Henry Flynt — Superior Songs

Henry Flynt

Henry Flynt took a high-brow approach to so-called low-brow music. Combining sounds from his native North Carolina with an avant-garde sensibility honed in New York City's loft scene in the 1960s, Flynt created what he describes as "new American ethnic music." As a student of Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath alongside La Monte Young and Terry Riley, an associate of the Fluxus movement, and even a live collaborator with the Velvet Underground, Flynt was a part of one of the 20th century's richest art and music milieus.

"Flynt’s music is very, very fun, as demonstrated fully by his chooglin’ avant-hillbilly double LP Graduation, this is an eccentric, singular piece of work, to be sure, but it’s also infectious as hell. Over the course of eight loose-limbed tracks, Flynt re-imagines wide swathes of American music, blending Appalachian folk, Nashville countrypolitan, Lower East Side folk rock, experimental classical music and deep disco grooves. The end result is well-nigh impossible to pin down, but you can slot Graduation next to Arthur Russell’s similarly adventurous genre hops from around the same period." – Aquarium Drunkard

fluxus, experimental, americana, velvet underground, concept art, hillbilly country