Gen Ken Montgomery "Endogeny" cd

Reviewed by Frans de Waard in Vital Weekly, Issue 1220:

"I am not entirely sure, but I don't think I reviewed 'Endogeny' when it first came out on
Direction Music in 1990. Hearing the music I am not even sure I heard it, even when being in
contact with the label at that time. I surely heard Gen Ken Montgomery's music by then and was
always fascinated by that, his connection to Conrad Schnitzler and his Generator space in New
York, which was a venue doubling as a shop (or vice versa) for weird music. The pieces here are
for various instruments that were mixed. 'Gattertor' on the first side has "amplified drum skin, brass
pipes, violin, answering machine & synthesizer" and which was played in concert and later mixed.
It has all the markings on Gen Ken Montgomery, using mechanical sounds, tape-loops and
synthesizer to provide a more ongoing mix of sounds, set against the more impromptu playing of
the violin or voice treatments. The piece is divided into sections where one instrument is the
dominant sounds, be it bell sounds in the beginning, scraping the violin, the machines and the
synthesizer drone towards the end. 'Father Demo Swears' on the other side is a recording of
"processed electronics, violin, voice with additional live recordings made outside the window of D.
Myers during mix down" and is a more continuous action of scraping the violin in front of the open
window while in the background various degrees of sound effects are applied, mostly delay. This
is a form of direct music that shows the influence of Conrad Schnitzler, I think. This is
unconventional music, certain brutality in playing the instruments and right at the moment, direct
action. A nice revived document, hopefully, to be followed by more of that. (FdW)"