Poetry Out Loud – Number Seven

1. The Harlemans and Klyd and Linda Watkins
   Magic (1:16)
2. Klyd Watkins+Tony Cowan
   Amen Absen From The Time Garden (2:55)
3. Klyd & Linda Watkins+The Harlemans
   Help Him Into Holiness (1:43)
4. The Harlemans
   Keep Away (2:04)
5. Klyd Watkins with Tony Cowan
   Plato’s Pool Room (1:33)
6. Bernard Heidsieck+Françoise Janicot
   Poem For Brion Part I (2:41)
7. Tony Cowan 29 Cats (0:20)
8. Klyd Watkins Quarter (7:16)
9. The Harlemans If You Want To Fly (2:28)
10. Patricia Harleman This Fever (3:00)
11. Bernard Heidsieck+Françoise Janicot
    Poem For Brion Part II (2:53)
12. The Harlemans White Church Morning (4:03)
13. Linda Watkins Hiway (0:51)
14. Peter Harleman Silence (0:53)
15. Klyd Watkins with Tony Cowan The Riddle (1:58)
16. Peter Harleman The Dance (3:12)

Total time 39:30
LP released by Out Loud Productions, US, 1973

Out Loud Productions
P. O. BOX 96
Madison, New Jersey 07940

May 8, 1971

Dear subscriber,

In the next few weeks, the fourth number of Poetry Out Loud will appear. In the short time since the appearance of its first number, Poetry Out Loud has taken enormous strides toward its primary goal of restoring the vitality of the human voice to contemporary poetry.

Radio stations across the country have given substantial air play to Poetry Out Loud and WBAI-FM in New York has made it the subject of two, one hour long special programs.

Magazines have continued reviewing Poetry Out Loud, and a copy of a recent review in ROLLING STONE is enclosed with this letter.

Frankly, the future looks very bright for extending the influence of our “magazine” of oral poetry. Out Loud poets have been and are currently appearing at a number of colleges, universities, coffee houses and bars.

Needless to say, the issues of the “magazine” itself are reflecting this spark and vitality of live audiences. Number Four—and more records after it— is on the way. Now’s the time for you to keep a good thing going by filling out the enclosed subscription renewal card and returning it to us.

Sincerely,
Peter Harleman

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Poetry Out Loud – Number Six

01 The Harlemans and Klyd & Linda Watkins ‘Turn Me’ (5:06)
02 Klyd Watkins & Peter Harleman ‘Anything You Do’ (2:26)
03 Klyd & Linda Watkins ‘You Don’t Know Me’ (2:32)
04 Klyd & Linda Watkins and The Harlemans ‘Down To The River’ (6:56)
05 Linda Watkins ‘Down To The Sea’ (3:13)
06 The Harlemans and Klyd & Linda Watkins ‘Hello Morning’ (1:49)
07 The Harlemans ‘A Pact’ (1:17)
08 Klyd & Linda Watkins and The Harlemans ‘Ocean’ (6:15)
09 Peter Harleman ‘White Horse’ (4:23)

Total time 33:50
LP released by Out Loud Records, Madison, NJ, 1972

These days we hear now and then of new fans who have continued to find Poetry Out Loud through the used record bins. Thirty years later, the world has not entirely forgotten Poetry Out Loud, just as it never entirely heard of it in the first place. [Klyd Watkins, from Volcanic Tongue]

