Dutch producer René van der Voort releases them on cassette.
Retro vinyl is a thing. But retro cassette? Does anyone still have or use a cassette player? Apparently some do. René van der Voort has produced more than 100 cassettes by a wide range of poets, writers, and artists. His label, Counter Culture Chronicles, includes readings and audio performances by Aram Saroyan, Charles Plymell, Jürgen Ploog, Stuart Perkoff, Allen Ginsberg, Nanao Sakaki, Angus MacLise, Ed Dorn, Ken Kesey, Joel Oppenheimer, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, Ted Berrigan, Peter Orlovsky, Gerd Stern, Ira Cohen, Michael McClure, Fielding Dawson, Steve Dalachinsky, Neeli Cherkovski, Ed Dorn, and ruth weiss. My own cassette has just been released. The recording runs for 30 minutes.
Van der Voort also organizes sound poetry/poetry events in the Netherlands with the AVCEP Foundation (Archive For Concrete And Experimental Poetry), as well as the annual Fiery Tongues Festival in Ruigoord (an abandoned village within Amsterdam squatted by a group of artists headed by former Provos since the early 1970s). He tells me a Jack Kerouac Centennial celebration is scheduled there on October 9.
Oh yeah! Cassettes sound phenomenal when the decks are good, well calibrated and caps up to date. . I have four different ones and over 1000 cassettes including many I made in 1960’s – they still sound great. I listen everyday as well as reel tapes. The sound reminds me of mother’s breath.
I had hundreds of cassettes myself, including some cut-up recordings I made with Carl Weissner, in addition to scores and scores of commercial jazz releases, I stored them away and hadn’t listened to them in years. then a flood damaged them. they were unplayable. so I tossed them.
I hafta agree about the sound production. I have an old battery-operated SONY PRO recorder/player that I used to record Heathcote Williams’s AMERICAN PORN back in 2013. it was turned into a vinyl LP and accompanying CD by Sea Urchin/Cold Turkey Press. the sound is so intimate that listening to it puts you in the room with him as though he were still alive.
Know the recording and yes!
Kept writing, “sell stuff on ebay” on my to-do list for years and finally got around to it this year.
One of the first items I ended up listing was the hundreds of old tape cassettes that had been sitting in drawers for the last couple of decades. It was cathartic to listen to (at least a portion of) each cassette to make sure they were in working order, testing to make sure the little felt pressure pads were still adhered, and researching details about the artists and albums in order to add some context to each listing. As I started listing them, I could hardly believe it when people kept purchasing them. To date over a hundred sold.
After all the cassettes were listed I started on old graphics programs on… wait for it… 3.5″ floppy discs. Again, to my astonishment people are buying them. Who needs software, on a floppy disc no less, for a fax machine?
just had a look at yr web site. great stuff there: http://randyburman.com. thx.