It was John Cage’s 100th birthday on Wednesday, and Lawrence English is alive to this fact. So alive that he’s releasing a full record dedicated to Cage on September 18 through Line. Entitled For / Not For John Cage, the LP consists eight tracks of English’s trademark gorgeous, glistening drift. The concept was borne from a project English worked on alongside video artist Scott Morrison, which involved the restaging of Cage’s late-career filmic collaboration with One11.
Anyway, that clearly wasn’t enough for English, because here’s a full record. He explains it thusly:
“Part way through the process of composing music for One11 (refocused), it became clear that a body of sound work was forming (beyond the music created for the One11 (refocused) soundtrack) that drew heavily on some of Cage’s passions—specifically his interests in Zen Buddhism (and the space for contemplation this philosophy opens) and also that of chance operations.”