1997

Fela Kuti, Nigerian father of Afrobeat pioneer and frequent presidential candidate, dies from AIDS-related complications.

1983

Revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara assumes power in Burkina Faso, nationalizing mineral wealth and redistributing land.

“It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.”

1828

1908

1923

1921

1926

Antonio Gramsci, leader of the Italian Communist Party, is arrested by Mussolini and sentenced to twenty years in prison, during which time he would write his famous “Prison Notebooks.”
“‘Vanguards’ without armies to back them up, ‘commandos’ without infantry or artillery, these too are transpositions from the language of rhetorical heroism.”

1885

Louis Riel, Métis leader who headed two rebellions against a Canadian incursion into their territory, is hanged for treason.
"I will perhaps be one day acknowledged as more than a leader of the half-breeds, 
and if I am I will have an opportunity of being acknowledged as a leader of good in this great country."

1967

Heavyweight champion boxer Muhammad Ali refuses induction into the US Armed Forces, leading to a charge for draft evasion and being stripped of his titles.

“I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong. No Vietcong ever called me nigger.”

1649

A mutiny in the New Model Army of England by the Levellers, who called for the expansion of suffrage, religious toleration, and sweeping political reforms, is crushed when its leaders are executed.
“We do now hold ourselves bound in mutual duty to each other to take the best care we can for the future to avoid both the danger of returning into a slavish condition and chargeable remedy of another war.”

1381

1920

2009

Millions of Iranians take to the streets in the pro-democracy Green Movement in Iran.

“My hands and yours,
must tear down this curtain.”

sharafta saliid baaluq cosmic ceyriinka

Work using field recordings and electromagnetic field generated sounds
recorded in Linz, Austria this year.

1948

1990

1919

1649

1965

1912

1973

1936

1999

1848

1906

1957

1987

1969

1787

1961

Je Suis Charlie (Āṟa maḻa naṭaṉam tuṟaṭṭi iṉṉala)

1884

1953

2013

1956

1966

1968

1781

1964

2012

1896

thaki

The Musique.laclasse CD was the result of numerous workshops Lionel Marchetti conducted in schools with children from 12 to 16 years old. The composer helped the kids record source material then process it themselves with effects and montage. The 2007 CD was a selection of some musique concrète tracks and was meant to be played on shuffle mode with the silent tracks popping up here and there. Some of Marchetti’s own technique would spring up occasionally but with a fresh and naive take on musique concrète.

I was told of the Musique.laclasse CD, but was unable to find out how to purchase it or even if it was still available, so I set out to create my own version which is what you can hear above. I have no idea if mine is even close to the original, but it’s not really intended to be – just a fun exploration of the soundfiles made available from the site. It was done in one uninterrupted 50 minute take.

Phật 73 ⬙ Tani shadow

1647

1900

2002

1977

1937

The Basque town of Guernica is destroyed in an aerial bombing by German and Italian forces, in one of the most sordid episodes of the Spanish Civil War.

“Faces good in firelight good in frost
Refusing the night the wounds the blows.”