Sold Date: April 8, 2015
Start Date: April 1, 2015
Final Price: $75.00 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 245
Buyer Feedback: 2

YOU ARE BIDDING ON A RARE COPY OF ARTIST JEAN TINGUELY'S "BASCULE VII"--A 10" EP RELEASED ON MANHOOD RECORDS (SLEEP CHAMBER--SEE INFORMATION BELOW).  ONLY 200 MADE AND VERY VERY RARE.  SEALED, NEVER PLAYED...   BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY OTHER MUSIC AUCTIONS... THANKS! Jean Tinguely ‘Bascule VII’  01 Bascule VII -1969 (11:27) 02 Sound Sculpture – a (1:34) 03 Sound Sculpture – b (1:33) 04 Sound Sculpture – c (2:08) 05 Sound Sculpture – d (2:08) 06 Sound Sculpture – e (2:21) 07 Sound Sculpture – f (2:30) Total time: 23:30 10” mini-LP on Manhood, MAN-002, ca1994/5 The splendor of Switzerland’s vernacular sound art has been repeatedly praised on this blog before (e.g. Herbert Distel & Voice Crack), but it deserves no lesser kudos for the resplendent sound work of artist Jean Tinguely (1925-1991). His work includes hundreds of mechanical sculptures made from discarded materials, often with moving parts led by engines and pulleys. One of his most famous work was the self-destroying sculpture Homage to New York in 1960. In 1979, Tinguely started working on a series of sound sculptures called ‘Méta-harmonies’. The post ‘Audio Arts Cassettes round up’ included a recording excerpt from one of these sculptures. Tinguely presumably wanted to create sculptures bursting with a life of their own as he disregarded most of the sculptures he saw around him as ‘a mockery of the intensity of life’ (in: Calvin Tomkins, The Bride and the Bachelors, Five Masters of the Avant-Garde, New York, Viking Press, 1965). The guy who destroyed sculptures eventually fell in love with the girl who destroyed paintings shooting at them (Niki De Saint Phalle). Interesting couple – they both had rather painful childhoods. This untitled and mis-indexed record was published by a mysterious Manhood label who apparently published only one other record (by Sleep Chamber). A few typos in the address writen on the cover shows it is probably not from Italy as stated. It might be a bootleg imprint from american RRR noise label since the 1995 Sleep Chamber disc is referenced as RRR-SC [see here]. The Tinguely mini-LP is labelled MAN-002 on the disc. As far as I know, the 1988 piece titled ‘Hegel’ is for string quartet and sickle bows. I assume it doesn’t appear on this disc despite being included in the track listing. Additionaly, the ‘Méta-Malevitch’ series are black painted wooden boxes with geometrical, moving parts painted white or red [see here], exhibited for the first time during the Paris ‘Automates, sculptures et reliefs mécaniques’ exhibition, galerie Arnaud, 1954.  Anyway, the music on this disc is a collection of awesome noisy sound works establishing Tinguely in the tradition of Luigi Russolo’s noise machines or John Cage’s Imaginary Landscapes. Tinguely’s sculptures rotating parts create awkward rhythm patterns, metallic rattlings and loud percussion sounds, more often than not on the verge of falling apart. Similar sounds can be heard in Jean-Marc Vivenza’s robust take on ‘bruitisme’ or Pierre Bastien’s self-build mecano instruments. The inclusion of an organ automaton and bass sounds on ‘Bascule VII’ is a major improvement on other Tinguely machinery sound sculptures. In this piece, the pace is slow, the recording is lively and surprising, various noises appearing rather haphazardly (chains clinking, drum percussion sounds, engines hum). I assume the slowness was devised on purpose by Tinguely to unsettle the viewer-listener, the slow rhythm conspicuously slower than the human being’s heartbeat, an equivalent of a beast’s heartbeat. ‘Bascule VII’ is a joy to listen to. The B side offers a succession of excerpts from diverse sound sculpture recordings, type varying from rhythm studies a la Pierre Henry to noise assaults a la RRR. The ensemble is fascinating and sounds amazingly on the stereo.