Enormous talent, born American, about which much (but never enough) has been written by the "old masters" of experimental, home-taper scene on the occasion of his suicide on 11th December 2012... Damian Alfred Bisciglia, under moniker Agog.
Randy Greif remembers Damian Bisciglia
In Memory Of Damian Bisciglia by Dylan Nyoukis
Damian Bisciglia Tribute by Johannes Bergmark
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| Agog's Hebdomos, First Edition, 1989-90, an example of special cassette packaging on Spagyric |
In the 1980s Agog owned the Spagyric label, which reflected the care and effort he put into his art, works that included sculptures made from found objects, beautiful handmade collages, and funny manipulated tapes. He also made sound collages incorporating free-jazz, noise, musique concrete - everything including rock. Bisciglia was an artist who devoted his life to cassette culture. His creations still decorate both his own tapes and those by other artists, his friends and collaborators, and continue to inspire us to this day.
Besides the Points Of Friction releases from the 1980s - a group Bisciglia was a member of alongside Joseph Hammer, Kenny Ryman and Tim Alexander, The Erotic Builders with Mitchell Brown and Joseph Hammer, and Bisciglia Bohman Hammer (with Joseph Hammer + Adam Bohman) - he contributed artwork and music to numerous collaborations with iconic artists such as Minoy (used to call themselves No Mail On Sundays), Zan Hoffman, Randy Greif, Eric Lanzilotta, Mitchell Brown, Dylan Nyoukis, Johannes Bergmark, Matt Piper, Kio Griffith and many others.
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| His kind is of the utopian character that I feel so attracted to, of the excited curiosity for the basic raw materials of sounding matter and making the music directly from there, treating discarded traditional instruments like the zither in the same way as found decorative metal sculptures and other trash that can be recycled into a new life of sonic excitement and often bizarre weirdness. - Johannes Bergmark |
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| Damian Bisciglia with his sister Debra, niece Natale and nephew Carter (another sister Laura kids) |
"Factories" is collaboration pseudonym between Agog and Dutch collective De Fabriek, jointly issued on tape by Zan Hoffman and later reissued on CD.
Happy birthday and rest in peace, beautiful Damian.
Courtesy of Debra Bisciglia-Casas and Taylor
Happy birthday and rest in peace, beautiful Damian.
Courtesy of Debra Bisciglia-Casas and Taylor
