MUTE have announced details of a London event, launching the long awaited box set, STUMM433, out on 25 October 2019. The event, at Café OTO in the afternoon of Sunday 27 October, will see Daniel Miller and Simon Fisher Turner in conversation and a playback of selections from the 5-piece box set – full details below.

STUMM433 is the latest in the MUTE 4.0 (1978 > TOMORROW) series: a box set collating an unprecedented selection of Mute artists past, present and future, out on vinyl as a very limited box set edition of 433, signed by Daniel Miller as well as CD (both 5-piece collections, available from Mute Bank), and to download and stream. 

STUMM433 features a huge array – over 50 – of Mute artists including Yann Tiersen, The Normal, Goldfrapp, Laibach, Depeche Mode, Liars, Silicon Teens, Erasure, K Á R Y Y N, Irmin Schmidt and many more, all presenting their own interpretation of one piece of music: John Cage’s game changing composition, 4’33”.

In recent weeks, Mute have shared visual contributions to the STUMM433 box set, watch these below:

Nitzer Ebb

ADULT

The Afghan Whigs

Each artist has created a visual to accompany their performance and a selection of 28 designers associated with Mute have contributed artwork inspired by 4’33”, including Simone Grant, who worked with Miller on a lot of the early Mute artwork (The Normal, Fad Gadget and Depeche Mode); Steve Claydon, a member of Add N To (X) who designed for Goldfrapp; Slim Smith, who worked with Mute through the 1980s and 1990s; Malcolm Garrett, who designed the House of Illustrious box set for Vince Clarke and Martyn Ware; Tom HIngston, who has worked with Erasure and created the majority of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Grinderman artwork since the early 2000s and Anton Corbjin, who has worked closely with Mute on many campaigns since the early 1980s, including Depeche Mode, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Fad Gadget.

The vinyl box set will include a set of candles, designed by award-winning perfumer Joseph Quartana of Six Scents Parfums, as an interpretation of 4’33”. Quartana imagined a flash of lightning in an old wooden theatre as metaphor for the lingering afterglow of a concert performance in order to answer the question: what is the scent of silence? 

4’33” is among the most important of all contemporary music compositions. Composed and premiered in 1952, 4’33” is a piece for any instrument or combination of instruments. The score instructs the performer or performers not to play their instrument for the duration of the piece (generally four minutes and 33 seconds). As challenging and thought-provoking now as it was when it was premiered, 4’33” completely changed popular thinking on silence, sound, composition and listening. 

Daniel Miller explains, “John Cage’s 4’33” has been present in my musical life for as long as I can remember as an important and inspiring composition. When the idea of every Mute artist doing their own interpretation of the piece came up during a conversation with Simon Fisher Turner, I immediately thought this was the perfect way to mark the label’s MUTE 4.0 (1978 > TOMORROW) series.”

Net profits from the release of the STUMM433 box set will be split between the British Tinnitus Association and Music Minds Matter, charities chosen to honour Inspiral Carpets’ founding member Craig Gill who suffered from anxiety and depression as a result of his tinnitus in the years up to his untimely death. 

Artists featured:

A Certain Ratio, A.C. Marias, ADULT., The Afghan Whigs, Alexander Balanescu, Barry Adamson, Ben Frost, Bruce Gilbert, Cabaret Voltaire, Carter Tutti Void, Chris Carter, Chris Liebing, Cold Specks, Daniel Blumberg, Danny Briottet, Depeche Mode, Duet Emmo, Echoboy, Einstürzende Neubauten, Erasure, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, He Said, Irmin Schmidt, Josh T. Pearson, K Á R Y Y N, Komputer, Laibach, Land Observations, Lee Ranaldo, Liars, Looper, Lost Under Heaven, Maps, Mark Stewart / Sonskrif / The New Banalist Orchestra, Michael Gira, Mick Harvey, Miranda Sex Garden, Moby, Modey Lemon, Mountaineers, New Order, Nitzer Ebb, NON / Boyd Rice, Nonpareils, The Normal, onDeadWaves, Phew, Pink Grease, Pole, Polly Scattergood, Richard Hawley, ShadowParty, Silicon Teens, Simon Fisher Turner and Edmund de Waal, The Warlocks, Wire, Yann Tiersen and Gareth Jones.

STUMM433 is part of a series of special events and releases that started in 2018 and will continue through 2019 beyond, the STUMM433 vinyl box set is manufactured in partnership with The Vinyl Factory Manufacturing.

Future Sound Systems (whose previous modules include TheGristleizer, created in collaboration with Chris Carter from Throbbing Gristle and the original designer, Roy Gwinn) have worked together with Daniel Miller to create the STUMM and MAKROW modules, available now to buy. MAKROW, described as “your system’s steering wheel” and STUMM, a six-channel bank of high-fidelity audio mutes, are both designed for live performance. Daniel Miller explains, “when I was developing my own systems at home, there were things that I felt would help my system but I couldn’t find them.” To hear more about the collaboration, go to https://youtu.be/fjqPY_sEYzM 

MUTE 4.0 (1978 > TOMORROW) acknowledges the launch of a label that started out of necessilty rather than design (to release the 7” single by The Normal, ‘T.V.O.D.’ / ‘Warm Leatherette’, recorded by Daniel Miller on a KORG 700S keyboard with a TEAC four-track recorder), and marks the past four decades, but crucially, looks forward to the label’s many years to come as it travels unapologetically into tomorrow.

The vinyl box set will feature: 5 x 180gm clear vinyl; 36-page 12″ sized soft touch lamination booklet; black tin candles with the scent of silence and a Certificate of authenticity, numbered and signed by Daniel Miller, all packaged in a unique frosted opal PVC case with 3mm walls.

The CD box set will feature 5 x CD with a 40+-page booklet, packaged in a two-piece card box.

LONDON LAUNCH EVENT

27 October – Café OTO – from 1pm-3.30pm

Daniel Miller and Simon Fisher Turner in conversation with playback of selections from the 5-piece box set – https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/stumm433/ 

Listen to Simon Fisher Turner talking to Stuart Maconie about the project over on the Freak Zone – https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0009dfh

Mute merchandise is available here: https://www.mutebank.co.uk/

PRE-ORDER STUMM433: smarturl.it/STUMM433

“Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise” – John Cage