1. Rouge (1956) originally released in 1980 by Hundertmark
2. Vibrespace (1963) - originally released in 1964 on OU #20/21
3. Double Extension (1970) - originally released in 1980 by Hundertmark
4. Hoppa Bock (1970) - originally released in 1980 by Hundertmark
5. Jouissance des lévres (1983) - originally released in 1983 by Artalect Editions
6. 9 saintes-phonies (1984/1987)
7. Voyage in California, with Larry Wendt (1983) - originally released in 1983 by Artalect Editions
Henri Chopin è stato uno dei pionieri della “poesia sonora”. Nella seconda metà degli anni Cinquanta utilizza i primi magnetofoni a nastro commerciali per effettuare registrazioni sperimentali in cui deforma la voce con variatori di velocità, echi e riverberi. La voce del poeta, così manipolata, è alla base di composizioni che egli chiamerà “audio-poèmes”.
A partire dagli anni Sessanta realizza “poesie sonore” applicando la tecnica della registrazione multipista.
Nel 1958 fonda a Parigi la rivista “Cinquième Saison”, che nel 1964 diventa “OU-Cinquième Saison”. La testata accoglie in ciascun numero un LP di “poesia sonora”. I dischi pubblicano le opere dei importanti poeti dediti a questo tipo di sperimentazione sonora; tra questi l’artista e poeta dadaista Raoul Hausmann, William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, François Dufrêne, Gil J. Wolman, Bernard Heidsieck.
Si occupa anche di “poesia concreta”, di grafica e di arti visive. I suoi “dactylopoèmes” sono accolti con molto interesse nell’ambito del “concretismo” internazionale. Alcune sue opere figurano nel volume “An antology of Concrete Poetry”, a cura di Emmett Williams (Something Else Press, New York, 1967).
Henri Chopin, les 9 saintes-phonies: a retrospective
(Amsterdam: Staalplaat STCD 070/Korm Plastics KP 4694, 1994).
Compliation curated by John Hudak, and contains an interview of Chopin done by Hudak in 1990, as well as essays about Chopin by Hugh Davies, Sten Hanson, Larry Wendt, and Nicholas Zurbrugg. There is Internet availability for this CD.
Beginning in the late fifties, Henri Chopin created on the tape recorder, multilayered works for ‘vocal micro-particles’ and ‘buccal instances’ which he called poésie sonore. One of the originals, Chopin has also been a primary supporter of sound poetry in the world since that time. He published the first review in France devoted to audiopoems as an art with his Cinquième Saison (nineteen issues from 1958 to 1961), and he did the first international review on sound poetry with his Review OU (thirteen issues between 1964 to 1972). OU was a unique assemblage of concrete poetry, manifestoes, objects of art, and records (eleven in all) containing the works of many of the major practitioners of electro-acoustic poetry of that period. He is also responsible in 1990 of getting poésie sonore in the Encyclopaedia universalis, the great French literary atlas.
While experimenting with visual poetry and other more traditional avant-garde forms, Chopin discovered the unique potentials of the tape recorder. With such a device, he reasoned, the poem no longer needed to be entombed within the confines of the page. He was not so much seeking the ‘word made flesh’ like some poets, but rather he was looking for the ‘flesh which is sound’: the poetic utterance stripped down to its bare essentials like the indigestible ‘stone’ from a piece of fruit. A rendered articulation which exists starkly, ready to blossom into a wild and tangled celebration of its own existence as an act of shear human power.
Contributo di
Eva Brioschi