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Sounds from the Book of Bean

by Alison Knowles

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 61 Recital releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Whiplash, Interview with Charlie Morrow, Let the Darkness Fall, Homage to Annea Lockwood, Sending Up A Spiral Of, Spontaneous Musical Invention, As Above, So Below, Margrethe Fjorden, and 53 more. , and , .

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  • Limited Edition Vinyl LP
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Vinyl edition, limited to 300 copies.
    Cover and sleeve designed by Alison Knowles.
    Printed inner sleeve.
    20-page 11"x11" booklet of photos and texts from Alison Knowles, George Quasha, and Charlie Morrow.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Sounds from the Book of Bean via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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about

The first vinyl LP release from Fluxus pioneer Alison Knowles (b. 1933). Sounds from the Book of Bean is an assemblage of noises and texts related to The Book of Bean (1982), Knowles’ 8-foot tall walk-in book constructed at Franklin Furnace in New York. This recording, the sounds of making the big book, was continually played back inside of the installation. Echoes of Yoshi Wada hammering together the circular spine of the book, other collaborators mixing ink, feeding a horse, the flowing waters of the Hudson Valley... all superimposed with texts and poems read by Knowles and her daughter Jessica Higgins.

On the second side of the album, the piece Essential Divisions features Knowles performing with red, black, and white beans. Recorded in Annea Lockwood’s underground studio, Knowles sounds the beans in glass, ceramics, wood, as well as in her mouth. Further bean histories and sound poems are recited, concluding with “Popular Bean Soup” – an ancient recipe translated by George Brecht.

Knowles’ big books are, as she describes them, transvironments: a transformationally experienced environment. The phenomenological nature of her book is distilled aurally in the case of this record. As Knowles describes the end of her book, “the reader leaves via a ladder or out the window and through a muslin panel printed with contradictory wisdom concerning beans and dreaming… one can begin again either by going on or turning back.”

Originally published as a cassette in 1982 on the New Wilderness Audiographics label, this remastered edition has been transferred from original tapes. An expansive 20-page booklet is included, holding graphics and writings from Alison Knowles, George Quasha, and Charlie Morrow.

credits

released November 5, 2021

Recorded by Alison Knowles, 1980
Produced by Alison Knowles, Sean McCann, & Charlie Morrow
Design by Alison Knowles, cover image courtesy George Quasha
Jessica Higgins adds voice to tracks 1, 3, 4, 5
Originally published in 1982 on New Wilderness Audiographics

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Recital Glendale, California

Founded in 2012 by Sean McCann.
Focusing on abstract and beautiful music.
Sometimes just one of those things and sometimes both of those things.

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