Livros sobre música que vale a pena ler - Cromo #89: Freek Kinkelaar - "Wondersound - discovering weird, wild and wonderful music"

autor: Freek Kinkelaar (sounds musings by)

título: Wondersound - discovering weird, wild and wonderful music
editora: Korm Plastics
nº de páginas: 292
isbn: N/A
data: 2021

Segunda Edição.

Edição especial em capa dura, assinada pelo autor e com gifts (uma caneta da Korm Plastyics + já não me lembro)

A primeira tinha saído uns meses antes, nas mesmas condições (versão capa dura... e versão paperback)

Korm Plastics

www.kormplastics.nl

info@kormplastics.nl

Text copyright Freek Kinkelaaar

Refinements Matthew Xue

Graphic Design Alfred Boland

Excelente livro, de um colecionador suis-generis (ver índice abaixo), que agora edita em livro alguns dos seus artigos, liner notes e recensões, elaboradas ao longo de mais de 30 anos para várias publicações. A selecção feita não podia ser melhor, permitindo a descoberta não só de excelentes discos, músicos e bandas. E quando digo excelentes pode ser pela música, pela bizarria e estranheza, pela raridade e obscuridade. O autor pretende sobretudo apresentar a história por detrás de cada disco que conseguiu, e as histórias também são fabulosas e muito bem escritas, mas acaba por nos desvendar, em simultâneo os nomes que avidamente, depois, vamos procurar na internet e consumir/ouvir com, quase sempre, enorme prazer.

A meia dúzia de artigos de fundo (ver índice de novo) são também de uma riqueza de escrita, informação e conteúdo informativo, quase esgotando, apesar da sua concisão, tudo aquilo que precisamos de saber sobre os assuntos abordados: Noise, Música Industrial, Coem Organisation, …

Este livro é um dos melhores que tenho sobre música… e já lá vão mais de uma centena deles.

Imprescindível.

PS: As palavras que escrevo valem pouco. Mais vale ler, abaixo, as introduções de Edward Ka-Spel (amigo íntimo do autor), do próprio, a excelente entrevista que deu sobre como se comporta como colecionador, respondendo a todas as perguntas importantes que devem ser feitas (e foram) a um colecionador, para além do índice do livro, claro.

(Mas atenção, não façam confusão. O melhor é mesmo o miolo do livro, impossível de colocar aqui.)

Depois é navegar, pesquisar, investigar, comprar e ouvir, e maravilhar-se. Têm tarefa para muito, muito tempo… de prazer da descoberta e da audição.

Podem adquirir o livro através da editora, a Korm Plastics, de Frans de Waard, outra luminária da música desde os anos 80 e que mantém, agora online, desde os anos 80, o fanzine Vital, de que tenho o livro compilando todos os números e também mais de metade dos números originais, em papel (era assinante nos anos 80), e que já aqui fui postando.

 

 

Why you should read this book

Combining the words wonder and sound into a new one not yet documented in the Oxford Dictionary, Wondersound is about being amazed, challenged, bedazzled and caressed by music. Wondrous music.

Documenting obscure records, artist records, unloved albums, vanity pressings, the underdog artist, ‘real people’, remarkable artwork and more, covering avant-garde, noise, ambient, lounge and experimental music – and much in between and beyond – this book aims to inspire, explore and experience.

Freek Kinkelaar is a Dutch writer, artist, musician and composer. Wondersound compiles thirty years of his columns, articles, liner notes and sound musings.

 

Wondersound

Discovering weird, wild and wonderful music

By Freek Kinkelaar

 

Edição Especial - Capa Dura

Autografado e carimbado pelo autor

Korm Plastics

 

Introdução 1

Wondersound on a pink couch

By Edward Ka-Spel

The doorbell rings on a sunny Spring morning in a small, untidy flat on the second floor of a flat on the outskirts of the Dutch city of Nijmegen. It’s a shade too early for the occupants, one of whom groans over his toast and marmite and suggests that if everyone stays silent, the unexpected debt collector, public official or representative of some obscure religious cult might simply ‘go away’. However, a swift glance through the window reveals that it´s actually a friend at the entrance, so we duly press the buzzer and allow him to enter the Bohemian enclave that is Flat 68.

