Special Interest

From the wiki:

Quote
Sound poetry is a form of literary or musical composition in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded at the expense of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words".

Starting from Dada and Futurism. People like Kurt Schwitters, Hugo Ball, Tristan Tzara and Raoul Hausmann experimenting with the limits of the poetry performance. Nonsense, cut-up, reverse texts, phonetic ramblings etc. Classic piece by Schwitters, Ursonate:

http://www.ubu.com/sound/schwitters.html (http://www.ubu.com/sound/schwitters.html)

the score + recording on UbuWeb. You can also find recordings of Ball, Tzara and Hausmann there.

During the 50's the tape recorder entered the picture and gave more possibilities. People like Henri Chopin, François Dufrene and Gil Wolman take advantage of these tools. Arguments between lettrists, ultralettrists and so on. Many people lay claim to their own brand of sound poetry, Dufrene has his crirythmes, Bernard Heidsieck has poem-partitions etc. Burroughs & Gysin "reinvent" a lot of this (and earlier) stuff in the 60's and add their own twist in it. Lots of stuff by all these guys on the UbuWeb.

In the 60's and 70's the Swedes came up with text-sound composition. Something that encompasses sound poetry, lettrism, electro-acoustic music and who knows what. Many festivals in Stockholm over the years showcasing this stuff. Sten Hanson, Åke Hodell and Lars-Gunnar Bodin are some of the bigger names in Sweden for these sounds. There's often a more refined, "hifi" attitude when compared to Chopin and Dufrene, for example. Instead of one guy & a tape recorder they got the EMS studio in Stockholm. Less gargle and spit, more actual words and "poetry". Again, UbuWeb is your friend.

Ahh, well, just a very short intro into this stuff. There's lots more to be discovered and enjoyed. Was just listening to Carlfriedrich Claus - Lautaggregat CD. One of the lesser known guys in this field but extremely good nevertheless. Very rough sound but sort of understated and minimal. Not as aggressive as H. Chopin could be but something about the sound reminds me of him. Tochnit Aleph is supposed to release more stuff from him soon, this cd is by some German museum.

Jas Duke. Australian poet, anarchist and one time sewerage worker, Duke brought the Dada to Melbourne with huge range of vocal styles including sound poetry.

And you're right, Ubuweb is my friend.

And as much as I adore this stuff, I have to say that most of the early Dada material is interesting mostly from a historical perspective. Nice and all but not something that draws me for repeated listening sessions too often. The real superstars for me are people like Henri Chopin, François Dufrêne, William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Arrigo Lora-Totino, Carlfriedrich Claus, Sten Hanson + some others. Then there are a lot of people who are a bit hit-and-miss: Bob Cobbing, Bernard Heidsieck and Åke Hodell come to mind. And interestingly most of the good guys are ones who started their work in the 50's or 60's. The really modern stuff is usually way too clean and "sophisticated" for my taste, Charles Amirkhanian, for example.
   

einleitung und erster teil: rondo (21:58)

listening to the piece, and can't say I could really handle this. Perhaps live situation is different. I recall case when Emil Beaulieau was at Leeds, uk. PA had just broken, and he made his mind to simply perform plain acoustic vocal show. It was close to what this piece is, but it's is pretty amazing, how loud his voice actually is. It's not like most of people who try to scream, but it's like silent throat voices they make. This is loud and clear. I believe some of similar Emil sets are available on youtube.

Instead of Schwitters, try Henri Chopin. See

http://www.ubu.com/sound/chopin.html (http://www.ubu.com/sound/chopin.html)

For example the Throat Power -track. Or anything on the Les Mirifiques Tundras & Co. LP.

That's the real acid test. If those don't work for you then this stuff just isn't for you... heh.

Throat Power sounds much more "conventional noise", and not only that but good. I enjoy especially the feedback what is very "sudden" and obscure. Not violently attacking, but very unexpected and haunting. Some qualities I appreciate in vocal feedback of some old Whitehouse songs.
If such piece would be appearing by Schimpfluch related artists or such, I would have not thought it surprising. Latest tape of Sewer Election was also perhaps little close to this. Throat/vocal sounds and lo-fi noise live in studio with amp.

Listened more of old Schwitters, those shorter clips and some regular poetry reading of Burroughs. Been on ubuweb before, but I listen so little material online, that I never really took a look what all sound is available there.

