Slowscan is Jan Van Toorn’s music label imprint, which was started in 1983 and is still active today. Over the years, Slowscan has released 61 music titles. Its catalog has managed to release some of the most significant audioworks from artists such as Henri Chopin, David Rosenboom, Robert Filliou, Joe Jones etc. Today Slowscan constitutes one of the most important archives, documenting a significant part of the flux anthology, Soundpoetry and Electronic Music of the mid 70s onwards. I had the opportunity to have a small talk with Jan Van Toorn and talk about his label’s story and his very important record collection.

Marios Moras: Back in 2010, I was preparing Philip Corner’s “Rocks Can Fall At Any Time” LP, on Moremars. It was at that time that I first discovered Slow Scan imprint, and of course, Philip Corner’s “Piano Work” LP was the first record that I listened from your label. Then I had the opportunity to dive into the most of the Slow Scan’s releases. You are running Slow Scan from 1983 to the present day. Going back in time, how did your involvement with the label begin, what was the main idea behind it. 

Jan Van Toorn: The idea behind starting a music label in 1983, was to start something new, mainly with experimental / sound poetry and later with electronic music releases, with artists like Gordon Mumma and David Rosenboom. I initially wanted to create vinyl records, but I didn’t have so much money. Therefore, I did my first audiocassettes. The name of the record label came about as follows: “Slowscan” is a camera which can treat images and sound. I read this in a video art magazine and then Ι decided to call the label like this! At that time, I didn’t know any other labels, except S-Press in Germany. There was no internet connection at that time, so I couldn’t find any other similar labels, until I met Ulises Carrion who had an artist bookstore in Amsterdam. I bought many stuff from there, books and records.

After the release of Fluxus Anthology 30th Anniversary 1962-1992 Sound Events in 1993, there was a few years of silence. In 2000 I re-started the label, producing vinyl records. Philip Corner’s “Piano Work” LP, was the first one.

MM: In the first years of Slow Scan, you released a series of compilations (Slowscan Vol. 1 to Vol. 5 & “Mouthworks”), most of them was dealing with sound poetry & Sound Art. Why you had this preference on sound poetry? How were you able to get in touch with all these artists and collect all this sound material?

JVT: In 1978, I visited the International Soundpoetry festival in Amsterdam, where I met many artists in person for the first time. Therefore, I started building my network. Ken Friedman send me a big book with mostly all artists in the world, their addresses, phone numbers and faxes. All communications went through snail mail and if I wanted to have audio material from an artist, I simply wrote a letter and invited him to send me an audio tape or cassette.

MM: After a 6-year break, Slow Scan returned in 1993 with one of the most comprehensive Fluxus documents, the “Fluxus Anthology 30th Anniversary 1962-1992 Sound Events”. How did you manage to gather all this sound material? 

JVT: The Fluxus anthology from 1993 was a difficult task and there was a lot of work to be done. For this project I invited artists from all around the world, so It took me a while to gather all the material. The sound material arrived from different countries, like Japan, USA etc., all by mail. The wooden boxes that I used for this release where made by a cigar factory, by the way. With this release Soundpoetry / Electronics / Music are all-in one actually…

MM: What was Fluxus for you and what is Fluxus for you today?

JVT: I didn’t know Fluxus at first. My main goal was to release mostly Electronic music (Rosenboom, Mumma Collins) on tape format and later music by Henri Chopin and others. Later I met many Fluxus artists on festivals and concerts and I started building my network. Until late 80s I had found various artists, that was involved with Fluxus. Fluxus now is a group of friends, which I have met in the past and will be also in future … the core of Fluxus people have already died.

MM: In my opinion, two of the most important full album that you released through Slow Scan are Henri Chopin’s “OH audiopoems” and Henning Christiansen’s “Symphony Natura”. Looking back, what is your favourite or some of the most important Slow Scan’s releases until now and why?