First issues of the Poetry Out Loud LP-series (published from 1969 to 1977) included sound poetry live recordings inspired by shamanism and beat poetry, though when reaching Number Six, Klyd Watkins and Peter Harleman had moved to studio recording with their wifes Linda and Patricia. For a short story of POL, please refer to  previous post, Poetry Out Loud Number Ten. The omnipresent blue color on the cover of ‘Number Six’ possibly refers to the epiphany experienced by the Watkins when they first encountered the sea while visiting the Harlemans in New Jersey in 1972 (according to Volcanic Tongue). Two tracks on the B-side refers to this experience, ‘Down To The Sea’ and ‘Ocean’, the latter relentlessly delivered to summon the sound of waves on the shore. The sea element was possibly experienced as a baptism by the Watkins, hence the picture on the back. Other tracks include the usual elements found in Poetry Out Loud records: poetic homophony, repetition of words, congregational call-and-response singing, delay and reverb effects, hand drums. Track #2, ‘Everything you do’, for instance, is based on the convincing, obsessive repetition of the following words: Everything You Do Is A Prison. The album is a sound poetry gem with a hippie touch and shows the New Jersey rhapsodes on top form.

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Various ‘Annual Jissom’

01 Jody And The Creams ‘The Revolving Countess’ (2:46)
02 Webcore ‘Fly Wheel Fly’ (5:09)
03 Hugh Thomas ‘Anal Fistula’ (3:21)
04 Swing Jugend ‘Slowly Dipped and Wriggling’ (3:47)
05 Blind Boy Grunt ‘Dead Girls Don’t Cry’ (3:41)
06 John Boardman ‘The Orgasmic Circle Of 330,216,446′ (4:44)
07 Pseudonymous Bosch ‘Sandwich And Outside’ (14:25)
08 Hinchcliffe And Dick ‘Leave Now’ (2:47)
09 Abstract Skulls ‘Skarp Hedin’s Axe’ (3:25)
10 Abstract Skulls ‘Kicking The Can Blues’ (1:18)
11 Milovan Srdenovic And Jar ‘Virgins Anus Mantra Ray’ (0:34)
12 Smell And Quim ‘Albert Cometh’ (1:00)

Total time 46:09
Cassette+magazine released by GTOG, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, 1988

From the dark vaults of Smell & Quim’s headquarters in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, came ‘Annual Jissom’, a 1988 magazine+cassette release. This monstrosity is a compendium of insane acts from UK labels like Cordelia Records, Stinky Horse Fuck, Unlikely Records, Hajra and Swing Music (all but the first from Yorkshire, of all places). The zine itself offers short stories, comic strips, drawings, collages in a rather ambitious mix of artwork and literature by various local luminaries including Milovan Srdenovic or cartoonist Les Coleman, as well as unclassifiable mavericks like John Trubee (with a sexually explicit written manifesto, not included in the scans) or Diz Willis (an excerpt from his ‘Diaries Of Richard Burton’). While not as horrendous as regular Smell & Quim releases artwork, the zine still includes the typical blasphemies and sexually provocative content here and there. The cassette is a robust mix of depraved lyrics, Yorkshire post-industrial rock, sound poetry and spoken word. It starts with 2 bass-heavy, new-wave acts from the Cordelia stable (Jody And The Creams and Webcore) ; Srdenovic himself appears in various guises (Abstract Skulls, S&Q and very likely Blind Boy Grunt with its blunt pedophiliac/necrophiliac, inept lyrics) ; Hugh Thomas delivers a short, partially speaking-in-tongues, sound poetry track, obviously recorded at home on portable cassette ; Swing Jugend is P. Walsh, aka Smell & Quim member Paul Nonnen, for yet another West Yorkshire sinister offering with low rumbles a-plenty (see attached ‘Severe Lactations’ ad) ; also included is the longest phone prank I’ve ever heard: Sandwich And Outside, credited to Pseudonymous Bosch. Here’s what Diz Willis specialist Phil Smith wrote about the track:

I think THAT one is Diz, doing his cheesy French accent (he lived there for a bit). I thought that was pretty amusing, spinning the guy out without just being downright rude as in many prank calls . . . The slightly misspelt HinchCliffe and Dick must be George Hinchcliffe, now of the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain… they were all pals. (email, May 3rd, ‘09)

There’s enough insanity in this collection of tracks to offend any innocent listener, but the musical side (so to speak) is quite varied and surprising, hopping from the lugubrious to the hilarious while actually getting close to the ‘lowest form of art’ at times. The magazine and tape obviously contain immature material, but multifarious bad jokes are delivered with tongue firmly in cheek and a joyous, messy artistry throughout. Thanks to Phil for invaluable help writing this post. Diz Willis is fortunate indeed to have such a dedicated archivist. Contact him if you have any Willis-related material (philreadsbooks [at] hotmail [dot] com) or if, like me, you have any question regarding Diz Willis!

