Igor Toronyi-Lalic

In defence of noise music

Noise gigs like Keiji Haino's offer a rush unlike any other. Plus: Chuquimamani-Condori and Terry Jennings reviewed

Keiji Haino in rehearsals at Cafe Oto. Photo: Dawid Laskowski  
issue 13 April 2024

It’s curious to consider what a venerable old thing noise music is. That this most singularly untameable of musics – the place where melody, harmony and pulse all go to die – is an Edwardian invention. It first arrived in this country 110 years ago when futurists Filippo Marinetti and Luigi Russolo set up camp at the London Coliseum a month before the start of the first world war and, over ten consecutive nights, blasted the West End audience with their ‘noise-tuners’ or intonarumori, alongside diverse variety acts.

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