Bruce Nauman - Soundtrack From First Violin Film LP

Label: Blume

Blume present a reissue of Bruce Nauman's Soundtrack From First Violin Film, originally released in 1969. Since the mid-1960s, Nauman has laid the groundwork – in thought, context, practice, and materiality – for nearly every fine-artist that has followed in his wake. Even those who do not directly draw on the ground he gained, must contended with a world in his image. Initially issued by Tanglewood Press in 1969 – a component of the art multiples edition 7 Objects/69 (also including David Bradshaw, Eva Hesse, Stephen Kaltenbach, Alan Saret, Richard Serra, and Keith Sonnier) – Soundtrack From First Violin Film is a crucial element in Nauman's diverse the canon of contributions; It bridges the emerging practices of performance, video, and sound. Blume's release – along with the Die Schachtel's 2016 reissue – marks the first time this seminal work has been available to a broader audience, making it a historic event. Soundtrack From First Violin Film, while resembling music, is one of the earliest gestures of sound art as it has come to be understood. It falls within Nauman's larger body of solitary actions and performances. In 1968, the artist moved briefly to New York, occupying Jasper Johns's then vacant studio in the Hamptons, beginning to build the body of work for his first solo show at Leo Castelli Gallery, documenting them in what became the very first works of video art. Within the larger body of effort, emerged a series of works featuring him playing the violin. It is from this world, that the LP Soundtrack From First Violin Film, with its disembodied sounds, grew. Nauman's violin works, as they exist in the world, are only distant cousins of performance and compositions. They are objects, doubling the signifiers of music and the body back upon themselves. Rather seeking entirely new and liberated sonic realms, they employ conceptual practice, instrument, and rhythm to strike direct confrontation. They could be understood as a conceptual inversion of recordings by John Cage or of musique concrète. Rather than seeking to utilize non-instrumental sources to create music, Nauman used instrumental sounds and references to make something which is not music at all, highlighting the dimensional possibilities of meaning, and the elasticity of language. Comes in full-color cover with printed inner sleeve housing a Nagaoka anti-static record sleeve; Includes an original insert that functions as Obi; Yellow-colored vinyl; Edition of 300.