Butterfield: Music for Klein and Beuys – Pillar of Snails
Schwitters: Ursonate

« Amrit was a Phoenician port in what is now Syria, just north of the Lebanese border, facing the island of Ruad. Little is left of the city: two mausoleums on a hilss, known as the Spndles; a ruined tmeple gate; and the so-called Tower, or Pillar, of the Snails, a massive black basalt cube that once sat on a pedestal, but has now fallen and is half-submerged in a marsh. (Similar cubes can be found in Nabataean tombs at Petra in Jordan, dating from about 400 BC. They are thought to represent the culture’s deity.) During a day of searching, I found the mausoleums and the gate, but not the cube. I started writing Pillar of Snails on a park bench in Aachen in September 1984 and finished it at home on Spadina Avenue in Toronto in March 1987. It is dedicated to the American composer Lee Hyla. »

– Christopher Butterfield

CHRISTOPHER BUTTERFIELD

1. Music for Klein and Beuys

KURT SCHWITTERS

2-5. Ursonate

CHRISTOPHER BUTTERFIELD

6. Pillar of Snails