We all have events in our life that we spend years trying to get away from,
only to look over our shoulder to see them trailing closely behind. Set in
the spiraling structure of the parking ramp, Strange Neonatal Cry tells this
kind of story: a woman witnesses the assault of a parking ramp attendant
and becomes obsessed with the surrounding events. The spirally structured
parking ramps of late 20th century life create a very dreamlike environment,
yet at the same time we know that world intimately: a world in which up is
also simultaneously under and over, and forward becomes backward and then
quickly forward again as we move back up ahead. The spoken text is bound
to the supporting world of sound through the use of instruments that spin,
including hurdy-gurdy, sirens, Hammond B3 with Leslie speaker, Bullroar, and
Shepard tones.
About Erik Belgum
Belgum's "ambient fictions" have aired throughout the United States, Canada,
Europe and Australia. In addition to his novel Star Fiction, he has
published fiction in dozens of literary journals and websites. The
Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes called him, "Among the best of the younger
writers of fiction, let alone experimental fiction." Strange Neonatal Cry
is the second innova release of Belgum's "Ambient Fiction."
About "Ambient Fiction"
I've always been impressed by the way the sound of a quiet AM radio can
change the ambience of a room or a car. It almost imposes evening or
darkness on an otherwise well-lit situation. Or the ambient sound of a
person talking in the next room. So in this sense the fiction here isn't
ambient, but the ambience is a fiction. However, I also like fiction that
is ambient. Literature you can wander into and out of without losing your
sense of purpose or general focus -- like the music of LaMonte Young or
Alvin Lucier or the writing of Stein or Beckett.
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