At some point in 20th century, the Interview was turned into an art form by avantgarde artists, though an exact reference is hard to pinpoint – Andy Warhol’s films from the 1960s and Art & Language being obvious candidates. Later in the 1970s, William Furlong’s Audio Arts Cassettes [+] actually refined the technique, raising the interview to the status of ‘organic sculpture’. Anyway, when Willem De Ridder and Andrew Mc Kenzie (The Hafler Trio) launched the monthly Spiral cassette series in 1989 in Amsterdam, they had in mind a mix of interviews and archival sound documents which could form an audio-zine, ‘the world’s first monthly audio information service’, according to Cora Emens. Spiral had 12 issues between May 1989 and April 1990, including interviews with Bryon Gysin, Richard Lerman, G.I. Gurdjieff, Andy Warhol, Otto Mühl, Lee Perry, and topics like phone sex, singing parrot, hippie culture, etc. The name Spiral was possibly inspired by Vangelis’ 1977 Spiral, which De Ridder used extensively in his monumental 1978 Grote Oto Derby mix. Spiral cassette #1 includes historical documents like a Tristan Tzara song, a documentary on Nazi chief Rudolf Hess, or Mishima’s death poem delivered one hour before the ritual Seppuku, complete with audience interjections and street noises. Other entries deal with Macrobiotics, pirate radio or Scientology, very much the universe De Ridder was immersed into at the time. Thanks to anonymous reader for the rip.
01 Tristan Tzara La Chanson de Dada (1:47)
02 George Oshawa Macrobiotics Lecture, August 1965 (4:33)
03 Rudolf Hess Excerpt from TV Program (6:47)
04 Tuppy Owens Interview from Dutch Pirate Radio (13:40)
05 Charles Wirstrom Interview (12:11)
06 Yukio Mishima Archive document (5:02)
07 Charles Wirstrom Interview – ctd (37:27)
08 Spiral Information Service Gimmick (:50)
09 Spiral Information Service Editorial (2:01)
10 L. Ron Hubbard Song (2:14)
Total time 83:00
Cassette released by Spiral Information Service, Amsterdam, 1989
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Tim Porges commented to me:
“It’s nice that the blurb copy of the cassette is available, so the reader can choose which spin to believe, Continuo’s or de Ridder’s. WdR’s take on the “information war” is damn interesting, given the three or so quantum jumps that conflict has taken since the publication of this cassette.”
As much as I admire Willem De Ridder’s radio art, I wouldn’t recommend taking his esoteric jargon at face value.
I don’t even take faces at face value.
brilliant stuff again from wdr. the tuppy owens phone exchange is one of the most surreal things i’ve ever heard. praise continuo!
More aural weirdness from De Ridder later this week. Thanks for your comment.
I met Tuppy Owens a couple of times at the turn of the century, a very fascinating individual, anyway, I digress. The current ink is dead, but long live the link thanks to some kind soul who has reposted some working links thanks to mirrorcreator in the “2012reups” section. The Mediafire link is dead but the RS one is currently alive and kicking:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|162p3|561230388|_1989__Spiral__1.zip
I made this point on a music blog to someone last year in the wake of the great Megaupload massacre, that potentially any blog’s archive can be resurrected as many virtual “archives” exist on a myriad of computers, scattered across the globe – , as long as the blog and the posts exist, even if another filesharing cull happens (say with MF in the future) , with enough effort on the readers part, it can be constructed and reconstructed again and again.
Likewise, if it is a post you really enjoyed, I am sure Continuo doesn’t mind you making your own link, using your own file-sharing account, and posting that link in the comments section of the original post..just in case! (it sure beats posting it on your own blog and presenting it as your own!)…maybe reader participation can be remodelled to do that regularly, so the blogger can get in with what they do best – rather than constantly reupping old material.