condition (disc/book): M / EX+ 12"x7", 60-page fully illustrated spiral-bound book with CD. Sonopsys N° 4 on Licences presents Luc Ferrari in hybrid mode: the CD arrives bound to a book, neither element subordinate to the other. Ferrari distrusted the idea that music should stand alone, unsupported by language, context, image. The Sonopsys series embodied this conviction, each installment weaving sound and text into objects that resist easy classification.
The book isn't liner notes. It's not explanation or apology. It's extension, another voice in the conversation that the music initiates. Ferrari wrote as he composed: fragmentary, associative, resistant to the tyranny of linear argument. Reading while listening, or listening after reading, or reading without listening at all, each approach yields different results. The work multiplies rather than resolves.
Licences, the publisher, specialized in these crossover objects, understanding that some composers think beyond the album format. Ferrari found in them a collaborator willing to let the work dictate its own container. The result sits awkwardly on shelves, too big for the CD rack, too small for the bookcase. Exactly where Ferrari wanted it.
