After the cacophony of Tuesday night's election, here is some sonic solace. The strange and magical collaboration between two men who re-taught us how to listen: John Cage and Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

 

Sometimes, it's nice when sound doesn't have to mean anything. Allow me to explain.

In last week's episode, we explored the introduction of reorganized and manipulated recorded sounds into the world of western art music with a documentary about Pierre Henry and his adventures in Musique Concrète. This week, we go one    or two    further.

For classical audiences, the name John Cage will be familiar. A true appreciator of sound, here's a clip of Cage giving us a taste of his sonic ideology from a 1991 interview.

 

 

In 1960, Cage's avant-garde sound-sculpture was introduced to the masses when he performed Water Walk on the popular TV show I've Got a Secret.

 

 

For jazz audiences, the name Rahsaan Roland Kirk will be familiar. The experimental multi-instrumentalist was bound only by the limits of his own imagination. The first footage of his playing I was ever exposed to was from this performance of The Inflated Tear in Prague, 1967.

 

 

In 2014, director Adam Kahan premiered his documentary about the depth of Kirk's influence at SXSW to great acclaim. Here's the trailer:

 

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What happens when you put these two people together?

Sound??

The English documentary filmmaker Dick Fontaine, currently the head of documentary at the National Film and Television School, unified this incredible collaboration between Cage and Kirk with his own experimental visual style in 1966-67.

 

 

Mind. Blown.

 

Tune in every Wednesday for a new episode of Mid-week Musicology here on Classic107.com!