Generator Sound Art


Generator Sound Art was an experimental arts and culture organization based in New York City, co-owned by the sound artists Gen Ken Montgomery and Scott Konzelmann. It focused upon the work of dedicated Sound Artists, and was an umbrella organization that facilitated the activities of the Generator Gallery / exhibition space, the Generations Unlimited audio recording label, and a second, eponymous audio recording label. Generator as a physical gallery / exhibition space existed in the East Village and then in Chelsea from 1989 to 1992.
The organization was non-commercial. Profits earned from Generator-related activities are split between the artists and a fund to support future sound art projects. Generator's emphasis on handmade, self-released audio works derives from the "cassette networking" or "Cassette culture" milieu of the 1980s–1990s,. The embrace of spontaneity and unintended consequences is another recurrent theme within Generator-affiliated work.
WWW generatorsoundart.org

History

Gen Ken Montgomery

Generator's founder and proprietor Ken Montgomery is a New York-based sound artist raised in Churchville, Pennsylvania, where he studied violin in his late childhood and early teens. Since 1994, he has used the "Gen Ken" moniker for sound art / noise music As to the latter, Montgomery's "lamination ritual" is a staple of his performance oeuvre, described by the artist as "a people-participatory activity and sonic listening experience which stimulates the mind and body in-the-moment, while producing an original, tangible, transformed personal object that will last…almost forever." Among Montgomery's formative influences are the theories of composer John Cage – particularly those outlined in Cage's 1961 collection of writings, Silence – and the participatory work ethic of the German electronic musician Conrad Schnitzler
Having originally planned to work as a filmmaker – briefly studying at NYU for this purpose – Montgomery claims "I quickly discovered I was approaching with the soundtrack already in my mind." Montgomery worked, from the early 1980s until 1991, with traditional electronic music instruments such as analog synthesizers and cheap toys, originally recording this material under the project name "Gen Ken & The Equipment." The artist also enjoyed a period of access to a professional recording studio with synthesizers, samplers and signal processing equipment. At the end of this period of creativity, an interval of flagging inspiration led Montgomery to experiment with the use of quotidian household devices as instruments: these included an 'Ice-o-Matic' commercial icemaker which was used both in concert and in the CD recording Icebreaker. This was not an abrupt shift in methodology, but rather a return to an expressive style previously experimented with. As he explains:
"In my East Village apartment in the late '70s, I remember throwing parties and instead of playing music I turned on kitchen appliances, tape players, fans, radios and a TV tuned between stations…I made my first installations before I knew that audio installations and sound art existed."

Other forays into appliance-based sound works included recordings and performances made with a Keystone Model 16CC film projector, a radiator, a coffee maker, and a refrigerator The 2002 double CD compilation Pondfloorsample collects much of the audio material created from re-appropriated devices and appliances.
By 1994, citing another period of creative burnout, Montgomery took a sabbatical in Europe and then set up residence in rural Pennsylvania. This period saw the initiation of another project using found objects – the Eight Track Magic series of recordings – which were made of audio re-recorded from severely damaged eight track cassettes.
Montgomery is also allied with the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland micronation established by artists Leif Elggren and Carl Michael von Hausswolff, for whom he oversees the Ministry of Lamination.

Generations Unlimited

The Generations Unlimited record and cassette label was co-founded in 1987 along with Boston sound artist David Prescott and featured releases from an artist roster including Conrad Schnitzler, Arcane Device, Iancu Dumitrescu and Morphogenesis. According to Prescott, the label formed in the wake of ongoing discussions between Schnitzler, Montgomery and himself, in which they "found that we had not only a lot in common, but particularly interesting differences which led to our each strengthening and developing out notions of music, art and life." As with other collaborative products involving Montgomery, the label was conceived as an alternative to both New Age currents of electronic music and also the more exclusively academic variations thereof (in a contemporaneous interview, Prescott stated that " music exists between what is typically thought to be 'academic' and 'pop' oriented…the farther these labels have gone, the more it becomes apparent that this delineation doesn't exist." In lieu of an already existing musical categorization, Generations Unlimited products were marketed as "dramatic electronic music."

Performances / live events

The following is an abridged chronology of public events to have taken place in the different Generator spaces from 1991 to 1992.
Exhibitions
Concerts
Upon the folding of the original Generator location, a Sunday evening performance series – "Generator at Webo" – was initiated at the Webo performance space as a means of offering further events in the spirit of the original Generator series.
A CD-R archive of past Generator performances is also maintained by Montgomery, who makes these archival materials available for sale via the official Generator Sound Arts web presence. These discs are taken from the same source material as the original 'Live at Generator' cassette series, in which each release included a chrome cassette, a photograph, and a story relating to the performance from which the recording was taken.
In 2015, Montgomery released a special limited edition cassette that he curated called Master Cactus.

Artists Throwing Money Out The Window

"Artists Throwing Money Out The Window" is a Generator Sound Arts sub-label focusing more exclusively on conceptual recordings, non-music and "irritainment." Items in the catalog include a CD recording of WFMU disc jockey Fabio Roberti's car muffler, a CD of 16mm educational film soundtracks curated by AV Geeks, and a CD jewel case containing no playable media inside. Not all A.T.M.O.T.W. releases are done in this mold, however: the compilation release Links Outta Here is a selection of material recorded in tribute to the late Abigail Lavine.