ANDREAS BÜLHOFF & MARC MATTER - Micro Poems

Micro Poems is the latest release by Andreas Bülhoff and Marc Matter. It also marks the founding of the new label Spoken Matter that focuses on language-based sound works and sonic poetry.

Four years after their first exploration into condensed meaning making with their release Of/Off (Research and Waves, 2020), Micro Poems radicalizes the concept of the endless repetition of ambiguous words. It embraces the particularities of vinyl as a medium and its ability for closed locked grooves: The record consists of 24 loops of isolated words, 12 on each side.

All speech was vocalized and recorded by voice artist and poet Ian Hatcher, who developed a special prosodic approach, thus creating a collection of utmost concentrated and condensed sonic poetry. The persistent looping via locked grooves and the high grade of ambiguity together with Hatcher’s vocal performance make this collection of one-word-poems meander between a complete loss of meaning into sound and a multiplication of potential meanings impossible to grasp.

All words on the record are homophones and were meticulously selected for their high ambiguity and poetic quality. With one word per loop on the one side and two words per loop on the other, Micro Poems unfolds an abstract, minimalist poetic text. Listening to these loops long enough, various meanings of the words may occur, and new meanings will emerge due to illusory perceptions based on psychoacoustic effects.

Updating the repetitiveness of Gertrude Sein and the Minimalism of Aram Saroyan, Micro Poems seeks to playfully explore lexical meaning in its most condensed form, resulting in a post-digital sound work that makes reference to musical genres based on heavy repetitions, such as Hip Hop, or Techno.

Together with the audio cassette Plage by Charlotte Warsen, Micro Poems makes up the very first releases of the newly founded label Spoken Matter, with more planned for early 2025 – including works by Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Jasmina Al-Qaisi, and IV Nuss – all on physical media (tape, CD, vinyl) and digital.