PULSE FIELD Playlist

Date: January 28,2003

Title: OU & Sound Poetry

Description: Since the end of the fifties, Henri Chopin, an explorer in the new recorded sound poetry field, has never ceased, through his own work as well as through his publishing activities (Revue OU, a magazine with record from 1963 to 1974) to defend the electronic exploration of the voice and the body. If Henri Chopin's Revue OU is such a remarkable publication, then this is surely because it is one of the truly -- and most authentically -- 'contemporary' publications of its time. Yet at first sight, the word 'contemporary' seems to offer a rather simplistic description of such a visionary publication as Chopin's OU. When we consider in the general cultural context of the sixties, for example, aren't all mid-century art publications generally 'contemporary' in one way or another? And when considered in terms of most other poetry publications of the sixties, doesn't Chopin's OU clearly stand out as one of the most significant 'experimantal' or 'avant-garde' publications of the mid-century? As Chopin observes, he considered the sound poetry published on the records in OU to be a distictively 'new form of art'. On one hand sound poetry constitutes an almost archetypal practice, but on the other hand sound poetry also emerges from the very sources of recording technology by means of its use of electro-magnetics. Chopin's most striking achievement was to consistently identify and publish the first major works of many of the most visionary transatlantic artists exploring the new recording technologies of the fifties, sixties and seventies. Far from attempting to establish any monodimensional 'movement', Chopin characteristically championed a wide variety of those poets, writers and composers whom he perceived to be 'in movement', and whom he subsequently applauds as 'Fabulous Independents'. Following an editorial logic of selectively eclectic inclusion, Chopin's OU records published an astonishing diversity of inter-generational and international experiments. These include intense electronic readings by William Burroughs and Brion Gysin; pioneering optophonetic works by the Dadaist Raoul Hausmann; 'crirythmes' and vocalic improvisations by François Dufrene and Gil J Wolman; fragmentary poemes-partitions by Bernard Heidsieck; high-tech text-sound works by composers such as Ake Hodell and Sten Hanson; electronic abstractions by Bengt Emil Johnson; phonetic pomes by Mimmo Rotella; 'handy tech' performances on self-built electronic intruments by Hugh Davies; haunting tape-manipulations by Ladislav Novak; playful improvisations by Bob Cobbing with Anna Lockwood; dramatic monologues by Paul de Vree; electronic concrete music by Jacques Bekaert and -- of course -- Chopin's dynamic orchestrations of the body's 'factory' of corporeal sounds. Chopin's writings equally consistently championed the 'electronic language revolution' facilitated by what he describes as 'technological means which extend the human body', thereby inaugurating an enormous expansion of human expression.

10:00

· OU 20-27 (60:28)

OU 20-21

o Bernard Heidsieck “Poem-partition D4P” 1962 (07’49”)

o Brion Gysin “I am” 1960 (03’02”)

o Brion Gysin “Pistol-poem” 1960 (02’15”)

OU 23-24

o Henri Chopin “Vibrespace” 1963 (08’51”)

o Francois Dufrene “Batteries Vocales” 1958 (02’15”)

o Francois Dufrene “Paix en Algerie” 1958 (01’54”)

o Francois Dufrene “Tenu-tenu” 1964 (01’26”)

o Mimmo Rotella “7 Poemes Phonetiques” 1949-63 (05’26”)

o Bernard Heidsieck “Poem-partition J” 1963 (03’30”)

o Bernard Heidsieck “Poem-partition H1 + H2” 1963 (02’36”)

o Brion Gysin “Three Permutations” 1960 (04’22”)

o Henri Chopin “L’energie du sommeil” 1965 (05’05”)

OU 26-27

o Rauol Hausmann “b b b b et F m s b w” 1918 (01’09”)

o Rauol Hausmann “K’ perioum” 1918 ((00’44”)

o Rauol Hausmann “Poeme sans titres” 1919 (00’50”)

o Rauol Hausmann “Oiseautal” 1919 (01’40”)

o Rauol Hausmann “Chanson, Vali tali, baste” 1946 (00’56”)

o Bernard Heidsieck “La Convention Collective” 1965 (00’45”)

o Bernard Heidsieck “La cage” 1965 (00’52”)

o Bernard Heidsieck “L’Exercice” 1966 (00’39”)

o Henri Chopin “Indicatif I” 1962 (01’03”)

o Henri Chopin “La Fusee Interplanetiare” 1963 (02’12”)