JVT: I’m happy with all the publications that I have made so far. I am a bit more proud that I was able to persuade Les levine and Dennis Oppenheim to make a record with me. I think it’s more important to publish audioworks by artists who has not been published before, like John Perreault and Liam O’Gallagher, rather than bringing out re-issues, like the LP Vol. 53. I’m very happy with the selection of artists, that are included to Slowsan’s catalog, like Allan Kaprow, Dennis Oppenheim, Herman De Vries etc

MM: It’s already in your hands a very important archive of Sound Art music publications, brochures and other documents, which are not only very rare and hard to find, but also have an important historical value, documenting a large part of the sound art history from the 70s onwards. What is for you “Collecting music” or what is a “music collection” for you. Do you continue to collect music publications by new artists? There are any thoughts on how you might make use of this collection?

JVT: I builded a music archive from deceased people. It was important for me to have all material complete, with letters, scores etc. Today, I’m not collecting music by new artists, of-course only the most vital/important ones. I ‘m collecting only historical material now, like scores, tapes and “ephemera” like invitations. The re-press culture that exists today it is not interesting me at all. It’s better to make new records with historic material like I did with the Richard Maxfield records.

Yesterday, my new project “Poesia Sonora dagli archivi di Arrigo Lora – Totino” (Vol.61), a 2LP compilation with sound artists like, Arrigo Lora – Totino, Jackson Man Low, Eugenio Miccini etc., came out these days. Only 57 copies were pressed, out of 200, before the record pressing plan corporation went bankrupt … I lost a lot of money, and I doubt there will be new record out by me..

As I am approaching death, becoming 72 in a few months. I’d rather sell my collection to a museum or to a collector.

A few years ago I had read an interesting article by Rob Hayler entitled “what i mean by the term ‘no-audience underground’“, referring to the noise, sound-art, experimental and free music network and the connection between musicians, labels and audience. Since the beginning of my involvement with Moremars label, I have been concerned with the concept of ‘community’ and one of the main questions I still have is whether this concept exists from a global perspective. What you often discover when looking for, let’s say, the “experimental music scene” is ultimately small pockets of musicians or small music labels that keep the scene alive.

In this first interview presented here, I had the opportunity to interview Clinton Green, an Australian sound artist and owner of the music label “Shame File Music“. One of the albums that stood out to me this year was Clinton Green’s “A Conduit”. In this first interview that we present in our “community” column, we tried to explore Clinton Green’s music and to get a litle taste of the Australian music scene.

Marios Moras: Clinton, thanks for agreeing to do this interview. What have you been up to? Firstly, I would like you to tell me a few words about your involvement with music.

Clinton Green: Lately, I’ve been working on refining some musical ideas I’ve been experimenting with over the past year or so, involving Walkmans as sound sources. I’ve noticed a pattern with how I work; first comes experimentation, which often involves trying lots of different things, and usually multiple sound sources. In this instance, I’ve been using 2-3 Walkmans for a track. But recently, I am restricting myself to a sole Walkman as a sound source, with some subtle effects. I feel like I am honing in on the timbre of the Walkman sound itself, not hiding behind multiple tracks and sounds. I’m not sure if it will end up being something worth releasing, but that’s OK, it’s all part of the process.

I have been involved in music pretty much all my adult life. I was 18 in my first band, and I’m 52 now. Obviously, it has varied over the years; mainly guitar to begin with, then turntables in various forms, and a whole lot of other stuff in between/coinciding (percussion, bowed metal bowls, performance, text), solo and in collaboration.

MM: In your compositions you use many improvisations with automated percussion, found objects and turntables. Tell me a few things about your approach to this material and the way you are working your albums.