The friend is Freek, an early follower of The Legendary Pink Dots, who had moved their headquarters to said flat in 1988. We’re especially pleased to see him as he is an art student with an inquisitive, pliable mind that’s ripe for twisting – using the musical treasures stored in our album racks, fresh from Ikea.

Happily, we all have somewhere to sit too, and that is thanks to Freek. Three Anglo-German freaks who recently were squatting in a caravan – and then, briefly, a barn – were not just strapped for cash. They also didn’t have much furniture to speak of, and those racks had blown the budget. Freek had donated his huge pink 1950s couch which now proudly had a central placed in the living room in order to provide the perfect listening experience.

On Freek’s first visits, we’d try and shock him. Magma was always a good initiation – especially that part on Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandöh where the choir starts to scream as if they’d just imbibed poison. Then there was that song on the first Guernica album with an early drum machine, a cheesy organ and Jun Togawa yodeling in Japanese. As the visits continued, we’d pull out albums by Brainticket, Can Ash Ra Tempel… all of which had caused our own jaws to drop years before.

The music would be played loud, too. We needed to drown out the organ player in the flat below who felt the need to twist the dial up to eleven.

Probably in order to drown out the homicidal screams of his partner.

Indeed we live in a cyclical universe.

Of course, there will be plenty of conversation, too – but that would be away in the kitchen, as to blabber over beautiful music is an act of sacrilege, period. Some of these scenes planted the seeds of this book, and others are scattered Throughout.

There’s wonder in those grooves; that oxide, those ones and zeroes.

Drink it down. Laugh with it. Cry with it.

Just don’t stroke your chin.

 

Introdução 2 

What Is It About Wondersound

By Freek Kinkelaar

I love wonder. I love sound. Right now, I am listening to Kan Mikami’s debut album. Mikami is a Japanese folk singer and I have bought this 1971 record on impulse, tempted by its wondrous cover, with no idea of what it actually has to over sound-wise. Some would consider such an action money ill-spent, but, to me, such purchases, or rather “encounters”, embody the beauty of wondersound: a chance meeting of sound and wonder that makes me – and hopefully you, dear reader – marvel at its content, context, maker, the medium and, indeed, the message.

I love stringing words into sentences, giving them meaning and, should the opportunity arise, leave a Da Vinci Code or two to be deciphered by like-minded souls. When I studied the arts, I realized language was an artistic medium as valid and beautiful as paint – only cheaper and slightly less messy. To me, language is vital in order to shape and express my thoughts about the amalgamation of art and life. My first book, self-published in an edition of one, dates back to 1986 and contains some pretty awful teenage poetry. Its title, The Vision Apocalypse, says it all, really.

Sound is vital to my world: be it the sound of walking in the snow, the sound of thunder, snatches of unintelligible conversation, a creaky floorboard or, indeed, the sound of music. In the late 1970s, my interest in music was awakened by watching the Dutch music TV show TopPop – joining my sister on the sofa, clad in our pyjamas. Born a few years too late for punk, I caught the ska revival in full force instead, buying Madness’ Absolutely which, being my first and for me long time my only album, was played until it literally fell apart. My pocket money, supplemented by the meager income from washing my parents’ car, was spent on records by The Specials, The Beat and The Selecter.

The early 1980s brought us the New Romantics, when wearing your sister’s make-up seemed the perfect antidote to drab politics and the worldwide economic crisis. Via the New Romantics I discovered punk, and via punk, experimental and avant-garde music, soon realizing that, to me, music and sound embody the same values and gratification.

For the life of me, I cannot remember my first writings on music. I do recall writing reviews on live music for a local magazine in around 1982. The first solid evidence, however, can be found in the pages of Nivo Stilo, ‘New Style’, a self-published magazine on art. Lasting from 1984 to 1986, copies of this photocopied magazine found their way to friends and family. I also managed to sneak a few into Ding Dong, our local independent record and cassette shop, who also run the eponymus label and distribution for experimental music. The store’s owner, Ignit van Kasteren, presented Spleen, an experimental music show on Dutch national radio, which proved a valued education. All of my Saturdays were spent at Ding Dong, listening to weird sounds blasting from the speakers and buying cassettes that were in the sales bin. A time fondly remembered.

