#urmuz

With The Urmuz Epigrams Zorn returns to his roots, using the recording studio as an instrument to create an intensely personal suite of compositions in the style of his legendary File Card compositions and Zoetropes. Dedicated to the visionary Romanian writer Urmuz whose small, scattered body of work predated Dadaism by decades, The Urmuz Epigrams is a suite of surrealistic miniatures more akin to philosophical aphorisms than actual music. The pieces are presented here in two iterations, as a set of “rare 78rpm records” complete with surface scratches and limited dynamic range, and as a modern reconstruction of same with the full blown studio sound presented in all its perplexing glory. Some of the craziest music in the Zorn catalog! 1. Disgusted with Life 2. This Piano Lid Serves as a Wall 3. With Wet Clothes and Disheveled Hair He Wandered in the Dead of Night in Search of Shelter 4. Then Again, Who Amongst us can Complain 5. A Rain of Threats and Screams 6. The Pelican or the Pelicaness 7. After That the Funnel Became a Symbol 8. Desperate from Having Been Left without a Bladder

Urmuz, eigentlich Demetru Demetrescu-Buzău war ein rumänischer Schriftsteller. Sein Werk besteht zwar aus nur einer Handvoll absurder und grotesker Kurzgeschichten. Dennoch gilt er als bedeutender Vorläufer der rumänischen Avantgarde, des Dadaismus und des Surrealismus. (Wikipedia)

"Algazy is a nice old man with a toothless smile, his beard shaven and silky, neatly laid out on a grill that is screwed under his chin and surrounded by barbed wire… Algazy does not speak any European languages… But if you wait for him first thing in the morning and you say to him: “Good morning, Algazy!” and you stress the sound z, Algazy smiles and, to show his gratitude, sticks his hand in his pocket and pulls the end of a string that makes his beard shake joyously for fifteen minutes…"

Urmuz (Romanian pronunciation: [urˈmuz], pen name of Demetru Dem. Demetrescu-Buzău, also known as Hurmuz or Ciriviş, born Dimitrie Dim. Ionescu-Buzeu; March 17, 1883 – November 23, 1923) was a Romanian writer, lawyer and civil servant, who became a cult hero in Romania's avant-garde scene. His scattered work, consisting of absurdist short prose and poetry, opened a new genre in Romanian letters and humor, and captured the imagination of modernists for several generations. Urmuz's Bizarre (or Weird) Pages were largely independent of European modernism, even though some may have been triggered by Futurism; their valorization of nonsense verse, black comedy, nihilistic tendencies and exploration into the unconscious mind have repeatedly been cited as influential for the development of Dadaism and the Theatre of the Absurd. Individual pieces such as "The Funnel and Stamate", "Ismaïl and Turnavitu", "Algazy & Grummer" or "The Fuchsiad" are parody fragments, dealing with monstrous and shapeshifting creatures in mundane settings, and announcing techniques later taken up by Surrealism.