Vito Acconci, New Humans
Disallow (LP)
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300 Copies. Disallow is a landmark collaboration that bridges the worlds of conceptual art, performance, and experimental sound. The late Vito Acconci—pioneering figure of body art, performance, and radical architecture—joins forces with New Humans, the New York-based collective led by Howie Chen and Mika Tajima, known for their confrontational installations and sonic interventions. This LP captures a live performance at the Swiss Institute in New York, where Acconci’s unmistakable voice and presence are set against a backdrop of grinding electronics, feedback, and industrial rhythms.
The album unfolds as a tense dialogue between text and sound. Acconci’s words—by turns poetic, aggressive, and self-reflexive—are delivered with a physicality that recalls his early performance pieces, while New Humans generate a shifting field of noise, drones, and metallic textures. The result is a work that is both immersive and unsettling, blurring the boundaries between music, language, and space. Disallow stands in the lineage of experimental collaborations such as Laurie Anderson’s multimedia works, the sonic assaults of Glenn Branca, and the text-sound experiments of Henri Chopin. Yet, the chemistry here is wholly unique: Acconci’s presence transforms the sound, while the group’s relentless energy pushes his words into new territory. The LP is accompanied by documentation of the performance and is pressed in a limited edition for collectors of avant-garde sound and art.
For fans of conceptual art, performance, and the intersection of language and noise, Disallow is an essential document—one that captures a singular moment in the ongoing dialogue between art and sound.
Format
A1. Untitled
Vito Acconci / New Humans, 2007
Recorded live by [...] at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York, Spring 2007
An unreleased live recording of a collaborative performance by Vito Acconci and New Humans that
took place within the sculpture installation "Disassociate" by artist Mika Tajima at Elizabeth Dee
Gallery, New York, in Spring 2007.
During this improves music performance with New Humans, Vito Acconci reads permutations
of text from a set of seminal audio works he chose - recombining lines and phrases on the
move against a shifting, acute and minimally deadpan sonic progression.
Text include "V.D. Lives / TV Must Die" (1978), "Now Do You Believe The Dirty Dogs Are Dead"
(1978), "An Idea Of Storage At A Small Gallery In Downtown Chicago" (1979), "Cry Baby!" (1977).
B1. Sympathy For The Devil
New Humans, 2007
A song stripped leaving only the minimal register of anonymous static noise. A shadow of
itself it now the resembles the crackling prelude on a vinyl record. The cue is the replacement.
B2. Waiting Game
New Humans, 2007
The anticipatory humming drone produced by a guitar amp becomes substance. The performance
of the void, a lost reference.
Producing used Sunn Beta Lead head with Peavey 4x12 Cabinet and single coil American
Fender Stratocaster.
The sound pieces on Side B were an ongoing sound element in the "Disassociate" installation
in which the performances and recordings occurred. The pieces were playing during the Vito
Acconci / New Humans recording and subsequently buried by the live performance.
Special thanks to Elizabeth Dee, Jenny Moore, Acconci Studio and C. Spencer Yeh
New Humans, Copyright 2009
Contact: www.newhumansnyc.com
Release notes
A1. Untitled Vito Acconci / New Humans, 2007 Recorded live by [...] at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York, Spring 2007 An unreleased live recording of a collaborative performance by Vito Acconci and New Humans that took place within the sculpture installation "Disassociate" by artist Mika Tajima at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York, in Spring 2007. During this improves music performance with New Humans, Vito Acconci reads permutations of text from a set of seminal audio works he chose - …
| A1 | Untitled | 14:29 | |
| B1 | Sympathy For The Devil | 6:18 | |
| B2 | Waiting Game | 18:36 |
- Mika Tajima
- Artwork, Photography By [Back Photo]
- Carolyn Wachnicki
- Photography By [Cover Photo]
- New Humans
- Producer [All Tracks Produced By]
