1977-00-00-071a
additional images
  • 1977-00-00-071a
  • 1977-00-00-071d
  • 1977-00-00-071b
  • 1977-00-00-071c
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water. the music of sound I

catalogue number: hdv 1977.072.1
date created: 1974/1977
classification: audiovisual works
work type: sound work
medium: recording (LP) with on side 1: bach (6 kleine wasserfällchen in einen strom), Oberschwappach - D (10.15 min) and ozean I, Gubacarrigan, Clew Bay - Ireland (9.40 min), on side 2: ozean II, Killeennabausty, Achill Island - Ireland (9.08 min), regen, Eschenau - D (6.36 min) and quelle, Fatschenbrunn - D (5.31 min); in 2 beige covers with a white label on the outside cover with artist, title and titles of the sounds on the disk; on the reverse of the cover a text by Urs and Rös Graf and 15 photographs in black & white and a text in English: "this shall you think of all this fleeting world: / a star at down, a bubble in a stream, / a flash of lightning and a summer cloud, / a flickering lamp, a phantom and a dream" [source: Vajracchedika Prajna Paramita Sutra (Diamond Sutra); same text also on the telegram to the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1975]. On the front of the inner cover a fragment of a colour photograph (3.5 × 5 cm) is mounted representing a cloud in a blue sky, on the reverse a fragment of a photo (5.5 × 8.3 cm) representing a waterfall (see v74-11 chance & change situations). A postcard is included.
dimensions: 31.5 × 31.5 cm
signature and inscriptions: signed and numbered on the label (black ink) + artists press stamp (red ink)
edition: technik: john spinner / edition artists press bern 1977
100, numbered 1/100 - 100/100
current repository:
current repository number:
collecting history:
related works:
comment: the LP was reissued on audio cassette in 1987 by Werner Pieper MedienXperimente, Lörbach in the series Transmitter Cassette (TC 150) and in 2004 on CDRom 'the music of sound/the sound of music
photo/scan: archive herman de vries. The 4th photo shows herman de vries on the Atlantic coast in Ireland in 1974 recording 'ozean I-II' (photo susanne jacob de vries)
rights & reproduction: herman de vries
exhibition history
1980 'herman de vries. werken 1954-1980', Groninger Museum, Groningen
1986 'Herman de Vries', Coracle Press Gallery, London
1993 'Différentes natures. Visions de l'art contemporain', La Défense (Galerie Art 4/Galerie de l'Esplanade), Paris [group]
1994 'Différentes natures. Visions de l'art contemporain', La Virreina, Barcelona [group]
published references
text Urs and Rös Graf, Text for record 'water - the music of sound - 1', published by Artists Press : Bern 1977 (1975)
exhibition catalogue herman de vries. werken 1954-1980 (Groninger Museum : Groningen 1980) image repr. on page 134 (catalogue number 7.1).
proceedings Bild - Musik - Text. Konstruktive Strömungen; [anlässlich des Internationalen Symposions Textbild - Bildtext im Kongresshaus Gmunden - Villa Toscana im September 1990] / Josef Linschinger, Eugen Gomringer. Gmundner Symposion, 3 (Ottenhausen-Verlag : Piesport 1992) image repr. on page 106.
catalogue raisonné herman de vries. les livres et les publications. catalogue raisonné (centre des livres d'artistes : Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche 2005) no image repr., 155 (catalogue number 46).
exhibition catalogue Maurizio Nannucci, Top Hundred (Museion Editions : Bolzano / Zona Editions / OAC Fondazione CR : Firenze 2017) 037/TH, 91.