Paris is one of the homes of Dada, so today we continue our tour in through France, with two pieces from Paris.

We begin with Guillaume Loizillon’s Paris Dadaphone, a composed collage piece made up of field recordings from Parisian streets named after key figures of Dadaism.

“This composition is a wandering in Paris in January 2016. We cross streets or places, which remind us in memory some personalities of Dada. The Marcel Duchamp, Tristan Tzara, Jean Arp streets, the Hausmann boulevard (which is not the one of Raoul !) and the quay Voltaire, far from the Zurich cabaret.

“In this Parisian landscape build with names of some of its places, we meet Duchamp, Man Ray, Tzara, Max Ernst, and Raoul Hausmann who still reside in the city with their voices. Some foreign sounds were also clandestinely
invited in the soundscape.

“Among it, a few bars of Tchaikovski: the public garden of which goes along the Tristan Tzara street.

“The piece is thought as a phonomontage, tribute to the photomontages of Hanna Höch. The general shape is built by drawing lots of the various Parisian recordings. The audio documents of the Dada personalities were then inserted along the piece as well as the foreign sounds into the rumours of Paris, in echo to Duchamp and Man Ray evoking the diversion of the objects.

Sonic elements:
– Parisian field recordings made in Paris (January 2016) : Guillaume Loizillon
– Various field recordings (River, insects in Athens, storm), electronic sounds : Guillaume Loizillon
– Extract of “Casse noisette” : Tchaikovski
– Audio documents, extracts from: Marcel Duchamp: BBC interview, 1968; Marcel Duchamp: “A propos des ready made” interview with Ph. Colin, Paris 1967; Raoul Hausmann: “Dada For Now”, 1959; Man Ray: Interview (no date); Max Ernst: Interview, 1960; Tristan Tzara: “Dada into surrealism”, 1959″.”

City version one:

City version two:

Memory version:

Our second Parisian piece takes Jase Warner’s field recording from Pasage du Grand Cerf in the city, and Daniel Raymond transformed it into something new.

“In his publication of the Dada Manifesto from 1918, Tristan Tzara wrote that, ‘Advertising and business are also elements of poetry.’ Tzara’s words form the basis of my experimentation within this project. I have applied Dada techniques usually associated with image-making to create an aural and sonic presentation that examines the ambiguous nature of modern, urban environments and the dramatic effect of mass-marketing.

“Exploring the possibilities of collage I have appropriated advertising slogans and catchphrases to create a form of hybrid poetry that alludes to the uncertainties of modern living. Authoritative in tone, these reimaginings ask questions but provide no clear answers.

“This form of psychogeographical play enables me as an individual to negotiate through my urban surroundings and make sense in an increasingly uncertain world.

I have also utilized collage techniques in my handling of the Paris soundscape provided by Cities and Memory. Rather than working with my own original field recording,

“I again felt it important to adopt the traditons of Dada artists such as, Hausmann and Höch applying their two dimensional working methods to a piece of sound material. The appropriation of sound elements in the work enabled me to recontextualise, to play with chance and create new meaning, to challenge the assumed and offer a varying worldview.

“I cut and sliced soundbites to create a monotonous rhythm, an anthem for the harsh realities of the urban everyday.

“My intention in the work was to capture the rhythms and confusions of a contemporary urban setting, to explore a specific point of view and offer up a personal and poetic response to this evergrowing ambiguity.”

City version:

Memory version: