This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Fluxus in 1961, and San Francisco’s Other Minds has organized three evenings of Fluxus-related events here in the city. Something Else: A Fluxus Semicentenary takes place on September 15-17, with a program of films, a radio special (not this one), and a performance event. So this week’s Mindtrain brings you four hours of music and sound art by some of the artists and composers involved with Fluxus.

Surely the most famous Fluxus artist is Yoko Ono, and examples of her work from her first two solo records are included here. And then there’s La Monte Young, the godfather of minimalism and the most famous composer you’ve never heard (recordings of his music are notoriously few and scarce). The only recording of any of his Fluxus-era pieces I could find was a bootleg including Poem For Tables, Chairs, Benches, Etc, so that 15-minute excerpt is included here, along with several other relatively early works ranging from the late 1950s (pre-Fluxus) to 1969 – including a rare archival recording of the legendary Dream Syndicate from 1964 featuring La Monte Young on sopranino saxophone along with John Cale and Tony Conrad on amplified violin and viola, Marian Zazeela on vocals and the hand drumming of Angus MacLise.

The third hour of the program was devoted to one hour-long work by Yoshi Wada entitled The Appointed Cloud, recorded in 1987. It’s a monolithic work of great majesty, and my favorite among the several archival recordings that have been released of Yoshi Wada over the past several years. The rest of the program was rounded out with compositions by Nam June Paik performed by Charlotte Moorman and himself, and other pieces by Jackson Mac Low and others, including Alison Knowles (who performs along with Yoshi Wada and others at the Other Minds concert on Saturday, September 17).

Listen To The Podcast

The playlist gives artist name, song title, and album title (in that order). A space between lines of text indicates the break between sets where track announcements were made.

Playlist for Mindtrain 07 – 13 September 2011

• La Monte Young / Peter Winkler – 42 For Henry Flynt – (Free download from Other Minds at http://www.archive.org/details/42forHenryFlynt)

• La Monte Young – Excerpt From Drift Study “31 I 69 c. 12:17:33-12:49:58 PM NYC” – Ohm: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music, 1948-1980 (Compilation)
• Yoko Ono – Telephone Piece – Fly
• Yoko Ono – Greenfield Morning I Pushed An Empty Baby Carriage All Over The City – Plastic Ono Band
• Yoko Ono – You – Fly
• Juan Hidalgo – Tamaran – Fluxus Anthology (Compilation)
• Philip Corner – Car Passing At Night, Country Road In Maine – Fluxus Anthology (Compilation)
• Alison Knowles – Natural Assemblage / Le Vrai Corbeau – Fluxus Anthology (Compilation)
• Wolf Vostell – Elektronischer De-Coll/age / Happening Raum – Fluxus Anthology (Compilation)
• Nam June Paik – Etude For Pianoforte / Simple – Works: 1958-1979
• Yoko Ono – Toilet Piece / Unknown – Fly
• Nam June Paik – My Jubilee Ist Unverhemmet – Fluxus Anthology (Compilation)

• Nam June Paik / Charlotte Moorman – Sonata No. 1 For Adults Only – Cello Anthology
• Jackson Mac Low / Charlotte Moorman – The Long Hot Summer – Cello Anthology
• Nam June Paik / Charlotte Moorman – Waiting For Commercials – Cello Anthology
• La Monte Young – Poem For Chairs, Tables, Benches, Etc. (Excerpt) – Der Zweck Dieser Serie Ist Nicht Unterhaltung (1957-1973), Vol. 1 (Bootleg)
• Yoko Ono – Mind Holes – Fly
• La Monte Young / John Schneider – Sarabande – Just West Coast: Microtonal Music For Guitar And Harp

• Yoshi Wada – The Appointed Cloud – The Appointed Cloud

• La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela – 31 VII 69 10:26-10:49 PM (From “Map Of 49’s Dream The Two Systems Of Eleven Sets Of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery”) – The Black Record
• La Monte Young / The Theatre Of Eternal Music – 2 IV 1964: Day Of The Holy Mountain (Alternate Take 1) – The Dream Syndicate (Bootleg)

• La Monte Young – Soundtone Installation 27/72 (Excerpt) – Der Zweck Dieser Serie Ist Nicht Unterhaltung (1957-1973), Vol. 2 (Bootleg)