(G) by (G)

I present to you a new "alias" (G).

As I inferred with my 2023 album on T4T Luv NRG, (G) is a version of the name that I was to be given if I was AFAB. Discovering this truth has furthered my interest in iterative processes. An iterative process is a means of utilizing existing materials, in order to create new works. The works are then transformed into new materials when they are documented. Recorded material of any kind has the potential to be exploited in this way. I use recorded material to create new work and then create new work from what is produced. I continue this process until I find satisfactory results. Even though these tracks may appear "finished" I can and will continue to exploit them to create "new" (more) works.

Iterative processes rely on deep and intentional observation, in this case listening, processing what is heard through social practices like discourse and personal practices like journaling, and reflection on the sum of these experiences. Memory becomes a medium within the iterative process. Memory, as represented by magnetic tape and digital memory devices like RAM and ROM, becomes a means of inquiry and discernment that is made material by the application of the iterative process. Memories are not pulverized out of existence, they are re-organized and renewed into new works, and therefore, new materials.

The originating work or the material that preceded it contains a trace of the experience that led to the creation of the work. When making a collage, you may cut out a photograph of a perfume bottle from a furniture magazine. Though you removed this object from its context, the shiny texture of the paper of the magazine and the lighting implied by the photograph, still contain some traces of a point of origin. These traces accentuate the material nature of memory and how it can be activated to take new shape and meaning that results in a new work and new materials.

This expression collapses our linear relationship to time and allows us to seek new meaning in the experiences that make up our lives.

I was unaware of my originating name until adulthood. Even so, when I reflect on my upbringing, I can pinpoint the ways in which my surroundings acted upon the ancestral presence of my femininity. A femininity that was present when my existence was just an idea communicated between family members. My femininity preceded whatever it is that I would become and through an iterative process I have re-oriented its priority and its performance.

The woman that I am has always been there, like a shadow. And now this shadow is becoming more material and this iterative process allows me to make her more real every day. I write the past into being with each letter that I type and with each sound that I record.

This release is a collection of loops that begin before the record button is clicked. The beginning of the loop is difficult to discern. The loop seems to be frozen in place upon the first listen. When the loop continues to play, its point of origin transforms with each passing moment and our perception of the loop transforms with the loop.

Memory is an approximation of the past. Representations of memory do not create a more accurate approximation of the past, they create something that is new and not new. Memories are materials that require mediums to be interpreted. An iterative process presents us with a demonstration of the non-linear experiences that arise from attempting to document and interpret memory. An iterative process does not kick start this feedback loop. An iterative process observes a point in the loop, and this observation creates another loop.

This release is for those that enjoy Edward George, Wackie's, Main Street Records, Ulla, Jan Jelinek, Purelink, false aralia, and many others to whom I owe a great deal.

Russell E.L. Butler is a Bermudian artist and DJ.

Booking:

Russell.el.butler@gmail.com

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