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More Yorkshire hysteria on Continuo:
Diz Willis >
Milovan Srdenovic > & >
Davy Walklett >

All Chemix Radio ‘Encoded Message / Radio Rabotnik’

01 Encoded Message (44:49)
Willem De Ridder: narration, field recordings
Recorded 1979

• Willem De Ridder was born in ’s-Hertogenbosch, October 14, 1939 – though other sources mention Amsterdam as a birth place. So, yes, 2009 is his 70th birthday. Encoded Message was recorded in 1979, when De Ridder was living in Italy with Annie Sprinkle. De Ridder was fleeing the United States after receiving death threats from Charles Manson, offended by a sex magazine De Ridder published there. De Ridder and Sprinkle lived at their friend’s Prince Maximilian Lobckowicz di Filiangieri villa, whose partner was US sexologist Susan Block. During the late-1970s, De Ridder was creating scary radio shows based on narration and real people re-telling scary situations, like in his ‘Deathly Fear Therapy’ program (see paper clip above and PS below). Encoded Message is in somewhat similar vein. It’s an atmospheric, spoken episode with minimal background sounds. Very striking use of speaking-in-tongues around the 18mns mark, in a dialogue with a children – I could not help compare this with Tony Schwartz’s own children recordings. I guess the purpose of this episode is to keep the listener captivated by the mere use of dramatized narration and mysterious anecdotes, though the story-telling itself doesn’t seem to go anywhere actually.

02 Radio Rabotnik (43:41)
Cora Emens: voice
Nicole Veldman: voice
Hessel Veldman: synthesizer and cello
Willem De Ridder: electronics and voice
Recorded ca 1983-1986

• Radio Rabotnik (from the Russian for Workers Radio) started as a pirate TV on Amsterdam local cable network in 1982, taking advantage of Netherlands’ policy of more or less free access to the media. One of the founding members of Rabotnik TV was Menno Grootveld. When it was closed down by local authorities in 1983, they switched to pirate radio. Radio Rabotnik was active until 1986, when they merged with Radio WHS. The radio programs favoured experimental, messy and freeform mixes including everything from movies/TV cut-ups, excerpts from other radios (incl. BBC), live improvisations, tapes, etc. Their live sessions created environmental soundscapes mirroring the bleak Cold War atmosphere of the times. The present Radio Rabotnik session is no exception, what with its typical Cold War phone tonalities, intercepted Russian officials conversations, obsessive string pizzicatos, menacing electronics, tribal percussion or excerpts from movies of the times. Note gorgeous bass loop starting at 6:20, possibly by Hessel Veldman. Impressive cohesion from all participants – well, as far as I know they more or less lived together at the times, constantly recording together. The episode, avoiding many traps found in some previous ACR efforts, is a gripping listening exprience from start to finish, with fresh ideas popping up more often than not.

Total time 88:29 [music+pictures provided by Olivier Prieur. Thanks!]
Download

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• Below is a video produced at Radio Rabotnik TV, 1990:

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Additionally, a 1977 episode from an early De Ridder radio program called ‘Doodsangst Therapie’ (Deathly Fear Therapy) can be found on VPRO Radio archives (link to mp3). The 41mn episode is delivered in Dutch and features George Crumb’s ‘Vox Balenae‘ as background music.

