purge.xxx #26 - Frans Zwartjes

purge.xxx releases music. It has been celebrated by The Wire magazine for its ‘disregard for the music industry, self-promotion and prevailing cultural norms,’ and an ‘ability to elevate distinct works and the obscure artists behind them.’ purge.xxx only releases music physically, unless a digital alternative has specifically been requested by a collaborating artist. It considers even the recording a compromise, but advocates things.

Running weekly, the series will broadcast the entire catalogue so far in chronological order, continuing here with Frans Zwartjes.

Frans Zwartjes’ studio remains untouched since his passing in 2017. In early 2023, we returned to the studio and discovered a trunk of unlabelled 3/4 inch tapes, containing completely unheard music by Zwartjes. These works, largely synthesiser-based improvisations for films either unmade or unfinished, were played and recorded by Zwartjes between the late 1960s, through his most fertile filmmaking period in the 1970s, and continuing in to the early 1980s.

Unlike his previous releases, these recordings have been transferred directly from the original source tapes, newly mastered and available to hear for the first time as a double LP release. A comprehensive new interview with TRIX Zwartjes, the life-partner and collaborator of FRANS is included in a booklet accompanying every copy of the record.

numbered + handmade in an edition of 300 copies only; 180gr 2xLP 12” vinyl in custom-made screen-printed outer (sealed), with an eight-page xerox-printed booklet containing an interview with Trix Zwartjes and lots of previously unseen photographs from the Zwartjes family albums; no digital - special edition of 5 copies only