Congo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Zaire, Nigeria, Haiti, Cuba, noise, experimental, improvisation, avantgarde, vaudou, yoruba, Fela Kuti, Albert Ayler - and more to come
I think it's been obvious for a while now my fascination with the African (and Haitian for that matter), especially in terms of the music, language, and art - the inspiration has been utterly invaluable, and now my plan is to take this passion and endeavour much further with the pursuit of an open-ended genre that I've dubbed afro noise. Essentially to consist of obscure African percussion elements in free-form work-outs with almost any other type of (genuine) sound experimenting. Already in evidence in some of the latter-day Whitehouse tracks, I believe there are incredible and exciting possibilities here which will also serve to draw a firm line between - what seems to me at least, and I've said it before - the utterly staid, conservative, conformist, and oh-so-boring ageing 'noise' genre. Let's recapture the flame and the excitement.
We're going to soon begin putting out a series of albums of the best of these compositions beginning with Afro Noise I which will proudly feature the amazing art of Stefan Danielsson - so anyone who has any interest will be very welcome to get in touch or send us their own experiments; it's of no matter who you are, what you normally play (noise, jazz, classical, electronica, whatever), or what part of the world you're from; just that it comes from the heart and that it works, just that it hits the spot. Also, in the Edinburgh vicinity, if there are any percussionists, djembe players, or just eager pairs of demon hands, it would also be great to hear from you because we're going to be organising some regular sweaty work-out sessions.
William Bennett - Edinburgh, June 2007
