low quality resolution of the songs. In a total autonomy, they destroy walls that the industry put by principle in the way to produce. No Logic Pro, no Pro Tools, no big studio to master, no recording team to make experimental clips.
But let's go back to the album. What's happening at the 50th second of the first song is maybe one the justest thing i heard about art and amateurism as a sung discourse and metadiscourse. In the constant flux of creativity of the internet, the amateurism is invisible. In this invisibility, the effort of perfection, the fear of shame, everything vanish because glory, acknowledgement by popularity and money are not link to the act of creativity but in the communication, network and luck. To free yourself from those from the industry's unbearable expectations is a political act of creativity and open a field of possibilities not that studied.
There is no fear of failure when there is nothing to gain. And in the musical act, we don't win or lose. Adam Neely said that in that video, except for a temporary shame, there is no consequences of not making it right in music. There is no death, no harm, when you fail a chord, a note, a song. We don't win, we don't lose, we just exist in a musical situation. Being freed of the pressure of being special, of being mediocre, it's maybe the answer to break musical stagnations, play with and mock the music, to go beyong the need of acknowledgement and glory, to break the molds and accept the musical act for what it is and not what it's worth.
That album makes me cry, always, in every dimensions. Every listening makes me vabrate. And if the Ratskin Records release or the mp3 files are still powerful, listening the audio tape of the album from tired speakers offer some heat to their voice and virtual instruments.
On May 10 '19, Dig A Pit is released. Testimony of an abusive relationship, computer folk to the core, powerful, it shows that the choice of technological deceleration can be the answer.
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