Sound poetry / Poésie sonore / Text-sound composition etc.

[heretogo]

From the wiki:

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

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.

[Andrew McIntosh]

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.

[heretogo]

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.
   

[FreakAnimalFinland]

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.

[heretogo]

Instead of Schwitters, try Henri Chopin. See

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.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

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.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

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.

[Strömkarlen]

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

[Duncan]

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

[Deadpriest]

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

[Johann]

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.

[Duncan]

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.

[impulse manslaughter]

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..

[Johann]

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.

[Deadpriest]

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