Surrealism in Sound

What is the sound of fifteen donkeys falling in a space vacuum filled with intestines?
Schlloomp! Ahh! Gorgonzala has forgotten the snakes again!

Oddly, Breton never made mention of the use and validity of applying surrealist techniques to the generation of sound, even to the more organized generation of sound we call 'music.' Early DADA performances at Cabaret Voltaire and elsewhere developed much of their zeal and whim with mass pandemonium generated from mass cacophany.

Automatism certainly has its full and perhaps even more relevant application in music. Picking notes at whim from the interior of a hat may easily generate a melody of the most automatic purism. Likewise the perceived voices and sounds heard at the outermost vestiges of sleep are purely critically paranoid. And who is to say what the true paranoid schizophenic hears through unseen walls should be disregarded? It is perhaps the delusional patient in need of medical attention who has reached the higest plateau of Surrealistic Vision.

Three exercises for developing a Delusional Appreciation of Sound

  1. Sit in the middle of a closed room that shares a wall with another room in which people are talking. Imagine they are talking about you.
  2. Travel to a foreign country in which you have a minor understanding of the language (Italy is quite good for Francophones, Scandanvaia for most Germanophiles). Sit in a cafe or public place, listening to the surrounding conversations. Imagine they all concern you personally.
  3. If unable to travel abroad, sit in a cool, damp basement near a generator or other heavy operating equipment. Rest your head against a vibrating surface. Sing the songs and lyrics that come into your head.

Music, Sound and the minutely Heard

Contusions and Rythyms to be found on the WWW.

Anansos Illoso!