Bill Laswell

如果细心分析的话，你会发现Bill Laswell是站立于后现代理论与神秘主义之间，一个当代音乐之中极具矛盾性的人物。他所行使的，尽是属于后现代的解构、复制、循环、拼合及重组技术。取样、回路、剪贴及电子乐器，这都是Laswell拿手的声响改造技艺。从他处理声响的角度来看，这是完全后现代化的音乐取向。由他创办的音乐品牌Axiom，更旗帜鲜明地高举着这样的宗旨：未来只是一种意外，所谓真实并不存在，一切皆准许进行。也许世上再没有人比他更漠视地域、民族、音乐类别的界限。然而这后现代式，分崩离折的并合世界中，Laswell的骨子里，却是个着迷于古宗教神秘主义的觅道使徒，处处引述着充满神秘宗教色彩的对终极现实之一体性之典故。并合性的合成音响世界，仿佛只是Laswell用于窥视神秘主义运动场域的一种冥想方式。循Laswell的思考模式进入C.G.Jung的“无意识”界、James Hillman的“多神论”国度及Joseph Campbell的神话陈述，再通往Eco Umberto的符码与William S. Burroughs的剪贴，神秘主义与后现代理论，仿佛只是神的两个侧面。
 
A longtime linchpin of the New York City underground music scene, Bill Laswell was among the most prolific artists in contemporary music; as a performer, producer, and label chief, his imprint is on literally hundreds of albums, the majority of them characterized by a signature sound fusing the energy of punk with the bone-rattling rhythms of funk. Born on February 12, 1955, in Salem, IL, he initially played guitar, but soon switched to bass; raised primarily in the Detroit area, he honed his skills in local funk outfits before relocating to New York in 1978. There Laswell formed Material, an outlet for his experimental approach toward sounds ranging from jazz to hip-hop to worldbeat; originally the backup unit for Daevid Allen, the group soon began working on its own, issuing its debut EP Temporary Music in 1979.
 
In addition to fronting Material, Laswell also mounted a solo career, issuing Baselines in 1982 on Celluloid, a label he partly owned and operated. Appearances on key recordings by the likes of David Byrne, John Zorn, Fred Frith, and the Golden Palominos established Laswell as a virtual nexus of the downtown N.Y.C. community, and in 1983 he broke into the mainstream with his production work on Herbie Hancocks smash Rockit, which he also co-wrote; the follow-up LP, Sound-System, won him a Grammy. Throughout the mid-80s Laswell was everywhere, playing bass on LPs from artists including Mick Jagger, Peter Gabriel, Yoko Ono, and Laurie Anderson; he also joined the avant group Curlew, and produced a number of African acts.
 
In 1986, Laswell joined guitarist Sonny Sharrock, drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, and saxophonist Peter Brötzmann in the group Last Exit; a second solo LP, Hear No Evil, appeared two years later, and after a long hiatus he also resurrected Material in 1989 with Seven Souls. Another project, the hip-hop-flavored Praxis, was resumed after close to a decade of inactivity with 1992s Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis). In 1990, Laswell formed another label, Axiom, to explore his interest in the new sounds of ambient and techno; where in the past his work rarely appeared solely under his own name, by the middle of the decade he was issuing several solo records annually in a wide range of styles from dub to jazz. He also remained among the most prolific producers in the business, collaborating with the likes of Dub Syndicate, Pete Namlook, Buckethead, and DJ Spooky.
 
In 2004, Laswell signed a multi-album label deal with the Sanctuary Records group. The deal spawned his new label, Nagual. Through Sanctuarys earlier acquisition of the seminal reggae label Trojan, Laswell now had access to the Jamaican labels sizeable back catalog. Picking some of his favorite cuts and remixing them, Laswell issued the Trojan-sourced Dub Massive: Chapter One and Chapter Two in May 2005. The Only Way to Go Is Down followed on Sublight Records in 2006.