https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kMfdJdjbSrmAUjGOk6Qnv8Y3rKICjjU9c

For the first time a full album with recordings based on YOKO ONO’s 1964 collection of texts, event scores and drawings “Grapefruit”, a foundational cornerstone of what became known as conceptual art, and enveloping the orbits of Fluxus and experimental music. Performed by THE GREAT LEARNING ORCHESTRA which has during the 25 years of its existence worked with GAVIN BRYARS, TERRY RILEY, PAULINE OLIVEROS, J.G. THIRLWELL, ARNOLD DREYBLATT a.o.

Originally self-published in 1964 in a limited edition of 500 copies under YOKO ONO’s own imprint, Wunternaum Press, and later reprinted in expanded editions, the collection of over 230 texts, event scores and drawings that comprise “Grapefruit” has long been considered a foundational text in what became known as Conceptual Art, and envelops the orbit of Fluxus and experimental music.Though comparisons to JOHN CAGE may seem obvious, ONO’s first attempts at textual composition actually pre-date her first encounter with the American composer by around a decade and have evolved free from CAGE’s influence.

Another factor that sets these scores apart from associated forms of verbal notation from the same period (like LA MONTE YOUNG’s “An Anthology Of Chance Operations” – with a contribution from ONO - or GEORGE BRECHT’s “Water Yam”, both from 1963) is ONO’s ambivalence towards the necessity, or even possibility, of their physical realization – instead the idea being that the realization should take place in the mind of the reader (“Music of the Mind” is also the title of the current traveling exhibition which opened at Tate Modern, London in 2024).

However, a number of pieces from “Grapefruit” function very well as performance or event scores, with several of them becoming mainstays of ONO’s concerts and performances throughout the early to mid 1960s. But hardl.......
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