A Song For Friday: Stephen Vitiello & Andrew Deutsch
A new form of abstraction, banjo-based and electronically processed
You never forget a friend who turns you on to great music. I can’t think of Stephen Vitiello without remembering one such magical moment. We were in the basement of the fine arts building at SUNY Purchase when he lent me a cassette of Scritti Politti’s Cupid & Psyche ‘85 to listen to in my darkroom as I made prints for photo class. I liked the tape but had one concern. “It’s good,” I told him, “but it has no bass!” He looked at me a little sheepishly - or maybe it was pity for my narrow-mindedness - and just said: “I know.” With those two words, he somehow permitted me to fall in love with Cupid & Psyche ‘85 and I haven’t looked back since.
Stephen has also kept moving forward, traveling far beyond the punk bands he played in at Purchase. In the four decades since our college years, he has made a name for himself as a musician and sound artist whose work can be seen and heard in museums and other institutions worldwide, including Mass MoCA in the Berkshires and the Highline in New York City. One notable work, now in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, had him placing contact mics on the windows of his studio on the 91st floor of the World Trade Center - in 1999. Recording the creaking and swaying of the Twin Towers created something that only became more fascinating and poignant in the wake of 9/11.
But in recent years, Stephen has been creating a series of albums, often in collaboration with others, that put his expertise and keen ear in the service of creating sublimely gorgeous soundscapes. Last year, The Clear Distance, made with Bill Seaman, landed on my Top 25, with the original review noting:
“It feels like daybreak, the sun through trees, that first day of good weather after a week of rain.”
Today brings us a new waystation in Stephen’s questing musical journey, with the release of Almost Missing, a joint effort with Andrew Deutsch, a sound and video artist who teaches at Alfred University. Stephen has soundtracked many videos for Deutsch and recently collected some of that music here. But Almost Missing is a purely musical work, consisting of Stephen’s banjo and electronics and Deutsche’s digital compositing. Both tracks on the EP are full of surprise, beauty, and adventure. Listen to how Side A swoops into your field of hearing, almost as if the recording began before the tape leader ran out, and then settles into a bright but dense pattern, with bell-like bursts ringing between the banjo strings.
Both tracks on Almost Missing are hypnotic but energizing and prove that the banjo wildness conjured up by other artists, like Weston Olencki, is not happening in a vacuum. If you like what you hear on Almost Missing, don’t hesitate to grab the lathe-cut 10” vinyl, released in an edition of 25 and accompanied by an original 35mm slide from the cover art. This is the kind of creativity of conception and execution they taught us at Purchase! As of this writing, only eight discs remain so get to it.
Bonus Read
My latest article in Rock & Roll Globe celebrates the 50th Anniversary of - and seeks to rehabilitate - Small Talk, the last album made under the name "Sly and the Family Stone" - I think it's brilliant and I hope you will read and listen to it again with an open mind.
From the archives:
Record Roundup: Autumn Flood Pt. 1
Best Of 2020: Electronic