It is a common misconception that DIY music productions are necessarily realized without a budget. In fact, their most striking characteristic is that they aim to create unique listening experiences by using the means at hand. 36 minutes with works by Blancmange, Gregory Whitehead, Minus Delta T, People Like Us and others.
New York in the Sixties – A Hotbed for Experiments
- Tagged as: Angus MacLise, Gerard Malanga, Henry Flynt, Henry Flynt & The Insurrections, Ingrid Superstar, Jack Smith, John Cale, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, Plastic Clock Radio, Richard Maxfield, Steve Weber, The East Village Other, The Velvet Underground, Tony Conrad, Tuli Kupferberg, William S. Burroughs
Tellus – New York City’s Art Scene on Tape (1983-90)
- Tagged as: Alexis Alrich, Blackhouse, Carol Parkinson, Claudia Gould, David Blair, George Brecht, George Elliot, George Maciunas, Glenn Branca, Gretchen Bender, James Tenney, Jamie Daglish, Jane Bauman, John Fekner, Jonathan Borofsky, Joseph Nechvatal, Kathryn High, Liquid Liquid, Live Skull, Marjorie van Halteren, Paul Bowles, Peter Chamberlain, Rais Mahamad Ben Mohammed and Ensemble, Steve Pollack, Wolfgang Staehle
Being one of the leading protagonists of 20th century experimental art, Henri Chopin was among the first to exploit the true potential of a tape recorder. Many of his audio works are based on radical approaches, such as swallowing microphones. 43-minute documentary with memories and expertise of poet and curator Enzo Minarelli.
Wearing eyeball helmets is the trademark of the Californian artist collective The Residents. Inspired by avantgarde and pop, the band anticipated the idea of audio piracy and developed groundbreaking multimedia projects. 42-minute mix with some of the group’s conceptional thematic compositions and deconstructions of Western popular music.
As a boy in the 1930s, Soliman Gamil accompanied researchers into the pyramids to learn about Pharaonic music. After his musical education in Cairo and Paris, he recorded traditional rituals throughout Egypt with a tape recorder. Gamil developed his 20th century compositions together with village musicians playing instruments already in use millennia before.
Spreading Freedom the Rough Way – War (1955-2005)
- Tagged as: Ami Shavit, Apocalypse Now, Biafra/Nigerian Civil War, Deben Bhattacharya, Dost Muhammad, Gulf War, James Whitehead, K Foundation, Nuclear War, Ruth Maleczech, Sun Ra, The Android Sisters, The KLF, The Psychic Workshop, The Red Army Choir, The Tape-beatles, Valaria Wasilewski, William Onyeabor, Yom Kippur War
Equally at home in the art world and the artists’ pub, Ata Tak‘s proprietors managed their label from a nice office in Düsseldorf; in the adjoining music studio, they pursued the idea of a world rebellion with sound – as Der Plan. 32 minutes with Holger Hiller, Minus Delta T, Picky Picnic, Wirtschaftswunder and others.
With his label Obscure, Brian Eno started a series with experimental listening music in 1975. The artists involved left previous approaches towards making music behind, worked with new technologies or took inspiration from ancient traditions. 71 minutes with Gavin Bryars, Harold Budd, Max Eastley, Michael Nyman and others.
An outdoor listening experience to stimulate the equation of humans, nature and sound: a constantly evolving, multi-layered soundscape, tones being sustained until the desire to change them disappears, and melodies that are created from what is heard. 76 minutes with three pieces by Randall McClellan, Pauline Oliveros and Ramón Sender.
Relics – Miniatures on Air (1953-2019)
- Tagged as: Alec Finlay, Allen Ginsberg, Alva Noto, Andy Warhol, Anne James Chaton, Anne Waldman, Brian Hodgson, Cardboard Air Band, Chris Watson, Daphne Oram, David Soldier, Dragibus, Helga Goetze, Ingrid Wiener & Chor, Jack Smith, Jürgen Ploog, Karen Michel McPherson, Katsuro Tajima, Ken Nordine, Kraftwerk, Laurie Anderson, Laurie Spiegel, Lou Giansante, Magazzini Criminali Music, Maria Jardardottir, Mark E. Smith, Max Brand, Moondog, Paul de Vree, Paul Vangelisti, Peder Mannerfelt, People Like Us, Richard Lair, Soliman Gamil, The Fugs, Timothy Leary, Yasuaki Shimizu, Zigaretten rauchen
Relics tell stories, take listeners on acoustic journeys, or document situations. They can be poems, studio productions, field recordings, or something completely different. 53-minute mix representing Paul Paulun's series Fundstück on DLF-Kultur with radiophonic miniatures by Anne Waldman, Helga Goetze, Mark E. Smith, Timothy Leary and 26 other artists.
“The ecological catastrophe begins rehearsing in the Sixties”, writes Allen Ginsberg in 1970; and for more than half a century, political systems are unwilling to fight that development. 45 minutes with sounds of protest – uttered by Appleblim, Diane Di Prima, Leslie Winer, Piero Umiliani and others.
The stoic, almost machine like drumming of many West-German tunes from the early Seventies became the hallmark of a new sound – different from British pop or American rock, and in no way related to the country's horrible Nazi past. 45 minutes with Cluster, Faust, Harmonia 76, Wolfgang Riechmann and others.
Yellow Magic Orchestra’s concept of connecting pop, dance music, and Far Eastern folklore quickly became synonymous with technopop in Japan. The band’s members also occured in each others solo recordings and cooperated with other musicians. 49 minutes with Apogee & Perigee, Friends Of Earth, Miharu Koshi, Ryuichi Sakamoto & The Kakutougi Session and others.
Fuelled by collaborations between producers, singers, and studio musicians in ever new constellations, the Seventies mark the transition from ska and rocksteady into a multitude of styles in Jamaica. 46 minutes with Keith Hudson, Norma White & Brentford Disco Set, Sound Dimension, Susan Cadogan and others.
Free of artificial ornamentation, well balanced, and designed with love for detail, some Eighties' Japanese ambient music resembles the concept of the countries' traditional gardens. 51 minutes of music striving to enhance environments – with works by Haruomi Hosono, Inoyama Land, Masahiro Sugaya, Yasuaki Shimizu and others.
Paying homage to flying machines and next generation’s minimalism, singing in an invented language that’s both mysterious and familiar, and a special kind of rain. 43-minute mix with pieces by Anna Homler and Steve Moshier, Ennio Morricone, Harold Budd, The Human League and others – made between 1972 and 2011.
Sekt oder Karies – West Germany in the 80s
- Tagged as: Alexander Hacke, Andreas Dorau, Claudia Skoda, Conrad Schnitzler, DAF, Der Plan, Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, Die Dominas, Die Tödliche Doris, Die Zimmermänner, Einstürzende Neubauten, Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle, Holger Hiller, Ingrid Wiener, Manuel Göttsching, Martin Kippenberger, Max Müller, Rosi Müller, Santrra, Säurekeller, Sentimentale Jugend, Sternhagel, Xao Seffcheque
Big Egos – Sound Works by Visual Artists (1981-2006)
- Tagged as: Carole Caroompas, Dan Lander, Dieter Roth, Fred Curchack, Gregory Whitehead, IXNA, Janice Felger, Jess Holzworth, Jill Kroesen, Joan Hugo, Jutta Koether, Kim Rosenfield, Lawrence Weiner, Magazzini Criminali, Marina La Palma, Peter Rose, Richard Prince, Rüdiger Carl, Shrigley Forced To Speak With Others, Willie Cole