The cover of the first English translation of A la Recherche d’une Musique Concrète (1952), published by University of California Press, Berkeley, November 2012. The book is in the form of a sound diary written between 1948 and 1952. Excerpt:
March 1948: Back in Paris I have started to collect objects. I have a “Symphony of noises” in mind; after all, there has been a symphony of psalms. I go to the sound effects department of the French radio service. I find clappers, coconut shells, klaxons, bicycle horns. I imagine a scale of bicycle horns. There are gongs and birdcalls. It is charming that an administrative system should be concerned with birdcalls and should regularize their acquisition on an official form, duly recorded.
I take away doorbells, a set of bells, an alarm clock, two rattles, two childishly painted whirligigs. The clerk causes some difficulties. Usually, he is asked for a particular item. There are no sound effects without a text in parallel, are there? But what about the person who wants noise without text or context?
url: http://netlex.tumblr.com/post/51989159876 by Netlex
