- A companion to the legendary 1986 album World Of Echo, Audika's latest compilation proves there's still more brilliance to hear from the Arthur Russell archives.
- An unexpectedly open chord, a twinge of cello, a lyric you can't quite parse that seems to resonate with your entire emotional existence regardless. That's Arthur Russell, sounding like no one but himself, as he shapeshifted through styles as diverse as disco and folk rock, during a career that lasted from the '70s up to his death at age 40 in 1992. Though Russell wasn't an entirely obscure figure during his lifetime, he was an odd duck with a reputation for being unable or unwilling to close the book on his various musical projects. When a collaborator or record label suit could successfully pry his hands off the mixing board, the result might be legendary—like Dinosaur L's "Go Bang! #5", an expertly messy epic that captures the jolt of the dance floor like few other big tunes in the history of recorded music.
But he couldn't always reel in his boundless creativity. Much of what we now think of as Arthur Russell's body of work has been pieced together by Audika Records, a label whose mission for the past two decades has been making heads and tails of his extensive archives. Audika founder Steve Knutson has been guided in his curatorial task not by any direct connection to the late artist, but by a boundless devotion to the only proper Arthur Russell solo album released while he was alive: World Of Echo. As Knutson, who first heard Russell's music while working in the shipping department at Tommy Boy Records, told Pitchfork, he bought World On Echo on sight when it came out in 1986 on the strength of Russell's dance music, and didn't get it—only to give it another shot years later after seeing cheap copies in used record bins around New York, which he started buying up and giving away.
It's easy to understand Knutson's initial confusion and ensuing dedication. Featuring little more than cello and voice massaged by reverb, World Of Echo is a cycle of logic-defying songs among the most challenging music he ever crafted, but its womb-like intimacy makes it profoundly accessible for so-called experimental music. It's become the improbable hook of a posthumous career otherwise defined by music that sounds almost nothing like it, at least on the surface. But by foregrounding the singular creative impulse he'd often tuck deep into genre music, World Of Echo has become wayfinder for hearing Arthur Russell within archival compilations that have continually challenged tidy definitions of what he sounded like.
That makes the latest from Audika an interesting turn for the series. Where collections like Calling Out of Context and Corn showed Russell twisting his music into beat-oriented bedroom pop, and Love Is Overtaking Me and Iowa Dream surprised with their almost subversively conventional singer-songwriter material, Picture of Bunny Rabbit—featuring recordings made around the same time and in a similar mood as World Of Echo—captures Arthur Russell burrowing even deeper into his sonic signature.
For anyone who's been listening to Russell for a while, Picture of Bunny Rabbit might be the first time you've heard his music actually meet your expectations: save the occasional stray keyboard or guitar, the collection is all cello, voice and playful obfuscation. Some of the songs sound like they genuinely could have fallen off the World Of Echo tracklist, like "The Boy With A Smile," which builds off-balance folk twang through a tapestry of scratchy strings. Whether you're the completist who knows the context or a first-time visitor to this hallowed sonic ground, there's a lot to feel. On the seven-minute suite formed by "Not Checking Up" and "Telling No One," layers of bowed cello meld with Russell's baritone into a single, indescribable instrument. This is an artist completely in the zone. And since it's Arthur Russell, that zone is as deep, detailed and profoundly intimate as you'll find in any music.
Huge credit is due to Audika: while Picture Of Bunny Rabbit is an archival compilation built from disparate sources, it feels like the kind of asymmetrical, twisty little solo album Russell would have made himself, not just a bonus disc. A trio of tracks labeled "Fuzzbuster," pulled from a mysterious test pressing Russell's family found in Iowa (where he spent his childhood), sprinkle the album with alien timbres—post-punk-y guitars, moody keyboards—that should perk up even the most expert ears.
The album even has a legitimate trick up its sleeve for Arthur Russell die-hards with a new version of "In The Light Of A Miracle." Russell was known to jam on an idea for hours at a time, and even return to a musical idea again and again across eras and styles, resulting in numerous songs with the same title that are, in varying degree, versions of each other. "In The Light Of A Miracle" is best known as a floating, Talking Heads-esque cut on Another Thought, Russell's first posthumous album from 1994. But here, "In The Light Of A Miracle" isn't a groove but a springboard of nervy cello punctuated by Russell's ping-ponging vocals. The lyrics ("Reaching in the light / Calling in the light…") may be familiar, but it took me numerous trips through Picture Of Bunny Rabbit to catch any similarity to the songs at all, outside of a tantalising song title slipped into the final spot on the tracklist.
However you're coming to Picture Of Bunny Rabbit, make sure you get there. Russell's archives have been emptying for a couple decades at this point, and there have been whispers that Audika's work may be nearing completion. To get not just an addendum to, but a true expansion of, such a critical period in Russell's artistry so late into his career's posthumous second act—that's a gift, one you'll be teasing apart for years to come.
Tracklist01. Fuzzbuster #10
02. Not Checking Up
03. Telling No One
04. Fuzzbuster #06
05. The Boy With A Smile
06. Fuzzbuster #09
07. Very Reason
08. Picture Of Bunny Rabbit
09. In The Light Of A Miracle