Tony Schwartz ‘The Sound Of Children’

01 Introduction (2:00)
02 Recording Techniques (6:00)
03 The Death of a Turtle (7:46)
04 Stories About Your Child (3:17)
06 Children And God (8:55)
07 Nancy Grows Up (2:16)
08 Sound Snapshots (5:17)

Total time 38:30
LP released on Columbia, 1967

Tony Schwartz’s focus on children’s voices pre-dates the ubiquitous use of children in advertising from the 1970s until today and Schwartz is possibly the creator of a genre which is a heavy trend nowadays. Schwartz pushed things rather far in his famous political ad known as the 1964 ‘Daisy ad’ (see below), an advertising milestone. There’s no denying there is a bit of cynicism in the use of children in advertising, let alone in a political TV spot, and Schwartz is no stranger to this. But his children recordings have an indubitable freshness, as he was basically inventing the genre from scratch. In a way, Tony Schwartz’s children recordings are as pioneering as David Greenberger’s Duplex Planet interviews with elders in the 1980s. Both break new ground in the art of interviews, focusing on marginalized populations not normally offered the opportunity to express themselves in the media. Schwartz started recording kids and teenagers in the early 1950s. He collected and later re-arranged interviews to create stories or atmosphere. Noticeable is the fact children’s voices sound the same today as 40 years ago. The grain of these untaught, un-trendy kids is the same. Or perhaps Tony Schwartz’s way of recording children influenced today’s technique – close miking, enhancing cute syllables, etc. The children here make marvellous sounds.

Download.

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Comprehensive history of the 1964 Daisy ad here.

Glenn Branca/John Giorno ‘Who You Staring At?’

Glenn Branca
01 Music For The Dance Bad Smells Choreographed By Twyla Tharp (16:25)

• Guitars: Glenn Branca, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo,
  David Rosenbloom, Ned Sublette
• Bass: Jeffrey Glenn
• Drums: Stephen Wischerth

John Giorno
02 Stretching It Wider (6:44)
03 We Got Here Yesterday, We’re Here Now, And I Can’t Wait To Leave Tomorrow (10:30)

• Vocals: John Giorno
• Drums: David Van Tieghem
• Bass: Philippe Hagen
• Keyboards, synth & guitar: Pat Irwin

Total time 33:41
LP released on Giorno Poetry Systems, 1982

John Giorno (born 1935) started his Giorno Poetry Systems record label in 1972 with a series of ‘Dial-A-Poets’ LPs (see also UbuWeb for more GPS), a project he initiated in 1968 with friends William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Through GPS Giorno has championned a kind of DIY spoken word poetry embarking cut-ups, performance, rock guitar and electronic rhythms. If Burroughs foundness for tape recorder and tape splicing delights is well known, his relationship to rock appears a bit cynical and un-sincere. Giorno, on the other hand, was part of that Downtown scene where so many things had been happening since the 1960s – from Cage and Rauschenberg to No Wave frenzy. But chances are he envisionned rock music as a suitable medium for his poetry in the same way he used telephone to spread his poems. There’s pragmatism at work here. Some of the guests musicians on Glenn Branca’s track appeared on his monumental ‘The Ascension’ LP on 99 Records published the year before (1981): Stephan Wischerth, David Rosenbloom, Ned Sublette and Lee Ranaldo. I more or less expected monolithic guitar walls, but this soundtrack to a dance performance is quite varied and structured into various moments, including sudden rhythm changes (at 8:15), quiet guitar feedback drones (at 11;30) alternating with fierce guitar parts, while drums are a prominent feature throughout. The whole track is very well conceived and entertaining from start to finish. The John Giorno side has 2 tracks of poetry reading along heavy beats. The poems are deliberately matter-of-fact and delivered in the typical Giorno high pitched voice. Nice slice of Downtown avant-whatever.

Download.

