An unreleased Arthur Russell live album includes early versions of classic World Of Echo tracks
Audika Records, the stewards Arthur Russell‘s trove of recordings, have released a new live album from the late legend.
Sketches For World Of Echo: June 25 1984 Live At Ei captures a live set from Russell record at Phill Niblock’s Experimental Intermedia Foundation in New York City. The 10-track live set captures Russell laying out a “sonic draft for World Of Echo, the only solo album he released before dying in this same city at age forty,” says the label.
The recording features Russell experimenting with amplification on his 18th-century cello and singing, often wordlessly. It includes early versions of enduring Russell songs like “Let’s Go Swimming,” “Keeping Up” and “Losing My Taste For The Nightlife,” as well as previously unheard pieces like “Sunlit Water.”
