The Sonic Youth co-founder has set up a store in
London, a haven for fans of Stockhausen, Luc
Ferrari – and Norwegian black metal
Thurston Moore is sitting in his shop window, pricing up a pile of records and telling me how Sun Ra used to operate. “Before he was going on tour, to say
Egypt, he used to ask them to send him some fabrics from there. He wanted to feel them in his hand, pick up the vibrations.”
We are talking about the physicality of objects, of holding a record or leafing through a pamphlet or a book of poetry. These things can be talismanic in a world where everything is digitised and streamed, where all
music is available without us leaving the house. Here in this new shop, an old record cover, some Robert Smith merch, a book of strange poems, a Barney Bubbles print, a Japanese pressing of a Bowie album may seem out of time but they are deeply precious.