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Midnight / Minoy., 1983

 Item
Identifier: CC-59299-54261

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Scope and Contents

Wikipedia: Minoy was the pseudonym of the electronic art musician and sound artist Stanley Keith Bowsza (October 30, 1951 - March 19, 2010). He was a major figure in the DIY noise music and homemade independent cassette culture scene of the 1980s. He released over 100 compositions. Stanley Keith Bowsza chose his pseudonym Minoy based upon how someone he met mispronounced the name of one of his favorite artists, the Catalan Surrealist Joan Miro. He is recognized as the master of controlled noise. He lived and worked in Torrance, California.Minoy produced some of the most remarkably engrossing, beautiful and imaginative work-of-art albums released on cassette in the 1980s, often with hand made covers. Minoy was an agoraphobic but prolific noise artist intensely active in the music underground between the years 1986 and 1992. During that period he created many unique audio works in collaboration with other sound artists and mail artists. Minoy was an avid mail collaborator, collaborating with noted experimental American composers such as PBK (Phillip B. Klingler) (also as Disco Splendor), If, Bwana (as Bwannoy), Damian Bisciglia a/k/a Agog (as No Mail On Sundays), Zan Hoffman (as Minoy\Zannoy), Dave Prescott (as PM), Not 1/2 (as El Angel Exterminador), and many others.But he is best known for his solo palimpsest-like multi-tracked soundscape compositions, production that follows the incorporation of electric sound into compositional practice similar at times to that of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales and John Cage's Williams Mix. A good example is his widely circulated dark ambient composition Tango that was released in 1988 on Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine's Issue 20 entitled Media Myth.His music is a form of labyrinthian droning collage electronics that produced an otherworldly effect. It is a form of highly textured, manipulated and layer noise that often creates a sonic painting-like effect. Many of his tape releases had only one or two compositions on them, thus allowing him the time to develop a theme and hypnotically immerse the listener in what were usually very powerful works of art.His challenging, irritating at times, ambient musique concrete recordings were often created by echoing and multi-tracking sounds (like field recordings and short wave transmissions) into deep noisy ambient music. Sometimes he used a constant murmuring voice along with the found sounds or shrieks or staccato guitar bursts or the twitter of a toy mouth organ. His tapes were more often than not delicate yet powerfully embellished soundscapes.Minoy's audio agglomeration and sound manipulation was celebrated in 1991 when his image appeared on the cover of the July 1991 issue of Electronic Cottage magazine. He was profiled in the issue as well. He stopped releasing his recordings in 1992.In 2013, fellow composer and former collaborator PBK (Phillip B. Klingler) worked out a deal with Minoy's partner, Stuart Hass, to obtain Minoy's archive of recorded work. Discovered among the master tapes were recordings made in the years after Minoy stopped distributing his cassettes. Many of the unreleased works are scheduled to be released by various labels starting in 2013. In 2014 Punctum books released some of this material on CD and cassette, accompanied by a book on Minoy, simply titled Minoy. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates

  • Creation: 1983

Extent

0 See container summary (1 soft cover book + pages (painted, ink colored, handwriting, photocopied, collaged, offset text, photograph b&w, color photograph) (40 pages) in cover (painted, rubberstamped, collaged, crossword puzzle fragment)) ; 14.3 x 10.9 x .5 cm

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Physical Location

box small artist books 2nd bedroom alcove Item in cataloguing queue 4/18/23 CG

Custodial History

The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, on loan from Ruth and Marvin A. Sackner and the Sackner Family Partnership.

General

Published: Torrance, California : [Publisher not identified]. Signed by: Minoy (c.- page 1). Nationality of creator: American. General: About 1 total copy. General: Added by: CONV; updated by: RUTH.

Repository Details

Part of the The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry Repository

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