10+2:12 American Text Sound Pieces (Remastered)

It’s hard to imagine a better introduction to the rich and varied world of sound poetry and speech composition than this essential collection. Drawing on the early twentieth-century experiments of Dadaists such as Kurt Schwitters and Hugo Ball, the artists on this collection use the timbres and rhythms of spoken language — and all manner of wordless vocalizations — as raw material for their art. An excerpt from Robert Ashley’s “In Sara, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven, There Were Men and Women” finds the composer speedily reciting a text as a squelching synthesizer sounds off, an effect that's oddly riveting. On “Crickets,” Aram Saroyen creates an onomatopoeia effect by repeating the title over and over again; before long the listener can hear something like the chirping of insects. Humor also finds its way onto the compilation, especially on Liam Gallagher’s “Border Dissolve In Audiospace,” a conceptual art prank that’s entertaining to listen to and engaging to think about. 10 + 2 serves as an important historical document, and its vitality remains au courant decades after its creation