“I wrote down all poems in the most primitive way - on a digital dictophone, and then have slightly finished in program Adobe Audition.

The strongest influence on my creativity was rendered by Russian futurism and German Dada, and as world sound poetry more others - Kurt Scwitters, Alexey Kruchenyh, Henri Chopin, Valeri Scherstjanoi, Sergey Biryukov, Bob Cobbing, Maurice Lemaitre, Jaap Blonk, Gerhard Ruhm, Amanda Stewart and group Fluxus creativity. But as it is strong on me creativity English-French rock group "Gong" and experimental electronic music has affected.” 

Poem of the Wind Part 1-3 (6:10)
Poem of the Wind Part 1-3 (pdf)

Sreet Fight (1:19)

Sreet Fight (pdf)

Dali (3:44)
Dali (pdf)

For Cy Twombly (7:06)

abb a b rrrr (4:08) 

Time Out (5:41)

“These two pieces show the different approaches I take with sound poetry- unaltered vocals and digitally altered text-sound compositions. “For Cy Twombly” was altered recorded on a handheld digital recorder and distorted via Audacity. Sometimes I use actual words in my sound poems but these are examples of my more asemic poems. Writing in sound affords a freedom that cannot be found any other way.”

“‘Mozote’ was inspired by two poems that I wrote about a massacre in El Salvador at the village of El Mozote in 1981 that the United States government was instrumental in funding and then denied.  (The poems take images and fragmented narrative of the people, namely Rufina Amaya, whose stories were witnessed through the book The Massacre at El Mozote by Mark Danner.   I'll include the poems (sonnets) that I wrote, here.

My process of making sound poems often involves me trying to "translate" text into some kind of sound/music inspired piece--one that still has its roots in text. 

’O Gong of Wept’ was inspired by a challenge (from the poet Christine Hume) to make a sound poem out of lyrics by a poet that I loved.  Joseph Ceravolo is one of my favorite poets, and in his book Fits of Dawn (book III) is this fragment of poem which I made into sound:

O gong of wept

O unviolet
    furious cozy the rain
O dam of soul

to chase look! am poor.
    dimanche poor.

O cheat of beg  o cat
gist o am   Walk

elysium tool a sun day    Broke
revel lasso to
Yes, wolf of songs, O muse
O mixed Enemy!     Invent

of dwell      So voyage     So end mercy
earth       Usurp violets

O visible gym of flowered”

Ed. note: The excerpt from Joe Ceravolo's Fits of Dawn is copyright © 1965 by Joe Ceravolo and not subject to this site's Creative Commons license.

EIRÍKUR ÖRN NORDDAHL

EIRÍKUR ÖRN NORDDAHL

Mind the sound (pdf)

Úr órum Tobba (5:36)

Main Page

Introductory Essay

Video Tutorial 1

Video Tutorial 2

Executables

 

“Jig-Arteroids is an interactive sound poetry piece. You sequence and layer short vocal sounds. And can also play the sounds with your keyboard. Each of the thirty-four sounds is visually represented by a sound icon with a letter or number on it. When you click a sound icon, a sound plays; when you press a key on the keyboard, the same sound plays as when you click the icon with that same symbol on it. You link sound icons together with blue or green lines. Blue lines cause the icons to play sequentially. Green lines cause the icons to play simultaneously. There are two videos that show you how to play with the interactive piece. The vocal sounds are based on sounds from a different interactive piece I made a few years ago called Arteroids, which is an online shoot-em-up poetry game. Jig-Arteroids attempts a synthesis of sound poetry, music, play/game, and software art.”

Ed. Note: To the left are the links for Jig-Arteroids. The top link directs you to the general home page, and the second link is to an essay which gives a broad overview of Jig-Arteroids’  technical features, its development process, and its poetics.  The “Executables” link is for those who want to run Jig-Arteroids via a Web browser or download Jig-Arteroids to run on their Mac or PC.  The final link is to a sound file created by Andrews using Jig-Arteroids.
With Jig-Arteroids you notice the plasticity of digital sound in a way more immediate than a lot of sound editing software. This is because rather than inundating the user with effects-- in many ways the sonic analog to the role that “font” plays in print-- Jig-Arteroids focuses attention on simultaneity and sequence.  The particular spatial conception of simultaneity and sequence it proposes, though limited in a manner so as to make it user-friendly, should prove fertile not just to sound poets but to poets in general (since so often for us sequence is determined by lines on a page or the current of speech).  The possibilities for the technology of Jig-Arteriods with a wider palette of sound (say a “heap” composed of the International Phonetic Alphabet) input are exciting. And most importantly, Jig-Arteroids is a lot of fun. 
Please note that the content of each of the linked pages is not subject to this site’s Creative Commons license.