CG: I think the common thing throughout most of my work is that I am interested in finding new sound/music. Music that is interesting and new to me, from objects or machines used in new sonic ways. Finding the hidden sonic properties of a turntable, or a piece of metal, or a Walkman. I’m using the word “find” a lot; I think of myself as a finder of music, rather than a maker. I’m finding the music in things that we just haven’t heard yet. A lot of my earlier albums were pretty raw documents of this process. These days, I’m trying to be a bit more careful to make albums that continue to document these experiments, but as I said earlier, are more refined and even nuanced – well, that’s my aim, I don’t think I’m always successful.

MM: Listening to your recent release, the “A Conduit” CD, I felt that this album, along with 2021’s “Here?/Secret” and 2019’s “Young Women of Asia”, introduced me to a parallel musical direction of your soundwork. My impression is that there are more noise textures, made by analog equipment like cassette players and in essence, your music is shaped by a more low-fi aesthetic. Am I right?

CG: Yes, I think this is true in comparing it to my turntable sound sculpture recordings, best represented by “Relativity/Only”, which is an acoustic, high quality studio recording. However, both streams of music are still concerned with machines/objects making their own music and me “finding it”, through various procedures and settings. Machine, tape and record noise are certainly part of those releases you mentioned (especially “Here?/Secret”, where silence also plays a big role). But in the refining process I’m going through at the moment (mentioned above), I am finding myself wanting to remove a lot of the extra noise and isolate particular sounds and rhythms.                                                              

MM: The Shame File Music label has been around since the 90’s, initially releasing punk music releases and then moving into the experimental music scene. How did this transition happen?

It just followed my own changes of interest from the music I had been involved with but gradually lost interest in (punk), through to my developing interest in experimental music. Especially in the early days, Shame File Music was a vehicle to release my own music and other music I was interested in, which continues to an extent today. 

MM: On the label’s website you specifically state that Shame File Music “specialises in documenting Australian experimental music, both contemporary and historical”. What do you think would be interesting to document the Australian scene? I’m also wondering what is the meaning of “music community” amongst musicians in Australia. If so, how does it work there?

CG: I was frustrated that experimental music in Australia was barely being documented at all. I thought it meant that there was no history of experimental music in Australlia prior to the late 1970s, but through my research for what became the “Artefacts of Australian Experimental Music” series, I found that in fact there was a rich history. A lack of interest in our own history is a common problem in Australia, and especially in the arts, which are not really valued by mainstream society in this country (or at worst, despised). For me, it is important to know what has happened before in this place where I am making music; primarily so I don’t just repeat what has come before, but also to enrich the culture of which I am participating.

I think the “music community” is pretty strong in Australia, although it varies a lot between cities. Where I am, in Melbourne, there has always been a strong supportive network of artists and musicians in the experimental and improvised music worlds. The other advantage in Melbourne is that these scenes are not isolated or exclusionary (for the most part), and have lots of crossovers with other music, like rock, classical, jazz, electronic, folk, etc. It mostly works through social opportunities at regular gigs (which admittedly are not as common post-COVID, but some continue), and in general moral support for each other. There is also a strong spirit of collaboration between musicians; people are mostly willing to play with each other in various settings (often improvised). I think all of these factors are important for the strength of a music community. The other factor is that support from governments or institutions is often limited or inconsistent, so we really have to rely on each other for ongoing support.

MM: And one last question for you. Do you want to recommend me some 2024 releases that you enjoyed a lot this year?

CG: yes of course!

Adrianne Lenker “Bright Future”
Dagar Brothers “Berlin 1964 – The Lost Recording”
Buttress O’Kneel “Samplants”

Links:

Shame File Music: https://shamefilemusic.bandcamp.com/music

Clinton Green: https://clintongreen.com

Ex Yugoslavian electronica

the story of Rock in Opposition scene in Ljubljana and Other Novi Sad scene in Novi Sad

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“The man did not have the ability to choose their goals consciously, our goals are accidents of history.” Irvin D. Yalom

With Irvin D. Yalom’s quotation and with great curiosity I started to write for a music scene that I just discover its existence through the “a hogons industrial guide” blog. This non-academic, experimental scene was active in 1980-1989, in Yugoslavia. If I had to use a kind of a slogan to represent it to you, that would be “Anonymously, collectively and with no material evidences”, as the bibliography and discography are quite incomplete and hard to find.

