qrz382 - john watermann

john watermann (19.2.1935 - 2.4.2002) was an artist based in
brisbane, australia. over the course of his life watermann worked
with almost every conceivable artistic medium. in many ways, he was
the epitome of the “total artist”; almost every element of his life
being in some way his own artistic project. as a young man in his
native germany he worked as a photographer and documentary
filmmaker, also etching, painting and writing. his experience as a
youth in germany in the second world war influencing his work from
then right through until his death. following his move to australia
watermann worked as jeweller, opening a number of shops in sydney
with his longtime australian partner barbara heath (an accomplished
jeweller in her own right) and meanwhile continued to write, paint
and even sculpt. eventually, after traveling the east coast of
australia in a self-built sailing boat, watermann settled in
brisbane and began to produce his music. he first released his
music in 1989 in the form of the album “warmth is the fifth room”.
like most of his releases, it appeared in a run of very few copies
on his own label “nightshift”, and was consequently difficult to
find. over the next 10 years he released numerous albums and
contributed to a number of compilations, both under his own name as
a solo artist, in collaboration with others (such as merzbow) and
under a number of pseudonyms (including radio mull, spinal machine
and total disease). also, apart from his music, in the 1990s he
created an interactive cd-rom work “rose is a rose is a” and
published the webzine “lean yellow supporting”. sadly, on april 2nd
2002 john watermann died suddenly of an infection resulting from
his ongoing treatment for cancer. having in the final year of his
life returned to painting and writing (alongside a burgeoning
interest in cooking), he still had vast plans for future projects.
despite his vast artistic output, watermann has been known almost
exclusively for his music and even then his work remains largely
undiscovered, perhaps for no other reason than its sheer
unavailability. in many ways watermann could be considered a
classic example of the artists’ artist, his work influencing many
far more prominent sonic alchemists. prior to his death, watermann
gave the australian organization alias frequencies his full support
and permission to publish both his previously released and
unreleased works. these works are being made available for free.
find them here: http://aliasfrequencies.org
http://johnwatermann.net. wir hören einen kurzen ausschnitt aus der
doppel-cd illusions of infinite bliss, die 1990 auf walter ubricht
schallfolien erschien. |>> john watermann - vatican griller