Incoming Mail: Tapes, Booklets and Sticker from Gen Ken Montgomery (Generations Unlimited / Generator Sound Art Gallery, NYC)
Gen Ken Montgomery asked for my mailing adress and after a while I got a parcel with 5 tapes, 2 booklets/catalogues, some flyer and stickers. Very impressing is the catlogue documenting the time of the Generator Sound Art Gallery in New York City from June 1st, 1989 till Juni 1st, 1990. Generator closed in 1992. I visited the Generator September 20th, 1989 when I was on tour with Monochrome Bleu in the USA. Ken did a kind of lecture performance for me and my video camera. Although the gallery was small, Generator hosted performances of countless sound artists with different orientations in sound, style and media. The gallery hosted also a shop to sell records and publications matching the goals of the Sound Art Space. Gen Ken started with the tape label Generations Unlimited and it's great to see that he released historic material on tapes like "Twenty-Seven Years Later" - a C-110 compilationwith 52 artists in an edition of 100.
"Generator came out of Generations Unlimited - and not the other way around. I think it's important because it was the correspondance from releasing and trading of cassettes that led to wanting to have a place to place the music and have it be available to the public. And so Generator served that purpose. In the beginning it was only the Generations Unlimited cassettes and a few records - but it grew quickly from there." - Gen Ken Montgomery 2019
Generator Returns (briefly)
From August 4- September 1, 2013 Gen Ken Montgomery briefly reopened his Generator store and performance space at AVA in NYC.
Ken returned again "briefly" with a third opening of the Generator / Generations Unlimited in the Print Shop hosted by Allgold at MoMa PS1from december 6th, 2014 till February 1st, 2015 in New York City. Again with concerts, store and exhibition.
Generator had one other incarnation in 2017 at Sediment Gallery in Richmond Virginia (RVA) - Together with Crystal Penalosa and Sean Julian my re-launch of Generations Unlimited collaborators we took over the gallery having continuous shows - Cassette Concerts, live phone - in remote concerts and the Generator archive. With a storefront with new tapes from artists who sent in their music. "It was a fun. I didn't make a book about it but the post on Hal's Electronic Cottage is a pretty good link to it. It brought together a lot of artists and I was very pleased with it. It was the first time I brought the Generator out of New York and it confirmed for me that it was possible. - Gen Ken Montgomery 2019
Last summer Gen Ken Montgomery was invited to bring the Generator to Hamburg for the Eruption Festival for 2 days. Well it was too much to just 2 days but I did have a small room with the Generations Unlimited tapes and also 8 speakers running Conrad Schnitzler's Cassette Concerts - so it was a mini- Generator. - Gen Ken Montgomery 2019
Follow the links and you will get a great view on this amazing output of sound art. If you visit Cassette Culture Node.Linz in Vienna (May 29th, 2019), you can see and hear a small part of the history of Generator Sound Art Gallery.
Video filmed by Wolfgang Dorninger at Generater Sound Art Gallery September 20th, 1989. Thanks to dorfTV to host a Cassette Culture Node.Linz Channel.
To activate the slide show, simply click on the bracket or the picture border in the right edge of the picture.
For more information:
Generations Unlimited
Generations Unlimited History
Generator at Sediment Arts
"Generator RVA: Now Playing" Bandcamp
Blackhumour - 2017 Oct. 14 - Live at Sediment
Generations Unlimited at Bandcamp (also tapes)
Generator Returns at AVA by Don Campau