That is how the story begins. Back in the 70s, the federal state of Yugoslavia, that was in the north of Balkan and in the heart of Eastern Europe, had not managed to develop a subversive underground movement, such as other communist countries like Czechoslovakia. For this reason, the arrival of punk music has found fertile ground and became the dominant youth Alternative culture. In this context, a non-punk music scene started to grow rapidly as a marginal phenomeno.

From the 60’s in Ljubljana, the Capital city of Slovenia, there was a grown tradition of Alternative culture with Rock music to gain day by day more popularity. At the same time, social movements began to be critical towards the communist authorities. As a result, in 1969, Radio Student, the first independent radio station in Yugoslavia, was established, giving shelter to the local underground music and voice to the Slovenia civil rights movement.

In the 1980s, an industrial music scene, which explored the extreme sound, started to develop and it was so huge and radical that we could say that it was similarly important as the local scene of Berlin. Sound artists and groups such as Mario Marzidovšek, Đorđe Dimitrijević, Saša Zorić, Študentsko Delavski Rock Teater V Opoziciji, Metropolie Trans etc. start their activity. Mario Marzidovšek was a real musical phenomeno, a superhero of the local scene, gained popularity also outside of the Yugoslavian borders, releasing his works privately.

Mario Marzidovshek’s Minimal Laboratorium (MML) ENG SUB

In 1984, Bojan Đorđević and Aleksandar Konjikušić, two active youngsters from Belgrade, started to run Nikad Robom label, taking action to the global DIY cassette movement, broadcasting through radio and organising independent music concerts. Nikad Robon label was active until 1992, managing to publish music by This Heat, Fred Frith, Tom Cora, Zeena Parkins (most of these releases were unofficially released) and local bands that were active at that period and expressed through Rock in Opposition scene in Ljubljana and Other Novi Sad scene in Novi Sad etc.

Other Novi Sad scene is a rather special case. Stojan Janković – painter and sculptor – started to organise events in his house, that afterwords it got the name Stole’s house, involving painters, poets, musicians. They act more as a collective than individually. The basic team was participated by Tibor Bada – graphic artist and poet, Zoran Pantelić – art historian and judoist, Béla Máriás – ethnomusicologist, Aleksandar Carić – writer and multi-instrumentalist, Miroslav Šilić – dentist and painter, László Rátgéber – basketball coach and musician. The basic cohesive fabric of the Other Novi Sad was friendship and the main purpose or raison d’etre – a fertile exchange of ideas. The total of creative activities in the Other Novi Sad scene of the 1980s can’t be narrowed to this space, nor strictly associated with the circle of people that were notably affiliated with it.

Watch that video after 46:00

From circa 1982-onwards, the activities of the Other Novi Sad scene begin to disperse across other private spaces throughout Novi Sad and thus gradually reduce the critical importance of Stole’s house. In 1983 these gatherings grew so much that a new space, cellar-gallery of Tibor Bada, was made as an occasional exhibition venue from 1984 onwards. It was quite difficult for me to find sound material or documents from the events or the performances or the groups that took place in Other Novisad scene, apart from a very small quote on this video. The group is called “Pre i posle tišine” and it sounds fabulous! Recommended material from Other Novisad could be the Tickmayer Formatio complex and CirKo Della Primavera, which they released material in Nikad Robon label and the album Ritual Nova by Boris Kovač. All of them were released after 1985 … Also later material released by Points East records by Chris Cutler.

Somewhere here my own research ends. If you find any interest for this scene you could find more information at the link above. In case you find more information or sounds from this scene I would be very grateful if you drop me a line at more_mars [at] yahoo dot gr

Good luck!

ps. Very soon we will have the opportunity to stock some very interesting LP compilations from these obscure music scene! Stay tuned!

