Siavash Amini & Eugene Thacker - Songs for Sad Poets (Limited Edition on Clear Vinyl + Booklet)

Composer and sound artist Siavash Amini collaborates with author Eugene Thacker on 'Songs for Sad Poets'. The collection of eight pieces draws its inspiration from the legacy of the so-called cursed poets ("poètes maudits") as well as the German-language tradition of song cycles and expands the structure of the classic art song through a process of lyric abstraction.

Amini is no stranger to interdisciplinary collaboration, as seen in 'A Mimesis of Nothingness,' his 2020 collaboration with photographer Nooshin Shafiee, also released through the Swiss Hallow Ground label. But whereas in Amini’s previous collaborations music and other media are set in dialogue, with 'Songs for Sad Poets', Thacker’s poems and Amini’s soundscapes are deeply enmeshed with each other. In fact, none of the words printed in the record’s booklet are being said out loud on this double LP, but rather made tangible through the use of sound.

Poetry and music do not so much correspond with each other as they conspire together—as songs without words, words without song. 'Songs for Sad Poets' was born out of a mutual admiration of each other’s work and it is easy to see how the musician and the writer could relate to one another artistically.