Was listening to Luc Ferrari "unheimlich schön" 3"CD. Part of Metamkine's 'Collection Cinéma pour l'oreille' series. I don't know how this guys other works are, but this 3"CD recorded 1971 is c. 16 minutes of basically vocal loop. Not being expert on this field, I can basically refer some finn's to thin about J.O. Mallander "kekkonen, kekkonen, kekkonen", type of piece, with little more paris musique concrete artsy approach. Little echo here and there, little something else, but pretty much sounds like sensual female voice whispering "onani...." .. or at least that's what I'd like to believe. Don't correct me if I'm wrong.
15 minutes gets really fierce experience. It's never noisy. never edgy, but it is somewhat disturbing in repetation and minimalist treatment.

I think it could be nice to have whole 'Collection Cinéma pour l'oreille' topic of its own. Today listened for some german electro-acoustic pieces besides this. Neither one best of what there was, but still very decent. Advantage of this series is that it was cheap and good. Nowadays, whatever there is left, Metamkine sells for 3 euro each. Better to take them now before it's all gone.

The best one I heard of them was the Walter Ruttman one. Great stuff!

Walter Ruttmann - Weekend
Radioplay/film for the ear realized in 1930. Produced by Reichsrundfunk Gesellschaft and Berliner Funkstunde. First broadcast 15 May 1930 in Berlin. First diffused 3 June 1930, in the "radioplays and sound films" programme. Weekend was presented to the second international congress of independent film in Brussels, December 1930.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgTYJZeyozA

Any interest in reviving this old thread? I've been a giant lover of this kind of thing for a while but missed the original chatter about it here.

Recently treated myself to the LP version of the Revue Ou box set (2002, Alga Marghen) and in spite of the annoying surface sounds coming from the picture disc presses this is certainly an essential and wide ranging document.  The deeper I delve into Sound Poetry the more I realise how huge a field it can potentially be despite initial appearances.  Henri Chopin is probably the best example of a voice being manipulated out of recognition by multi track tape editing techniques and as such comes across as something far more in the vein of Musique Concrete.  Elsewhere, you have stuff like Bernard Heidsieck or Brion Gysin which are very much sticking to a poetic stance while Francois Dufresne is entertaining free vocal noises.  This and so more much is represented on the box and it is very interesting to think of how all of these quite disparate styles came together and built a little art world for this stuff.  It definitely seems to be a case of artists seeing kindred spirits in one another and choosing to work together than some retrospective umbrella they get forced under.

It is a style that is easy to get stuck in the past with, though and there are still great contemporary artists making work under this sort of banner and moving it in interesting directions.

Marc Matter does some very cool things with ultra manipulated vocal recordings via vinyl and (I think) computer processing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m87HBNmafA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mae-vdTehc

While by no means strictly working with sound poetry Peter Fengler produced this hilarious, ultra limited, straight to lathe cut piece called 'Vegetarians' for ultra eczema: https://soundcloud.com/ultra-eczema/peter-fengler-vegetarians

Adachi Tomomi does interesting composed pieces and improvisations for voice and home built electronics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D-NWYvRkaA


and then you get totally under recognised people like Greta Monach who produced limited public work back during the 'heydey' of this stuff and who is barely known: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaLH0dvtRIo

Maybe too tuneful to completely be considered poetry (sounds almost like a church choir at some points) but it defiantly has a lot of it's characteristics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOBsxoQ38mA

I say Nyoukis definitely fits the bill, he also has some less cut up stuff too.

I hear very little talk of Michael Barthel, M but for those interested in sound poetry he is really something else. His audio collages are excellent too, and his performance are often no amplifications with two dictaphone playing on the ground as he performs. Recent ones I believe are 100% solo voice. Just realeased a book too! It's German language.

Look up his stuff on recordings for summer, also released an awesome Nyoukis cassette titled 'Night Chat for Calvin'

Also, all the Balsam Flex Material slowscan has been releasing is incredible. A real service Jan is doing since that cassette label is at a critical point of being totally lost. For those in the UK I remember hearing your library equivalent to our Smithsonian has copies of all the cassettes which can be listened on online in a the library. Be curious to know if anyone has explored this option.

Quote from: Johann on February 16, 2018, 03:35:57 PM
I say Nyoukis definitely fits the bill, he also has some less cut up stuff too.

I hear very little talk of Michael Barthel, M but for those interested in sound poetry he is really something else. His audio collages are excellent too, and his performance are often no amplifications with two dictaphone playing on the ground as he performs. Recent ones I believe are 100% solo voice. Just realeased a book too! It's German language.

