Attached here are two texts by Mute Vol. 2 Issue 4 contributor Giorgio Agostoni :

A Text for an Exhibition that regards Sound as a Weapon

Silence and Material

'Compulsive' is a word often used to describe our relationships with computers. Combine the compulsiveness of the computer drug with the hypnotic effects of voices on radio and you've got Torkradio. Frustrated by their experience of making 30 second 'audio blipverts' for a local radio station, Chris Dorley Brown and Bob Jarok of Cambridge's music and arts venue The Junction decided to make something more "marathon like" - an extended 72 hour audio experiment involving over 20 visual and performance artists.

In the first part of this issue’s review Special, Brandon LaBelle surveys some key practitioners creating sonic performances that mix ‘found’ and mediatised sound – a mix that parallels the wider ‘immaterialisation’ of time and place

After Karlheinz Stockhausen's controversial outpouring post 9/11, it was a surprise to find the Barbican's Electronic festival - which showcased his greatest works - completely sold out. Anne Hilde Neset and Lina Dzuverovic-Russell learn what sounds to listen out for in Stockhausen's work and sample the club of the future with Aphex Twin, October 01

Fuck knows what Si Begg thinks he’s doing. The man is clearly insane. Exhibit A: The Complete Death of Cool, an amalgamation of the ‘best’ (i.e. the most obviously barking) bits from The Complete Death of Cool: Parts 1 and 2, released over the last few years by Begg’s Noodles Foundation (see Mute18), the self-styled “stupidest recording Organisation in the World”.

Josephine Bosma made the pilgrimage to Manchester to enjoy the Futuresonic festival ‘unplugged’.

Live inside Staedtizism, the new compilation of sound spaces from the Berlin underground [ ~scape records] – a little calm in the heart of the city .

Hari Kunzru

Jem Finer’s Longplayer is designed to perform for a thousand years without repeating itself. Hari Kunzru went down to London’s docks on new year’s eve to see it kick off.

>> Jem Feiner, Longplayer, 1999/2000, courtesy of Artangel

Among Mute readers, there is known to be a hardcore Modernist element, the kind of people for whom minimalism is a religion, who salivate over obscure pieces of analogue technology, who throw out their treasured childhood possessions because they clutter up their loft. This one will appeal to them.

Paul Welsh on Simon Yuill's Spector