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Henri Chopin

The French Henri Chopin (1922 - 2008) was a poet, writer, essayist, visual artist, graphic designer and publisher. He produced numerous radio programs and taught at the School of Poetry in Vienna. He was one of the most important representatives of concrete poetry, visual poetry, sound poetry and electronic poetry and participated in most of the corresponding international events. He lived and worked in Paris, and between 1968 and 1985 he was based in England.

Chopin is also considered a body voice researcher, used the human body as an instrument and processed the resulting sounds into his compositions using electroacoustic devices. From this, together with François Dufrêne and Bernard Heidsieck, he developed "Poesie sonore," noise compositions based on electroacoustic alienation and amplification.  

Between 1958 and 1973, Chopin was active as editor of the magazines Cinquième Saison and (from 1964) Revue OU/Cinquième Saison. Most issues contained records of sound works by various artists of Lettrism and Fluxus, Futurism, and Sound Art. Chopin thus helped unknown artists to publish and disseminate their work. The variety of publications as well as the concentration on original versions ensured the publication its anthological character and a great public interest until today. Chopin stated in 1993: "I had the idea of making an inimitable journal, richer than any journal before, more varied and rich in contrast. Now that it has ceased to continue, I know that no magazine since the Futurists can compare with it."

He also published his own compositions in Revue OU and regularly had works featured on its record supplements.

Works for listening