When no wave emerged in New York City in the late 1970s, its protagonists resisted the commodification of music and art with radical, often multimedia works.
Noise musician, art critic and artist Joseph Nechvatal was involved from the very beginning. He worked in the archive of Fluxus and minimalist legend La Monte Young and, in 1983, founded the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine together with Carol Parkinson and Claudia Gould. With over 20 publications, the project developed into a who’s who of the downtown scene.
On the occasion of the exhibition Who You Staring At? at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2023, which featured Joseph Nechvatal and Rhys Chatham’s no wave opera XS: The Opera Opus, Nechvatal and Paul Paulun discuss aspects of the no wave movement in relation to music they have selected together.
Featured image: No Wave Heart, Joseph Nechvatal (1978)
Playlist
Loose Joints – Pop Your Funk (1980, Instrumental)
The Static – The Static in Concert 1979
3 Teens Kill 4 – Stay and Fight (1982)
Youth In Asia – Talking Heads (1979)
Lee Ranaldo – The Bridge (1985)
DNA – Blonde Redhead (1981)
Jill Kroesen – I Am Not Seeing That You’re Here (1982, Reprise)
Rhys Chatham – Guitar Trio (1977)
Walter Steding – Shout (1980)
Mars – 3E (1978)
Joseph Nechvatal – Crown Of Thorns (1981)
Bush Tetras – Snakes Crawl (1980)
Back in 2021, Paul Paulun conducted a lengthy interview with Joseph Nechvatal. He discusses the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine as part of the legacy of Marcel Duchamp and conceptual art, the downtown bar scene, Fluxus, and his art, which is inspired by the nature of viruses.
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