On tonight's A Different Nature, we'll take a look at the cassette-only series Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine, a subscription series that offered a wide variety of artists and musicians, often curated by a different artist or group per release.
‘Tellus was created in 1983 at the Rum Runner Bar on Canal Street in New York City. Joseph Nechvatal, a visual artist, Claudia Gould, a curator and Carol Parkinson, a composer and staff member of Harvestworks/Studio PASS met to discuss the idea of a magazine on cassette which would feature interesting and challenging sound works. With the advent of the Walkman and the Boom Box, the editors perceived a need for an alternative to radio programming and the commercially available recordings on the market at that time.’ [from Harvestworks website]
Many notable artists appeared here, sometimes in mediums they were not known for. The range of disciplines run the gamut from spoken-word arts, piano composition and performance, guitar, music for experimental film, radio drama, experiments in musical intonation and more.
The series ran from 1983 to 1993, spanning 24 issues, finally culminating in vinyl and CD compilations. It was a veritable who's who of avant garde music of the era, as well as many notable artists from the past making appearances.
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