Look up his stuff on recordings for summer, also released an awesome Nyoukis cassette titled 'Night Chat for Calvin'

DAMN I definitely should have mentioned Barthel.  I only have Stapel. Efeu-Fährten and Harn 7" but both are excellent and there is a real singular purity to his work. I definitely think like Franz Mon, who I also love a lot, I probably miss out on a great deal of what is going on by understanding no German but that's just the way it goes.

This Nyoukis tape is one I've never listened to but definitely fits the bill of a more gutter, bozo sound poetry inspired thing.  I expect this is pretty dictaphonic and influenced by Rik Rue's Sound Escapes which is another great album which touches in and out of voice fuckery.

Chopin is my favorite sound poetry artist. Love the recent LP on Slowscan Records + the other 3 Balsam Flex reissues, esp. JGJGJG. Vinyl On Demand was planning a Balsam Flex box but i guess it will never happen..

If VOD did a Balsam Flex that would have been amazing. Their Chopin box was really nice, I wish I had the money to pick up Vol. 2.

Listening to Giovanni Fontana ~ Epigenetic Poetry: Recital Records: today, what a buy! For anyone that is unfamiliar with this artist, I whole heartedly recommend checking out this release. People in the USA can get it directly and Rumpsti has it in europe...the recording is very dynamic, utilizing sampling, Jews harp and piano to build an engaging but often disturbing atmosphere in which whispered vocals plead through the speakers. This recording both fills me with anxiety and exhilarates me to no end. A real reminder of how I came to love experimental music in the first place.

https://erratum.bandcamp.com/album/the-void

Thinking of buying the Larry Wendt VOD box. Only have the Slowscan split cassette so i'm not sure what to expect.. Anyone here knows if it's (not) worth getting..?

Quote from: impulse manslaughter on February 28, 2018, 12:45:14 AM
Thinking of buying the Larry Wendt VOD box. Only have the Slowscan split cassette so i'm not sure what to expect.. Anyone here knows if it's (not) worth getting..?

I've heard good things.  Musically, I expect it'd be worth it but I heard people speaking about the recent Henri Chopin collections as being embarrassing from a visual and presentational point of view which, for a project of this scope, you'd certainly expect not to be the case.

I agree that the Chopin does leave something to be desired in terms of its packaging, a strange choice on VODs parts since they have reproduced sleeves in the past (maybe it would've made it to expensive to buy? No clue). But personally to me the act of reissuing so much material that is either not easily accessible or price prohibitive outweighs flaws in design. I hope someone will publish a nice collection of Chopins visual work, in English, to fill in those gaps.

The Wendt seems worthwhile, I've heard nothing but good things. Wish I could afford it.

Quote from: Johann on February 28, 2018, 11:28:33 PM
I agree that the Chopin does leave something to be desired in terms of its packaging, a strange choice on VODs parts since they have reproduced sleeves in the past (maybe it would've made it to expensive to buy? No clue). But personally to me the act of reissuing so much material that is either not easily accessible or price prohibitive outweighs flaws in design. I hope someone will publish a nice collection of Chopins visual work, in English, to fill in those gaps.

The Wendt seems worthwhile, I've heard nothing but good things. Wish I could afford it.

Do you have the Chopin? I don't.  I heard that there isn't actually any kind of marking on the records to tell you what you're listening to?! something to that effect.

Agree with your key point about availability, of course, and don't especially care too much about visual things over audio content...but none the less I do think that things like VOD trade in one kind of commodity fetish for another.  I hate when reissue collections end up becoming prohibitively priced rarities in and of themselves.  I've harped on about this in all sorts of other threads but I have no idea why so many collections of rare works get pressed onto big, expensive vinyl or tape sets when the whole project would probably fit into a few cheap, sleek and beautiful sounding CDs.  Just taste I suppose.

I love vinyl but for these archive boxes CDs (or tapes for more obscure acts) would indeed be the better option.

Quote from: Duncan on February 28, 2018, 11:58:36 PM

Quote from: Johann on February 28, 2018, 11:28:33 PM
I agree that the Chopin does leave something to be desired in terms of its packaging, a strange choice on VODs parts since they have reproduced sleeves in the past (maybe it would've made it to expensive to buy? No clue). But personally to me the act of reissuing so much material that is either not easily accessible or price prohibitive outweighs flaws in design. I hope someone will publish a nice collection of Chopins visual work, in English, to fill in those gaps.

The Wendt seems worthwhile, I've heard nothing but good things. Wish I could afford it.

Do you have the Chopin? I don't.  I heard that there isn't actually any kind of marking on the records to tell you what you're listening to?! something to that effect.

