Re: [microsound] noise?

["tobias c. van Veen" <tobias@xxxxxxxxx>]

> I have studied music is all its forms, from the beginnings of western
> music to the deterioration of sound art into concept -

Deterioration?

There is some irony here that you rail against noise @ the conceptual level
without granting the greater community virtually present a slightly more
straightforward example of what you mean by 'noise', and pragmatically, what
artists you consider 'noise' ..

Merzbow? Fennesz? Hecker?
Pita? John Wiese? How about Cage's intense pieces?
Venetian Snares? Musikill? Throbbing Gristle?

or,

Elevator Muzak? Television show themes? Shopping muzak?
Britney Spears? J-Lo? Talk radio? Oprah? CNN?

or,

Traffic? Washing machines? Construction?
A G4 dual processor w/ overheated fans?

or,

Russolo, Marinetti and the Futurist glorification of noise?

or,

Yelling neighbours? Screams of dying agony? Mating cats?
Forest fires? Wind? Thunder? Fat people fucking upstairs?

or,

..

Rock music too was 'infernal noise.' Adorno disliked jazz too.
& the '60s minimalists (Glass, Adams, Reich) were also dismissed by critics
as 'noise'. As was serial music. And Bach.

As for arguments, the best one might be Jacques Attali's _Noise_ (in terms
of, an argument, it seems about 'noise'). But I think what you want is never
found - for anything - that being what you search an argument that justifies
the existence or essence of that which is as a self-justifying (ie 'good')
imperative.

Perhaps a better question would be: what does noise do that we dis/like, and
how does that further our understanding of the flesh's aesthetic
construction, its linkages to a sociohistorical zigbar of nutso connections
that delimit the sector reserved for 'noise'? What are the forces of noise?
What does it mean do point & finger & say: 'a noise!'- ? (And then: to
proclaim its antithesis).

An antithesis that might be Murray Schaefer's acoustic ecology -- something
I agree with wholeheartedly while @ the same time deeply enjoying my
high-volume Hecker & Merzbow mornings when the coffee is taking too long to
reach my veins.

It will be interesting to witness the signal-to-noise ratio of the
responses.

..  from a near-frozen Montreal,

tV

tobias c. van Veen -----------
http://www.quadrantcrossing.org
http://www.thisistheonlyart.com
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- tV

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