I have been writing lyrics, or rather, short stories, for my own songs for over forty years. The process of shaping these wonderings into lyrics is a magical one, which I dearly love. As is writing reviews, articles, liner notes and essays for various national and international publications. A selection of which, as well as some new and previously unpublished ones, find their home in this book. That’s over thirty years of writing about being amazed, challenged, bedazzled and caressed by sound. Wondersound is about all those chance meetings where sound and wonder somehow add up to something miraculous. And, in my mother tongue, ‘wonder’ means ‘miracle’. Isn’t that just perfect?

Just as perfect as the Kan Mikami album turn out to be.

Entrevista 

Freek Kinkelaar, The Collector

Interview published in 2005 about record collecting, slightly updated

What do you collect, and why?

On 2 February 1981, Dutch television aired a thirty-second clip of the single Antmusic by Adam And The Ants. I was fourteen at the time, an impressionable age, and this was the kind of music I had been waiting for: exciting, off-kilter and colourful! Buying the single a day later was the start of a sizeable Ants-collection.

On 5 July 1986, I saw The Legendary Pink Dots live, by chance, which made an everlasting impression and further fed my interest in adventurous and experimental music. Incidentally, the girl who I had taken to the concert, a tentative ‘date’, hated our night out. I blame the band.

Since the 1980s, my musical taste has extended from punk and new wave to experimental and industrial music, the avant-garde, soundtracks, outsider and artist records, conceptual projects and the downright weird and wonderful. Sound-wise, I am as interested in a subliminal drone as a catchy melody.

How big is your collection?

I am told size does not matter, but my guess would be a few hundred compact discs and over 1.500 vinyl records. I also have around a hundred independently released cassettes from the 1980s. Ideally, the size of my collection would be dictated by the number of hours in a day and the size of my shelves – all killers, no fillers…

What do you think it is worth?

I have been collecting music for over forty years and I have always seen my collection as a fluctuating echo of me as a person. It is hard to put a monetary value on it. It’s me – on record.

Where to you store it?

All my records and cassettes are for playing purposes. Most of my collection is at hand in our living room and thus also on permanent display. I love the aesthetic value of records and cassettes. I also quite like the way some of them feel and smell – like memories passing by.

What is the rarest thing you have?

Technically speaking, the rarest would be test pressings or acetates of records that were never released, such as the 12-inch version of Diana Riggs Sings on Harkit. There might only be one surviving copy of the acetate of Scars’ Author! Author! Album, the soundtrack to my youth. Karel Appel’s Musique Barbare including the signed lithograph is also very hard to locate. Industrial music, such as original Nurse With Wound, Maurizio Bianchi and Throbbing Gristle records, too. The Anna Blumme / Die Sonate In Urlauten album featuring German Dadaist Kurt Schwitters reciting his poetry took me years to find. Or the Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee album by Joseph Beuys. Some rare Gerogerigegege releases like the Ai Jin flexi or the Piano River cassette – of which only ten handmade copies exist. I have a very weak spot for unique packaging, which to me was an important feature of the 1980s DIY-scene. 78 rpm discs, such as the one that has Errol Flynn singing Lily Of Laguna or an HMV-disc featuring Christopher Robin, son of Winnie-the-Pooh’s author. A. A. Milne, reciting and singing. Or the 1939 Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs soundtrack on a beautifully packed double 78 rpm disc – the first ever released of a soundtrack on record. I also treasure my original copy of the Only Dreaming cassette by The Legendary Pink Dots.

What’s given the biggest thrill?

Icelandic singer Sigrun Hardardottir sending me a signed copy of her 1976 album Shadow Lady after I had spent years looking for it. Finding a copy of Adam And The Ants’ 1978 bootleg La Belle Image, of which only fifty copies were made. Joel Vandroogenbroeck signing my copy of Brainticket’s Celestial Ocean. Edward Ka-Spel giving me a copy of the original cassette release of Premonition. Records given to me by friends from their own collection because they know I am looking for a copy. Special records found for next to nothing in bargain bins. That sort of thing.

What’s that elusive missing gem you’re still looking for?

