to begin at the beginning,

in October nineteen hundred and seventy-nine, my saxophone flies with me to New York. „Message in a bottle“ by the Police is on the radio, the Gramercy and Chelsea are fully booked. The first few days I sleep on a mat on a wooden floor, near Columbia University. It is the flat of Beuys Meisterschüler Erinna König’s brother, a geologist, he is on an expedition. The nights are hard, the weather warm, my bones moan. Californian avocados are offered on street corners, big as honeydew melons and tasteless. After a few night`s with aching bones, I end up at Arleen Schloss in Downtown in a treasure, a bed. Conveniently, a stage with a bed. Beate, Bettina and Gudrun, Mania D. stay in Arleen’s office, Karin our drummer in her Fulton Street flat. My first American fan, the 18-year-old SAMO© exhibiting color xerox at Arleen’s. Later he shares her chamber with me. In Arleen’s bath we invented music with Michael Holman`s WASP synthesizer, the rhythm machine, the Selmer Sax, so as not to disturb our hostess while she was working. SAMO© 1979  ©Gerard Pas, London, Canada.

 

 

My diary:  you are my slumber, wait for Jean who recorded our invented music, disappeared to play it to his friends, came back quickly, sometimes hours later.

 

Leaving NYC he wrote in my coffer so that he would always be with me. Had to swear to come back soon. Diptyc 1981, case photo`s Thomas Ruff.

 

 

Jean painted the intended accident several times, they remained hidden. What united us– Mothers, which wanted to go to heaven with her kids. The feeling of being alone with this shame was cancelled for the moment. Phoebe Hoban, Basquiat p.17. How many orphans did he know? Was orphaned at 15.

 

 

 

Three decades after his death, I rediscovered the suitcase in which he wrote so that he would always be with me. Spanish– I don’t know that language. The two-line MAN MADE he smudged with his salvia, drew lines, smudged the dots and connected them with his saliva in a zigzag pattern. It`s an enigma, a love and protection spell. 2011 the Frankfurter Allgemeine published with  „This is not a suitcase, it just looks like one“ a rather clichéd report. The German VOGUE spared itself the inanities.

 

With Alan Vega from Suicide we discussed a „Metropolitan symphony“ according to the principles of „Musique concrète“ with everyday sounds from the streets of NYC.

 

 

My Selmer on which I showed Jean how to play. He wanted to practise without me telling him not to inflate his cheeks and put my initials on the case before he went to practise in secret. SAXAPHOIVE, international Phonetic Alphabet Eve [iːv], mute the second e see Mania D.

 

 

Halloween Nite before the Beuys Retrospective in the Guggenheim at A`s Arleen Schloss. Incantation with pendulum and Sax and SAMO© on the Wasp synthesizer.

 

All his works are test patterns.