F0NO7 // Joshua Beckman – Some Mechanical Poems To Be Read Aloud (print)

Description

Some Mechanical Poems To Be Read Aloud read differently when read aloud by different people. The album is made from composites of multiple individuals reading the same work, so that the variants created by each reader can be heard extending and overlapping. In creating Some Mechanical Poems To Be Read Aloud Joshua Beckman traveled all over the U.S., introducing the project to different people from a multiplicity of backgrounds— some of whom were writers, some of whom were readers, and some of whom were neither of those things. Awash in disparate sounds, silences and modalities, the result is the innovation that is Some Mechanical Poems To Be Read Aloud.

The poems in Joshua Beckman’s Some Mechanical Poems To Be Read Aloud change every time they’re read, incorporating each reader’s own punctuation, intonation and vocality. No two readings are alike, with individualized meaning enacted by the reader.

The composite recordings in Some Mechanical Poems To Be Read Aloud were made and edited by Sara Roberts and recorded and engineered by Pauline Gloss.  Artistic layout and design by Megan Magnum/Words That Work. All recordings for the album were made in Los Angeles in February 2017, with the group recording made at Machine Project on February 22, 2017. 

Purchase of Some Mechanical Poems To Be Read Aloud includes a 6 x 9 envelope containing two chap pamphlets outlining how multiple readers can listen and read along at once, a how-to-read-these-poems insert, and a pamphlet listing the album’s tracklist and performance credits. Also included is a download card giving the listener access to the entire album. Some Mechanical Poems To Be Read Aloud can additionally be found digitally on Spotify.

Some Mechanical Poems To Be Read Aloud was released on July 1, 2020 and is sold out.