High on the list is the Young Parizians single by Adam And The Ants. It is quite a common single, but intensily elusive as a South African pressing on Decca. I used to have a copy but sold it in a moment of madness. Or an original copy of The Girl Who Was… Death by Devil Doll on Jugoton. The Dream(s) / Soul Travel single by Gary Wilson or a copy of the Gerogerigegege’s Live At Tokyo Gay Center – but, according to legend, only ten copies were made of that one. Chance are slim, but not impossible.

How do you track down stuff – fairs, auctions, dealers, internet, magazines?

Collecting records is a time-consuming hobby and one that I quite enjoy. Prior to the internet, I spent hours contacting dealers and shops, sending out want lists via post and negotiating purchases. These days the internet is very helpful. It still takes time, though – rare records don’t come knocking on your door by themselves.

How often do you paly stuff in your collection?

My collection is played on a regular basis, even idf the records or cassettes are fragile, rare or valuable. Records don’t have to be in pristine condition – I do not mind playing a beaten-up copy if I cannot afford or find a mint one. When records are no longer played, they run the risk of being given away, sold or traded. This keeps my collection down to a playable and enjoyable size.

When the time comes, how will you dispose of your collection?

The market for records and cassettes is constantly shifting and there might come a time when people are, quite understandable, no longer willing to spend hundreds of euros on a record. I like the idea of simply giving them away one per person, perhaps at a record fair. That would be quite the scene.

