So you know how I posted that Dada video roundup inspired by Marie Osmond’s rendition of Hugo Ball’s Karawane?

Well, the professor I’m TAing for just sent me the ACTUAL VIDEO AND IT IS AMAZING. Not only does it include the whole of Karawane, but it also includes a basic introduction to Dada and sound poetry. I’m giving a guest lecture next week for MIT’s Digital Poetry class on sound poetry and musique concrète, and this is so going to be my introduction.

(oh yeah, and while I was procrastinating on my thesis presentation the other day, I grabbed a little bit of the video to make this inane thing.)

update: tumblr is misbehaving and making the video small, sorry about that! (Also, just learned something I obviously should have known: “I Zimbra” by the Talking Heads uses Ball’s “Gadji Beri Bimba” for lyrics. Excellent.)

A lovely video of sound poet Jaap Blonk and friend drawing pictures with their voices. (There are a couple more videos worth watching at the via link below.)

(via diapsalmata)

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Karawane, on Dada et la Musique

This is the version of Hugo Ball’s sound poem I was familiar with before my little internet video foray in the last post. I’m sure part of it is that it was the first version I heard, but I find this recording far more compelling than any other version (including the recording of Ball himself!). It might be the accent, or how she delivers the nonsense words as if they were real words, without the self-conscious, drawn-out “ooohssaaaaaaaakaaaaa” stuff of the other versions.

Marie Osmond performs part of Hugo Ball’s sound poem Karawane. I remember finding this on Hugo Ball’s page at UbuWeb back when I was doing more work on Dada. It is amazing.

It is also interesting how “wrong” Marie sounds when you are only familiar with the one recording. I recommend listening to the Hugo Ball version on the UbuWeb page before looking below, if only because it puts the tedium and discomfort of some of them in context.

(via immanent discursivity, recently on fire with good videos)

and because I felt like finding more examples of Karawane videos:

guy in fake hugo ball-style crab/chef/card-suit:

Ensemble performance:

someone animated the score that’s available at UbuWeb:

The Dada Crew, bringing you a sung version of sound poetry:

I think this is probably the Vimeo equivalent of YouTube bedroom pop song singing:

and I have no idea why this turns into some sort of anti-imperialist techno song, but maybe that is the point: