John Oswald – 1993´s Plexure and Plunderphonics

Drawing on influences like Charles Ives, John Cage, or William S. Burroughs (and the cut-up technique attributed to him), John Oswald released the complex and incredibly dense sample-based album Plexure in 1993.

In an attempt to reclaim audio piracy, Oswald coined the term Plunderphonics, referring to a genre of cutting, sampling, rearranging and recontextualizing rather well-known tracks. Although the original tracks are brutally cut and therefore somehow estranged, they remain recognizable. However, the extent of their recognizability is of course largely depended on the knowledge of the respective listeners and their familiarity with the original work.  Since most of the tracks featured on Plexure have been huge commercial successes, the technique and concept applied by Oswald appears to be somewhat self-evident to a receptive audience and the conscious listener. In the case of Plexure, even an audience with no background knowledge whatsoever would genuinely recognize a couple of the featured tracks. Depending on prior knowledge, the album appears as riddle varying in complexity. Throughout its entirety (in which it comprises well-nigh 20 minutes), the tempo and volume of the single elements used varies tremendously fast, so that the audience experiences a constant strain of rising and falling tension, that eludes itself from any narrative agenda.

Therefore, the album´s dominating theme lies in the exploration of the interplay of the songs and the way they rhythmically relate to one another. Oswald playfully embraces sharp contrasts as well as striking similarities, in vocal performances as well as in the use of instruments and sampling. Through the seemingly random yet pointed accumulation of numerous well-known and previous released tracks, Oswald manages to develop a re-emerging soundscape that does not only play with and disappoints the audience´s expectations and listening habits, but essentially establishes itself as an original work.

In close correspondence with the listening experience, the collage technique used for the CD´s cover design is evidently corresponding with the technique of sound collage used in the record´s production, and results in a suitable link to its content.

Besides, the approach promoted by Oswald resembles common approaches and practices in the field of visual arts, especially in respect to video or picture montages using found footage.

Whether in analogue collages (such as the work of Annegret Soltau, who de- and reconstructs bodies by sewing up photographs) or in audio-visual approaches in the digital space (as carried out by artists such as Matthias Müller or Joep van Liefland), the work with found material focusing on its formal and aesthetic properties rather than its narrative substance, comprises essential parts of artistic practices. Nonetheless, the practice of using material one has not produced by him*herself, inevitably raises questions of copyright. Oswald encounters these in his essay “Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative” (1985). Referring to Charles Ives, Oswald points out that artistic endeavors would benefit from a practice of acknowledgement (as practiced in academia) that allows all possibilities rather then restricting public domain. With that, the very essence of Plexure reveals itself, as we find his work questioning not only established notions of ownership, but the concept of originality and authorship in its very essence.