Fossil Aerosol Mining Project

The Fossil Aerosol Mining Project began in the mid-1980s as a loose-knit group of artists and collectors interested in exploring and gathering the damaged remains of late 20th century popular culture. Of particular appeal were inadvertent examples of the post-industrial, post-apocalyptic landscapes so commonly imagined in Cold War-era media. Places and debris that fostered views of modern pop mummified, and contemporary provisions made artifact. Zombie pepsis and fossil aerosols.

The project began harvesting audio recordings in 1983. The first studio experimentation began in 1986, soon followed by compositions that employed using literal “found sounds” such as fragments of open reel 1/4” tape and 35mm film recovered from burnt out warehouses and abandoned drive-in theaters. The earliest work involved physical tape loops and analog signal processes, which were gradually replaced by digital delay treatments and multitrack manipulation.

Two limited edition cassettes were released in 1987 and 1988, before the project was temporarily abandoned. In 1995, the old works were briefly revisited, resulting in the remastered “Cassette Recordings” CD. Two additional CD-Rs (Environmental Adjustments and 1874 from 1968) were produced during the late 1990s, using the old material and rapidly failing studio equipment.

In 2004 the Fossil Aerosol Mining Project was resurrected, and both old and new albums are now available through our parent label Afterdays Media, as well as other labels. Fossil Aerosol still works primarily with found materials – audio artifacts and field recordings. Signal processing equipment (as well as the mixing board itself) remains the principal form of instrumentation.

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Consider your culture as artifact.