This is absolutely unbelievable.

Indeterminacy: New Aspect Of Form In Instrumental And Electronic Music is a project where John Cage and David Tudor create a relationship between speech (and everything that goes into speech, like psychology, pacing and perception) and music (sound effects and electronic noises, specifically). Additionally, Cage and Tudor successfully allow you to forget about this relationship, and focus on singular sounds as much as the overall piece.



For example, after listening to John Cage speed-read through a literal explanation of this project’s motives, the tone dramatically downshifts to less than 1 word per second – meaning there is extensive silence between words. All the while, David Tudor is manipulating electronic equipment, pianos and various objects to create random juxtaposition between the speech and his “electronics”. Sometimes these noises climax – in unplanned synchronization – with the climax of the stories and anecdotes being told.

Throughout the stories told by Cage, it can feel hellish and claustrophobic – hearing someone drone on and on, as dark, caustic noises fill the spaces between the words. Sometimes, these stories take on a lighter, almost transcendental purpose that takes you through warped mantras and vague Buddhism, only for Tudor’s indeterminate instrumentals to turn spirituality into a punchline (or vice versa). What really amazes is how indescribable the less-obvious moments of this experience become, creating new sounds which have truly never been heard before (and arguably, since).



My excitement is sincere, yet the barrier to entry is extremely high, as on first glance, it is simply an audiobook – a podcast. Additionally (as this was an album from 1959) some stories may be taken offensively. To this, I would remind that Indeterminacy was literally released as Avant Garde art punctuated with a sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek (the subtlety of which can be easily lost through the passage of time).



For those lucky to climb high enough, hearing language used in a way not to communicate, but to confuse reminds of the ultimately-perceptive-based-nature of speech. As the obvious pacing and content of this album demonstrates: Words only have the power we allow them to have. Sit back and listen to Cage & Tudor deconstruct, reconstruct and rethink the human language, one anecdote at a time.



Listen: “Part 1”