FUTURISTS AND FUTURISM
audio cds from ltm

Both Futurism & Dada Reviewed and Musica Futurista: The Art of Noises combine historic archive recordings by key Futurist artists with faithful recent recordings, and are widely acknowledged as definitive in their field. Futurlieder is the very first dedicated CD by leading Futurist composer and theorist Franco Casavola. All CDs are mastered and packaged to a high standard, and include booklets containing detailed historical notes and relevant images.


FUTURISM & DADA REVIEWED 1912-1959 (LTMCD 2301) £10
This acclaimed 70 minute archive audio CD represents the definitive collection of original sound recordings by key artists from the Futurist and Dada art movements. The booklet features detailed historical notes (in English) on the artists featured, as well as full recording information. To read sleevenotes click here. Dates in brackets in the following tracklist indicate the year in which the artist made the original recording. Full tracklist: Luigi Russolo Risveglio di una Cita, Antonio Russolo Corale (1921), F.T. Marinetti Sintesi Musicali Futuriste (1931), Antonio Russolo Serenata (1921), F.T. Marinetti La Battaglia di Adrianopoli (1924), F.T. Marinetti Definizione di Futurismo (1924), Luigi Grandi Cavalli + Acciaio (1935), Wyndham Lewis End of Enemy Interlude (1940), Guillaume Apollinaire Le Pont Mirabeau (1912), Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck L'amiral cherche une maison a louer, Marcel Duchamp La mariee mise a nu par ses celibataires meme (musical erratum), Richard Huelsenbeck Inventing Dada (1959 interview), Tristan Tzara Dada into Surrealism (1959 interview), Kurt Schwitters Die Sonata un Urlauten (1932), Jean Cocteau La Toison d'Or and Le Voleurs d'Enfants (both 1929). ISBN 0-9540549-3-8

Reviews: "Handy manual of a world turned upside down. All the big names of the Big Two are here. Compilations like this are often of purely collectible interest, but this is an exception - and exceptional to boot. From Wyndham Lewis' poshtones to some skippy jazz-hot from Jean Cocteau, this is unremittingly joyous" (The Wire, 2001) "Of huge interest to anyone interested in art and music history, and offers a glimpse at groundbreaking compositions that opened up the possibilities still being explored by contemporary composers and performers" (Brainwashed, 08/04); "Fantastic" (The Wire, 09/04); "This compilation is a time capsule from early 20th century Europe, when the continent swarmed with -isms. Although they differed on the precise details, these manifesto-brandishing movements typically called for an utter overhaul of established ideas of art, arguing that Western Civilisation, enervated and sagging into decadence, needed an invigorating injection of barbarian iconoclasm to renew itself. The material from the Italian Futurists on this anthology includes a version of Risveglio di una Citta, a symphony of scrapes and whirs woven by Luigi Russolo, the movement's chief musical theoretician and coiner of the enduring buzz-concept "the art of noises." His brother Antonio's Chorale sounds like a conventional classical overture, except there's this roar of turbulence that intermittently rears up, as though's there's a gale raging outside the concert hall. Wyndham Lewis, British Futurist sympathizer and leader of his very own -ism, Vorticism, recites a poem that once probably seemed audaciously "free" with its run-on stanzas, but now positively creaks with starchy quaintness. The Dadaist material, however, retains a good portion of its originally scandalous shock of the new. On the noise-poem L'Amiral Cherche Une Maison A Louer, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco and Richard Huelsenbeck unleash a polyphonic babble of multilingual nonsense, punctuated with circus-clown irruptions of rude noise, enough to get your blood boiling with excitement almost a century later. Huelsenbeck also contributes a great reminiscence of the genesis of Dada, incongruously backed with a Indian raga drone. Kurt Schwitters' life-long work-in-process Die Sonate in Urlauten, captured for posterity in 1938, is a tour de force of phonetic poetry, peppering your ears with flurries of phonemes and scattering consonants like confetti around your head" (eMusic (Simon Reynolds), 2006); "All the time, there are things going on in artists' heads that are the same from generation to generation. I love this" (The Wire, 01/07); "Recommended" (Institute of Contemporary Arts, 2006); "Tzara is interviewed, Wyndham Lewis reads at reckless speed, then there's machinistic music from Russolo and Grandi, and Apollinaire shouting into a shoe. Enthralling! More of this right now" (Melody Maker, 12/88); "Sheds new light on two of the most important artistic movements of the 20th Century, whose influence today remains incalculable" (Le Drapeau Rouge, 02/89); "No mere anthology, this is a true testament" (Les Inrocktibles, 2-3/89)