Agree with your key point about availability, of course, and don't especially care too much about visual things over audio content...but none the less I do think that things like VOD trade in one kind of commodity fetish for another.  I hate when reissue collections end up becoming prohibitively priced rarities in and of themselves.  I've harped on about this in all sorts of other threads but I have no idea why so many collections of rare works get pressed onto big, expensive vinyl or tape sets when the whole project would probably fit into a few cheap, sleek and beautiful sounding CDs.  Just taste I suppose.

I picked up the Vol. 1 box of the Chopin, I'd like to get the Vol. 2 but couldn't afford both at once. I made a calculation that if I were to buy them later Vol. 1 would end up costing more since it'd probably be percieved as more "Valuable". It seems there is culture of people that buy these kind of things, as well as Slowscan in bulk and then price gouge the rest of us. Bit shitty, but what can you do I guess.

I actually would much prefer that it had been released on CD, at least then it could be consolidated to one volume. I just picked up the Walter Marchetti CD box, its 4 CDs and a large book packaged in a vinyl box. Pretty nice work, only complaint is that "Per La Sete Dell'Orecchio" is missing from the CD version but included in the Vinyl version, meaning you have to track down an individual copy of that album. Bit cheap of them IMO, but whatever, the content serves its purpose. It should be noted that they (Alga Marghen) also did not include any of the original art in either of there "complete" works, I must say though, the CD version is more aesthetically pleasing than the LP version, where in place of just black text on white paper, its huge blown up pics of Marchetti on every sleeve**. A choice I personally do not understand, and a version of the LP I would have no interest in owning. What's most unfortunate is that Alga Marghen did a tip top job with the Francois Dufréne Oeuvre Désintégrale box set, which can be picked up for a very reasonable price still on both LP (if you don't mind a little damage to the packaging) and CD.

Back to the VOD Chopin, Regarding the track listing, It is only on the vinyl itself or in the corresponding book that comes with it. The book actually is quite nice; It consist of writings on Chopin in English/French and a full track list of the LPs included with Vol. 1 (If someone has Vol. 2, is the writings the same or does it contain different text?), the rest of the book is filled with full color copies (unless of course the original was b&w) of the different sleeves and j-cards of the releases.  

The most aggravating thing about the release is that while the label choose good materials, and high quality sleeves that easily could display the releases name on the spine they instead chose to leave them white (the sleeves contain no information anywhere and simply have a basic uniform design). This causes the listener to have to take out every sleeve to find the LP they desire to listen to. While this isn't an end of the world complaint by any means it also does not make for the easiest listening experience. Overall, if you can find a copy for a reasonable price before the gouge hounds get them all, I'd recommend it. At least until someone puts out a corresponding CD alternative.

**upon further investigation it does mention that the inner sleeve of the LP is the full color version of the original, while this is obviously better than just the face it still makes me wonder how easily it would be to find the LP you were searching for unless you had the faces that correspond memorized. Maybe someone who owns this version could provide a comment on how it's actually put together.

Peter Downsbrough LP arrived here yesterday. I now have all 3 Van Abbemuseum releases (other 2 are Lawrence Weiner & Robert Barry). Great material for those into spoken word/poetry.

Quote from: impulse manslaughter on February 28, 2018, 12:45:14 AM
Thinking of buying the Larry Wendt VOD box. Only have the Slowscan split cassette so i'm not sure what to expect.. Anyone here knows if it's (not) worth getting..?

I really liked it. I've only given it about two full listens since picking it up when it was released so I'm a little hazy on the specifics right now. I'll dig it out later and maybe comment a bit further. I wasn't at all familiar with him before the box set. I've no idea how it compares to his later stuff. I essentially got the box for free. A VOD subscriber friend of mine tipped me off to an offer VOD were doing on the last batch of releases. It was cheaper to get the full batch (two Henri Chopin boxes, Larry Wendt box and Osamu Sato LP ... this last one's not really my bag but, as a wiser man than me says, two out of three ain't bad) than it was to get just the two Henri Chopin boxes (which is what I was primarily interested in). Frank VOD was sound enough to let me in on the offer despite not being a past subscriber. He gets my infinite gratitude.

Re: Henri Chopin packaging ... I can see where people are coming from here but the booklet is great and having this material available again overrides any criticisms on the packaging front for me. Definitely a case of it's what's on the inside that counts. As an aside, both Henri Chopin boxes and the Larry Wendt box all have the same uniform packaging, including the inner sleeves. Again, doesn't bother me but I can see why people might have an issue with it. In fact, both Henri Chopin boxes even have identical spines so you have to take them off the shelf to check which one is which!