Link: ahogonsindustrialguide.blogspot

Picture by ahogonsindustrialguide.blogspot

Going back to the early 80s when the digital revolution and the DIY movement was radically increasing, an idea of a subscription only bimonthly publication that will document mainly the New York music scene was born! TELLUS, an Audio Cassette Magazine that was active from 1983-1993, arrived through the discussions of Joseph Nechvatal, Claudia Gould and Carol Parkinson at Rum Runner bar, at Canal Street, in New York. The aim of These Cassette series was to document sonic works which had been produced and distributed by artists themselves, the mail art movement and some mail orders. Eventually, Tellus series numbered 27 Ιssues, exploring a wide range of improvised music, minimal electronics, no wave, speaking words, punk, tango, new Chinese music (listen to the piece of Hao Yuchi – A Hundred Birds Calling) and much more. The compilations managed to list musical works written for radio, experimental theater, visual works etc, giving the impression of one of the most complete audio archives, of that period.

Perhaps names like sonic youth, Michael Gira, Lydia Lunch, Glenn Branca, Merzbow may be the most notable entries on these historical editions, but what I enjoyed most was the most anti-art music. I will definitely recommend you to listen:

• Tellus # 24, a flux movement documentation, published in 1990 with contributed artists like La Monte Young, Dick Higgins, Philip Corner, Takehisa Kosugi etc.
• Tellus #13 (1986), including music by If Bwana, Amor fati, Coup de grace etc, and is dedicated to power electronics.
• The material presented in the media myths collection (Tellus # 20 1988: difficult to mention only a few names. This is my very beloved one!) and
• The video art music (Tellus # 17, 1987: Ann-Sargent Wooster and Brooks William, Arlene Schoss, Allan Powell and Connie Coleman etc.)

Active for just 10 years, TELLUS Audio Cassette magazine managed to release 27 issues, a highly recommended musical source that you have to explore!

Links to follow:

Listen: ubu

More info: here

Radio Show about Tellus: here

The last 3 years, I feel quite overdosed with all these new releases out there! What to choose? What to buy? Why at last I have to buy one of them? Most of the times I catch myself just scrolling on my pc, but at the end, I think that this situation leads me to get bored of music. For me, the most interesting way discovering new music is to stop searching it! What I really do is trust someone else’s personal musical taste! This practice works for me and I have to say that most of the times don’t regret my decision!

Because of my good luck, that is how I discovered Vitrine, a private pressing label. The best source to explore the label’s releases is through the excerpts that can be found on Vitrine’s youtube channel. Just play all the videos! What you would listen is Allen Mozek’s musical preferences. Allen is a Philadelphia-based musician and the man behind Vitrine records. The label focuses more on dada-garde, analog electronics and experimental sound.

Back in 2013, at the first steps of Vitrine, two personal works of Allen Mozek come out. The first was a cassette by Good Area ( check also their French Antarctica LP on Graham Lambkin’s Kye records!), an Allen’s collaboration with Gabi Losoncy and his own project No Intention. Both of them intrigued me, as I love to listen to all these primitivism noise patterns combined with real-to-real electronics and spoken words. But that was only the start of label’s history. In 2014 Vitrine started to expand and releasing works by Safe House, Gene Pick and a compilation, hosting names like Yeast Culture(!), Arv & Miljö, Matthew Hopkins etc. 2015 was a very active year for the label, listing a numerous of releases, all of them very unique pieces of music. If I have to list some of them I would defiantly mention Adam Bohman, Embudagonn 108 (japanise artist Nobu Kasahara’s project), blackhumour, 010001111000, C. R. Odette, Stephen Cornford (a great sound sculpture by the co-founder of Consumer Waste) and Stewart Skinner!

That’s all! Nothing more to say. Just check them out and enjoy your day with Vitrine’s sounds.