THE PROSE TATTOO: SELECTED PERFORMANCE SCORES, by The Four Hosemen

Membrane Press, 1983, First edition, 52 pp., 8 1/2" X 11", Softcover

Very good

The Prose Tattoo consists of scores of sound poetry performances by The Four Horsemen, the pioneering Toronto-based group of Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Paul Dutton, Steve McCaffery and bpNichol. The effort to develop a scoring method adequate to the group's dynamic, visceral kind of sound show (discussed in the introduction by bpNichol) gives rise here to a compelling visual experience. Each piece being more or less 'readable' for different reasons, much of the fascination of these records comes from trying to imagine how everything you're seeing could be turned into a something you're hearing. Dull, definitive, authoritarian and wise. Let us say quite simply that sound is that which we do not see.