Catalogue No:
Bubbling below the surface of the sonic avant-garde - spanning art and music, lays the rarely observed context of the Artist Record - a field of recorded sounds stemming from, or attached to, the environments of fine art. Though expansive, elastic, and at times difficult to define, the largest body of its artifacts have been made by artists who are known for their work in other media - painters, sculptors, etc. These thrilling experimental gestures, draw on ideas which are largely absent from the framework of music. Pushing forward and breaking ground, they are among the purest sonic realizations of the spirit of the avant-garde. Across the 20th century, a slim vanguard of fine artists enthusiastically attacked newly emerging media - moving away from the comfort zone, while capitalizing on the specific potential of each. Enabled by new technologies, beginning with Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, the Italian Futurists, and slightly later, figures like Jean Dubbefet and Henri Chopin, the fields of sound art and artist's music were born.