Restless

Interpreting the mad dreams of Fire Museum Records.


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Published: Apr 16, 2008

ROOFTOP OF THE POPS: Alan Sondheim has two releases out on Fire Museum, with recording dates spanning nearly 40 years.

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Listening to any one of the releases from Philly-based Fire Museum Records can be likened to experiencing a waking dream: the churning, mysterious soundscapes of Portuguese quartet Curia; the elegance in decay of cellist Helena Espvall; the spirit-world folk of Axa Hour of Dora Bleu, just to name a few.

Apt, then, that the label's name comes from a dream. As label head Steven Tobin relates, he immediately saw the connection between his releases and the sleeping vision related by his partner, Leah Fenimore. "In this dream she found herself in a museum where different colored and shaped flames were on display," he says. "Since the act of documenting some forms of music gets compared to attempting to document the ephemeral, the name seemed like a good fit."

Listen, You!

Fire Museum got its start in the couple's then-home of San Francisco in 2000, relocating to Philly roughly a year and a half ago. At the time, Tobin and Fenimore were involved in presenting benefit concerts for the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, a Kabul-based organization fighting for women's rights. After two years and "much saving and borrowing of funds," the two-disc comp Azadi! finally emerged in 2003. Another two years passed before the next release, from New Mexico duo My Country of Illusion.

The release schedule has picked up since that time, Tobin says, "as the spirit moved and finances allowed." Last year saw seven new Fire Museum releases, with two more slated for imminent release, both by avant-folk duos: the Italian/U.S. Wondrous Horse and Maine-based Arborea. In addition, Tobin has recently launched Majmua Music, a limited-edition sister label, bowing with Philly-based noise trickster George Korein's dentist's-drill-on-absinthe disc Another Corpse.

"Majmua Music came about because I wanted the freedom to release some material as quickly as possible," Tobin explains. "It may also help me realize my mad dream to release as many recordings as SST did in their heyday."

Of the diverse artists that have appeared on the label, ranging from modern psychedelia to vintage South Indian and Burmese folk recordings, Tobin says, "All the music on the label shares a spirit of sonic inquiry, and often times elements that to my mind are psychedelic, as overused as that term has become. I suppose I'm referring to the altered and intensified sensory perception meaning of that word."

Both imprints will be featured Monday night at a five-act label showcase upstairs at the Troc. Korein will appear, along with two artists slated for upcoming Majmua releases: vocalist/harmonium player Aditi Tahiti and Philly guitarist Eric Carbonara. Fire Museum will be represented by Montreal's Dora Bleu and multi-instrumentalist Alan Sondheim.

Dora Bleu is former From Quagmire and Laconic Chamber guitarist/vocalist Dorothy Geller, joined by guitarist Sam Shalabi, bassist Alex St. Onge, and trumpeter Gordon Allen. Sondheim has two releases out on Fire Museum, with recording dates spanning nearly 40 years. Fire Museum first reissued The Songs, a 1967 recording by Sondheim and Ritual All 770, an improvisational collective from Providence, RI. The album, which sounds like the result of a songcatcher on an interior journey, recovering tribal folk from the dark forest of the id, was released prior to Sondheim's two slightly better-known ESP Disk releases. Then in 2006, Tobin released Ski/nn, Sondheim's first proper release in 20 years, a CD of solo guitar and zither, a Fahey in the rough. In the interim, Sondheim had written extensively on Internet and multimedia theory, and is currently working on an experimental lounge CD to be released on Majmua later this year.

For his debut Philly performance, Sondheim has tentative plans to bring a half-size electric guitar, a 1910-1920 or earlier parlor guitar, and Yamaha keyboard, but as for what he'll play he says, "Oh god, I have no idea. I hope my nails don't break in the meantime. I improvise. Someone will tell me to stop, I hope. I want to see what I can do musically, so no matter how bad it is, if I'm laboring at it and it's somewhat escaping me, that's great."

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

Fire Museum Records/Majmua Music Label Showcase, Mon., April 21, 10 p.m., free, Balcony @ the Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., 215-922-LIVE, museumfire.com.