FOSSIL AEROSOL MINING PROJECT
The Fossil Aerosol Mining Project began in the early 1980s as a loose-knit group of artists and collectors interested in exploring and gathering the damaged remains of late 20th century popular culture. Of particular appeal were inadvertent examples of the post-industrial, post-apocalyptic landscapes so commonly imagined in the media of the cold war era. Places and debris that fostered views of modern pop mummified, and contemporary provisions made artifact. Zombie pepsis and fossil aerosols.
The project began producing audio recordings in 1983, using literal “found sounds” such as fragments of open reel 1/4” tape and 35mm film recovered from burnt out warehouses and abandoned drive-in theaters. The earliest compositions involved physical tape loops and analog signal processes, which were gradually replaced by digital delay treatments and multitrack manipulation.
A series of recordings were produced between 1983 and 1989, before the project was abandoned. Limited edition cassettes of the earliest recordings were briefly distributed in Midwestern record stores during the late 1980s. In 1995, the old works were briefly revisited, resulting in the remastered Cassette Recordings CD. Two additional CDs were produced during the 1990s, using the old recordings.
In 2004, the Fossil Aerosol Mining Project was resurrected, and the new compositions are now available through Afterdays Media. The Project still works entirely with found materials - audio artifacts and field recordings. Signal processing equipment (as well as the mixing board itself) remains the principal form of instrumentation.
Fossil Aerosol’s recordings consist of artificial soundscapes, melodic compositions, and cinematic narratives constructed of heavily treated and layered debris. Studio processes share affinities with the work of artists such as Zoviet France or Rapoon, while the use of appropriated media has also been compared to post-punk era recordings by The Flying Lizards and Negativland.
New songs from an imposed past tense.