It was a great experience and a pleasure to curate this year’s Linear Obsessional compilation, A View From a Hill.
This the intro to the accompanying “Descriptive Catalogue”:
When Richard Sanderson put out a call for volunteers to compile this year’s Linear Obsessional compilation I willingly put myself forward (after some reassurances that it wouldn’t be too much work, honest). I’d contributed to the previous year’s Utterances and really enjoyed it – not only was it great to work to a brief (two minutes exactly, must use the human voice), but hearing the results of the finished collection was ear-opening –to hear how artists had used the brief as a jumping off point to produce an astonishing variety of
work.The theme for this year’s compilation was really the first thing that occurred to me – maybe the time of year puts me in mind of MR James – the title comes from one of his ghost stories, or maybe because when I volunteered, I’d just spent a day in Hebden Bridge, nestling amongst the Pennines. Anyway, the theme seemed to suggest two things close to my heart – landscape / countryside; and eeriness. I’m very pleased with the results and I hope you are too. Some artists have concentrated on the Jamesian aspects of the title, recorded or interpreted landscapes of importance to them, or combined both. I’ve loved hearing results from artists living down the road to me (almost literally in some cases) to ones from the other side of the world (Australia, Asia and the United States to name a few).
My own submission was a reading of one the amazing Molly Bloom‘s short ghost stories over a suitably spooky soundscape.