Índice  

Wandering Through Wondersound

Introduction	Wondersound on a pink couch by Edward Ka-Spel	9
Introduction	What is it about Wondersound by Freek Kinkelaaar	11
Interview	Freek Kinkelaar, the collector	13
Column	Absinthe: La Folie Verte by Blood Axis and Les Joyaux De La Princesse	16
Column	Absolute Beginners, soundtrack by various artists	17
Column	Absolutely by Madness	19
Column	Adult/ery / Horrorshow by Scars	21
Column	Alice In Wonderland by Randy Grief	22
Column	Anita by The First International Sex Opera Band	24
Liner Notes	Music for a future age! Lines notes for Antmusic For Sexpeople by Adam And The Ants	26
Article	The sound of art: a brief history of Artists records	29
Column	Battle Axe by Billion Dollar Babies	39
Column	Blue by Derek Jarman	41
Column	Boyd Rice	43
Article	Celestial Ocean, The Music of Brainticket	44
Column	Byrd’s World by Donald Byrd	50
Column	Canzone 4711 by Boudewijn De Groot	52
Column	Chelmsford County High School Folk Group	53
Article	Come are coming to get you! A brief history of the Come Organisation record label 1979-1985	54
Column	Cops Play Old New by Cops Ltd.	61
Column	Cowboy Favorites by Clint Eastwood	63
Column	Debon by Brast Burn	64
Article	Teenage head in my refrigerator, the story of the Deep Freeze Mice	66
Article	The art of illusion, the story of Devil Doll	71
Column	Dream House 78’17” by La Monte Young	77
Column	Echigo No Goze Uta by various artists	78
Column	Eddie, Old Bob, Dick And Gary by Tenpole Tudor	80
Article	Michi Aoyama and the hardship of enka	82
Column	Evil by Konrad	89
Column	Front De L’Est by Déficit Des Années Antérieures	91
Article	You think you realy know me, the music of Gary Wilson	92
Column	Gelesen Und Vertont by Adolf Wölfli	99
Article	Gerogerigegege: Omako Dynamite!	100
Column	Gulliver’s Travels, soundtrack by various artists	108
Column	Harvest Of Dreams by Bobb Trimble	110
Liner Notes	Ta-ra-ra boom-de-ay, it’s the lovely Linda! Lines notes for Here I Am by Linda Thorson	112
Column	Here Is My Spoon by Edward Barton	114
Column	Herstory by Princess Tinymeat	115
Column	Hot Romance by Rick Grossman	117
Column	Hotondo Kiki Torenai by The Hafler Trio	119
Column	I Don’t Remember Now / I Don’t Want To Talk About It by John Bender	121
Liner Notes	I like God’s style, Liner notes for I like God’s Style by Isabel Baker	123
Column	If At First… by Frunk	126
Article	The Art Of Persuasion, The Industrial Records story 1977-1981	128
Column	Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee by Joseph Beuys	137
Column	Jihishinchou Ga Basabasa To Hone No Hane O Hirogetekuru by Tatsumi Hijikata	153
Column	João Gilberto	155
Column	Ligeliahorn by Metgumbnerbone	157
Column	Lord Sutch And Heavy Friends	159
Column	Mais Alors!!?... Cést A L’Envers by Nef	161
Column	McCartney by Paul McCartney	163
Liner Notes	Meditation Volume 1, Liner notes for Meditation Volume 1 by Korla Pandit	165
Liner Notes	‘Why can’t I be different and unusual like everybody else?’, Liner notes for Men Opening Umbrella’s Ahead by Vivian Stanshall	167
Column	Musique Barbare by Karel Appel	170
Column	My Beauty by Kevin Rowland	172
Column	Nature Intended by Steve Drake Band	174
Column	Nightbird by The Kaplan Brothers	176
Column	94Diskont by Oval	178
Article	What a beautiful noise! The history of noise music	179
Column	Now We Are Six by Master Christopher Robin	190
Column	Old MacDonald Had A Farm / Little White Duck by The Red Raven Orchestra	191
Column	On The Move by Bauer	193
Column	Op. 50 Requiem Of Art (Aus “Celtic”) Fluxorum Organum II by Henning Christiansen	195
Column	Opera “From The Works Of Tandanori Yokoo” by Toshi Ichiyanagi	197
Column	Paradise Of Replica by After Dinner	199
Column	Peter Wyngarde	201
Column	Popular Soviet Songs And Youth Music by Zoviet France	203
Column	Prayer For Aradia by The Legendary Pink Dots	204
Column	Prélude Au Sommeil by Jean-Jaques Perrey	206
Column	Que Sera, Sera by The High Keyes	209
Column	Rear Window by Franz Waxman and various artists	211
Column	Revival by Al Basim	213
Column	Robbie The Werewolf At The Waleback by Robbie The Werewolf	214
Column	Rockey’s Style by Rockey Palmer	215
Article	Catastrophe ballet: the life and works of Rozz Williams	217
Column	Salon de Musique by Su Tissue	222
Column	See-Saw/Chambermusik by SoliPsik	224
Column	Sexy Poem by Sandra Julien	226
Column	Shadow Lady by Sigrún Haroardóttir	228
Column	Shaving My Neck by Gene Loves Jezebel	229
Column	She And She As One by Anton Heyboer	231
Column	Skaggerak by Werkbund	233
Column	Slush by Neil Innes	234
Column	Solfège De L’Objet Sonore by Pierre Schaeffer and Guy Reibel	235
Column	Soundtracks For The Blind by Swans	237
Column	Souvenirs Aus Tokio by The Peanuts	239
Column	Special Forces by Alice Cooper	240
Column	Squeeze by Velvet Underground	242
Column	Tenno by Noise	244
Column	Terminal Love by Peter Peter Ivers Band	245
Column	The Cool Voice Of Rita Reys by Rita Reys	247
Essay	The day I met The Residents, well, A Resident, and, in the end, became one…	249
Column	The Girl In The Bikini by Jean Yatove	251
Column	The Hastings Archives / The World As Power by Aleister Crowley	252
Column	The Residents Play The Beatles And The Beatles Play The Residents by The Residents	253
Liner Notes	The Safari years – The Electric Chairs Liner notes for The Safari Years by The Electric Chairs	254
Column	The Series Of Music For Young Adults: Iranian Folk Songs by Pari Zangeneh	259
Column	The Wicker Man by Paul Giovanni and Magnet	261
Column	Thrillington	263
Column	Truly A Miracle Of God by The Handless Organist	265
Column	Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me by Angelo Badalamenti	266
Column	Umerumonoizen by Ai Aso	267
Column	United Aliens by Ian Arnüll	267
Article	Vagina Dentata Organ – the most fanatical band in the world	270
Column	Volume III – A Child’s Guide To Good And Evil & Part 4 Where’s My Daddy? By The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band	274
Column	West Side Story (Original Sound Track Recording) by Leonard Bernstein	276
Essay	Why I don’t read lyrics or, the beauty of mishearing lyrics	278
Column	Your Cassette Pet by Bow Wow Wow	280
Column	Zeer Oude Klanken En Heel Nieuwe Geluiden by Surprieze	282