The Palace at 4am is a surrealist sculpture by Alberto Giacometti made in 1932. It is also a new wave group based in Toronto in the early 80s, piloted by bassist, artist and curator Ihor Holubizky and percussionist Walter Yarwood. The group was deeply under the spell of Liquid Liquid, The Talking Heads and deviant dub-Pop like The Flying Lizards and the On-U stable. Reminiscent of the Giacometti sculpture the production is angular, but warm and has a transparent clarity and depth. Untamed World was the group’s debut 12” released in 1982 on their own Collective Ego label. The front and back cover was commissioned from artist Shelagh Keely, winner of the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2017.

In the words of Ihor Holubizky: The music-compositional ethos for untamed world developed from several months of playing bass and drums in 1980; or, how not to be a band. The lyrics are montaged words from overheard conversations, newspapers and magazines—how not to write a song. They were scribbled out of necessity in a taxi from Toronto to Buffalo, and then three hours in the airport on the way to New York (referred to in “Sex Death”). Also out of necessity, I had to devise a way to ‘sing’ and play on stage. It changed the way I approached both, in a collaborative environment, but nothing was ever performed as recorded. I think we used pink noise from an ARP Odyssey. There’s also a cockatiel recorded in the background of the first track.

EX - sealed & flat vintage deadstock copy in loose shrink!