In 1980, English keyboard player and composer Stephen Morgan Fisher published the LP Miniatures – A Sequence Of Fifty-One Tiny Masterpieces with works by avantgarde and pop artists. Only a year later, New York City’s no wave scene got mapped with 77 works on the record Just Another Asshole, curated by artists Barbara Ess and Glenn Branca. To this day, compilations of (ultra) short pieces have remained an interesting filter for outlining sonic terrain. 

With his series Fundstück (relics) on national radio DLF-Kultur, Paul Paulun has been presenting radiophonic miniatures since 2015. Most of the 260 episodes have a connection to human life. They tell stories, take listeners on acoustic journeys, or document situations. Relics can be poems, studio productions, field-recordings, or something completely different.

53-minute mix with pieces by Anne Waldman, Helga Goetze, Mark E. Smith, Timothy Leary and 26 other artists. They appear in the order as broadcasted.

Featured cover art: Andy Warhol – Andy Warhol From Tapes

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Playlist ‘Relics’

Magazzini Criminali Music – Tijuana, Frontiera a Nord-Ovest

new ideas for theater from Italy (1983, Riviera Records, broadcasted 04/2015)

David Soldier & Richard Lair – Thung Kwian Sunrise

elephants playing with devices based on traditional Thai musical instruments (2000, Mulatta, broadcasted 06/2015)

Moondog – Fog On The Hudson (425 W 57th Street)

street music and the sounds of the city (1953, London Records, broadcasted 07/2015)

Chris Watson & Alec Finlay – Siren (feat. Maria Jardardottir, exc.)

enactment of Tim Buckley’s Song To The Siren in a harbor (2006, Platform Projects / Morning Star, broadcasted 08/2015)

Dragibus – Old King Cole

punk rock, noise and children’s music as basis for workshops in kindergartens (2000, Autobus, broadcasted 11/2015)

Jürgen Ploog – Tapes von unterwegs (exc.)

cut-up travel diary by the beat poet and Lufthansa pilot (1971-76, 90% Wasser, broadcasted 12/2015)

Peder Mannerfelt – Bapere Dance 2

traditional drum rhythms from Congo modeled on a synthesizer (2015, Archives Intérieures, broadcasted 04/2016)

Cardboard Air Band – Little Rabbit

about love in Hindi films (1984, Tellus, broadcasted 09/2016)

Ken Nordine – Lavender

the life of colors (1966, Philips, broadcasted 09/2016)

Daphne Oram – Ascending And Descending Sequences Of Varying Nature

teaching school kids how to listen, move, and dance with funny electronic sounds (1962, His Master’s Voice / Re: Electronic Sound, broadcasted 01/2017)

Andy Warhol – Excerpt From Record Bound Into ‘Andy Warhol’s Index’ (feat. Nico)

scene from Andy Warhol’s audio diary, introduced by John Giorno (1968, Hatje Cantz, broadcasted 04/2017)

Yasuaki Shimizu – Honda

music for advertising that doesn’t sound like it (1987, Crammed Discs, broadcasted 01/2018)

Karen Michel McPherson – Postcard from Mzima Springs

unwanted experiences during a trip to Kenya (1985, Tellus, broadcasted 01/2018)

The Fugs – Marijuana

glorification of the drug by political psychedelics (1968, Reprise Records, broadcasted 02/2018)

Mark E. Smith – Football Results

reading the match day‘s football results (2005, Sonic Arts Network, broadcasted 03/2018)

People Like Us – Help Me To Help Myself

transferring music of the collective subconscious into a dreamy landscape (2011, Illegal Art, broadcasted 05/2018)

Paul de Vree – Veronika

tape adaptation of a concrete sound poem (1962, Alga Marghen, broadcasted 06/2018)

Anne Waldman – Lady Tactics

poem based on weird ideas about women (1974 (read 1979), Giorno Poetry Systems, broadcasted 03/2019)

Laurie Spiegel – Strand of Life (“Viroid”)

viroid translated into music (1990, Unseen Worlds, broadcasted 06/2019)

Zigaretten rauchen – Systemhaus

system considerations (2000, Columbia, broadcasted 11/2019)

Alva Noto & Anne James Chaton – Lune

pitfalls in the fusion of man and machine (2019, Noton, broadcasted 01/2020)

Helga Goetze – Rockerroy

the concept of free love (1981, Stechapfel Produktion, broadcasted 10/2020)

Timothy Leary – Afterlife

thoughts about a carefully organized death (1996, Mercury, broadcasted 11/2020)

Jack Smith – Cold Starry Nights

en-route with a flying bed (early 1960s, Table Of The Elements, broadcasted 12/2020)

Paul Vangelisti – da “Rime” (B)

stream of speech as a musical idea (1984, 3ViTrePAIR, broadcasted 12/2020)

Laurie Anderson – Sh

a connecting element between different languages (1977, Museum Kunst Palast, broadcasted 12/2020)

Soliman Gamil – Sacred Lake

Pharaonic, Christian, and Sufi traditions as basis for 20th century compositions (1950s-60s, Touch, broadcasted 02/2021)

Allen Ginsberg – Vajra Mantra

mantras as part of the artistic oeuvre (1972, Giorno Poetry Systems, broadcasted 03/2021)

Lou Giansante – Balloon Man

adaptation of E. E. Cummings‘ observations on a sunny day in spring (1985, Tellus, broadcasted 04/2021)

Max Brand – French Folk Song: Corbleu Marion (feat. Ligoa Duncan)

testing the prospects of an early synthesizer in combination with a French nursery rhyme (1963, Rhiz Records, broadcasted 09/2021)