11:00

· OU 28-33(63:27)

OU 28-29

o Francois Dufrene, ‘Triptycrirythme’ 1966 (12’27”)

o Paul deVree, ‘Veronika’ audio-visual poem 1953 (01’32”)

o Paul deVree, ‘Ogenblik’ 1948 (00’41”)

o Paul deVree, ‘Kleine Caroli’ 1963 (01’08”)

o Paul deVree, ‘Vertigo Gli’ 1963 (01’52”)

o Paul deVree, ‘Een Roos a Rose’ 1964 (00’42”)

o Henri chopin, ‘Sol Air’ 1961-64 (09’47”)

OU 30-31

o Henri Chopin, ‘Le Corps’ 1957/66 (09’18”)

o Henri Chopin, ‘Le Corps’ 1957/66 (08’04”)

o Henri Chopin, ‘Le Corps’ 1957/66 (04’44”)

OU 33

o Bernard Heidsieck, ‘Quel âge avez-vous?’ 1966 (02’16”)

o François Dufrêne, ‘Dédié à H. Chopin’ 1967 (03’38”)

o Gil J Wolman, ‘La Mémoire’ 1967 (03’12”)

o Henri Chopin, ‘Le Ventre de Bertini’ 1967 (03’24”)

12:00

· OU 34-37 (53’41”)

OU 34-35

o François Dufrêne, ‘Haut-Satur’ 1967 (02’58”)

o François Dufrêne, ‘Haut-Satur’ 1967 (08’42”)

o François Dufrêne, ‘Haut-Satur’ 1968 (01’23”)

o Bob Cobbing, ‘Marvo Movie Natter’ 1968 (04’10”)

o Bob Cobbing, ‘Spontaneous AppealinairContemprate Apollinaire’ 1968 (03’09”)

o Bob Cobbing, ‘Mes Bronches’ 1968 (05’48”)

OU 36-37

o Ladislav Novak, ‘La Structure Phonétique de la Langue Tchèque’ 1969 (02’12”)

o Hugh Davies, ‘Shozyg 1& 2’ 1969 (10’21”)

o Sten Hanson, ‘Don’t Hestitate do it, do it right now” 1969 (02’55”)

o Sten Hanson, ‘The Glorious Desertion’ 1969 (02’50”)

o Henri Chopin, ‘2500, les Grenouilles d’Aristophane’ 1967 (04’29”)

o Bernard Heidsieck, ‘Ravaillac, tu connais?’ 1969 (04’10”)

1:00

OU 38-44 (76’34”)

OU 38-39

o Henri Chopin, ‘Le Rire es Debout’ 1969 ((08’00”)

o Bengt Emil Johnson, ‘(Among) II’ 1970 (04’50”)

o StenHanson, ‘Revolution’ 1970 (03’35”)

o Sten Hanson, ‘Railroad Poem’ 1970 (02’14)

o Jacques Bekaert, ‘The Day After’ 1969 (07’14”)

OU 40-41

o J.A. da Silva, ‘Audio-poem’ 1971 (01’44”)

o William Burroughs, ‘Valentine Day Reading’ 1965 (10’00”)

o Brion Gysin, ‘Poems’ 1960-62 (03’25”)

o Bernard Heidsieck, ‘Chapeau!’ 1970 (04’40”)

o Henri Chopin, ‘Le Soleil est mécanique’ 1972 (05’06”)

OU 42-44

o William Burroughs, ‘Reading’ 1965(08’51”)

o Ake Hodell, ‘Numro Ba Besch’ 1970 (04’19”)

o Charles Amirkhanian, ‘Each’ LL’ 1971 (02’57”)

o Ladislav Novak, ‘Two Poems’ 1958-62 (01’43”)

o Arthur Rimbaud, ‘Le Vrai Sonnet des Voyelles’ (01’39”)

o Henri Chopin, ‘Les Mandibules du Déjeuner sur l’Herbe’ 1971 (05’23”)

2:15 (Program Repeats)