 

“‘Jenifer's Words’ combines interests from several different parts of me. As a sound poet, I've been fascinated by the unique timbres and qualities of individual voices.  As an educator, I'm interested in how children develop literacy.   When one of my students gave me several pages of words she had written.  I thought she had been copying words, but found that the words had no particular semantic or alphabetic order.  When I asked her how she had come up with the words, she just shrugged her shoulders and, when I asked ‘why’ she said ‘because I like writing words.’  Lists of words are common in both education and experimental writing; albeit for different purposes and agendas. In education word lists are often compiled by educational research and statistics: ‘The first 100 words,’ ‘Sight words’ or ‘High Frequency Words’ and publishers create decodable books for children where content and narrative are subordinated to "controlled vocabulary." In contrast, Jenifer's word lists come from her imagination and curiosity, and represent a much more magical and organic relationship to language.

When I invited students to read ‘Jenifer's Words’ I was curious how they would respond and interpret them. On the one hand, children respond readily to nonsense and word play: Mother Goose rhymes, Dr. Seuss, etc.  But they are also developmentally striving to make sense and clarify the world for themselves. As emerging readers, their task is to take a seemingly random collection of symbols and sounds and turn them into meaning. The idea of going to the effort of decoding and comprehending without the payback of meaning might seem ridiculous to a child.  (Which is a good argument against teaching students how to read with word lists and phonetically controlled text).  

Some of the readings of the words reflect boredom, some reflect the  challenge of decoding itself, and others reflect an active engagement with the text, and a struggle to create meaning through intonation,  and expression.  All of the recordings, however, revealed a unique interpretation.  My editing and processing of the pieces reflects my interpretation or response to each of the pieces. I was careful not to alter, step on, or subvert the natural beauty of the children's voices. Instead I tried to accentuate or play off their inherent qualities.”

Stihi dlja zevajuschih (1:49)

Suchen nach Hugo Ball (1:32)

Kostroma (Featuring Sergey Letov) (1:55)

Phonocomposition (Featuring Sergey Letov) (0:47)

“below are two sets of notes, written at different times, relating to ‘embedded’

notes 1 – written a few months after the piece was debuted

[these were sort of jottings to myself, for my own records]

this poem was written over 4 weeks in late Feb. and the first half of March, 2005; 

written for Music Harm  (i.e. the show put on by the Atlanta Poets Group on March 16, 2005 with the theme, Poetry and Music,  & forming part of our ongoing performance series Language Harm)

(it started with extensive notes & lexilists,  then moved on to writing the 3 very different verbal parts, while gradually working out in my head what the music would sound like;  and finally I set up the synthesizer & realized the musical part in detail. at which point it was getting close to the date of the show;  I spent most of those last two days working on the synthesizer part!)

the three verbal parts of the score are each a stand-alone text and they are performed as independent entities,  but the way i wrote them and the use of repetition and shared elements between them,  unifies the piece

the synthesizer part is played by me,  and consists of three sections (which have grown more complex the more i work on them):

--the fifties sci-fi B-movie theme

--the Psycho (as in Perkins with a knife) theme

--the demented circus music

at Music Harm the performers were

voice 1   John Lowther

voice 2   Tracey Gagné

voice 3   Zzac Denton

Roland Juno-60 synthesizer              me

  

notes 2 – written for aslongasittakes:  reflections on embedded,  April 2009

The concept of a rogue nation is tricky;  or it’s a tricky bit of rhetorical slight-of-hand.  Of course if there is such a nation,  it is surely the United States.  And so it seemed both politically effective and amusing to pilfer the term from various instruments of imperialism (especially the U.S. media) and put it to work in a more appropriate and truthful context.  The problem is, rogueness is more easily perceived at some times than at others;  Obama in the white house is not in fact going to change the overall complexion and thrust of foreign policy.  But it’s less easy to convince people (here and abroad) that this is a rogue nation, with the Bush/Reagan hooligans out of power.  Still, I think my poem worked well in its original context.  The performers did superbly.  Huge thanks to them.  Political passion and irony are wonderfully put across in their skillful readings.   At first the mix here bothered me;  the synthesizer part, as I wrote it, can’t be followed too well.  (The 3 sections,  as outlined above, really can’t be apprehended as such)  However! the trade-off is that both the words, and the wonderful energy of the readers’ performances,  really come through.”

Multiverse - 8-Vox Realization (4:34)

Multiverse (pdf)

Permutations = 1 (4 after Aleister) (2:48)

Textphase: Moment x Moment (8:31)*

Textphase: Moment x Moment  (pdf)

“Obicham te: performed by Philip Meersman, txt: Philip Meersman, produced by DAstrugistenDA and de Beursschouwburg (Brussels) during Bar None at the BRXLBravo-festival 2007.

Obicham te was created during Bar None at the BRXLBravo-festival 2007 where DAstrugistenDA did a 48h non-stop poetry performance behind bars in orange overalls. DAstrugistenDA wanted to attract the attention to issues as Guantanamo and Freedom of Speech. Obicham te is an ode to Rozalina Petrova, my fiancee, with whom I was going to marry that same year on 07/07/07. This Ode, to thank her for her support, intellectual challenges and for being my Muse and (since 07/07/07) my wife.

Summary: performed by DAstrugistenDA, txt: Philip Meersman, produced by DAstrugistenDA and de Beursschouwburg (Brussels) during Bar None at the BRXLBravo-festival 2007.”

Ed. note: additional artist's statements are included with the text pieces.