Nicolas Schöffer, Pierre Henry

Original 1963 copies of this legendary reference monograph, with the musical piece Spatiodynamisme by Pierre Henry on a 45RPM vinyl record. English edition. Based on 1954 recordings of a Nicolas Schöffer‘s sculpture, this music was elaborated in Pierre Henry‘s first private studio APSOM, active around 1954-58, while Henry was still a member of Pierre Schaeffer’s Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète. The music was intended as the soundtrack to the first Tour Spatiodynamique Cybernétique et Sonore, a cybernetic sculpture erected by Nicolas Schöffer in Saint Cloud, France during the 1955 ‘Salon du Bâtiment et des Travaux Publics’ fair, with technical help from a Philips Company engineer, Pierre Bureau. Metallic parts, mirrors, lighting and sounds emanating from the 50 meters high building interacted with the environment and visitors.

Using his usual technique at the time, Henry recorded various grating and scraping sounds from the metallic scultpure and reconfigured it to create the musique concrète of Spatiodynamisme. The A-side comes without much sound treatment except montage and collage, though some of Pierre Henry’s trademark sound effects are gradually added near the end of side 1, like backward running tape around 8:00 and quick reverb. Henry’s reference at the time was Luigi Russolo‘s L’arte dei Rumori, i.e. to make music with Modern Life’s sounds, especially the machines, however unpleasant to the ears. Technically speaking a ‘dub’, the B-side has more sound treatment and added bass sounds – a delight if your stereo system has the appropriate grunt in this department.