Original music pressed into polycarbonate flexi discs, ink on paper, steel
7.5 x 7.5 in each
19 x 19 cm each
2025

Richard Humann, *Tomorrow I’ll Miss You*, Original music pressed into polycarbonate flexi discs, ink on paper, steel, 7.5 x 7.5 in each, 2025

New York based multi-media artist Richard Humann mixes modern technology with traditional art practices in this one-person exhibition, Tomorrow I’ll Miss You, at Leonovich Gallery, Chelsea, New York City

For the show, Humann produced sixty six music “singles,” pressed onto clear polycarbonate flex discs. The discs are backed with archival film of X-ray images. The concept in doing this is based on a practice that was common in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s in the USSR, and other countries trapped behind the Iron Curtain. Called bone music, music on bones, or jazz on bones, this was a black-market method of smuggling in behind the Iron Curtain music that was banned by the communists, for fear of Western influence.

This clandestine technique for circulating the banned pop music led to the introduction of Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and other major recording artists from non-communist countries.

To create the work, Humann purchased a hundred actual X-rays and had them scanned. The X-rays are images of legs, arms, torsos, heads, as well as teeth from dental offices. They were then printed onto archival film and mounted to the backs of the clear polycarbonate flex discs.

The songs were pressed onto these discs, and which can be played on a record turntable. Humann wrote the lyrics to six songs that were created for the project, as well as the music, using a music AI program. For the AI generated music, he programmed meta tags that directed the program to mimic the sound, voice, and instruments from the mid-20th century, over the contemporary themes and references of the lyrics.

The lyric pages, and meta tags are displayed in the gallery as a road map to the inner workings of the thought process; the interaction between human and machine. Just like in the X-ray process itself, a machine gives an insight into the inner workings of the human body, and the lyric/meta tag text gives an insight into the inner workings of the machine. The underlying theme of the show addresses issues of artistic freedom, how the human spirit thrives in totalitarian societies.

Richard Humann, *The Steps of Union Square*, Original music pressed into polycarbonate flexi discs, ink on paper, steel, 7.5 x 7.5 in each, 2025

Richard Humann, *Tie-Dyed in the Wool*, Original music pressed into polycarbonate flexi discs, ink on paper, steel, 7.5 x 7.5 in each, 2025

Richard Humann, *Life Ain’t Funny (When You Wake Up Dead)*, Original music pressed into polycarbonate flexi discs, ink on paper, steel, 7.5 x 7.5 in each, 2025

Richard Humann, *Fruit from the Poisonous Tree*, Original music pressed into polycarbonate flexi discs, ink on paper, steel, 7.5 x 7.5 in each, 2025

Richard Humann, *Dead Horse Bay*, Original music pressed into polycarbonate flexi discs, ink on paper, steel, 7.5 x 7.5 in each, 2025

Richard Humann, *Turntable*, Video with sound, Variable dimension, 2025

Richard Humann, *Tomorrow I’ll Miss You*, Installation view at Leonovich Gallery, New York City, 2025

Music and Lyrics

Life Ain’t Funny (When You Wake Up Dead)

Wake up to a square sunrise
Adorned in black, the wail of cries
A clear pine box is now my bed
Life ain’t funny (When you wake up dead)

Dinosaur bones deep in the ground
Acid rain is earthward bound
Snakes and scorpions surround my head
Life ain’t funny (When you wake up dead)

Hate the light, love the dark instead
Life ain’t funny (When you wake up dead)

Gasoline cocktail goes down smooth
Easily slip into the killer groove
Fresh meat crams the coffin bread
Life ain’t funny (When you wake up dead)

Chainsaw music fills the room
Splattered songs of doom and gloom
The conquering worm is justly fed
Life ain’t funny (When you wake up dead)

Hate the light, love the dark instead
Life ain't funny (When you wake up dead)

Hate the light, love the dark instead
Life ain’t funny (When you wake up dead)

The Steps of Union Square

Broadway takes a cautious turn
As it works its way around the park
The hopeless and the hopeful wander
Through it wide-eyed after dark
What happened to those angry voices?
Have they disappeared with all our choices?
The sound of protest should fill the air...

On the steps of Union Square

Just take the L train over
You hipsters of Bedford Avenue
Stand up, don’t stand down
If you want to get a better view
Shed those clothes from Beacon’s Closet
The doors are closing, make sure you're on it
Shouts of laughter, cries of despair…

On the steps of Union Square

And yes, it matters that you band together
One world, one voice—one scream
Youth fades very fast
It will not last
A bright flash, a shiny gleam
And then it's over like a dream

This is the place where we all gathered
In September of that infamous year
Black, white, yellow, brown
We all hugged and shed our tears
Proud and shocked the colors flew
Forever bound the old and new
Volunteers with gifts of care…

On the steps of Union Square

So, if you want your ideals heard
Make your distance from the crowd
Bring your message to this stage
Step up, and shout it loud
Don’t be afraid to stand up on your soapbox
This glass house can withstand any rocks
Gather children, if you dare…