Tellus #25 ‘Site-Less Sounds’

1. Shelley Hirsch
   #39 (8:18)
   
2. Gregory Whitehead
   How To Pronounce Prosthesis
   + M Is For The Million Things
   + This Is Not A Test (9:49)
3. David Moss
   Conjure (10:09)
   
4. Jacki Apple/Keith Antar Mason/Linda Albertano/Akilah Nayo Oliver
   Redefining Democracy in America (10:05)
   
5. David Wojnarowicz & Ben Neil
   The Collapse Of The Illusory One-Tribe Nation (10:39)
6. Constance Dejong & Brenda Hutchinson
   Vanishing Act (6:39)
   

Total time 55:36
CD released 1991 by Tellus
Curated by Claudia Gould, Carol Parkinson and Helen Thorington
Cover art & text: David Wojnarowicz

TELLUS issue #25 looks like a continuation from previous endeavors, namely #9 ‘Music With Memory’, 1985 (especially for the Brenda Hutchinson’s interviews collage ‘Interlude from Voices Of Reason’) and #18 ‘Experimental Theater’, 1987, which included impressive readings on gender issues by Spalding Gray and Jerri Allyn, amongst others. Tellus #25 ‘Site-Less Sounds’ is a theater of voices with all contributions based on reading, sound poetry and language, as well as extended use of recording studio facilities (including Studio Pass on tracks #1 & 6). The works on this CD mingle semantics with politics, mirroring racial, political and gender issues with semantics/phonetics. Language is considered the tool of oppression itself (via media overload, political blabber and daily prejudices) and the means of liberation at the same time, providing composers and the people use it as a weapon. Which more or less sums up the political point of view of Tellus producers and allies. Additionally this issue of Tellus can be considered a testament to their creative ethos: a cleverly curated project with well chosen contributors given absolute artistic freedom and access to up-to-date technology. One of the 3 curators for Tellus #25 is Helen Thorington, a US sound artist and New American Radio producer who started her carreer as a writer. As a matter of fact, several contributions on the CD are based on literature. It all starts with the sexy voice of Shelley Hirsch reading from Angela Carter’s Dr. Hoffman’s Infernal Machines Of Desire (1972) with added processed breathing. David Moss’s Conjure is based on Italian writer Italo Calvino. David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992) was a gay writer and performance artist. His ‘Collapse Of The Illusory One-Tribe Nation’ is a shatteringly powerful track in which Wojnarowicz unleashes endless, angry rants on politics and gender issues amid a complex web of noise and sound treatment, apparently the result of many studio hours. Track #4, a collective collage work conducted by Jacki Apple, describes prejudices that prevailed under Ronald Reagan, even if his second term ended way back in 1989. This is an excerpt from a longer work commissioned by New American Radio. It is at times hilarious, and at times scary. At 6:36, a young black contributor says: ‘Make me President tonight’, while at 9:00, a woman says: ‘A woman will be President’. History is only half-way to fulfill these dreams.

Download.

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Links:
H. Thorington: http://new-radio.org/helen/about.html
D. Wojnarowicz: http://www.actupny.org/diva/synWoj.html
Jacki Apple: http://www.jackiapple.com/

Jaroslav Krček ‘Raab’

01 Raab – Part I (25:49)
02 Raab – Part II (13:16)
03 Raab – Part III (14:05)

Total time 53:00

Recorded 1971 in Supraphon studios, Prague.
First release on Recommended Records, R.R.23, 1985.

Cast:
Raab . . . . . . . . . . Milada Jirgová
Eolnas . . . . . . . . . . Pavel Jurkovič
Ronochaj . . . . . . . . . . Jaroslav Tománek
Joshua . . . . . . . . . . Vratislav Vinický
Mother . . . . . . . . . . Vlasta Pecháčková
Father . . . . . . . . . . Vratislav Vinický
Sisters . . . . . . . . . . Milada Jirgová, Jitka Čechová
Narrator . . . . . . . . . . Radovan Lukavský
Viola . . . . . . . . . . Karel Špelina

