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BLANK 005BK
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Aspirations of Madness, Blank Forms' fifth collection of archival, unpublished, or newly translated texts, takes its title from a series of interviews with Japanese free jazz pioneer Masayuki Takayangi that were published in Japanese in 1975-76 and are published here in English for the first time. The interviews provide a rare look at Takayanagi's eccentric practice and personality, both long under-recognized by audiences outside (and often, inside) of Japan. The postwar Japanese history that Takayanagi describes also surfaces in this publication's opening piece, a poetic tribute by the writer and artist Louise Landes Levi to one of Takayanagi's contemporaries, the poet Kazuko Shiraishi. Aspirations of Madness includes a second Levi poem as well, "A Deep River", written while at La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela's Dream House in 2003, while Charles Curtis was rehearsing "Just Charles and Cello in the Romantic Chord", a composition by Young that Blank Forms plans to present in Spring 2020. Complementing this tradition of Japanese free improvisation and poetry is the republication of a 1977 interview with Joseph Jarman, the great composer, poet, and multi-instrumentalist. The interview took place a few months after the publication of Jarman's book Black Case Volume I & II: Return from Exile, a collection of writings from 1960 to 1977 (Blank Forms, Fall 2019). The volume also feature Charles Stein's introduction to Being = Space x Action. In its specificity and rarity of focus, Stein's text offers valuable information on a vibrant artistic network of the recent past, as well as an extended look at the evolution of Catherine Christer Hennix's complex practice. Further along, Aspirations of Madness features an excerpt from The Tree of Music, a cross-cultural treatise by the Russian musicologist Genrich "Henry" Orlov, the English translation of which has never been published before. The Tree of Music is a sweeping philosophical study of global music and cultures with universalist and spiritualist ambitions, excerpts of which are here selected and introduced by the composer and pianist Leo Svirsky. Aspirations of Madness closes with one of Maryanne Amacher's final pieces of writing, The Agreement, from 2009. The text takes the form of a letter between Amacher and the Open Ended Group, with whom she had planned to collaborate on her final, unfinished project, Lagrange: A Four Part Mini Series. Aspirations of Madness features additional contributions by Alan Cummings, Bill Dietz, Peter Kastakis, Art Lange, Leo Svirsky, Satoru Obara, and Tomoyuki Chida, and is edited by Lawrence Kumpf with Joe Bucciero. 242 pages; 6x8 inches.
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BLANK 004BK
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Taking its name from Maryanne Amacher's visionary, unrealized opera, the fourth issue of Blank Forms' journal, Intelligent Life, features a select group of unpublished, newly translated, or otherwise rare texts. The issue opens with a short literary essay by the author Marcia Douglas, in which a deep bass riddim guides a deaf narrator and a reincarnated Bob Marley through important sites in Rastafarianism's development. Next come two interviews with crucial figures in postwar avant-garde music: the Japanese guitarist Kazuo Imai and the American composer Robert Ashley, along with pianist and frequent collaborator "Blue" Gene Tyranny. The previously unpublished interview with Imai was conducted by Blank Forms' editor and artistic director Lawrence Kumpf during Imai's first trip to the United States, in 2018, and finds the artist reflecting on recent work with the collective Marginal Consort as well as his foundational experiences playing with two other titans of Japanese experimentalism, Takehisa Kosugi and Masayuki Takayanagi. The interview with Ashley and "Blue" Gene, meanwhile, first published in German in 1984 on the occasion of a staging of Ashley's opera Atalanta, was translated for the first time into in English for this publication. Intelligent Life continues with a series of longer pieces showcasing a diverse set of complex practices and histories, beginning with that of Detroit-based artist Onyx Ashanti. Onyx contributes his own Octavia Butler-referencing "sonocybernetic manifesto", first published online in 2016, which exists simultaneously as theoretical treatise, memoir, and practical guide to his idiosyncratic technology-based practice. Following this is a comprehensive essay on Catherine Christer Hennix's engagement with intuitionism and other esoteric approaches to math, written by the mathematician and musician Spencer Gerhardt. Gerhardt's lucid, previously unpublished essay serves as a necessary complement to Blank Forms Editions' forthcoming collection of Hennix's abstruse, mostly unpublished body of writing, Poësy Matters and Other Matters. The issue continues with a sort of titular essay, a rich analysis of Amacher's "Intelligent Life" -- the first such piece on this work -- by Amacher scholar Amy Cimini. Intelligent Life was an incredibly prescient work that sought to upend any remaining vestiges of traditional operatic form and staging. Intelligent Life -- the journal issue -- then concludes with a lengthy interview with the artist Walter De Maria. One of the few interviews De Maria gave in his lifetime, this one, created for the Archives of American Art in 1972, sheds significant light on De Maria's early intellectual and artistic development as well as his work as a musician. Although he largely stopped playing music by 1970, and although few recordings of his efforts exist, De Maria played alongside musicians ranging from Lou Reed to Don Cherry to Henry Flynt. Edited by Lawrence Kumpf. Other contributors and featured artists include: Werner Durand, Peter Gente, Heidi Paris, Adrian Rew, Paul Cummings. 302 pages; 6x8 inches; paperback.
