Miniature

From Paul Paulun’s series of 260 radiophonic miniatures that tell stories, take listeners on acoustic journeys or document situations. Broadcast on Deutschlandfunk-Kultur between 2015 and 2024.

#231: Stephen Mallinder –1-37

With self-built electronic instruments and performances influenced by Dadaism, Cabaret Voltaire from Sheffield paved the way for industrial culture in the mid-1970s. In his 1982 solo album Pow-Wow, founding member Stephen Mallinder explored the possibilities of dynamic minimalism.

#38: Ánde Somby – Gufihttar (Underworld Fairie)

According to legend, the Sami people, who live mainly in northern Scandinavia, received the tradition of joik singing in pre-Christian times from Arctic elves and fairies. These days, Ánde Somby attempts to make contact with the spirits through improvised joik pieces to inquire about their well-being.

#196: Greg Neutra / J.D. Elliot – Grieg Fatigue

By the mid-1970s, the hippie spirit had faded in California. However, with the Los Angeles Free Music Society, pioneers of the DIY aesthetic were already waiting in the wings. Its members liked the absurd and were inspired by the idea of a non-musical approach to music.

#201: Soliman Gamil – Sacred Lake

Soliman Gamil was unimpressed by the artistic possibilities of tape recording when he studied in Paris in the early 1950s. At that time, Musique Concrète was emerging there thanks to the new technology. But Gamil was only in the city to learn about Western composition from Nadia Boulanger.

#153: Laurie Spiegel – A Strand of Life

For American composer Laurie Spiegel, music is a way of expressing the conscious experience of existence. When she was confined to bed with a viral infection in 1990, she decided to translate her illness into sound.

#68: Tuli Kupferberg – Fields Matrimonial Service

The desire to find a partner outside of real life is nothing new. A look back at the United States shows how the approach, but also expectations, have changed over time. In 1966, beatnik and singer Tuli Kupferberg took texts from advertisements in newspapers and magazines as source material for new intonations.

#81: Raoul Hausmann – Oiseautal

‘We wanted to abandon a language that had been devastated and rendered impossible by journalism!’ This is how Hugo Ball described the Dadaists' motivation for leaving words behind at Zurich's Cabaret Voltaire. Many artists began experimenting with the possibilities of phonetic poetry, based solely on the musical expression of the voice.

#35: Percy Grainger – Free Music #1 (For Four Theremins)

At the age of twelve, Percy Grainger had already imagined a form of ‘free music’ with gliding tones and irregular, beatless rhythms. That was in 1894. But it was not until 1920, with the invention of the electronic theremin, that smooth transitions between notes became possible in a way that appealed to Grainger.

#125: Can – Ethnological Forgery Series #27

During long, collective improvisations in the studio, Cologne-based Krautrock pioneers Can repeatedly ventured into the territory of other cultures. Between 1968 and 1974, the band collected such excursions in the ‘Ethnological Forgery Series’.

#206: Ghédalia Tazartès – Tazartès’ Transports

There is something mysterious about Ghédalia Tazartès' works, which often evoke shamanistic rituals. The French artist began experimenting in his Paris studio in 1977 with field recordings, tape loops, vocals and electronics. Time and again, he slipped into the role of strong-willed characters.

#239: Aunt Sally – Hi Ga Kuchite

After seeing the Sex Pistols on Japanese television, Hiromi Moritani flew to London for a few weeks in 1976. Back in Osaka, and still under the impression of her experiences in the punk metropolis, the 17-year-old formed her own band, Aunt Sally.

#209: Gulfa-e-Ghani and Zareef – Train Rhythm Imitation

There were no flowers in the desert, but the scent of melodies hung in the air everywhere, recalls Deben Bhattacharya. In 1955, the music collector travelled from Paris to Kolkata, India, in a converted milk truck. On board: a tape recorder with which Bhattacharya recorded music along the way.

#116: Gerard Malanga And Ingrid Superstar – Gossip

Crowdfunding without the internet – in New York, this was done in 1966 with a record. The proceeds went to the newly founded counterculture magazine ‘The East Village Other’. A who's who of pop culture gathered for the recording on 6 August. The date not only marked the 21st anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

#103: Kristin Oppenheim – Long Gone

Whether love, hate or cool detachment – no musical instrument can express emotions as powerfully as the human voice. The sound works sung by New York artist Kristin Oppenheim herself consist of just a few words. Nevertheless, they powerfully address themes of longing and loneliness.

#43: Brion Gysin – Pistol Poem

With the Dreamachine, Brion Gysin invented the first art object that had to be experienced with closed eyes and induced a state of light relaxation. The artist also worked on methods at the sonic level that were intended to alter the state of consciousness.

