Two landmark figures in the history of jazz visited Melbourne recently as guests of the Wheeler Centre and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Jean-Hervé Peron and Tony Conrad both spoke at community radio station 3RRR’s Performance Space. The events received rave reviews from observers, particularly the interview with krautrock pioneer and professional eccentric Jean-Hervé Peron, so even though we weren’t able to film the conversations, we’ve uploaded audio recordings of both events.
Jean-Hervé Peron was a founding member of the krautrock group Faust, of whom music writer Julian Cope has written “[t]here is no group more mythical”. All Music Guide writes of Faust that no group has exerted greater influence on ambient and industrial music. But as you will hear, Peron is much more than just a pioneering musician.
Jean-Hervé Peron Speaks
Tony Conrad was a no less influential musician. Conrad was, according to All Music Guide, the pioneer of ‘Eternal Music’, “a droning, mesmerizing performance idiom that employed long durations, amplification, and precise pitch to explore new worlds of sound”. Conrad “forged new creative directions that proved enormously influential on successive generations of artists ranging in background from pop to the avant-garde.”
Tony Conrad: Music and Mathematics