MUSICA FUTURISTA: THE ART OF NOISES (LTMCD 2401) £10
Musica Futurista is a 73 minute collection of music and spoken word from the Italian Futurist movement 1909-1935, including original recordings by Marinetti and Russolo. As well as vintage free-verse readings by Futurist founder Marinetti, the collection includes recordings of the celebrated intonarumori (noise intoners) created by Luigi Russolo, including his landmark composition The Awakening of a City. As well as period recordings, the CD includes modern recordings of other key Futurist works by Balilla Pratella, Luigi Grandi, Silvio Mix, Aldo Giuntini, Franco Casavola and Alfredo Casella by leading contemporary interpreter Daniele Lombardi. To read CD sleevenotes click here. Dates in brackets in the following tracklist indicate the year in which the artist made the original recording. Full tracklist: F.T. Marineti Definizione di Futurismo (1924), Francesco Balilla Pratella War (La Guerra), F.T. Marinetti La Battaglia di Adrianopoli (1924), Luigi Russolo The Awakening of a City, Antonio Russolo Chorale + Serenata (both 1924), F.T. Marinetti and Aldo Giuntini Sintesi Musicali Futuristiche (1931), Aldo Giuntini The India Rubber Man, Luigi Grandi Aeroduello, Silvio Mix Profilo Sintetico, Franco Casavola Prigionieri Prelude + Dance of the Monkeys, Alfredo Casella Pupazetti, F.T. Marinetti parole in liberta (1920), Matty Malneck and Frank Signorelli Futurist Caprice (1920s), F.T. Marinetti Five Radio Sintesi. ISBN 0-9540549-7-0

Reviews: "Of the major early 20th Century artistic movements, Futurism is widely acknowledged as a major influence, and the first in which music and performance were major elements. Musica Futurista contains the first substantial recordings of Futurist music, digitally remastered and with two additional tracks. The booklet text by James Hayward is informative" (The Wire, 09/04); "The influence of these works can be seen across multiple genres, from modern composition to avant rock and electronica" (Brainwashed, 08/04); "A terrific collection" (All Music Guide); "A beautiful and serene re-examination of explosive thinkers and the bombs they loved. One of the most important records released this year" (Paris Transatlantic, 6/06)



FUTURLIEDER (LTMCD 2454) £10
Futurlieder comprises 28 original works by Franco Casavola written between 1922 and 1927, performed by Daniele Lombardi (piano) and Susanna Rigacci (soprano) and recorded between 1994 and 2004 for Radio Svizzera. This unique anthology of Futurist pages includes La Danza della Scimmie (Dance of the Monkeys) for the Teatro della Sorpresa, a tango for an 'Epileptic Cabaret', La canzone di Uriele (Uriele's Song, the text of which consists entirely of asemantic phonemes), Campari (one of the first published advertising jingles in history) and Fox-Trot Zoologico (Zoological Foxtrot), with its distinct cabaret flavour. Tankas, Quatrain and the several other lyrics written in the 1920s (to which Marinetti had listened with approval) offer a more refined timbre, and an alluring French flavour, which also connects with the aesthetic quality of the poetic texts by infamous man of action Gabriele d'Annunzio. The booklet contains rare images and detailed historical notes in English and Italian by Daniele Lombardi and James Hayward. To read English language liner notes click here. 28 tracks, 66 minutes of music. Full tracklist: Uriele's Song, Campari, Dance of the Monkeys, Zoological Fox-trot, Tango Viola da Cabaret Epilettico, Tankas (1-6), Preludio a Prigionieri, Quatrain, Liriche (1-3), La sera (1-3), Entro i boschi alto e soli, Allegro, Come sorge la luna, Muoio de sete, Gioielleria notturna (1-2), Fides, Leila, Notte.

Reviews: to follow!

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