John Cage
Diary: How To Improve The World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse) (8CD)
LabelWergoGenreExperimental
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2025 stock The acoustic publication of this "Diary" by and with John Cage represents an impressive document, spoken by an extraordinary voice, produced by one of the great artists of the 20th century. The new design of the 8-CD set includes a 64-page booklet in a presentation box (digi-box, carton). The booklet contains several photographs taken in John Cage's loft and during the recording in 1991.
“I began the Diary optimistically in 1965 to celebrate the work of R. Buckminster Fuller, his concern for human needs and world resources, his comprehensive scientific designs for making life on earth an unequivocal success, his insistence that problem solving be continuously regenerative ... This text is a mosaic of ideas, statements, words and stories. It is also a diary. For each day, I determined by chance operations how many parts of the mosaic I would write and how many words there would be in each. The number of words per day was to equal, or by the last statement written, to exceed one hundred words."
During the recording in the studio each change of typography in the printed text of the "Diary" corresponded to a change in the stereophonic position and a simultaneous change in the volume of John Cage’s voice. Each of these changes was determined by a random process brought about with the help of the old Chinese oracle book "I Ching".
Format
With this CD edition, WERGO are publishing John Cage's spoken Diary (for the second time) that has been left incomplete, because ten parts had originally been planned by the author and of which eight parts have appeared in his writings.
Recorded 22-24 June 1991 at Powerplay Recording Studios, Maur, Switzerland.
During the recording in the studio each change of typography in the printed text of the Diary corresponded to a change in the stereophonic position and a simultaneous change in the volume of John Cage's voice.
Release notes
With this CD edition, WERGO are publishing John Cage's spoken <I>Diary</I> (for the second time) that has been left incomplete, because ten parts had originally been planned by the author and of which eight parts have appeared in his writings. Recorded 22-24 June 1991 at Powerplay Recording Studios, Maur, Switzerland. During the recording in the studio each change of typography in the printed text of the <I>Diary</I> corresponded to a change in the stereophonic position and a simultaneous…
| 1.1 | 1/8 | 49:11 | |
| 2.1 | 2/8 | 46:03 | |
| 3.1 | 3/8 | 43:33 | |
| 4.1 | 4/8 | 39:55 | |
| 5.1 | 5/8 | 44:17 | |
| 6.1 | 6/8 | 36:54 | |
| 7.1 | 7/8 | 45:33 | |
| 8.1 | 8/8 | 38:16 |
- Etienne Bron
- Engineer
- Fanny Schöning
- Photography
- Peter Andersen
- Photography
- Klaus Schöning
- Producer
- John Cage
- Voice, Synthesizer, Guiro, Cowbell
