Ever since Dadaists and Futurists were paving the way for letters and numbers to appear in the art world, they got used as material for expression.
40-minute mix with works by Brion Gysin, Demetrio Stratos, Henri Chopin, Khan, Lawrence Weiner and others, invented between 1917 and 2006.
Featured cover art: Konkrete Canticle – Experiments In Disintegrating Language
Listen also to
The Poetry of DIY – Ideas Expressed With Sound (1956-2016)
Playlist ‘Letters & Numbers’
Peter Downsbrough – Taken down
words, numbers and music as ingredients for a poetic piece (1978, La Box)
Neil Mills with Elaine Mills – Number Poem for 2 Voices
about the meaning of intonation and rhythm when reading poetry (1971, Arts Council of Great Britain)
Halim El-Dabh – Electronics and the Word
the relation between electronic sounds and language (1959, Without Fear)
Brion Gysin – Pistol-Poem
modified pistol shots accompanied by numbers (1960, Alga Marghen)
bpNichol – Clover
poetry from the perspective of letter-objects (1971, High Barnet Company)
Vasily Kamensky – Poem To The Letter ‘k’
contributing to visual literature (1917, ReR Megacorp)
Henri Chopin – French Lesson
French for beginners (1974, ? Records)
Nelson Morpurgo – Amore (read by Vittore Baroni)
optical poetry, notated in letters going up and down (1923, VEC Audio Edition)
Christof Migone – Analphabète
a slightly contorted alphabet (1996, Avatar / OHM éditions)
Demetrio Stratos – Le Sirene
the relationship between the voice and the subconscious (1978, Cramps Records)
Lawrence Weiner – Having Been Done At / Having Been Done To
letters as code (1973, Tellus)
Klaus Groh – 100 Drops
numbers as means to connect language and nature (1982, Assessorato Cultura Comune Bondeno)
Khan – MAN SAH DAS MEER SO WIE MAN SAH
an endless stream (2006, Intermedium Records)