“How random is random?”
Live cut-up sessions with the W.S. Burroughs tape experiments.

It all started with Tristan Tzara back in the 1920s in a surrealist rally. Tzara proposed that he could create a poem (the highest of literary arts) by simply pulling random words out of a hat. This blasphemy, this violation of the pinnacle of human creativity was too much even for the surrealists. A riot ensued in the theater and they proceeded to ban Tzara from their ranks.

Cut to the 1950s. Brion Gysin and William Burroughs used the cut-up technique extensively during their various experiments, in words, video and sound. They created and kept a huge archive of tapes where they recorded these experiments of audio clips.
After meeting with Genesis P-Orridge and Peter Christopherson (members of Throbbing Gristle at the time) in the 1980s , Burroughs gave them these tapes and they proceeded to arrange them in a collection called “Nothing here now but the recordings”.

This collection forms the basis of my experiments with the voice of W.S. Burroughs. Using random sequencing, random start and end points, reverse play, random juxtaposition and rounding it up with discrete soundscapes from Lyra-8 and Ether, i ended up with a long live session that i divided in 3 parts. These live sessions, true to the spirit of the cutup technique, utilize randomness at their core, so they are impossible to reproduce exactly (many thanks to the selected few that were part of that live session).


The idea of experimenting with cut-ups is to try to summon the ‘accident of spontaneity’. You can not ‘will’ spontaneity. You can not program it. But you can introduce the unpredictable spontaneous factor.
Burroughs defined the cut-up method as an art for allowing the future ‘to bleed’ between the lines. He said that everything recorded could be edited and re-arranged, including reality itself. In this sense, it is a method for reimagining the reality from the random deconstruction of its semantics, allowing the subconscious and chaotic to emerge through the ruins of structure and order.
This form of art is by definition ‘experimental’, meaning that its purpose lies primarily in the act of doing it in itself, rather than adhering to any notion of ‘beauty’, ‘harmony’ or ‘coherency’ that we may expect from art forms.

The Burroughs Tapes part 3.1

The Burroughs Tapes part 2

The Burroughs Tapes part 1

Found this great sample of James Joyce reading an excerpt from Finnegan's Wake and I knew I had to run it through the Mutation Machine.

The more the Mutation Machine is running, the more the artifacts on the background are getting decomposed and fragmented into delicious microsound bursts while Joyce's voice keeps its steady and hypnotic rhythm, even more prominent as the track progresses.

Joyce's voice goes through the Panharmonium and then get mixed with Plaits running through Beads.
The mix goes through the Morphagene and then Mimeophon, with most important parameters being modulated randomly and semi-randomly.
From then on, I am mostly messing around with the audio levels, panning, modulation depths and the  dry/wet controls.

James Joyce reads Finnegan's Wake (Mauve Zone mutation)

"Society of the Spectacle" is an experimental and (hopefully) thought-provoking eurorack modular track that tries to weave together the ideas of Guy Debord with the experimental soundscapes of the Lyra-8, which is manipulated and transformed by a modular system known as the "Mutation Machine."

This track is a sonic exploration of Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle," which critiqued the commodification of everyday life and the proliferation of images in modern society (or so they say). The track's intention is to bring the listener into a contemplative state, encouraging you to reflect on these themes, perhaps acting as a soundtrack to someone reading the actual text, which can be found freely online.

The track contains subtle backgrounds of sampled excerpts from Guy Debord's "Society of the Spectacle". These samples are processed and transformed within the modular system to create textures, echoing the dissonance and fragmentation between reality and the spectacle.

The heart of the composition is the Lyra-8 analog synthesizer, which in this patch produces rich, organic flavors of noise, starting with distinct clicks that degenerate into noise. It's then fed to the Mutation Machine, where it undergoes a metamorphosis.

The Mutation Machine is a modular system designed to mangle and mutate sounds. It distorts, resynthesizes, and evolves the Lyra-8's sound. The result is a hypnotic blend of evolving drones, unpredictable textures and (sometimes) melodies.

Society Of The Spectacle (live)

Feedback is harsh, unpredictable and usually undesirable, but if you treat it nicely and you don't startle it, it can be quite serene and beautiful.

The sound of feedback (live jam)

Continuing to experiment with feedback patches, this is the ResEQ feeding back into itself and then sent to various other modules on the rack.
There's just something about hearing raw voltage screaming through the speakers that makes it sound alive and organic.

Sound of Feedback #2 (live jam)

Beyond The Wall Of Sleep

Lyra 8 again, this time conjuring smoother soundscapes and complex harmonics. Well, for the most part anyway. 
Captured live.

After The Fall (live session with Lyra-8)

A dreamy sonic exploration of the eternal ice realm. Played live. 
Equipment used: Lyra-8, Monologue, Pigments 2.

Instructions of use: Listen while in a meditative state, in a low volume environment. Enjoy.

Antarctica

Born in 1981 in the concrete jungle of Athens and i'm still alive, mostly.

Mauve Zone

Popular tracks