100TH ANNIVERSARY ART OF NOISES MANIFESTO
11TH MARCH 2013
“We must enlarge and enrich more and more the domain of musical sounds. … This need and this tendency can be totally realised only through the joining and substituting of noises to and for musical sounds. “
(Russolo 1913, translated by Robert Filliou, 1967)
Dear Fellow Recordists and Noisemakers!
Next Monday 11th March marks an auspicious occasion - the 100th anniversary of the publication of the “Art of Noises” manifesto by futurist artist Luigi Russolo. With the manifesto and the concerts that followed, Russolo, an Italian painter, opened our ears to the use of noise as musical material. Without him the entire history of 20th century music might have taken a different course.
On March 11th 2013, The Neo Futurist Collective (www.neofuturist.org) and Fruit for the Apocalypse (www.ffta.co.uk) will celebrate the 100th anniversary with a short guerrilla performance at 7.30pm GMT. In a Central London location (whereabouts to be announced on the day at 5pm GMT) we will perform “Cartet” - a Quartet for Car Engines, Horns and Radios in homage to Russolo’s call for the celebration of urban noise.
Announcements will be made via Twitter:
@apocalypsefruit
@artofnoises
Also on March 11th we will be revealing to the world a recently uncovered recording of what appears to be Luigi Russolo himself declaiming a short section of his manifesto. This potentially historically important recording is particularly poignant because most of Russolo’s instruments and scores were destroyed or lost during the intervening two world wars. All that is left is the opening 7 bars of the score to his noise symphony “Awakening of a City”.
On the same day in Amsterdam at 13:30 (CET) Professor Russolo and His Noise Intoners will be staging a 1 hour bicycle parade with klaxons and Manifesto pamphlets. See his web site for details (http://www.russolo.nl).
Onda Italiana will be broadcasting an interview and performance excerpts from the Professor in Dutch, Italian (and a little English) along with the recently uncovered Russolo recording, plus interviews with experts discussing the newly discovered recording. (http://www.ondaitaliana.org)
A call for sounds, images and words
I have been invited by Patrick McGinley to make a special edition of Framework Afield for broadcast in April about the Russolo legacy which will incorporate the recordings of the London flashmob, the Amsterdam Bike Ride and any other initiatives that are taking place around the world to mark the occasion (http://www.frameworkradio.net).
To this end, I would also like to extend an open invitation for field recordings of global TRAFFIC NOISE, to be sequenced into an extended collage and included (with proper credits) into the programme. Please send me your recordings via Dropbox or similar (.wav .aif or hi res mp3, up to 5 mins). I would also like to extend a call for documentation of Anniversary-related events in the form of photographs, text or recordings, as I have been invited to contribute as a guest blogger on the World Listening Project web site (http://www.worldlisteningproject.org) and will be exploring the Russolo legacy in a number of articles and posts.
Please email or Dropbox those to me...
Contact:
