In 1980, Genesis P-Orridge and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson of
(then-)Throbbing Gristle travelled to New York City to meet up at the
fortified apartment, known as The Bunker, of famed beat writer and
cultural pioneer William S. Burroughs and his executor James Grauerholz.
Genesis and Sleazy started the daunting task of compiling the
experimental sound works of Burroughs, which, up until that point, had
never been widely heard.
During those visits, Burroughs would play back his tape recorder
experiments featuring his spoken word "cut-ups", collaged field
recordings from his travels and his flirtations with EVP recording
techniques, pioneered by Latvian intellectual Konstantins Raudive. Over
the following year, P-Orridge, Christopherson and Grauerholz spent
countless hours compiling various edits, each collection showcasing
Burroughs sensitive ear and experimental prowess for audio anomaly
within technical limitations. In early 1981, Burroughs had relocated to
Lawrence, KS to escape the violence and manias of New York City life.
There, P-Orridge and Christopherson put the finishing touches on the
record that would be known as Nothing Here Now but the Recordings.
Released in Spring 1981, the album would end up as the final release on
Industrial Records, brought about by the dissolution of Throbbing
Gristle. It was quietly out of print until 1998, when John Giorno and
the Giorno Poetry Systems included the album on a retrospective CD box
set, which compiled the majority of Burroughs's seminal recordings. In
2015, Dais Records worked closely with the Estate of William S.
Burroughs to finally re-release, for the first time in 36 years, a
proper vinyl reissue of William S. Burroughs Nothing Here Now but the
Recordings to celebrate the centennial anniversary of William S.
Burroughs. For the 2023 edition, Dais has remastered the audio with
renowned engineer Josh Bonati, and restored the original artwork with a
new dedication to Genesis Breyer P- Orridge and Peter Christopherson.
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