We're delighted to be welcoming Richard King to Manchester for the launch of his new book TRAVELS OVER FEELING - a landmark publication celebrating the life and work of American musician and composer Arthur Russell, the man the Guardian called 'One of the 20th century's true musical visionaries'. Richard will be in conversation with Abigail Ward.
Doors: 6.30, starts: 6.45
Tickets are £3.00 or free when ordering a copy of the book. TRAVELS OVER FEELING will also be available to purchase on the night and Richard will be signing copies after the talk. If you would like a signed copy but cannot make the event, please contact us on 0161 274 3331 or manchester@blackwell.co.uk and we can arrange this for you.
This event is presented in partnership with the Creative Manchester research platform at The University of Manchester.
About the book:
The music of Arthur Russell defies classification. Across a twenty-year career he created a body of work which ranged from his pioneering compositions as part of the New York avant-garde alongside artists including Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg, to his genre-expanding disco and art pop productions, to his posthumously released folk songs.
Travels Over Feeling is the result of extensive research by author Richard King, curating the ephemera and documentation found in both Arthur's and other private archives, and consists of hand-written scores, lyrics, photos, letters and drawings. Throughout, King has conducted wide-ranging original interviews with Arthur's collaborators, contemporaries, family and friends. The resulting book reveals a true picture of one of the most distinctive artists of the last fifty years.
About the author:
Richard King is the author of Original Rockers (shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and a Rough Trade, The Times and Uncut Book of the Year), How Soon Is Now? (the Sunday Times Music Book of the Year) and The Lark Ascending (a Rough Trade, Mojo and Evening Standard Book of the Year), all published by Faber & Faber. He was born into a bilingual family in South Wales and for the last twenty years has lived in the rural county of Powys, Mid Wales
Abigail Ward is a DJ, music producer, broadcaster and curator.She makes music under the name Ghoßt Assembly ghostassembly.bandcamp.com. Her debut release, ‘I Miss Your Love’ - a raw and soulful homage to Chicago house - garnered swoons from Optimo, Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy, Bradley Zero and Mary Anne Hobbs, plus several plays on BBC 6 Music. As a DJ Abigail thrives on creating absorbing multi-genre road trips that are guaranteed to elicit an emotional response, be that on a dancefloor, at an art gallery or in your headphones.
In 2008 Abigail edited and co-designed '1 Top Class Manager - The Notebooks of Joy Division's Manager 1978-1980 pleasuresofpasttimes.com', which condenses twenty of Rob Gretton's working notebooks into one volume, alongside posters, letters, invoices, diaries and studio notes from Joy Division's all-to-brief career. Abigail Ward is also a co-founder of Manchester Digital Music Archive mdmarchive.co.uk, an online crowd-sourced archive of ephemera relating to Greater Manchester music from the 17th century to the present day.
