MOSTLY SILENT MUSIC (extended remix)
Performed by Adva Zakai & Michael Schmid
A Fluxconcert with works by John M Armleder, Yoko Ono, George Brecht, Man Ray, La Monte Young, Takehisa Kosugi, Nam June Paik, Dick Higgins, Ben Vautier, John Cage, Christian Morgenstern, Kurt Schwitters and with bits and bites by Kate Tempest, Tierra Whack, Astra Taylor, Stromae, and Beethoven.
The aspects of Silence, Void and Nothing have always been key considerations for John M Armleder. In 1981, in St. Gallen, Switzerland, John M Armleder held an event called a “Flux Concert” entitled Mostly Silent Music. The artist performed about twenty works on stage alone: from John Cage's 4'33 of silence, Audience by Ben Vautier as well as a series of Dadaist experiments and instructions of the composer La Monte Young. These experimental, often humorous, conceptual and musical performance pieces all had two factors in common; firstly the performance of an (almost) absent sound and secondly the active position of the spectator somewhere between intense attention and loss of reference points. Three decades later, in the wake of research carried out at the Geneva University of Art and Design, this historic event has become the catalyst for a new score by Adva Zakai, Michael Schmid and David Helbich that pays tribute to Armleder's project. This event will incite reflection on the aesthetic and political implications of silence in art, music and life today.
Credits
Original program score: John M Armleder
Extended remix by: Adva Zakai, Michael Schmid and David Helbich
Performed by: Adva Zakai & Michael Schmid