Un articolo di Longreads racconta la storia di Household Objects, un progetto musicale che la celebre band inglese dei Pink Floyd avviò nel 1973 – in un periodo di disorientamento dovuto allo straordinario successo riscosso da The Dark Side of the Moon – e che sarebbe dovuto culminare in un album interamente realizzato utilizzando suoni prodotti da oggetti domestici. Il progetto fu presto abbandonato ma le idee che lo avevano ispirato influenzarono la realizzazione di Wish You Were Here, altro album di enorme successo pubblicato nel 1975. Nel corso del racconto l’autore ci parla anche del rapporto della band con il suo compianto fondatore, Syd Barrett.

Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon is one of the best-selling records of all time. Released in March 1973, the album didn’t leave the Billboard 200 chart for over 14 years. By 2006, EMI/Harvest claimed the album sold in excess of 40 million copies “and still,” according to a Billboard article from that year, “routinely moves 8,000-9,000 copies on a slow week.”

Listening to a renowned album as cohesive as The Dark Side of the Moon, you would never guess that the follow-up to that historic release was going to be made using everyday items. Household Objects, recorded during several desultory sessions over a two-year time frame, was constructed with rubber bands, wine glasses, spray cans, newspapers, brooms, and other such utilitarian gear. It was shelved.

When people talk about Household Objects — including the members of Pink Floyd themselves — it’s usually described as a wasteful and pointless distraction, a primary example of mid-70s rock star indulgence. This is not the case. Household Objects may not have turned into an album, but it was entirely consistent with the band’s previous use of found sound on The Dark Side of the Moon. What initially appears as a stylistic deviation from its powerhouse predecessor — or worse, full-blown self-sabotage — is, in fact, a return to form. Moreover, the mournful tone of one of its experimental tracks became the emotional center of Wish You Were Here, the highly successful follow-up to Dark Side. Most interesting of all, the work on Household Objects can be seen as the musicians’ affirmative attempt at reconnection to the “non-musical” world, to their past, and ultimately to each other.

 

Immagine da Geograph UK