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BLANK 003BK
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The third issue of Blank Forms's journal is released in conjunction with Freedom Is Around The Corner, a retrospective exhibition and performance series devoted to the work of Danish composer and artist Henning Christiansen (1932-2008). Perhaps best known for his collaborations with artists such as Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, and Dick Higgins, Christiansen, working primarily on the remote Danish island of Møn, moved beyond his Fluxus roots to create a vast, ineffable body of work that spanned music, performance, film, and visual art over the course of a fifty-year career. Christiansen's work has, however, remained under the radar; only a few of his recordings were available until recently, and his prolific compositional and visual outputs have rarely been performed or exhibited in the United States. Freedom Is Around The Corner seeks to present Christiansen's life and work in a holistic manner that befits his dynamic practice, collecting a combination of newly discovered, never-before published, and newly translated materials. In this case, many of the materials were found in the Henning Christiansen Archive. The issue begins with a newly translated interview with Christiansen, conducted circa 2006 by writer Thomas Groetz. Two others were conducted by Francesco Conz and Michael Glasmeier in the 1990s; these three interviews offer a well-rounded picture of the late-career Christiansen through his own, good-humored lens. The fourth interview, a more experimental text conducted by Helmer Nørgaard, was originally published in the magazine DMT, in an issue devoted to Christiansen. Here, it's presented as a translated facsimile, featuring texts on Christiansen by his prominent Danish collaborators, the writer Lars Morell and the artists Per Kirkeby and Bjørn Nørgaard. We hear from other Christiansen collaborators through correspondence, including letters from Emily Harvey and Higgins, and through interviews, including newly conducted interviews with his wife and collaborator, Ursula Reuter Christiansen. Bjorn Nørgaard has also spoken with Christiansen's son Thorbjørn Reuter Christiansen; and later musical collaborators Werner Durand and Ute Wassermann. This issue also features younger artists who have grappled with Christiansen's legacy. Represented through interviews (Lucy Railton), original artworks (Graham Lambkin, Áine O'Dwyer, Stíne Janvin), and essays (Mark Harwood, Anton Lukoszevieze), these artists demonstrate the lasting and diverse impact of Christiansen's work on today's musical landscape. Taken together, the texts in this journal provide an in-depth look, at a towering but overlooked figure in the postwar musical as well as artistic avant-garde. Paper, 448 pages, 6 x 8 inches. Edition of 1000.
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BLANK 001BK
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Magazine is the inaugural issue of Blank Forms' journal, bringing together a combination of never-before published, lost, and new materials that supplement the non-profit's live programs. It is envisioned as a platform for critical reflection and extended dialogue between scholars, artists, and other figures working within the world of experimental music and art. Following "Let Freedom Fry" -- a short statement by Joe McPhee drawing out the contemporary political climate in relation to his practice as a creative improviser -- the magazine is bookended by four texts surrounding the practice of pioneering sound artist Maryanne Amacher; an essay by Bill Dietz on his collaborations with Amacher and his work with her archive; an unpublished 1988 interview highlighting Amacher's ideas around her Long Distance Music and Mini Sound Series; a conversation between Marianne Schroeder, Stefan Tcherepnin, and Lawrence Kumpf revealing the archival questions raised by Amacher's work; and science fiction writer Greg Bear's short story Petra, a tale of gargoyles coming to life and breeding with humans in a post-apocalyptic Notre Dame, from which Amacher's 1991 piece got its name. This issue also includes Branden Joseph's interview with The Dead C's Bruce Russell, accompanied by Russell's essay exploring the Situationist tradition of "mis-competence" in New Zealand electronic music. Charles Curtis contributed notes on the interpretive challenges posed by a posthumous performance of Terry Jennings's minimalist classic Piece For Cello And Saxophone. Shelley Hirsch, Richard Skidmore, and Dennis Hermanson provide a series of writings on and remembrances of the late Ralston Farina, whose scarcely documented "visual poetry" was an important precursor to what we now call "performance." And from her own 2016 performances at the Emily Harvey Foundation, Dawn Kasper supplies her original proposal document and score notes for an improvisational interpretation. Magazine features two new French-translations: an excerpt from François Bonnet's book of phenomenology, The Infra-World, translated by Robin Mackay, and a Christophe Broqua interview with enigmatic huntress of sounds Anne Gillis, translated by Adrian Rew. Ian Nagoski's rare 1998 conversation with Éliane Radigue, conducted and largely ignored at a time when there was little interest in her music, provides one of the clearest overviews of the visionary composer's early work and life. Supplementing the texts are numerous archival photos and documents, plus "Dark Matters", a poem by Joe McPhee. Edited by Lawrence Kumpf and Joe Bucciero.
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