Dr. Ir. Annette Gomperts is Research Fellow in Histories of Architecture, specialising in marginalised architectural histories, at the Division of Architectural Engineering – Department of Civil Architecture, Architectural History and Architectonics – Faculté Polytechnique de Mons (Belgium). She was also Titus Salt Visiting Fellow at the University of Bradford from 2005-2011. Gomperts came to our attention when she presented the lecture and book Thin Air: The Psycho-Vocalic Discoveries of Alan Smithson at Expo Leeds, a sonic arts festival, in 2009. Thin Air highlights the extraordinary legacy of cassette recordings and notebooks of 1970s Leeds Polytechnic student Alan Smithson (see link to the lecture below). We at Owd Scrat were much beguiled by Smithson’s story and decided to approach Gomperts about releasing excerpts from her collection of Smithson’s tapes. The cassette release Interference Zone, especially selected by Gomperts herself, was the result. Thanks to Sonia Beck and Phill Harding. Photos by Ron Crowcroft.
Alan Smithson and Annette Gomperts’ releases on Owd Scrat: