// Tickets: 15 EUR / 10 EUR reduced price available via the HAU 1 box office
JANDEK (US, Corwood Industries)
“Officially, Jandek is not a person. Albums and live performances are credited to “Jandek”, but the man on the album covers and on stage is “a representative from Corwood Industries”. Corwood is the record label; “Jandek” is the musical project.”
-Tisue.net
Operating out of Houston, Texas since 1978, Jandek is the musical project of a musician who has more-or-less retained his anonymity over the years. He has self-released over 60 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without ever granting more than the occasional interview or providing any biographical information. Closely mirroring East Texan country blues and folk traditions, Jandek often plays a highly idiosyncratic and frequently atonal form of folk and blues music, often using an open and unconventional chord structure.
Corwood dropped a bomb on Jandek fans in October 2004 when the man on the album covers came out of decades of hiding and played an unannounced show in Glasgow. There’s been a string of shows since, most of which have followed the same basic format as the first. The representative sings and plays guitar, dressed all in black and backed by local musicians on bass and drums. The group rehearses only once, the afternoon of the show. This is not to say that the format of his performance is always certain – a few concertgoers have been stunned to see the man perform a solo show, all alone on stage.
Jandek’s recording output has come full circle; in the beginning and currently, Jandek was/is alone in composing. Somewhere in the middle he moved towards collaborators and more accessible music, only to back away from them again.
CTM is pleased to host the first-ever Jandek performance, here as a trio with cello and bass, in Germany.
