Edition of 250 copies

Giuseppe Chiari (1926–2007) was a Fluxus artist from Florence, Italy. In cooperation with Archivo Silenzio and Chiari’s friend and assistant Paolo Coteni, Slowscan has now released an LP with two previously unreleased piano pieces by Chiari, both recorded in Rome, one in 1974, the other in 1980. ‘Chiari’ it says on the front the cover of the LP and ‘Down With Classic Music’ on the back. Chiari and Slowscan don’t beat around the bush.

Already experimenting with new combinations of avantgarde music and visual arts in the 1950s, Chiari became affiliated with Fluxus in 1962. In that open-minded, subversive and experimental group he developed into one of the leading artists and theorists. Among his many Fluxus writings are: ‘Music without counterpoint’ (1969), ‘Mother Music’ (1973), and ‘Method For Playing’ (1976). In these writings Chiari embraces chance as a formative principle and promotes interdisciplinary works of art, combining music, performance, speech and visual arts. Chiari himself experimented with what he called ‘visual music’ and ‘action music’, the latter of which this Slowscan LP contains excellent examples. Started when he joined Fluxus in 1962, the ‘Gesti sul Piano’ developed into Chiari’s central works of deconstruction. They always mark a break with every structure. Demolition by piano hammers. Chiari – Down With Classic Music!