Re: [microsound] Re:ambient books

["The pHarmanaut" <pharmanaut@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a very interesting response, Dagmar. Thanks for bringing up Stein
and the Oulipou.

The only writers I can think of who might work in this area of overlapping
loops would be the Surfiction writers of the 1970s, particularly Ronald
Sukenick and Raymond Federman. Oh, Steve Katz as well. All experimented with
layout of text on the page to explore concrete form as much as content.
Sukenick in particular, I think, worked with columns of text. While it is
difficult to conceive of reading two or more columns at once, it is possible
that some of the material from the column that is not occuping the main
attention of the reader provides ambient contexts to the primary track. For
instance, I'll find myself noticing intriguing juxtapositions across the
columns, or will latch onto repetitions between the two. Sometimes I'll jump
track entirely and shift focus, even as my eyes try to keep up with the
column in which I'd originally started.

-=Trace

> Sorry about the mess; I should have started this mail differently, viz.
> what interests me in music such as microsound is when it becomes loopy,
> when different textures, rhythms or whatever are layered above each other
> so that something third or forth is created merely through the overlay;
> and I was wondering whether books, texts could achieve something
> similar.

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