Sound Sculptures

Radioolio Mix

A Sound Awareness is delighted to present an exclusive mix of avant oddness expertly curated by Radioolio. Tracklist in comments.

 A Sound Awareness Mix by A Sound Awareness 

The MMs Bar Recording

Having just completed the production of a spoken word recording of my very own, my curiosity was much piqued by this rather strange and everyday oddity coming your way via Trunk Records. It also presented me with the slightest of excuses to post this rather attractive and inspired  logo by Gerald Burney of Design Research Unit. 

Ubuweb Website Hacked

Sad news. Ubuweb is probably the single most important online resource devoted to avant garde sound art and film. A potential devastating loss to culture.

Hallucinations Of Edie

"Hallucinations Of Edie" is one of my favourite audio collages.  It was created by Parisian based sound artist and record collector/dealer extraordinaire, Gwen Jamois.  Gwen studied musique concrete under the tutelage of Christine Groult, Bernard Parmegiani, Fracois Bayle and Luc Ferrari. As well as producing music, Mr. Jamois finds time to run the legendary rare records site Iueke.   Gwen has a habit of turning up records so rare that even the most knowledgeable dealers are unaware of their existence.  Gwen has kindly given permission to repost this rare and rather special mix.  I hope you enjoy. 

The mix was originally commissioned by Under The Influence for a Grey Gardens special issue. The following is Gwen's own notes and track listing:

1. Doctor says ‘huh’ 1978

The text is originally performed (before re-edits) by Gail Williams of The Cincinnati Artists Group Effort (C.A.G.E.) Background music is a Classic, melancholic track by soundtrack maestro Bruno Nicolai (Morricone’s mentor) from a rare music library only LP (CAM 1070). Nicolai sadly took to the shadows after been involved in a sex scandal.

2. Kenward Elmslie ‘the woolworth song’ 1978

NY Kenward’s poetry and prose is often combined with the graphical work of other artists. A collection of his writing, Motor Disturbance (1971), won the Frank O’Hara Award for Poetry in1971. Here we hear that the boy can sing.

3. Erik Thygesen – Passions-Surfaces – For Cecilia Stam 1968

Madam Stam made her Debut at the Eurovision song contest, here she is guided by Erik, a Swedish man of stories, essays and translations on a sentimental piece on the eternal triangle. Once again the added background music is from my vast collection of unknown music – details on request

4. Arne Mellnäs – Far Out (Portrait Of Laura Nyro) 1969

Swedish composer Arne Mellnäs delivers a wonderful tribute to song legend Laura Nyro – Todd Rundgren famously stated that, once he heard her, he “stopped writing songs like The Who and started writing songs like Laura”. Go Todd… Nyro is mixed with the poetry of Mona Da Vinci – excerpt from “the sacred wood art: the last super of Mona Da Vinci” NY 74. A true pioneer of feminist based art.

5. Anthony J. Gnazzo – Hisnia & Hernia – CA 1975

A beautiful piece from an avant-garde poet extraordinaire. Joined on re-edited drums and electronic-ness by Teutonic drummer Klaus Weiss from an LP called ‘27’ – Vegetable Poet Novelist On Cello.

6. Jackie Curtis – ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” NY 1976

Birdcalls '72

A sound artwork by Louise Lawler entitled "Birdcalls", where she literally 'tweets' male artist's names. [Via the wonderful resource that is Ubu.com.]

Sculpture Sonores

This piece of music haunted me as child and I still find it eerie as an adult.  The music is entitled "Manache" by Lasry-Baschet.  It was used as the theme for an ITV children's educational programme which was aimed at five to eleven year olds.  Years later, after an internet trawl, I located a little 10" record of this music.  It's all very odd.  Even the instruments are odd.  Another reason I find this odd, is that one of the musicians is flying through the air.  Not very oddly, I've posted some images for you to enjoy.