Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine

Tellus cassette tapes from the Christian Marclay cover art for TellusTools

Launched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music,^[1] documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time – the first 2 issues being devoted to NY artists from the downtown no wave scene.^[2] The series was financially supported along the years by funding from the New York State Council of the Arts, Colab and the National Endowment for the Arts.^[3]

The Tellus Project

Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine logo

Tellus publishers (digital artist and noise music composer Joseph Nechvatal, curator, former director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia and current director of The Jewish Museum (New York) Claudia Gould and new music composer Carol Parkinson, director of Harvestworks from 1987 on) never considered running an underground culture audio publication, rather envisaging the compact cassette medium as a no wave fluxus art form in itself. This was quite a unique point of view at a time (the early 1980s), when many self-released cassettes blossomed through mail order and trade between audio artists, mail art folks and hardcore punk bands who were promoting a mostly minimalism punk inspired DIY technique of more-or-less anti-art nihilism.^[4] But Nechvatal and Parkinson had met in the mid-1970s dancing as a performance art / minimal art dance trio (with Cid Collins) influenced by the post Merce Cunningham postmodern dance/choreography of Lucinda Childs, Deborah Hay, Yvonne Rainer and Carolee Schneemann (with whom they toured Europe in 1978). And they continued to see each other in the art music milieu of the rigorous downtown minimal music scene as they worked for the Dia Art Foundation as assistants to La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela and Pandit Pran Nath.^[1] So by contrast to a lax attitude, the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine never indulged in rank amateurism. Their audio releases were always tightly focused, well researched and aptly curated.

Curatorial policy

Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine was in activity for the ten years of 1983-1993, thus witnessing and participating in the digital revolution taking place in new media arts. Some points of comparison can be established with the Toronto-based MusicWorks Journal cassette series (launched in 1978) and with the ROIR cassette-only releases of various musical styles (from Flipper to Lee Perry to Einstürzende Neubauten) launched in 1981.

Tellus published audio art, new music, poetry and drama, exploring musical spheres as diverse as avant-garde composition, post-industrial music, NY no wave, Fluxus sounds, noise music, heirs to Harry Partch, avant rock, sound poetry, radio plays, tango, electroacoustic music, sound collage etc.

The series included some landmark sound works now regarded as historical: Louise Lawler's "Birdcalls" (Tellus #5-6), Christian Marclay's "Groove" (Tellus #8), Lee Ranaldo's "The Bridge" (Tellus #10) and Alison Knowles's "Nivea Cream Piece" (Tellus #24); among others.

Tellus championed the audio work of women and gay artists,^[1] something that was very much needed at the time in the machismo-tinged experimental music scene. Their curatorial policy was efficient, as well, as the editorial trio sometimes asked outside specialists to compile a program in their own field. This policy ensured state-of-the-art programming.

Distribution and production

From the start, the founding members deliberately aimed at raising the profile of cassette culture releases, sending Tellus issues by mail to US public libraries, university galleries and various art museums. In addition the Tellus team helped launch the Harvestworks Artist-In-Residence Program which was set up to help promote independent artists’ projects and provide them with a professional sound recording facility: namely Studio PASS.

Legacy and appreciation

• Ego Masher (1983) 07:05 by Joseph Nechvatal - from Tellus #1 - has been anthologized on the CD Anthology Of Noise & Electronic Music #6.
• Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine has been mentioned as an inspiration to the opening of the Sound Art Museum in Rome (2007).
• An exhibition was held at Printed Matter in New York City devoted to current American cassette culture entitled "Leaderless: Underground Cassette Culture Now" (May 12–26, 2007) that referred to the influence of Tellus.
• In 2011, selections from early Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine recordings were included in MoMA's exhibition Looking at Music 3.0.
• In February 2011, issues of Artforum (with images of covers) and Artnews covered Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine.

The Tellus Archives

In November–December 2007 the blogger of reassessed aural delicacies Continuo, digital artist Stephen McLaughlin, and avantgarde resource Ubuweb decided to create an exhaustive online archive for the Tellus audio recordings—now as free mp3 files—thus launching a renewed interest in the Tellus series.

Tellus cassettography

Cover art gallery

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  Tellus #01

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  Tellus #02

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  Tellus #03

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  Tellus #04

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  Tellus #05-06

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  Tellus #08

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  Tellus #13

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  TellusTools 2xLP

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  TellusTools ad

Footnotes

References

• Rockwell, John (27 July 1986). "Where Avant-Garde Meets Rock-and-Roll, Music Flourishes". The New York Times. 
• Allen, Gwen (2011). Artists' Magazines: An Alternative Space for Art. The MIT Press. p. 304. ISBN 9780262015196. 
• Baily, Thomas Bey William (2012). Unofficial Release: Self-Released And Handmade Audio In Post-Industrial Society. Belsona Books Ltd. pp. 88–89. ISBN 9780615611273. 
• Palmer, Robert (17 June 1986). "The Names May Change, But the Beat Goes On". The New York Times. 
• Jackson, Isaac (February 1984). "Messages". Folio. 
• Palmer, Robert (25 September 1985). "Pop Life: Electric Guitars". The New York Times. 
• Pareles, Jon (11 May 1987). "Cassette Underground". The New York Times. 
• Moore, Barbara (1990). "The Sound of Music". Tellus (24). 
• James, Robin, ed. (1992). Cassette Mythos. Autonomedia. ISBN 9780936756691. 
• Toop, David (1995). Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds. Serpent's Tail. ISBN 9781852427436. 
• Emmerson, Simon (2000). Music, Electronic Media and Culture. Ashgate Publishing Co. ISBN 9780754601098. 
• Gould, Claudia; Parksinson, Carol; Nechvatal, Joseph; McCormick, Carlo; Karl, Brian; Montgomery, Gen Ken; Moore, Barbara; Shimada, Taketo (2001). TellusTools (Media notes). Harvestworks. 
• Hinkle-Turner, Elizabeth (2006). Women Composers and Music Technology in the United States. Ashgate Publishing Co. ISBN 9780754604617. 
• Moore, Alan W. (2007). Stimson, Blake; Sholette, Gregory, eds. Collectivism After Modernism: The Art of Social Imagination after 1945. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 193–221. ISBN 9780816644629. 

Online articles

• Carlo McCormick Tellus: Time Loops Our Sonic Stigmata, UbuWeb Tellus Notes
• Marvin @ Freealbums Various Artists - Tellus 1 & 2
• Kenneth Goldsmith Poetry Foundation Podcast: The Tellus cassettes
• Marc Weidenbaum Classic Tellus Noise
• Amanda MacBlane at New Music Box writing on TellusTools LP
• Master Cactus: The Art Zine Available Only on Cassette by Devon Maloney published at Wired (magazine) October 23, 2013

External links

• http://www.harvestworks.org/cms/
• http://www.harvestworks.org/tellusWEB/
• http://www.ubu.com/sound/tellus.html