Sound Collage
Located in 2 routes
Sound Collage assembles fragments of speech, music, noise, field recordings, tape, radio, instruments, and found media into a discontinuous but intentional audio montage. Its sound can be psychedelic, documentary, comic, surreal, political, or dreamlike, with hard cuts, overlays, sudden juxtapositions, and multiple realities sharing the same tape space. It is the sonic equivalent of photomontage: meaning appears between fragments.
History
Sound Collage grows from musique concrète, Dada, radio drama, film montage, experimental literature, and tape editing, then moves into rock, avant-garde composition, industrial music, and sample-based art. John Cage’s "Williams Mix," The Beatles’ "Revolution 9," Frank Zappa’s studio montages, The Residents’ surreal edits, Negativland’s media critique, Nurse With Wound’s industrial-surrealist collage, The Books’ folk-electronic found speech, and People Like Us’s archival recombinations all represent different lanes. The style influenced sampling, plunderphonics, psychedelic studio production, experimental radio, comedy cut-ups, hauntology, and internet montage.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- UbuWeb
- AllMusic
- tape-collage histories
- Discogs