Hallucinations Music and Words for William S. Burroughs

1. Alamout (Hall – voice)
2. Hallucinations (Gzowski – oud; Hall – bass flute)
3. Cut-Up (Hall – tenor sax; Rudd – trombone; Ratcliff, Gzowski – guitars)
4. Grey Fingers ( (Merril – voice)
5. Splintered Carnival (Rudd – trombone; Molnar – marimba; Gzowski – guitar)
6. Photo Falling, Word Falling (Hall – tenor sax; Rudd – trombone; Perera – guitar)
7. El Hombre Invisible (Rudd – trombone; Ratcliff – guitar; Molnar – vibes)
8. The Book of the Dead (Hall – voice)
9. The Blue Desert of Silence (ensemble)
10. A Few Questions for CONTROL (Hall -voice)
11. The Ant Hill (Molnar – marimba; Rudd – trombone)
12. Uranian Willy (He Wised Up the Marks) (Ratcliff – slide guitar; Rudd – trombone)
13. Wild Boys (Ratcliff – guitar; Rudd- trombone; Gzowski – guitar; Hall – tenor sax; Perera – guitar)
14. Virus Powers (The Book of the Word) (Hall – tenor sax; Rudd – trombone)

All compositions and arrangements by Glen Hall.

– Personnel: Glen Hall – tenor and soprano saxophones, bass flute, bass clarinet, electronics, samples, voices
– Roswell Rudd – trombone
– Handslang (Nilan Perera – guitar; Rob Clutton – bass; John Lennard – drums)
– Barry Elmes – drums
– John Gzowski – guitar, oud, soprano guitar, electric dowl
– Geordie McDonald – percussion
– Judith Merril – voice
– Allan Molnar – vibes, marimba
– Kim Ratcliff – guitar, slide guitar, banjo
– Don Thompson – bass, piano

All compositions recorded “live” February 28-March 2, 1997, at the Music Gallery, Toronto except (recorded and mixed at Stimulus/Response)

– Mixed at Percussion Studio
– Mastered at Stimulus/Response
– Recording engineer – Paul Hodge
– Mixing – Allan Molnar, Glen Hall
– Producers – Glen Hall, Allan Molnar
– Executive Producer – Glen Hall

In 1973, while studying modern Amercian literature, I was asked to produce “a response” to any novel I had been reading. I chose to do a tape collage about “The Market”, a section of William Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch”. That same year, I finished my post-graduate work with my thesis on Burroughs’ cut-up and fold-in techniques of composition. Later, when studying composition, I produced a multimedia piece based on a chapter of ‘”The Wild Boys”.

Twenty years later, while recording with a group I was asked to assemble, Strange Attractors, I used several scenes from Burroughs’ “Nova Express” and “The Wild Boys” to spark spontaneous compositions. I tried unsuccessfully to do a multimedia project with Burroughs himself among others, but the effort, the mistakes and the contacts made during the attempt eventually bore fruit. I had asked trombonist Roswell Rudd if he would participate in the first project. When that didn’t materialize, I persisted and wound up conceiving “Hallucinations”-a multimedia work involving recording rehearsals/performances attended by audiences invited to watch “the process” of creating the work itself.

Film, video, electronic sound projection, spoken word, visual art (statues, found objects) and a ten-piece ensemble with three guitarists, two bassists, two drummers, a percussionist, a vibist, a trombonist and me were all incorporated into a visual/aural work, judging by the audience’s reaction, had quite an impact. The recording, done five months before the novelist’s death, is a good representation of what we did over three days, and serves as an alternative “port of entry” into the hallucinatory world of William S. Burroughs.