VCSR: Summer 1979 CS
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When going through my partner’s tape collection as we moved in together in 2017, I came across a beautiful cassette with the name Bil Vermette on its spine. Opening the J-card revealed its title, Archives I, a compilation of tracks recorded between 1978 and 1988 and released in 2012 by the Chicago label Field Studies. Filled with an incredible palette of synth sounds, Bil Vermette’s special blend of cosmic, psychedelic and ambient music instantly became a favorite of mine, and a precious influence on my musical tastes, alongside Planetary Unfolding by Michael Stearns and Eleusis by Paul Sauvanet.
As a librarian, the word archive always catches my attention, as it is sometimes overused without a full understanding of its meaning. An archive of what, created and preserved by whom? I soon discovered that Bil Vermette’s archive was not merely theoretical or conceptual. He truly is the keeper of a realm of recorded material spanning from the 1970s to the present day, encompassing both his solo work and his collaborative project, VCSR. A visit to Bil’s Bandcamp page reveals years of careful curation, as he steadily shares capsules extracted from his vault, acting as both their guardian and mediator.
Choosing the material for our first collaboration together was no easy task, as every album contains intricate material spanning from the 1970s to the present day. Yet listening to Whales, a captivating 30-minute meditation, was an instant revelation that led us to focus on Summer 1979, a selection of tracks by VCSR, “recorded in July and August 1979, usually after midnight, onto a TEAC A3340 4-track reel-to-reel recorder with no mixer”, as Bil Vermette explains.
In the end, an archive is not only a reflection of the past. The care invested in preserving and sharing it also serves as a mirror of our present and future selves, inviting us to consider how we communicate, protect and extend an idea of legacy. It's an honor to build and share a new reading of Bil's legacy via this limited edition cassette release. - Frédérique Duval