Drummond was animated and funny when he took the podium at ctm.09. He spoke for half an hour or so on the background of his new project The 17, at times retracing the first chapter of the book almost word for word, and at one point, reading from it directly. 

The first question from journalist Martin Conrads about J.G. Ballard’s short story The Sound-Sweep put Drummond immediatly on the defensive (”I don’ know it”), where he stayed for the next half an hour deftly deflecting all questions with charm if not aplomb. Despite a last minute schedule change the room was packed. Interesting points raised when the floor was opened for questions included the difference between a recording and a novel, (paperbacks are ‘unbreakable’ said Bill Drummond); the conflict between the ‘democracy’ of recorded music, which is easy to disseminate, and the perceived elitism of a project that is restricted to 17 participants at a time (’unresolvable’ was the answer); and the practical details of the actual performances: how each session is recorded, mixed and played back to participants, then deleted forever.

Oddly enough, after a very few minutes noodling on the internet, I found a ‘track’ listed on Last.FM under Bill Drummond / The 17 » Tracks

Score 1. Imagine (0:52)

Does that mean a recording does exist somewhere? Anybody know?

Drummond also mentioned future The 17 events, including a proposed Berlin appearance for which the score will be titled ‘Nightclubbing’. I wonder how the 17 people are picked.

We’re planning to post photos and possibly a recording of the talk in the near future. In the meantime, here’s a short interview (2min) with Drummond pilfered from Youtube:

Tags: Bill Drummond, choir, recorded music, The17

This entry was posted by janet on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 2:09 am and is filed under Documentation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.