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From The Desk Of Negativland: Peter Bergman

Negativland was asked to be guest editor of MAGNET this week, which poses a challenge to such a large collective of members with extremely disparate tastes and obsessions. Members Peter Conheim and Mark Hosler came forward to share what’s been on their minds lately and, indeed, what’s informed their thoughts and work over the years. The group’s new album is entitled It’s All In Your Head and, being entirely about faith, monotheism and why humans believe in God, comes packaged inside of an actual King James Bible. And while religion and intolerance are posing the biggest and toughest dilemmas facing the world today—well, excepting that climate business—Negativland will focus instead this week on such things as sounds, pictures and books. And the impending death of everything due to digital technology.

PeterBergman

Peter Conheim: The world lost a human in 2012 without whom Negativland’s Over The Edge radio program would likely have never existed: Peter Bergman of Firesign Theatre. Firesign wasn’t just the group responsible for so many of your parents’ LPs, which they’d play after you went to bed and they got stoned, they were also pioneers of freely improvised radio, starting out on Bergman’s Radio Free Oz program in Los Angeles in 1966 and eventually developing into a fearsome foursome of dada hilarity. There’s no better place to trip face-first into Firesign than its mammoth Duke Of Madness Motors book, which comes with 80 hours of archival recordings from its golden years. Negativland was honored to be able to co-release the project several years ago.

Video after the jump.