Lee Ranaldo | In Virus Times

Lee Ranaldo

In Virus Times

London, UK: Mute, 2021

12” vinyl LP and poster

Edition of 2500 signed and numbered copies

In Virus Times is a twenty-two minute long EP, released as a singled-sided 12” record. The verso of the turquoise vinyl features an etching by Ranaldo, calling back to his first solo release From Here to Infinity (1987), which featured a b-side etching by Savage Pencil.1

The cover image of a flower and a shard of broken glass is by Brazilian photographer Anna Bogaciovas. The motif continues with a signed and hand-stamped folded print that appears in the first 2500 copies. What appears to be a flower (or a variation on the scratched record prints Ranaldo has been producing recently) is actually a drawing of a Covid molecule from an electron-microscope.

The way that William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops accrues meaning from its association with the fall of the World Trade Center attacks, the anxiety of the Covid lockdowns looms large over the project2. It was recorded in the Lower Manhattan loft that Ranaldo shares with his partner (and frequent collaborator) Leah Singer, and their two sons3. An early version of the work featured sounds of radio broadcasts about the virus, and the upcoming election. 

The recording began as a seventy-five minute work and was later extensively edited, pared down by two-thirds. It’s an extremely intimate work, performed on acoustic guitar in the living room, in the dark, captured by two microphones. The windows are left open and occasionally the sounds of traffic can be heard, or the shuffle of someone else in the home, possibly a tap running. 

Broken into four parts, and titled accordingly, the composition builds slowly, with chords played and given time to hang in the air. It almost feels like Ranaldo is reacquainting himself with the instrument after some time away from it. He can occasionally be heard vocalizing wordlessly, as if working out an arrangement in real time. Later, some whistling. Overtone-rich harmonics feature heavily. 

In his review for Pitchfork (see below) Marshall Gu identifies Joni Mitchell and Jim O’Rourke as influences and Ranaldo himself cites Morton Feldman. Michael Nyman’s Decay Music (see earlier post here) comes to mind also, itself inspired by Feldman - the playing of a chord and letting it ring out, unimpeded. 

It’s a beautiful work: unadorned and minimal, almost ambient, and it hasn’t left the turntable in days. 

1. Savage Pencil is the nom de plume of Edwin Pouncey, whose illustrations have graced many Sonic Youth releases (Death Valley ’69, Walls Have Ears, Town and Country 4, etc.) as well as for recordings by Big Black, Bonnie Prince Billy, Laurel Canyon, Coil, The Fall, The Residents, Sunn O))), and many others. 

2. Ranaldo often responds to current events in his work, from Occupy Wall Street to Hurricane Sandy, which featured on his LP Last Night on Earth and the piece he performed for Sappyfest last week. 

3.  They live only a few blocks away from the World Trade Centre site. Their home filled with ash on 9/11. 

4. Michael Nyman: "It was a solo piano piece where you sustain a hundred chords running from the top of the piano to the bottom of the piano. When the sound has died away, you play the next chord. It’s an old Morton Feldman idea."

"In Virus Times blends inspiration from two vastly different artists. The first is Joni Mitchell, whose unique style was a source of inspiration for Sonic Youth’s open tunings. Ranaldo conjures Mitchell’s method of letting an unanswered chord hang in the air; in fact, it’s the very first sound we hear on the EP. The second major influence is Jim O’Rourke, the producer-turned-official member of Sonic Youth. Ranaldo specifically draws from the sound of O’Rourke’s 1997 album Bad Timing, which combined John Fahey-indebted solo guitar and minimalism with a dash of dissonance. These influences are evident, but the playing throughout is unmistakably Ranaldo’s."

- Marshall Gu, Pitchfork

"Nothing was happening. There was no one of the streets. We were seeing very-very few people and the most I could do when I first sat down is just to strum a chord and listen to it. And then, strum it again and strum it again. There was almost… not maniacal…but the sense of how empty everything was. And I was trying to make music that reflected that. An empty chord ringing into space, listening to it in the same way as the flower of the cover – listen to it bloom and decay. And really just listening to the sound. It was a moment, because we were all trapped in our places, that I really felt the sense of anything you said, it just echoed down in the room… Because, there was nothing going on!”

- Lee Ranaldo