Notes on early 20th Century Russian Futurists and Sound Art:

-The idea of noise orchestras, which the Italian Futurists were first to propagate found fertile soil in Soviet Russia.

Arseny Avraamov’s ‘Symphony of Sirens’ is an epic attempt at noise orchestra and can be considered in my eyes early Industrial music. The aim of the piece was to ‘musicalise’ the cityscape; All of the acoustic possibilities of the city were harnessed–the whistles of factories, docks, and depots, the fog horns and whoops of ships and of trains, church bells…machine guns and artillery fire.

I especially love the idea of Avraamov literally conducting all of these concrete sources from a tall building with large signal flags.

In relation to my essay, there is one segment of the document that talks about Russian Avant-Garde’s attempt at stripping artist practice to a primitive, irreducible pattern. ‘On which the past was built and the future may be constructed’. I find this idea of stripping away can be considered when we look at the primal force that propels people into dancing. Communal, participatory dancing in relation to the loft parties was a way for strangers to express how they felt, away from the conservative eye of the everyday man. Dancing as an exercise itself is good for the body and mind so this directly relates to the ‘future may be constructed’. Releasing tension and stress from the body is fundamental in going forward, music and dance can be a pivotal element in achieving this.

Note: Potentially mention this in latter stage of essay. Might not be relevant but see when done.