Ambient Music
Erik Satie, Furniture Music (1920)
Raymond Scott, Soothing Sounds for Baby, vol. 1 (1964)
Wendy Carlos, Sonic Seasonings (1972)
http://www.allmusic.com/album/sonic-seasonings-mw0000045248
Brian Eno on Music for Airports (1978)
Brian Eno, Music for Airports (1978)
Ambient House (Chill-Out) Music
Pink Floyd’s psychedelic rock debut album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). Try “Chapter 24” and “Pow R. Toc. H”
http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-piper-at-the-gates-of-dawn-mw0000191309
Black Uhuru (produced by the better known Sly & Robbie), Chill Out title track (1982)
A modern DJ’s description of the Ibiza, Spain bar scene in the mid-1980s
KLF, The White Room (film, 1989)—this scene enters a rave main room (playing acid house music), then we go “deaf” (from the overstimulation? we need a chill out!), then we hear parts of music and parts of soundscapes, both realistic and psychedelic. Also go to 4:30 and note similarities with David Lynch’s Eraserhead soundtrack. Then skip around a bit to hear the blended soundscapes.
The Orb, A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating brain that Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld (1989)
KLF, Chill Out (1990)—open the link on YouTube and note the “exotic” Texas-inspired track names in the comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWebqCRw7o4
“Intelligent” Dance Music
Warp Records, Artificial Intelligence (1992)—Aphex Twin (as Polygon Window) on track 1 (0:00) and Autechre on track 3 (9:22).
Plaid, “Lilith” from Not for Threes (1997) with vocals by Björk
Autechre, “Gantz Graf” title track (2002)
Noise/Industrial
Luigi Russolo, The Art of Noises (1913) — http://www.ubu.com/historical/gb/russolo_noise.pdf
A modern reconstruction of Luigi Russolo’s intonarumori (“intoners” orchestra)
Giacomo Balla\Luigi Russolo, Macchina Tipografica (printing press, 1914, performed in 2000)
Documentary on the modern reconstruction of the intonarumori, including a new composition (2012).
Fernand Leger (film) and Georges Antheil (music), Ballet mécanique (1924)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrfibt6Bkwc
Arseny Avraamov, Symphony of Factory Sirens (c. 1917)
Iannis Xenakis (from the Philips Pavilion and Concret PH—remember?), Bohor (1962)
Robert Ashley, The Wolfman (1964, performed in 2015)
Hear an early use of microphone feedback in Gordon Mumma’s Hornpipe (1967) in this playlist: http://www.ubu.com/sound/mumma.html
Gordon Mumma, Cybersonic Cantilevers (1973), setting other precedents for later noise music
Roxy Music (with Brian Eno on synthesizer), “Remake / Remodel” (1972)
https://vimeo.com/69638630#t=2m48s
For contrast: Velvet Underground in (1969)
Lou Reed (of Velvet Underground), Metal Machine Music (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIMSbKU2oZM
Throbbing Gristle, “Very Friendly (Pt. II)” (1975, unreleased until leaked in 1987)
Throbbing Gristle, “Discipline” (1981)
Einstürzende Neubauten, Kollaps (1981)
Art of Noise, “A Time for Fear (Who’s Afraid)” (1984)
Merzbow (Masami Akita), “OM Electrique Part 2” (1979)
Merzbow’s namesake, Kurt Schwitters’s installation, Merzbau (1931, reconstructed in 2011)
Glitch
Milan Knížak, “Broken Music Composition” (1979)
Oval, Diskont (1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn8mxzDYdbE
Reed Ghazala, father of circuit bending (or “hardware hacking”)
Nicolas Collins (not our author but another fascinating artist) demonstrating initial explorations in hacking a radio for new sounds. NOTE: BEFORE trying this yourself, study Collins’s Rules of Hacking for safety (click here for PDF, see page 9, including only using battery powered devices, don’t directly short circuit a battery, and consider that you might break your device irreparably (i.e., raid the dollar store, not our home stereo). Also consider your own health details, e.g., don’t try this if you have electronics in your body (like a pacemaker)!
Demonstration of a circuit-bent Speak & Spell (1980s learning toy from Texas Instruments)
Not on the test but of possible interest:
Early Cabaret Voltaire, primarily concerned with new sounds: Mix-Up (1979)
Later Cabaret Voltaire after becoming commercially focused: “Sensoria” (1984)
The original Cabaret Voltaire was a nightclub in Zurich, Switzerland around 1916; it was the early home to the Dadaist artists. Here is a well-known performance from Cabaret Voltaire (by Hugo Ball, 1916)
Erik Satie (mentioned at the beginning of the chapter and these notes) was part of the French Dada movement. He is best known for composing this very well known piece, Trois Gymnopédies (1888)
Satie also appears in this Dada film by René Clair, Entr’acte (1924)—near the beginning, jumping in slow motion, to the left of a cannon.
Kurt Schwitters is mainly known as a painter. We saw his installation Merzbau as the namesake of the Japanese noise music artist Merzbow. Schwitters also famously dealt with noise himself, in his “sound poem” Ursonate (which translates to something like primitive/original sounds; 1932). Below is an excerpt performed by Michael Schmid at the 2011 Venice Biennale (the full version is about 40 minutes long). It contains no words, but the sounds are from the German language. Here is a link to the score — http://www.ubu.com/historical/schwitters/ursonate.html