Yoga, drugs, growing media awareness and a few computers here and there – in the 1960s, many new things came onto the agenda in the Western world. They paved the way for a radically different future in which self-expression became increasingly important.
Since many of the changes brought about by this decade were driven by technology, it is symbolised in the collective memory by NASA’s space programme; in music production, however, it is the synthesiser.
In 1968, Canadian multimedia artist group Intersystems used the instrument’s idiosyncratic sounds to challenge the ideal of nuclear family life with their 50-minute piece Free Psychedelic Poster Inside. They created breathtaking one-off environments in all kinds of settings by mixing musique concrète from a Moog Modular System with psychedelic light installations and poetry.
Turning country music into an enchanting experience
Around the same time, the German band Can began combining international and European music in their series of short works E.F.S. (Ethnological Forgery Series). The fantasy world of these imitations was created using the instruments available in their studio.
Henry Flynt, who coined the term conceptual art, came up with the idea of New American Ethnic Music – an anthropological approach to Appalachian music that he had been pursuing since the late 1960s. It is said that Flynt sometimes managed to turn musical styles such as bluegrass or country into an enchanting experience with just a banjo.
When punk exploded in the mid-1970s, the conditions for cultural production changed dramatically. Alternative distribution channels emerged, and musical instruments gradually became affordable, so that the democratisation of music production reached its peak in the 1980s.
Cassette releases were a cheap and quick way to distribute music. In 1983, Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine began reporting on projects in the New York City art scene, including the short-lived collaborative band Boom. Bedroom producers like Irish self-proclaimed non-musician Stano were becoming increasingly common everywhere. When he released his debut LP in 1983, he had played only one solo live show at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin.
As early as 1980, Canadian artist John Oswald began experimenting with sound recordings from a wide variety of sources in his home studio, placing them in new contexts and thus establishing the concept of plunderphonics – the “stealing” of sounds for art. It is a path that artists such as Vicki Bennett, alias People Like Us, continue to pursue to this day.
The idea that recorded sounds could become material gained new momentum with the introduction of the sampler. In 1983, German producer Holger Hiller rented one of these absurdly expensive devices for a few days. The result of his work appeared on the LP Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube (A Bundle of Rot in the Pit) and pointed electronic music in a new direction.
The sounds of beetles, crickets, grasshoppers and bees begin to dance
Computers further expanded the possibilities for zooming into sounds and arranging tiny fragments. In 1986, the founder of the industrial band SPK, New Zealand artist Graeme Revell, used such a device to work with recordings from the BBC and British Wildlife Sounds. After arranging them digitally on a screen, the sounds of beetles, crickets, grasshoppers and bees began to dance.
It is a common misconception that DIY music productions are necessarily made without a budget. In fact, their most striking feature is that they aim to create unique listening experiences by translating ideas into sound – using the means at hand.
36 minutes with works by Blancmange, Gregory Whitehead, Minus Delta T, People Like Us and others.
Featured cover art: People Like Us – Welcome Abroad
Playlist
John Oswald – x2-d
A glimpse into the artist‘s cornucopia of essential and vivacious sounds from everywhere and whenever, mapped into vortextual sequences and overlaps. (1982, Mystery Tapes etc.)
Blancmange – Modichy in Aneration
From the debut 7-inch single of the synth-pop duo, who emerged from the London DIY punk scene. (1980, Optimo Music)
Minus Delta T – Young Social Democrat
Excerpt from the open-air avant-garde project Opera Death, which premiered in West-Berlin. (1987, Ata Tak)
Intersystems – A Cave In The Country a.k.a. Draped In Fluorescent Orange
Musique concrète from outside the academic world. (1967, Alga Marghen)
Henry Flynt – Solo Virginia Trance
An anthropological approach to the music of Appalachia. (1975, Recorded)
Gregory Whitehead – As We Know
Based on a quote from US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about known and unknown unknowns, which he uttered when asked about the lack of evidence for Iraq’s involvement in supplying weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups. (2004, unreleased)
Can – E.F.S. (Ethnological Forgery Series) No. 10
Imitating world music. (1969, United Artists Records)
Graeme Revell – La Danse Des Tenebres (Dance Of Shadows)
Arranging the sounds of insects using a computer. (1986, Musique Brut)
Cornershop – When The Light Appears Boy
A poem by Allen Ginsberg, embedded in a soundscape from Punjab. (1995, Wiiija Records)
Boom – Spy
A one-hit wonder from New York City. (1984, Tellus)
Stano – Vixen
From the non-musician‘s debut LP. (1983, AllChival)
People Like Us – Sing
Music of the collective unconscious, transposed into a dreamlike landscape. (2010, Illegal Art)
Holger Hiller – Budapest – Bukarest
A new direction for electronic music. (1983, Ata Tak)
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