CONRAD, TONY - Joan of Arc

"Tony Conrad is a founding father of minimalism and a giant in the American soundscape. The indefatigable Conrad kept busy during the Revolution Summer of 1968. In addition to his reunion recordings with John Cale (documented in the Cale set New York in the 1960s), Conrad starred in Ira Cohens legendary film The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda and made extensive solo recordings, including Joan of Arc, available here for the first time. One of Conrads personal favorites, its a long piece for pump organ, in which he conjures both searing white heat and malignant gothic dread. An excerpt was used as the soundtrack for the Piero Heliczer film of the same name, but Conrad feels a greater affinity with that years Cohen film; accordingly, Cohen graciously provided restored stills from Thunderbolt Pagoda for the packaging of this release. Cohens sumptuous imagery - which Jimi Hendrix described as looking through butterfly wings - features a blissed-out and shirtless Conrad replete in pencil mustache, mascara and blood-red turban. The man is just downright cool - about as cool as Hendrix, and almost always louder." - Table Of The Elements.