John Oswald wrote an article entitled “Alto Sax Playing” for the inaugural issue of Musicworks in January of 1978, and he continues to perform on the sax, applying the philosophy of “play” outlined on that article. For a few years he was the editor of Musicworks, and then, with then-editor Tina Pearson, he created cassettes to accompany each issue: this paper and ink publication became 'a magazine with sound.’ It was the first to issue a regular recording. (Oswald remains an editorial advisor for Musicworks.)
At some point, probably in the mid-seventies, Oswald established the Mystery Tapes Laboratory, preparing and distributing music/sound collages, first on reel-to-reel, then on cassette. By 1969 he had begun his
Plunderphonics project which involved creating new pieces using fragments of pre-existing music, through studio manipulation, including 'sampling' and subsequent reconstruction. The result is a dialogue between the original music source and the Plunderphonic. In 1988 he released a freely distributed vinyl EP of plunderphonics, and in 1989 he released the first Plunderphonic CD, which was also free, but within a couple of months all remaining copies were destroyed after a legal conflict over copyright to the use of the music and image of Michael Jackson and others.
Oswald’s article entitled “Recipes for Plunderphonics” was featured in issue 47 of Musicworks, and in 1994 Chris Cutler wrote a feature article on the history of the use of found objects and found sounds in art, establishing that the history extends back to the early twentieth century. (Plunderphonia & VOX. Musicworks 60)
Further articles by and about John Oswald:
The Threshold of Instantaneous Motion Sense. 29
Plunderphonics, or audio piracy as a compositional prerogative. 34
Mystery Tape Laboratory Annual Report (with Geo. Ray Brain). 40
Recipes for Plunderphonics. 47
Taking Sampling 50 Times Beyond the Accepted. 48
For more on John Oswald, visit:
www.pfony.com
www.electrocd.com/bio.e/oswald_jo.html
www.mmfa.qc.ca/en/expositions/exposition_106.html
www.plunderphonics.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plunderphonics
individual.utoronto.ca/relliott/oswald.html
