Aspirations of Madness, Blank Forms’ fifth collection of archival, unpublished, or newly translated texts, takes its title from a series of interviews with Japanese free jazz pioneer Masayuki Takayangi that were published in Japanese in 1975–76 and are published here in English for the first time. The interviews provide a rare look at Takayanagi’s eccentric practice and personality, both long under-recognized by audiences outside (and often, inside) of Japan. In this respect, the interviews speak to the goals of Blank Forms’ publication enterprise, that is, to expand upon our work in performance programming, record production, and archival preservation, and to foster new dialogues on vanguard art and music from the past 50-plus years.
The postwar Japanese history that Takayanagi describes also surfaces in this publication’s opening piece, a poetic tribute by the writer and artist Louise Landes Levi to one of Takayanagi’s contemporaries, the poet Kazuko Shiraishi. Aspirations of Madness includes a second Levi poem as well, “A Deep River,” written while at La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela’s Dream House in 2003, while Charles Curtis was rehearsing Just Charles and Cello in the Romantic Chord, a composition by Young that Blank Forms planned to present in Spring 2020. Complementing this tradition of Japanese free improvisation and poetry is the republication of a 1977 interview with Joseph Jarman, the great composer, poet, and multi-instrumentalist. The interview took place a few months after the publication of Jarman’s book Black Case Volume I & II: Return from Exile, a collection of writings from 1960 to 1977 that Blank Forms had the honor of publishing in a new edition in Fall 2019.
We also feature Charles Stein’s introduction to Being = Space x Action, a crucial supplement to another recent Blank Forms publication, Poësy Matters and Other Matters by Catherine Christer Hennix. In its specificity and rarity of focus, Stein’s text offers valuable information on a vibrant artistic network of the recent past, as well as an extended look at the evolution of Hennix’s complex practice. Further along, Aspirations of Madness features an excerpt from The Tree of Music, a cross-cultural treatise by the Russian musicologist Genrich “Henry” Orlov, the English translation of which has never been published before. The Tree of Music is a sweeping philosophical study of global music and cultures with universalist and spiritualist ambitions, excerpts of which are here selected and introduced by the composer and pianist Leo Svirsky. Aspirations of Madness closes with one of Maryanne Amacher’s final pieces of writing, “The Agreement,” from 2009. The text takes the form of a letter between Amacher and the Open Ended Group, with whom she had planned to collaborate on her final, unfinished project, Lagrange: A Four Part Mini Series.
Aspirations of Madness considers the work of Masayuki Takayanagi, the poet Louise Landes Levi, musician and writer Joseph Jarman, polymath Catherine Christer Hennix and her one-time student the poet Charles Stein, Russian musicologist Henry Orlov, and Maryanne Amacher—brilliant and overlooked artists whose work Blank Forms will continue to champion in a variety of contexts. Aspirations of Madness features additional contributions by Alan Cummings, Bill Dietz, Peter Kastakis, Art Lange, Leo Svirsky, Satoru Obara, and Tomoyuki Chida, and is edited by Lawrence Kumpf with Joe Bucciero.
The Shadow Ring (1992-2002) –
11xCD + DVD box set with book
The Shadow Ring
$200 USD
Cold Drinks, Hot Dreams –
Limited Edition Vinyl LP
Atrás del Cosmos
$25 USD
Turzets –
Limited Edition Vinyl LP
James Rushford
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Live on KFJC –
Limited Edition Cassette
The Shadow Ring
$15 USD
DINGGGDONGGGDINGGGzzzzzzz ferrrr SSSOFTTT DIVINI TIESSSSS!!!!!!!!! –
Limited Edition Vinyl LP
Charlemagne Palestine
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Turning in Space –
'Motorwave' Cassette
Áine O'Dwyer
$15 USD
Turning in Space –
'Playing Place' Cassette
Áine O'Dwyer
$15 USD
Turning in Space –
'Slipstream' Cassette
Áine O'Dwyer
$15 USD
Turning in Space –
Triple Cassette Box Set
Áine O'Dwyer
$35 USD
Turning in Space –
Triple Cassette Box Set (art edition)
Áine O'Dwyer
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Put the Music In Its Coffin –
Limited Edition Vinyl LP
The Shadow Ring
$25 USD
City Lights –
Limited Edition Vinyl LP
The Shadow Ring
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Solo for Tamburium –
Limited Edition Compact Disc
Catherine Christer Hennix
$20 USD
Solo for Tamburium –
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Catherine Christer Hennix
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Texas Music –
Limited Edition Vinyl LP
Jerry Hunt, Philip Krumm, Jerry Willingham
$20 USD
Music of Dary John Mizelle –
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Dary John Mizelle
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Music of BL Lacerta –
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BL Lacerta
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Hybrid Musics –
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Larry Austin
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Cartography –
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Gene De Lisa, Robert Michael Keefe, Rodney Waschka II
$20 USD
Works –
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James Fulkerson
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Cantegral Segment(s) –
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Jerry Hunt
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Neo Seven –
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7038634357
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Aphorisms –
Limited Edition 2xCD
Graham Lambkin
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Aphorisms –
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Graham Lambkin
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The Cat & Bells Club –
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The Cat & Bells Club
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Larynx –
2xLP
Lary 7
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May 99 –
Limited Edition Vinyl LP
Charles Curtis, Alan Licht, and Dean Roberts
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New Sense of Hearing –
Limited Edition CD
Takehisa Kosugi + Akio Suzuki
$15 USD
New Sense of Hearing –
Limited Edition Vinyl LP
Takehisa Kosugi + Akio Suzuki
$25 USD
Irida Records: Hybrid Musics from Texas and Beyond, 1979–1986 –
Limited Edition 7xLP + Book (Box Set)
Various Artists
$225 USD
Ground: Five Mechanic Convention Streams –
Limited Edition Double LP
Jerry Hunt
$30 USD
Kazuki Tomokawa 1975–1977 3xCD Box Set
$35 USD
Blank Forms Editions Brooklyn, New York
Blank Forms is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting emerging and underrepresented artists working in a range of time-based and interdisciplinary art practices, including experimental music, performance, dance, and sound art. Blank Forms provides artists with curatorial support, residencies, commissions, and publications to help document, disseminate, and advance their practices. ... more
