Arcana:

(RYDEN, MARK) (RIDGWAY, STAN). Ryden, Mark, Stan Ridgway & Pietra Wexstun. Sierra Madre, CA: Porterhouse Fine Art Editions, 2003. First Edition 1/7500. 8vo. Illustrated Wrappers. Artist Monograph. As New./No Jacket - As Issued. One 7 ¾ x 17" cardstock sheet printed color offset recto and verso, neatly folded in thirds to make 7 ¾ x 5 ½". Art Direction and Design by Mark Ryden and Brian Jackson. Produced in conjunction with Mark Ryden's "Blood: Miniature Paintings of Sorrow & Fear", this is a beautifully packaged CD of fourteen compositions that comprised the musical score and audio installation for the 2003 New York gallery exhibition. It contains five color reproductions of paintings from the show (that are the artist's near-perfect distillation of childhood creepiness transformed into adult fine art) that fold out to create a three-paneled shrine. Conceived by erstwhile Wall of Voodoo and Drywall founder Stan Ridgway along with Hecate's Angels' Pietra Wexstun, the performers are Ridgway - 6 and 12 string guitars, harmonica, Prophet 5, samples, Chamberlin; Wexstun - piano, organ, Juno 106, Mellotron, Moog, samples, autoharp, voices; Lazlo Vickers - cello, violin, contrabass; and Alvin Fike - brass, and reeds. Says Ridgway: "When contacted about writing music for Mr. Mark Ryden's "Blood Show ", we were excited and honored to be asked. Having both been admirers of Mark's work for quite some time, fellow composer Pietra Wexstun and I both saw it a lot like scoring a great film, but with one exception. The so called sonic "action" would be an interior one and psychological; a meditative and transcendental approach....and hopefully more like an "aroma" of sound; other than a music that would shout at you to listen to it, or get in the way. Ambient? Yes. We both worked for a musical "soundtrack" that the listener would "feel" more than hear. A functional and utilitarian device that would draw out the essential essence of the work and play low in the background, barely perceived by the viewer in the gallery". A brand new, pristine example of the 2003 first printing of this exotic object - not the later jewel-boxed reissue - still in the original shrinkwrap accompanied by an 8 x 6" glossy promotional postcard featuring a reproduction of Ryden's "The Baptism of Jajo" on the recto. Inventory Number: 026974