ABSTRACT
This chapter distinguishes between the artifacts resulting from sound-effect operations and the noise-sounds sampled from the surrounding environment, which poets sometimes think of as accompaniment, sometimes as a material to work on as such, to be reworked. The poets were driven to test other limits, subverting the concept of the text by playing on and with the structural and phonetic constraints of language, sometimes to the point of dislocation. The practices invite people to revisit seemingly established distinctions and categories, not only in the area of poetry, but beyond—especially the postulated difference between sound and noise. For everything voice-and sound-related, the arrival of the reel-to-reel tape recorder introduced a tremendous shift by opening the path to experimentation. In 1959, on what was still a rudimentary mono device, Bernard Heidsieck discovered the possibilities of intervening on magnetic tape with a pair of scissors and sticky tape.
