Biographical Materials by Herman Doneor, VP of marketing The Historic Records :

Kid Auto is self-educated, works as a train conductor for the Mistle & Part shipping company, and lives in Mountain Home, Idaho, where he was also born and raised. He has been a musician for fourteen years and Setting the Camera at Death Curve is his second album. When he was twenty he tripped and fell down a staircase in such a way as to nearly sever his tongue, necessitating its excision, and since then he has communicated primarily with music instead of spoken words. Soon after this set-back, and under the influence of a clichéd perhaps but legitimately life-changing LSD experience, an extramusical life-long spirit quest was undertaken. Three years were spent with the psychedelic band Good, of which he was a founding member, playing bass guitar and synthesizer. That band broke up after Good drummer John Henry Troy, Kid Auto's long-time best friend, passed away unexpectedly prior to the release of their debut album, the cult classic Enough. Kid Auto responded to the tragedy by founding (with Edgar the drum machine) the confrontational art-rock act Very Good, which released the rare 7" EP called Doog Yrev before accompanying the band Better -- another new act which had in the meantime been formed by the rest of the surviving Good members -- on a tour of the East Coast of the USA in which Very Good notably and notoriously scared away the audience of every show they were booked to perform at, including, after mistakenly being booked to appear, a high-profile gig on the main stage of a prestigious festival -- and what's more, it's been implied they did it on purpose. That tour ended prematurely when Better singer Lloyd Markets also died unexpectedly while en route to the penultimate gig in Millinocket, Maine. Not long after, Very Good "broke up" and the artist, who at this point was still known by his birth name Mortimer Sprunt, retreated into private life for the next decade.

According to the legend our hero, in his makeshift studio called The Dream Factory, redoubled his musical efforts and began recording the first phase of his work: 108 secret album-length recordings which the artist then, upon completing the final entry in this series seven years later, proceeded to ritualistically destroy with a single press of the delete key. It was only after annihilating his entire life's work -- which, according to the artist himself, had represented an extraordinary amount of energy and time, not to mention devotion, and suffering -- that the artist finally assumed the nom de plume Kid Auto.

To date, Mr. Auto's few concerts have been rare and always unannounced and unbilled. His act consists of the man himself appearing at the venue in disguise and performing recursive and paradoxical keyboard improvisations -- in which mistakes are fearlessly incorporated into the performance; in which the music is perpetually changing whilst curiously remaining stubbornly unchanged; in which simplicity and complexity coexist as one; in which beginnings and endings are discarded in favor of abrupt disruptions and sputtering false starts; and in which time itself seems perilously suspended by a pendulum-thread like a swinging Sword of Damocles -- with great skill and genuine artistry. The artist came to the attention of The Historic Records label founder Terje Roodunset after Mr. Roodunset randomly caught one of these impromptu piano concerts while strolling past the open door of a church in the middle of Dodge City, South Dakota where Kid Auto happened to be performing one autumn afternoon. After the show (the only other audience members were, according to Mr. Roodunset: "A headphone-wearing woman mopping the floor and a lot of stained glass windows, all of which depicted female saints -- the artist had maneuvered the mini-grand piano on wheels into the center aisle and positioned himself directly in front of St. Joan of Arc, whom he spent much of the performance looking up at like a boy with a schoolyard crush. It was sublime.") a record deal was proffered and promptly accepted. This album is the result of this serendipitous encounter. Again, Setting the Camera at Death Curve is Kid Auto's second album -- and we at The Historic Records hope for, eagerly wait, and frankly expect many more equally fine works from the artist in the future!

***

Edgar the drum machine was manufactured in Japan in 1996 and provided rhythmic support for at least two other musical acts before Kid Auto found him in a garbage heap and, after rewiring his internal connections and replacing his battery, convinced him to join the quest. Edgar lives in a (very nice) box in Kid Auto's spare bedroom in between recording sessions. A drum machine of simple tastes, he would die for Verdi operas, prefers Thucydides to Herodotus, and only watches movies starring Errol Flynn.