When tape recorders became affordable in the 1950s, poetry reached a new level. The human voice was enhanced with effects, contrasted with other recordings, and incorporated into arrangements.
37-minute mix with works by Ernst Jandl, Henri Chopin, Paul de Vree, Sten Hanson and others.
Featured cover art: Disconnected (The Dial-A-Poem Poets)
Playlist
Demetrio Stratos – Flautofonie ed altro
A ritual-like work. (1978, Cramps Records)
Paul de Vree – Vertigo Gli
The encounter of love (erotic), during man’s passage from birth to death. (1963, Alga Marghen)
Sten Hanson – Skarp dig, for fan!
A shamanistic poem. (1991, Alga Marghen)
Neil Mills – Gong Poem
Evocation of a prayer-chant. (1971, Arts Council of Great Britain)
Four Horsemen – Matthew’s Line
Poetry as a collective experience. (1972, Holidays Records)
Bernard Heidsieck – Canal Street 19
From a series of 35 poems about communication. (1976, Al Dante)
Jean-Claude Gagnon – À gaga gougou
Stand-up comic sound poetry with additives. (1987, 3vitrepair)
Enzo Minarelli – Sinergicoral B.
Sound experiment based on images. (1981, 3vitre)
Henri Chopin – La Chanson du Parlement Européen
A human being and a machine tell a story together. (1968, Alga Marghen)
bpNichol – Dada Lama
A Dada poet becomes a Buddhist lama in order to free believers from the constraints of time. (1966, New Fire Tapes)
Charles Amirkhanian – Radii
Homage to radio by KPFA/Berkeley’s music director. (1972, Giorno Poetry Systems)
Ernst Jandl – Talk
Radiophonic sound poem, realized for the BBC. (1966, Verlag Klaus Wagenbach)
Ladislav Novák – Ceterum Autem
Based on the words of Cato the Elder in the Roman Senate on the destruction of Carthage. (1969, Fylkingen Records)
Augusto De Campos – Tensão
Seven pairs of words begin to dance. (1956, Artemeios)
Bob Cobbing – ABC in Sound (t)
The letter t, as it appears in Bob Cobbling’s book ABC in Sound. (1965, Aisthesis Verlag)
Gerhard Rühm – Verkürzte Zeitspanne
Subtle changes in voice during masturbation. (1973, Tochnit Aleph)
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