Fifteen years ago today, on June 1st, 2007, Throbbing Gristle began a three day residency at the art gallery where they were first declared “wreckers of civilization” over three decades earlier. London’s ICA, Institute of Contemporary Arts, became host to a 12 hour installation, conducted in two hour segments, twice a day, over the course of three consecutive days (Friday, Saturday & Sunday). The Desertshore Installation was intended to offer its rotating audience a glimpse into the creative process of TG while they began work on a complete cover version of Nico’s classic album, Desertshore.
The idea for the project originated with Peter Christopherson, who wanted to take TG into new territory and push the collective into processes outside their comfort zone. The idea to do this in front of an audience was both daring and risky as they put themselves on display during the must vulnerable parts of their creative process. This was particularly challenging for Genesis P-Orridge, who was tasked with interpreting Nico’s idiosyncratic vocal style, often in languages other than English. The other members were less on the spot as some elements, like basic rough rhythm tracks, were prepared in advance of the installation.
In practice, the bulk of the sessions seemed to revolve around trying to capture usable vocal takes, though the group would intersperse these with numerous improvisations completely separate from the Nico songs. A selection of these improves eventually became mixed and augmented to form The Third Mind Movements album, which was issued in 2009 to coincide with the group's US mini-tour. The entirety of the show was videotaped and recorded on binaural digital audio with the audio portion issued in a limited edition 12 disc CD-R bound wallet set of approximately 250 copies. The video documentation has never been published to date to my knowledge.
After the installation and before the group could complete the album, Genesis suddenly & mysteriously departed TG after the initial London gig for a scheduled short EU tour in December of 2010. Peter Christopherson then died suddenly soon after that and the project lay dormant for a couple of years. Eventually, Chris Carter & Cosey Fanni Tutti took up the task of completing it in 2012, salvaging the recordings and equipment Sleazy had collected and taking it to their Norfolk schoolhouse studio for completion.
With Genesis estranged from them and the recordings of he/r vocals from the ICA sessions deemed unusable, the duo decided to take a different approach to finish the project and invited a number of friends and associates to do guest vocals. The resulting album was then released under the X-TG banner along with a second disc of improvisations recorded at their studio by Chris, Cosey & Peter before his death. A third ambient remix CD was also issued in a limited edition for close friends. The Desertshore project would ultimately serve as a capstone for TG as no further material has yet to surface from the surviving Industrial Records shareholders.