On the steps of Union Square

Dead Horse Bay

She walks along the empty beach
The sands of time have finally reached
The end of the hourglass

Barefoot in the salted sea
The surf now rises to her knees
Like memories of the past

And she weeps for another day
As a passing ship of hope steers away
From Dead Horse Bay

The tears fall from her sunken eyes
A broken heart alone she cries
An ocean of regret

A seagull screams into the wind
She turns her head and thinks of him
A love she can’t forget

And she wishes it were child’s play
That brought her here and led her astray
To Dead Horse Bay

The tide turns quickly through the years
A rise and fall of smiles and tears
Of love both won and lost

The undertow it will enslave
And pull you to a water’s grave
But that is just the cost

Of a heart that’s on display
And a dream that’s faded slowly away
At Dead Horse Bay

She inches further from the shore
Hoping this will be the cure
For all the pain she holds

A drowning sorrow rises up
A sober thought, do not give up
There’s more life to behold

Yes, there’s a new pathway
And on dry land she just walks away
From Dead Horse Bay

Tye-Dyed in the Wool

Father’s on the village green
Peddling the peace sign
Swears his drug is caffeine
And he walks a straight line
The cops keep an eye out
Munching on a sandwich
But you know there’s no doubt
If you believe the town snitch

I’m telling you mom
I did nothing wrong
Pop’s pushing peaceniks
Sis is turning parlor tricks
I’m pulled in every way
Don't know what I'm gonna say

Like I told you before
I ain’t got no pull
There's nothing I can do...

They’re tie-dyed in the wool

Cousin Jim’s arrested
Selling homemade cigarettes
Uncle Joe’s been tested
Screaming things that he’ll regret
Aunt Sally keeps on baking pies
Rolling out the fresh dough
Best to keep a blind eye
Better sometimes not to know

I’m telling you mom
I did nothing wrong
The dog is chasing his tail
Waiting for the morning mail
And I’m losing my mind
Stuck inside the daily grind

Like I told you before
I ain’t got no pull
There’s nothing I can do...

They’re tie-dyed in the wool

Mary Jean done run off
With her secret romance
Think it was the neighbor boy
The one got caught with no pants
Her old man’s been chasing them
Took his car off of the blocks
They didn’t mean to offend
But still it came as quite a shock

I’m telling you mom
I did nothing wrong
The kids are in the playground
The storm is heading eastbound
I’m trying to eat my cereal
Long before it gets real

Like I told you before
I ain’t got no pull
There's nothing I can do...

They’re tie-dyed in the wool

Grandpa’s in the attic
Sipping on his moonshine
Watching black and white flicks
Snoring in his private shrine
Grandma’s in the basement
Canning fruit for winter
Drops one on the cement
Sighs a little whimper

I’m telling you mom
I did nothing wrong
Cat’s in the litter box
Thinking she’s a sly fox
I finally got my coat on
Pretty soon I'll be gone

Like I told you before
I ain’t got no pull
There's nothing I can do...

They’re tie-dyed in the wool

Like I told you before
I ain’t got no pull
There’s nothing I can do...

They’re tie-dyed in the wool

Fruit from the Poisonous Tree

It’s truth that crawls the razor’s edge, dissected by sharp lies
The pendulum swings back and forth for those yet hypnotized
And in the moonlit clearing is a world we could not foresee
Be careful not to touch it because
It’s fruit from the poisonous tree

Walking blindly through the night, we’ve veered off from the path
The sinners and the righteous surely face a demon’s wrath
Redemption is a fallacy that’s handed out with glee
Be careful not to pick it because
It’s fruit from the poisonous tree

The fruit it is low hanging and ripened from the sun
The prize is false and laid out bare in reach of everyone

An eastern storm is heading west, as western fires rage
The masses close and lock the doors inside their fool’s gold cage
Freedom’s an illusion, on this fiction we agree
Be careful not to bite it because
It’s fruit from the poisonous tree

Dressed in black, a relict, stares out from the widow’s walk
The blank horizon holds no hope, the sea has turned to chalk
Lost forever to the past, a fading memory
Be careful not to swallow because it’s
fruit from the poisonous tree

Lost forever to the past, a fading memory
Be careful, it might kill you because
It’s fruit from the poisonous tree

Tomorrow I’ll Miss You

Close your eyes and remember
The winds of December
Will blow out the old for the new
And the change you’ll be seeing
Will actually be freeing
The next in a long line of coups

And when it slips away
Another victim to prey
Because no good or bad ever lasts
A revolution of thought
Where the slow have been caught
And disappear into the past

Today I love you
Please don’t be so blue
Today I love you
And tomorrow I’ll miss you

Close your eyes and remember
The winds of December
Will blow out the old for the new
And the change you’ll be seeing
Will actually be freeing
The next in a long line of coups

Today I love you
Please don’t be so blue
Today I love you
And tomorrow I’ll miss you

And tomorrow
And tomorrow
And tomorrow

I’ll miss you

Tomorrow I’ll Miss You

I Am No Bird