Description:	Exciting 180g LP on Doxy
	Format:	LP (vinyl)
	Genre(s):	Avant Garde / Sound Art
	Label:	Doxy
	Price:	£14.89
	Availability:	In stock. Dispatched in 1 working day.

5
...according to our Brett on 25 June 2009.

Hey friends, fancy some seminal avant-garde dicking about? Then you're in luck because Doxy (which, as far as I can gather from Google, is the great saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins' label) have issued a pair of fine musique concrete LPs that'd otherwise cost you about a million pounds to obtain. Proper public service shit and I doff my beret to them. Symphonie Pour Une Homme Seul/Concert des Ambiguites marked some of the first excursions into the 'style' by Pierres Henry and Schaeffer and feature all manner of sonic experimentation from manipulated field recordings to primitive experimental noise, sampling, pure environmental soundscapes, tape manipulations, sonic montage and occasionally even straight instrumental passages (particularly piano). Le Micophone Bien Tempere, by Henry alone, features what was apparently his first attempt to focus these elements into a notated piece. What's remarkable is that these lads were pretty much the first to do most this kind of shit so as a document the two LPs are totally invaluable but it's only fair to warn you that it is pure sound experimentation and as such doesn't feature much in the way of melody or party bangers.. You'll know if this sort of thing floats your boat and if it does you'll be well chuffed with these high quality vinyls!

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What their label says...

Electronic music pioneer, Pierre Henry, was a classically trained French pianist and percussionist, but gained notoriety as one of the driving forces behind the French avante-garde movement “musique concrète”, which attempted make music by using “real” sounds, like trains on tracks, dogs barking, footsteps, etc., in place of actual instruments and then electronically manipulate them in ways that had never been seen before, effectively redefining the very idea of music itself, and forcing listeners to ask themselves the question, “what is music?”. Many did, and the many answers to this question when on to inspire scores of artists and musicians, and the ripple effect is still being felt today. The idea that any naturally occurring sound could be music was, to say the least, a new concept at the time, and so it helped that the movement had the backing of someone who, like Henry, was a classically trained, or “serious”musician, as movement founder Pierre Schaeffer would have defined him. This piece, Le Microphone bien Tempéré, written by Henry in 1951, was the first attempt at notated musique concrete.

Track listing - Side A: 1. Batterie Fugace 2. Bidule en Ut (œuvre composée avec P SCHAEFFER) 3. Fantasia 4. Dimanche noir I 5. Tarn Tarn II 6. Tam Tam concret 7. Tam Tam III 8. Micro rouge I 9. Tabou Clairon - Side B: 1. Tam Tam IV 2. Vocalises 3. Sonatine 4. Antiphonie 5. Micro rouge II 6. Tam Tam I 7. Dimanche noir II