Other Minds is proud to present The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar, a new limited-edition 12” 45 RPM vinyl disc of music by Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff, performed by Wolff and Wendy Eisenberg. Side A features two performances of Morton Feldman’s The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar, written for Wolff (who professes to be “not really a guitar player”) in 1966 as an experiment on the instrument.
On his way to perform The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar a fourth time at Yale, after performances in New York, San Francisco, and at Harvard, Wolff’s guitar was stolen from his car, along with the only copy of Feldman’s score. In 2002, when the music archive of KPFA was being digitized by Other Minds, a recording of Wolff’s 1966 performance of the piece in San Francisco surfaced. This recording is included on Side A of this record, followed by a 2022 recording of the piece by Wendy Eisenberg performed from Seth Josel’s transcription of Wolff’s 1966 performance.
Side B includes Eisenberg’s recording of Christian Wolff’s 2004 piece Another Possibility, a homage to The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar using a scrap of notation from that piece found in the Feldman archives at the Sacher Foundation in Basel by the Dutch electric guitarist Wiek Hijmans in the 1990s, before the rediscovery of Wolff’s 1966 recording. Another Possibility is a beautiful tribute to Feldman’s work, in Wolff’s words, “not like his music but maybe something he might have liked.”
In addition to liner notes by Christian Wolff, the record’s insert includes a transcript of a conversation between John Cage and Morton Feldman about The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar a few days after the first performance in New York, providing unique insight into Feldman’s compositional process.
De l’année de l’écriture de cette pièce à celle de sa redécouverte, quarante ans auront passé pendant lesquels la guitare électrique s’est fait entendre d’innombrables façons. Or l’expérience de Feldman n’en est pas moins surprenante. Guillaume Belhomme, le son du grisli, March 2024
The pitches waver and ping, and on Another Possibility…the disjointed post-blues of Loren Connors, Keiji Haino at his most melancholy, and even Jandek are audible. Phil Freeman, The Wire, April 2024
The circuitous sequence is documented on this fascinating EP, with the original Wolff version from 1966 followed by a new version based on Josel’s work played by Wendy Eisenberg, which is far more forceful and assured than Wolff’s admittedly tentative, shaky original. It also includes Eisenberg’s take on Wolff’s knotty recreation, offering a beguiling peek into what the New York School might have done with the instrument. Peter Margasak, Bandcamp, April 2024
[W]hat an absolute luxury item Other Minds has made of it…Eisenberg’s reading of the piece is lovely, in no small part because of how alive, how electric it sounds…The care Eisenberg takes in the glissandi, the surprising grace notes and most importantly the open spaces, is meticulous, as it should be. Kurt Gottschalk, The New York City Jazz Record, October 2024
1 · The Possibility of A New Work for Electric Guitar, 3:54
2 · The Possibility of A New Work for Electric Guitar, 4:56
3 · Another Possibility, 8:36