#63: Jon Appleton – Newark Airport Rock

Electronic sounds were all the rage in the mid-1960s. The young American composer Jon Appleton was certain that they would enable him to reach the emotions and consciousness of a wider audience. In 1967, while waiting for a connecting flight at Newark Airport, he put this idea to the test.

#237: Henry Kawahara – Yorokobi-No-Koe

When cyber-shamanism emerged in Japan in the 1980s, 3D sound recording technologies and brain machines were developed there to simulate the effects of hallucinogenic drugs. Henry Kawahara was at the centre of this movement.

#139: Max Mathews – Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built For Two)

Robotic vocoder voices in music were the symbol of an electronic future in the 1970s. The technology was already being used during the Second World War and was further developed in 1961 at Bell Labs in New Jersey, where computer music pioneer Max Mathews employed it to adapt a love song from 1892.

#155: Ursula K. Le Guin & Todd Barton – The Quail Song

In fantasy and science fiction novels, American author Ursula K. Le Guin has created futuristic scenarios – often linked to Native American motifs. Always Coming Home, published in 1985, describes the life of the fictional Kesh people. To make their world audible, Le Guin recorded several songs with composer Todd Barton.

#93: Jaap Blonk – Nonomotithur

Mystery and poetry come together in the works of Guy de Cointet. The visual artist understood language as a system in its own right – and he deconstructed it. Dutch voice artist Jaap Blonk, active himself at the intersection of music, poetry and performance, interpreted Cointet's work ‘Nonomotithur’ in 1997.

#212: The Evolution Control Committee – Star Spangled Bologna

The sausage products of German immigrant Oscar Mayer are popular in the United States – thanks to clever marketing and a catchy promotional song. In 2003, the Evolution Control Committee from Ohio, known for its crude appropriations, recognised the lyrics as a godsend and mixed them with the national anthem.

#226: John Oswald – Baby It’s Cold

John Oswald established the concept of plunderphonics – the “stealing” of sounds for the sake of art. Here, the Canadian composer transforms a kitschy Christmas song into an absurd cartoon for the ears.

#232: Charles Kellogg – Polish Dance

Charles Kellogg had already developed the ability to communicate with birds in their own language between the ages of four and six. In 1891, at the age of 23, the naturalist who grew up in the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada brought his talent to the stage.

#19: Moondog ‎– Fog On The Hudson

When the blind street musician Moondog roamed New York City in the early 1950s, he must have chosen the places where he laid out his instruments on the pavement with his ears. Sometimes it seems as if the sounds of the city were just waiting for him.

#242: The Tape-beatles – America Is Confident

The American nation as a media construct – that is the core thesis of the Tape-beatles. The Iowa-based collective has been exploring it in collaged pieces featuring samples from film, television and music. During the Iraq War in 1990/91, there was ample opportunity to collect material.

#16: David Toop – Mabutawi-Teri: Rain Song

Surrounded by mosquitoes, spiders and cockroaches, David Toop spent two weeks aboard a boat in the Venezuelan rainforest in 1978. The musician was on his way to the remote villages of the Yanomami people and wanted to record their shamanistic rituals with a microphone.

#224: Neu! – November

In the ragas of classical Indian music, the emotional characteristics associated with the moods of different times of day are translated into sound. The German band Neu!, which became legendary in the Krautrock era of the early 1970s, considered what the month of November should sound like.

#42: Peder Mannerfelt – Bapere Dance

’The Belgian Congo Records‘ is a series of traditional music recorded in the 1930s during a brutal colonial regime. When Swedish techno producer Peder Mannerfelt discovered the songs with their manic, driving rhythms in 2015, he decided to reinterpret them on a synthesiser.

#30: Peter Roehr – Hören Sie

When Andy Warhol introduced the element of repetition into art in the early 1960s, he caused both confusion and inspiration. In Germany, artist Peter Roehr applied this technique to audio from 1964 onwards, editing together passages from radio news, music and advertising into loops.

#14: Thai Elephant Orchestra – Thung Kwian Sunrise

Elephants are social animals – but can they also be encouraged to make music together? And with ‘real’ musical instruments, no less? Composer Dave Soldier tried this out in 1999 together with Richard Lair at the Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang in northern Thailand.

#6: The User – Print #13

For most users, the noises made by devices are nothing more than unwanted by-products. Dot matrix printers were particularly unpopular with their operators because they were loud and disruptive. Thomas McIntosh and Emmanuel Madan discovered the musical potential of these machines in 1998.