*50 copies limited edition. 8xtapes, book, thumb drive, hand printed postcard, hand-printed cassette artwork, two short essays* Eric Lunde’s recorded output began in the late 1980s, and many of his early releases are long out of print. Joe Colley did the world a favor in 1997 when he when he released when you wish upon a scar, a compilation of Lunde’s early work. However, there is something to be said for being able to both hear the entirety of a release as well as the chronological evolution of an artist. 

Housed in a wood recipe box with Lunde’s logo branded on the lid, this is the salient collection of Lunde’s earliest—and long unavailable recordings.This chronological evolution seems especially pertinent with this release, as five of the eight releases were issued in the one year: 1987.

Those five early releases: Expositions of the Virus; Scramble; Form’s Forced Surrender; Operative; and the previously unreleased complete recording of Infected Text— highlight not only Lunde’s refining of (and experimentation with) his reduplicative degeneration processes, but also his thematic and conceptual explorations, including the idea of his effort to reduce language to nothing. Infected Text is a live take on his Expositions of the Virus material.

In 1988, Eric released Live Censor / Censure Live and, perhaps of greatest interest to fans of Eric’s work, the incredibly difficult to find Bruise Grind Kill, a cassette he released under the name accelerator, is included in this release. Bruise Grind Kill is unlike the other recordings here in that there is no voice present: it’s all electric motor apparatuses on bass guitar and drums. The resulting audio has an aggressive Chop Shop feel, and it hits me just right. Finally,  the 1991 recording of Eric reading his book, LLND has been previously unavailable, and the reprinting of the book also will be a welcome addition to Lunde fans and those who had not previously had access to the book.