"Almost Nothing With Luc Ferrari by Jacqueline Caux & Luc Ferrari (Errant Bodies Press)

ISBN: 978-0-9827439-1-1 Errant Bodies Press

"Almost Nothing with Luc Ferrari: Interviews" by Jacqueline Caux, with Texts and Imaginary Autobiographies by Luc Ferrari (Errant Bodies Press)

For the past 12 or so months, I have been obsessing over Musique Concrete, which is basically music made out of everyday but processed electronically or through tape manipulations. For reasons that are not totally clear to me, France seems to ground zero for these composers who work in that medium. One of the greats is Luc Ferrari. He's not the first, but I think, with respect to what I have heard so far, Ferrari's work is pretty great.

Errant Bodies Press, which is a publishing house that focuses on experimental composers as well as the issues of sound/art published a magnificent book on Ferrari and his theories/thoughts on composing and the world of the avant-garde music making. Basically the book is a series of Q&A interviews with Ferrari, as well as his weird and great autobiographies segments as well as detailed descriptions of some of his compositions. It's a beautifully designed hardcover book, and anyone who has just even the slightest interest in the world of composing, surely needs to read this book.

"True Stories" by Sophie Calle

ISBN 9782330023416

Odd enough this is my first entrance into the world of Sophie Calle.  I have known of her work over many years, but never ever purchased or read her books.  Till now, and I love "True Stories."   Right now since I am working on a memoir project, I'm very much interested in how a subject matter looks at their life via writing.  What impresses me is Calle's seeing her life or even her desires as a conceptual art work.  So the visual element (one story and one image through out the book) is really strong, and also I love how she treats objects as fetishes or an entrance to a series of memories. Sometimes very Proust like, other times just kind of nasty sexy.   It's all good to me!