www.songsonconceptualart.com/main/
For Songs on Conceptual Art, Crystal Baxley and Stefan Ransom
invited musicians to compose original songs inspired by Sol LeWitt’s Sentences on Conceptual Art (1969). LeWitt wrote this list of 35 statements at a time when artists were radically expanding notions of what art could be and what artists could do, with proclamations like “Ideas can be works of art” (Sentence #10). To expose this significant text to a larger public, artist John Baldessari improvised melodies to each of the 35 sentences in his 1972 video piece Baldessari Sings LeWitt.
Inspired by Baldessari’s intention to open up the Sentences to new audiences, Baxley and Ransom asked a different musician to create a song for each sentence. Some of the musicians used the text verbatim, some of the musicians altered, expanded upon or commented on the text, and some didn’t use words in their songs at all. Sentences were assigned sentences on a first-come, first serve basis, and the songs are in the order of the original text.
This compilation is available as a limited-edition double vinyl LP from labels Awesome Vistas, Teenage Teardrops and Marriage Records. Starting on June 1st, you can buy the record online from their websites:
awesomevistas.com,
teenageteardrops.com,
marriagerecs.com
contact: Crystal Baxley / Stefan Ransom
wewouldliketosingforyou at gmail dot com
Supported by a grant from Portland STOCK
released June 6, 2012
Recorded and mixed at our house by Jon Deutsche. Vox ,Guitar Synth by Stephanie Chan. Guitar, Bass and Synths by Mark Greshowak. Drums and Percussion and backing vox by Katelyn Mosher Hall.
Illustration by Mark Greshowak