Deluxe box, housed in a cardboard box containing the tape, 3 photographs and 2 inserts. Counter Culture Chronicles presents a rare reissue of the legendary S Press Tonband tape: Raoul Hausmann – Raoul Hausmann Spricht, a 24-minute sonic document of one of Berlin Dada's most radical voices. This meticulously crafted box set contains the complete recording alongside precious ephemera documenting the historic collaboration between Raoul Hausmann and sound poetry pioneer Henri Chopin.
Recorded in Limoges on May 25-26, 1966, this extraordinary session captures Hausmann, the self-proclaimed "Dadasoph" and co-founder of Club Dada, performing his revolutionary sound poetry. Known for inventing photomontage with Hannah Höch and creating the first sound poems of the Dada movement, Hausmann was already a legendary figure of the avant-garde when he met Chopin in the 1960s.
The recording features Hausmann's groundbreaking work "R.L.Q.S.," first documented in his correspondence with Kurt Schwitters about the experimental magazine "PIN" and published in PIN and the story of PIN by Gaberbocchus Press in 1962. This represents the intersection of two generations of experimental artists: Hausmann, the original Berlin Dadaist who had invented optophonetic poetry in the 1920s, and Chopin, the French concrete poet who revolutionized sound poetry through tape manipulation. Henri Chopin, founder of the influential OU magazine and S Press Tonband Verlag, was instrumental in preserving and disseminating the work of international sound poets. His meeting with Hausmann represented a crucial bridge between the historical avant-garde and the postwar experimental movements. Chopin's primitive recording techniques—deliberately crude manipulations and basic equipment—created the perfect aesthetic framework for Hausmann's vocal explorations. This deluxe box edition, housed in cardboard, contains the original tape, three photographs documenting the historic sessions, and two inserts providing crucial context for this landmark recording. Originally released by S Press Tonbandverlag in 1970, this document represents the final flowering of Hausmann's six-decade career as one of Europe's most uncompromising experimental artists.
Hausmann's sound poetry, with its focus on pure vocal expression beyond conventional language, predicted the body-centered performance art of later decades. His "optophonetic" concept—the translation between sound and image—anticipated multimedia art by half a century. This recording captures the raw power of a voice that had been challenging artistic and political conventions since before World War I.
Raoul Hausmann – Raoul Hausmann Spricht stands as essential documentation of the meeting between Dada's founding generation and the international concrete poetry movement of the 1960s.
