Friday 23 October 2020

Various Artists - Audiografika -1989- (Cassette, Po. So. 02), Spain

This contribution stems back from one of the activities carried out by Javier Cinca, who was involved in various home taping, mail art, sound poetry and experimental video projects along the 1980’s and responsible for the cassette label from Zaragoza Sindicato de Trabajos Imaginarios (S.T.I.).

Audiografika belongs to the PO.SO. sub-label, a project which unfortunately could no longer be continued after 1989. PO.SO. stands for Poesía Sónica, Spanish for Sonic Poetry and considered to encompass a wider spectrum than sound poetry, which could go from phonetic poetry all the way to electronic poetry. Such project represents Cinca’s aim to turn towards the elaboration of multimedia editions at a time when such concept became highly popularized. Its first edition, Antología Polipoética – a boxset containing a sound poetry cassette along with a bilingual Italian-English book with a chapter dedicated to each of the twelve artists that participated – featured some of the most prolific Italian sonic poets, with the likes of Enzo Minarelli, Arrigo Lora-Totino, Maurizio Nannucci, Vittore Baroni and Giovanni Fontana among others. 

The second edition Audiografika included the participation of highly acclaimed artists whose practice leaned towards the more vocal side of sound poetry such as Heidsieck and Scherstjanoi, the concrete tape manipulations of Henri Chopin and the electroacoustic works of Riedl. This time, Audiografika was intended to pursue the multimedia path through an exploration of the synesthetic character of the work of its participants, from the Riedl’s ‘Optische Lautgedichte's' or optical sound poems to the visual poems of Scherstjanoi or Chopin. Sadly, Audiografika was never published, and as Cinca recalls, even if around 200 tapes were produced for this edition, only half a dozen from them survived, making them today very hard to source and thus, highly coveted collectable sonic objects.

As a part of a debt contracted through numerous postal exchanges along the 1980’s with many of the artists with which S.T.I. sought to embark itself in different projects, Javier Cinca has now published a book containing most of the letters, collages, various types of poetry and other forms of mail art ephemera he received over the years, together with a digitized version of the Audiografika tape now available through Archaic Inventions.

- Text by Juan Vacas

 

For those interested in acquiring a copy of the book (100 copies only), please contact: stiediciones@gmail.com

Or buy the book through this link at Todocoleccion.

Download the Audiografika Cassette HERE or HERE

Archaic Inventions likes to specially thank Javier Cinca and Juan Vacas for the collaboration.

Wednesday 14 October 2020

Coomans, Vinck, Denhaene ‎- Eight Intimate Poses -1978- (LP, Stichting Vrijere Muziek 3), Belgium

 

Eight Intimate Poses was a free-jazz and free improvisation endeavour by a Flemish trio that consisted of Leo Coomans (reeds), Kris Vinck (trombones) and Marc Denhaene (guitars, accordeon). It was recorded at King Kong in Antwerp on December 11th and 12th, 1977. King Kong was an independent cultural centre for music, theatre and film, founded in the early seventies. It was situated on Keizerstraat 38 in Antwerp. Joy Division even played the King Kong venue in 1980.

The three musicians on Eight Intimate Poses were regularly part of other jazz and improvisation formations (WIM Fanfare, Madou etc.) in Belgium but also played with foreign jazz musicans. Furthermore there was an important exchange of recorded material with other free-jazz and impro labels. This copy of Eight Intimate Poses for example was distributed through the BVHaast label in Amsterdam which was one of the most important contemporary jazz labels in Holland founded by saxophonist and composer Willem Breuker.

Eight Intimate Poses is another interesting release of the Belgian independent impro scene. The music consists of free improvisation in some of its most minimalistic shapes with occassional hectic outburst. It reminds me a.o. of the intricate, delicate yet anarchic acoustic sounds by the American impro duo and NWW List residents LaDonna Smith and Davey Williams and their Trans Museq label. 

Belgian label Ultra Eczema also released a great archival album by Leo Coomans in 2009 that I highly recommend to check out.

Get it HERE

Friday 2 October 2020

Inutile & Murilee Arraiac - Oscillating Knife System -198X- (Cassette, Inutile Tapes), US

   

Murilee Arraiac was an industrial, noise and home-taping project from Irvine, Orange County, California that existed between 1987 and 1991. The band was formed by Martin Murilee and a loose group of individuals that would record at a student trailer park called Irvine Meadows West that was partially squatted during the '70s as a more inclusive and freeform community that a.o. countered the expensive and constraining official student housing facilities next door. Murilee Arraiac recorded their music at one of the trailers that they used as their studio. From their website:

Murilee Arraiac consisted of any musician we could drag into our studio at luxurious Trailer B7, located in the Irvine Meadows West RV Park beneath the white sky of Irvine, California. All songs were recorded on Tascam 244 or Tascam Porta 01 cassette 4-tracks (except those recorded live at KUCI or via microcassette recorder at gigs). Drums provided by 55-gallon oil drums and tire irons, Casio SK-1 sampling keyboard, and a Roland 707 drum machine. The key to our special sound was the combo of a police scanner and a shortwave radio, played through various modified distortion boxes.

The strange name of the band is explained by Murilee Martin in an article I happened to stumble on: Wishing to emulate bands like Negativland and Psychic TV, and under the influence of the Cut-Up Technique, the name of the crypto-nihilo-surrealo band I put together in my early 20s was generated by drawing random syllables out of a hat, thus: Murilee Arraiac.

Oscillating Knife System is a great cassette that comprises a.o. of heavily distorted radio signals with spoken word buffoonery, lo-fi electrorock, different interfering noises and lots of electronics. It's another highly obscure project belonging to the West-Coast experimental music tradition. In a way it reminds me of the pioneering noise making collective Los Angeles Free Music Society, albeit driven by individual creativity and experimentation. Actually some very cool sounds at times.

Kindly donated by the Y Create Archive

Get it HERE