Leif Brush (b. 1932) is a pioneering sound artist who for over five decades has built something of a vast labyrinth of an artistic presence, in a certain sense having existed on the fringes of the more esoteric strands of early sound practices. During his time as a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the late 60’s, Brush explored large scale installations that would often utilize the city’s landscape as a platform for steel-strand based sounding constructs. After going on to become a professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth, he began to expand upon his ever-evolving concept of the “terrain instrument”, generally defined as a physical construct situated in nature that would harness the forces and vibrations of the earth in order to generate various types of sonic phenomena, often via the activation of triggers and sensors.
Stitched Phenomena contains the entirety of Brush’s 2004 flagship composition “Earth Star Songs”, a 47 minute long “stitching” of sounds and recordings taken from an array of his analog constructs and terrain instruments spanning decades, paired with recordings produced by Jerry Chamkis’ Kosmophone. The result is an inexhaustibly complex amalgamation of hard-edged terrestrial and tactile phenomena contrasted by cosmically sourced retro-futuristic synth interjections. Prior to now, this piece had only ever existed on the internet in the form of low quality mp3’s during the earlier days of netlabels. This issue marks its first ever physical release in proper form, rescued in full quality from its original master tape. In an edition of 100 with updated 2017 cover art by Brush himself.