Quote from: Duncan on February 28, 2018, 11:58:36 PM
I do think that things like VOD trade in one kind of commodity fetish for another.  I hate when reissue collections end up becoming prohibitively priced rarities in and of themselves.

Absolutely agree with this. For the most part, I've no real interest in having a fancy box for my record shelf (notable exception being that Charley Patton Revenant CD box but that's a whole other level). I'd much rather an affordable CD box set with decent booklet (e.g. those Pica Disk box sets). That said, all due respect to VOD for doing things their way. Does seem like a genuine labour of love.

Quote from: Johann on March 01, 2018, 05:35:29 AM
(If someone has Vol. 2, is the writings the same or does it contain different text?)

I got both volumes direct from VOD on preorder (as mentioned above) and only got one booklet for both boxes. I presume it's the same book for both if you get them separately.

Quote from: Johann on March 01, 2018, 05:35:29 AM
Walter Marchetti ... only complaint is that "Per La Sete Dell'Orecchio" is missing from the CD version but included in the Vinyl version

The vinyl box doesn't have a complete version of Per La Sete Dell'Orecchio either. It's missing the first track, Da Nulla E Verso Nulla, just like the CD box. I don't know why this was left off. As far as I know, the contents of the CD and vinyl versions are identical (I have the vinyl version). The only differences are the track ordering and the book, which comes with the CD version but not the vinyl (but can be bought separately). I just checked discogs and the tracklisting for the vinyl box is wrong. The tracks on the Per La Sete Dell'Orecchio LP should be "Per La Sete Dell'Orecchio" and "Song for John Cage", both of which seem to be on the CD box (?). If you want a complete version of Per La Sete Dell'Orecchio, make sure you get the Cramps CD or original Vandalia LP. The Alga Marghen LP is the one from the box (incomplete).

Quote from: Johann on March 01, 2018, 05:35:29 AM
**upon further investigation it does mention that the inner sleeve of the LP is the full color version of the original, while this is obviously better than just the face it still makes me wonder how easily it would be to find the LP you were searching for unless you had the faces that correspond memorized. Maybe someone who owns this version could provide a comment on how it's actually put together.

I never found any issue with this. The faces are ordered counter-clockwise according to LP. Titles are also on the spines. At the risk of contradicting myself above ("fancy boxes"), I think the LP box is stunning. I actually really like the outer sleeves with the faces. It recontextualises the LPs as part of a collection (others might have a problem with this but I think it works here). I'd probably feel different if the original artwork wasn't reproduced on the inner sleeves though.



More on topic, that Revue Ou box is amazing. Full agreement on Michael Barthel and D Nyoukis. And that Carlfriedrich Claus CD mentioned in the first post is incredible.


Some other (mainly compilation) recommendations (all should be easily available in original or reissued versions) ...

Poesia Sonora (https://www.discogs.com/Various-Poesia-Sonora/master/65592) ... I think this was reissued late last year (my version is the one from the early 2000's, I presume last year's reissue is pretty much identical).

Voooxing Poooetre (https://www.discogs.com/Various-Voooxing-Pooo%C3%AAtre/master/861301) ... reissued by Recital a few years back, should still be around (no-one seems to care about CDs anymore!)

Phonetische Poesie (https://www.discogs.com/Various-Phonetische-Poesie/master/386896) ... again, CD reissue from years back seems to be still readily available.

Rumpsti Pumsti stocks a bunch of Gertraud Scholz Verlag. I've only got the Bobeobi: Lautpoesie CD (https://www.discogs.com/Various-BOBEOBI-Lautpoesie/release/907176) but that's great. Whole bunch more there on my wishlist for a long time now also ... some day.

Also, if you can track down a copy of Arf Arf - Clanguage (https://www.discogs.com/Arf-Arf-Clanguage/release/4296095), I'd highly highly recommend it. Rumpsti Pumsti used to have copies but doesn't seem to anymore. There's a Tochnit Aleph DVD from a few years back also but I haven't gotten round to picking it up yet. This has just reminded me to bump it to the top of the wishlist.

And following on the Rumpsti Pumsti / Tochnit Aleph tip, that Franz Mon LP from a few years back is awesome. As is the Valeri Scherstjanoi stuff.



Lastly, I wish someone would reissue that Futura Cramps box (https://www.discogs.com/Various-Futura-Poesia-Sonora/master/65573) but it would probably be a pretty massive undertaking.