“Why do I paint squares since 1949, in the same design, in the same arrangement;
Because I do not see that there is, in any visual articulation, one final solution.”
Josef Albers

In 1959, Charles E. Murphy, the artistic director of Command Records, asked Josef Albers
(1888 – 1976) to produce a drawing for the sleeve notes of the first record released on the label,
‘Persuasive Percussion’. It was the start of a collaboration that lasted until 1961, during which
time Albers produced a total of seven drawings. Characterised by their simple style, they have
remained resolutely modern and graphic.

Command Records was founded by Enoch Light, a classical violinist and conductor who was
particularly fascinated by sound and recordings. Julie Light, his daughter, along with Charles
Murphy, the label’s artistic director, had both studied at Black Mountain College where they had
been taught by Josef Albers.

Albers was one of the most important artists and teachers of the 20th century. He was born in
the industrial Ruhr Valley in north-eastern Germany, and was trained at Bauhaus, where he later
became a teacher. This legendary teaching institution transformed art and design by drawing
links between artists from various disciplines. Its revolutionary pedagogical philosophy was
radical for its time, embracing the ideas of modernism. It recommended a return to basics, to
simple materials and to the basic rules of design.

In 1933 Albers was one of the faculty members who decided to close the school rather than
comply with the Nazi regime’s restrictions on artistic production.

In the same year, Josef and his wife Anni were invited to direct the painting programme at the
recently founded Black Mountain College in North Carolina. From 1933 to 1957 this free,
experimental university was a hub of creativity in the United States, much as Bauhaus had been
in Germany. John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Willem De Kooning, Walter Gropius and many others
taught there. Robert Rauschenberg, Arthur Penn, Cy Twombly were among its students.

Squares, circles (uncommon in Albers’ work) and visual interactions seem to describe the
precision, the subtlety and the nuance of Command recordings. The label was known for the
quality of its ‘ping pong’ stereophonic effects, which made use of the right-left channels made
possible by recent developments in amplification equipment. Albers’ drawing is a visual
metaphor of the instruments’ tempos and rhythms. It is more complex than it would suggest,
inviting us to perceive according to the relationship between what we see and what our brain
judges to be true at a given moment.

Walrus (Michiel Claus, 1987) is a DJ, producer and music archaeologist with a passion for 90s
dance music. Having studied jazz percussion at La Haye Royal Conservatory, he now unearths
unreleased tracks and creates an unexpected future for them, ‘breathing new life into
disregarded things’ by releasing forgotten tracks on vinyl through his Basic Moves label.

For this show, CCINQ asked Walrus to create a performance based on the modern gestures
Albers produced sixty years earlier, gestures that transcribed percussions and melodies into
shapes and patterns.

Over three days, Walrus will experiment with the possibilities offered by the ARP2600
synthesiser (an American instrument he has never played before) and will imagine a sound drawing, freely inspired by Albers’ squares and grid points. Each evening, Walrus will present a
different performance, in which art will be transformed by the links between artists.

Through his research, Walrus will capture different ambiances, sequences and sounds, which
will be uploaded to the internet in the form of open source samples, available on the CCINQ
website.

After these three evening performances, the ‘3 pieces for synthesiser (black, white, blue)’ will be
exhibited until 17th October via a sound device on our premises. In the absence of the makers,
this device will emphasise the ephemeral nature of music production and recall the key role
played by club culture in contemporary creation. Following on from our previous exhibition, we
wanted to express solidarity with a sector that has faced significant difficulties this year.

Patrick Carpentier