The Diastolic Murmurs (Adam Bohman and Richard Crow) formed themselves in 1985 during electro-acoustic research within Phillip Wachsmann's legendary Electronic Music Studio (now demolished) at the City Literary Institute, Keeley Street, London WC2.
Primarily their (pseudo-medical) aesthetic was to explore as fully as possible an inner visceral "occult" sound-world inherent in any given object or material (with a preference for the damaged, broken and discarded) and their extraction or autopsy with the use of 'directly injected' contact microphones. This was given full expression in "theatre of cruelty" style audio-visual performances they called Live Electronic Dissections and in numerous studio recordings that took place at the Institution of Rot in Finsbury Park, London and later released on highly prized limited edition cassettes.
'Live' Electronic Dissections #1
First Live realisation
24/7/1985
Performance Studio, City Literary Institute, London, UK
Adam Bohman - Prepared violin, metal tubes, bowed & amplified objects, tape recorders, backing tapes
Richard Crow - Bowed & amplified objects, Fostex X15, tape recorders, backing tapes
Joe Banks - Installation of medical paraphernalia (Mask, tubes, goggles etc)
Recorded by Phillip Wachsmann
Photos by Nick Barker
Originally released in 1990 as a very limited edition C60 cassette The Diastolic Murmurs - 'Live' Electronic Dissections 1 & 2
'Live' Electronic Dissections #5
10/1/2017
Café Oto, London, UK, as part of The Bohman Nephelauxesis
"A concert of people who decided to form groups with Adam and Jonathan Bohman. Some of them are now dead, but they have still agreed to play just this once - exclusively and for one night only." Jonathan Bohman
Adam Bohman - Prepared Violin, metal tubes, bowed & amplified objects, wine glasses.
Richard Crow - Prepared Violin, bowed & amplified objects, plastic tubes, electronics, tape recorders, backing tapes, laptop
Recorded by James Dunn (Café Oto)
Mixed by Richard Crow
Photos by Carla Cuomo Studio
Cover photo by Ada Dobrowska (1986)
facebook.com/DiastolicMurmurs
institution-of-rot.org
richardcrow.bandcamp.com