LIMITLESS LISTENING

[ INTI MEZA ]

[ ]

AN INTERVIEW

3 AMM was a group founded in London in 1965 with initial members Keith Rowe on guitar, on saxophone, and Eddie Prévost on drums with a common interest in a non–conventional approach to . See more references to AMM in Inti Meza’s essay, page 56. 4 Philip Ball. The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can’t Do Without .It Oxford University Press, New York, 2010.

5 Treatise by , is a graphic score which has no indication or notation to determine either tempo or instrumental arrangement. In it, we observe the progression of points, geometric figures and continuous lines throughout 193 pages, giving form to a book that was the pinnacle of the first stage of Cardew’s career as a composer. The edition opens with an introduction in which Cardew explores the necessity to construct a possible ethic of improvisation. Taking conceptual elements from Confucius as well as his readings of the poetry of T.S. Eliot “You are the music” and the philosophy of Wittgenstein, he established a curious synthesis, incorporating the aesthetic configuration of chance [from the New York school] and the individual as a fundamental part of the production of the musical moment.

OBVIOUSNESS, A BLINK

[ INTI MEZA VILLARINO ]

KEITH ROWE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Keith Rowe, born 1940 in , England, and based in France since the early We would like to thank the writers and contributors for their dedication to this 90's, is an English tabletop guitarist and painter. Trained as project as well as the British Council for enabling us to invite Keith Rowe to a visual artist, Rowe’s own paintings have been featured on most of his albums participate in elnicho festival. This project was made possible thanks to the and he has adopted the agenda from the visual arts and applied it directly to support of Fundación Jumex de Arte Contemporáneo and Patronato de Arte the electric guitar, developing various prepared guitar techniques: placing it flat Contemporáneo A.C. on a table and manipulating the strings, body and pickups in unorthodox ways. Rowe sometimes incorporates live radio grabs into his performances, including shortwave and number stations.

INTI MEZA VILLARINO

Inti Meza Villarino is a Mexican writer based in Mexico City. His area of interest spans artistic practice and political reflection. He has participated in diverse editorial projects: Translator of Lester Bangs, Punk Rock, 666 Libros, 2012. Author in the collective volumeDe gente común, Prácticas estéticas y rebeldía social, edited by Lorena Méndez, Brian Whitener and Fernando Fuentes for Fundación JUMEX | UACM, 2013. Editorial coordinator of the catalogue Sonorama, Museo Universitario del Chopo | UNAM CONACULTA 2015. LIBRETA ELNICHO

How to approach the accessibility of new music to new audiences? How to entice people to get closer and discover without preconceptions or reluctance—but rather as a new form of participation and natural listening experience, what is often perceived as difficult music? What is the relationship of this music, if any, with contemporary arts in a way that it may grasp the attention and active involvement of the spectator and/or listener?

“Limitless listening" stems from Keith Rowe’s comment, during a panel at elnicho festival in 2015, where he stated that, in the late 1960's, when he and other improvisers would promote “an evening of ," no one would show up. Making this music accessible to a new public is a difficult task but we consider it a fundamental goal that can be achieved by broadening the spectrum of execution and making it appealing to an increasing passionate audience and critics.

While music professionals must reach out and pull people in, it is also our calling as listeners to brave boundaries of prejudice or fear. We hope that this series of Libretas will open new sound territories to a broader audience.

// Eric Namour, elnicho

elnicho is a small independent organization based in Mexico City dedicated to promote the appreciation of new and experimental music with concerts, presentations, talks, workshops and a festival. Through random micro sessions and editorial projects, elnicho aims to put innovative music on the foreground, combining and reconciling different approaches and contexts to broaden the spectrum of contemporary culture through sound and music. elnicho.org This publication is a collaboration with elnicho, as part of a series of booklets dedicated to sound and music within the broad context of contemporary culture. Libretas is a project of Buró-Buró that aims to share conversations and encounters that contribute meaningful ideas and reflections on contemporary culture.

Buró—Buró is an interdisciplinary office and publishing house that adresses contemporary topics through culture, art and education.

Editors: Eric Namour | Jorge Munguía Contributing Editor: Bradford Bailey Translation English–Spanish: Papús von Saenger Translation Spanish–English: Lacey Pipkin Editorial Design: Ingrid Carraro | Stephanie Wullschleger Editorial Coordination: Finella Halligan | Andrea Ancira

First edition, 2017 © Buró–Buró © el nicho experimental, S.A. de C.V. © Bradford Bailey, Inti Meza Villarino and Keith Rowe of their texts.

ISBN: 978-607-96255-6-6 ISBN (digital version): 978-607-96255-7-3

Buró-Buró Oficina de proyectos culturales, S.C. Jalapa 27, Roma Norte Mexico City 06700 buroburo.org

Printed in Mexico