According to Lenka Dohnalová’s 2000 article ‘Electro-acoustic Music in Czech Republic’, electroacoustic music started in Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s thanks to equipment facilities provided to composers by national radio studios of Plzeň (Pilsen) and Praha (Prague). Miloslav Kabeláč (whose 1972’s ‘E. Fontibus Bohemicis – Op.55′ is considered a seminal composition) taught new music to a whole generation of pupils during the 1970s, including Petr Kotik and Jaroslav Krček. The latter (b1939), a radio producer, conductor, classical and folk music composer, is famous to experimental music lovers for his exquisite electroacoustic piece ‘Sonaty Slavičkove’, composed 1970 and included in the legendary ReR compilation LP ‘Aide Mémoire-Folk Music-Sonaty Slavičkove’ (1985). During the 1970s, Krček worked as musical director for Plzen Radio and Supraphon record label (see my Wikipedia article for more info).

Raab (aka Raab The Harlot) was created in Czechoslovakia as ‘Nevěstka Raab (The Prostitute Raab) - An Electronic Opera’ in 1971 . Best described as an electroacoustic oratorio, it was created in the Prague Electronic Music Studio in 1970-71. It was banned by the communist regime in 1972. This was a time for many contemporary avantgarde music dramas like Iannis Xenakis’ ‘Nuits’ (1968) or Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s ‘Requiem Für Einen Jungen Dichter’ (1969). The story of Raab (or Rahab as she is known in the Bible) is based on the Fall of Jericho from the Book of Joshua, a Jewish king planning to conquer the town: “Joshua son of Nun sent two spies out from Shittim secretly and instructed them: “Find out what you can about the land, especially Jericho. They stopped at the house of a prostitute named Rahab and spent the night there“ [Joshua 2:1].

Rahab (unidentified singer pictured here) helps the two spies and hide them from the King of Jericho’s guards, thus helping the Israelites conquer Jericho. The libretto is by Zdeněk Barborka using an invented language that can pass for an approximation of aramaic, Jesus’ native tongue (check the sound files on this Wikipedia article). The opera opens with an introductory recitative in czech, followed (at 4′) by one of several long instrumental crescendos build from slowed-down trumpets and cymbals crashes reaching to a climax before a long decaying low rumble, an allusion to the trumpets used by Joshua during the 7-days siege of Jericho. The sound is reminiscent of the bell casting scene in Tarkovsky’s film Andrei Rublev, 1966. It sets the tone for the rest of a hieratic, imposing score. The opera relies mostly on vocals with occasional electroacoustic interjections in the form of processed acoustic instruments like viola, tam-tam or full orchestra, transformed through studio treatment and montage. Vocal deliveries are pretty diverse, ranging from singing to sprechgesang, from the plaintive to the exhalted, from emphatic to hushed voices. The cast includes core members of the Chorea Bohemica ensemble from which will stem the Musica Bohemica ensemble, to be founded by Jaroslav Krček in 1975 (see next post).

As far as I can tell, the opera wasn’t staged in 1971 or at any time during the communist regime. In 1989, after the Velvet Revolution put an end to communism in Czech country, the LP was finally issued by local label Panton, four years after its original release by Chris Cutler on his own Recommended Records. A new production of Nevěstka Raab was staged in 2003 at Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno, with costume and stage design by Radka Mizerová (b1976). Another production was presented in 2004, by stage director Magdalena Krčková (b1977) at Jičín’s Cultural House (Kulturním dome v Jicíne). Interestingly, this performance included dancers as well as actors and singers.

Download (incl. 12pp booklet + Sonáty slavíčkové as a bonus).

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Lenka Dohnalová lists several electro-acoustic works by Krček:

• Sonáty slavíčkové (Nightingales Sonatas), 1969
• Nevěstka Raab (Prostitute Raab), 1971
• Koncert (Concert), 1978
• Rozmluvy s časem (Talks with Time), 1990
• O světlo světa (O lux mundi), 1992