Sounding like an archaic echo, If, Bwana could be the title of a Bob Hope-Bing Crosby vehicle that never got made. A little investigation reveals it as the oddly worded cover for Al Margolis, who is perhaps better known as a tireless activist in the 1980s American cassette underground through his cassette label Sound Of Pig Music in the 1980s.and, later, as the co-founder of experimental music label Pogus Productions. If, Bwana has been active since 1984, making music that has swung between fairly spontaneous studio constructions and more process-oriented composition. In 1984, a high proportion of the world's most adventurous and downright bizarre music was found on tapes circulating around the International Cassette Network, an anarchic web of home-tapers inspired by the post-punk DIY ethos and easy access to now-affordable professional-calibre home studio gear. As proprietor of Sound Of Pig Music, Margolis released an incredible 301 cassettes between 1984 and 1991. Among the multitude of sound explorers and industrialists in SOP's catalogue were such future celebrities as multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio, French über-eccentric Costes and Japanese noise giant Merzbow, as well as Jim OıRourke, John Hudak, and Conrad Schnitzler.
In 1989, he teamed up with composers Dave Prescott and Gen Ken Montgomery to form the non-cassette label Pogus. Two years later, after a handful of releases - new recordings by Engish experimental outfit Morphogenesis and steel cello player Robert Rutman, previously unreleased material by AMM and Swedish avant garde composer Rune Lindblad - Prescott and Montgomery quit, leaving the label in Margolis's hands. After managing to fund a few Pogus discs on his own including releases by California noise artists Big City Orchestra and avant jazz trio Trigger, with Fred Lonberg-Holm - Margolis experienced a career change that improved the label's finances. He took a job at New World Records and eventually rose to A&R Director before leaving to work as a freelance label manager for several small experimental labels.
In addition to drawing attention to composers "who are a little more obscure - people who are not as prominent as others and haven't had quite as much stuff out there", one of Pogus's goals has been the rescue of worthy older or forgotten recordings, like Pauline Oliveros's Alien Bog/Beautiful Soop, which contains two early electronic/tape experiments and All Known All White by American composer Roger Reynolds, originally released on CRI.
Currently Margolis is label manager for Deep Listening, XI Records, and Mutable Music, playing bass guitar in the long-lasting, legendary punk/post-punk band The Styrenes, and continuing his work with If, Bwana as well as the dance/country/funky/jazz improvisational stylings of the Orchestre de Fou. His most recent release on Pogus of his works is a collaboration with the composer/electronic musician Tom Hamilton and the writer/poet Mike Silverton a double cd of text ad electronics, described by one critic as "the strangest book on tape you'll ever hear." In 2004 there will be releases of cds of his work on the Ants label out of Italy and the Absurd label out of Greece, as well as a limited edition 7² on the Klanggalerie label of Austria. There are also plans to release the recently finished recording of Margolisıs work with the Orchestre de Fou recorded during his Artist-in-Residency at The Pauline Oliveros Foundation in May 2003. The two works I, Angelica and Double Loop feature the large ensemble versions of these works.
the o de fou was founded in 1936 by The great director dr george omara, and he is quite the interiors wizard: "The colour scheme throughout this bright, airy chalet is light jade green. dr g is his own decorator, designer and furnisher, as well as architect... has a passion about cut flowers in his home."And he is seldom alone in his mountain hideaway, as he "delights in the society of brilliant foreigners, especially painters, musicians and singers. As host, he is a droll raconteur... "
chris burchill: horns, voc
matt marusek: cello
al margolis: fiddle, tapes, elec
DR G: organ, tapes, sax
special guest mark duizba: gitarr