BLANK FORMS 02: MUSIC FROM THE WORLD OF TOMORROW

Blank Forms, 2018, First edition of 750 copies, 333 pp., 6" X 8", Softcover

Fine

Music from the World Tomorrow, the second issue of Blank Forms' journal, brings together a combination of never-before published, lost, and newly translated materials. Featuring Marshall Allen and the Sun Ra Arkestra on the cover, this issue also includes John Corbett's writing on the enigmatic annotations found on Sun Ra's reel-to-reel tape archives. Visionary avant-garde jazz vocalist Patty Waters speaks with Larry J. Nai about the art and experiences that moved her from childhood to the then-now, touching upon her mysterious '70s and '80s period of musical inactivity, in a rare 1997 Halana interview reprinted here. "I struggle," a prose poem by Matana Roberts, explores the creative conundrum of making American music in a state of national crisis under POTUS #45. Maryanne Amacher remains a focal point of this second issue, with three pieces here: scholar Amy Cimini contributes a text detailing the genesis, score, and theoretical underpinnings of Amacher's Adjacencies; Joan Brigham presents Scott Fisher's account of his career working with virtual reality and 3D stereoscopic imaging; and an excerpt from science-fiction writer Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men is reproduced, a favorite of Amacher's. Tony Conrad is represented twice: Filmmaker Andrew Lampert introduces a selection of Conrad's OLD IDEAS in full color – handwritten notes from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s; and a new transcription of a 1989 phone interview by Alan Licht. Conversely, in her rediscovered 2001 interview with Marcus Boon, Swedish minimalist Catherine Christer Hennix praises La Monte's revival of just intonation. This issue also features a transcription of a 2017 Annea Lockwood talk and conversation with crys cole, discussing Lockwood's Tiger Balm (1970) and Ear-Walking Man/Woman (1996). Bassoonist Dafne Vicente-Sandoval contributes a text that sheds light on the performance of Jakob Ullmann's threshold compositions Muntzers stern (2015) and Solo II (1992), forthcoming on Editions RZ (RZ 1038-39CD). And Klaus Lang provides both an aphorism about cow behavior and a manifesto for compositional strategies. Krautrock group Anima's 1981 US tour diary has been newly translated from German for inclusion here. A chapter from David Hopkins's recent translation of legendary Japanese folk singer Kan Mikami's autobiography is featured. Composer Tashi Wada contributes a print titled Double Vision. And Japanese sound art pioneer Akio Suzuki's self-published 2008 Aki-nyan, tora no maki gets a full reprint.