ENL 164: "Comparing [Alfred] Jarry to music,” a response to “Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician.”

I hope this is not completely irrelevant, but this piece reminds me of the work of one of my favorite musical artists. Mike Patton, of Faith No More fame, has several interesting musical side projects that he has participated in and overseen since the demise of FNM. One project, in particular, Maldoror, is actually named after one of the works that is found in the collection of Dr. Faustroll: Lautréamont’s The Lays of Maldoror. However, many of his projects are great representations of ‘pataphysical ideas in music: Fantômas, Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk, Peeping Tom, and several albums done with the composer John Zorn.

These albums could (to varying degrees) be described as “aural insanity.” Some have seemingly random noises as part of a track, for example, several minutes of one album is just the sound of a clock ticking. I know some people would not consider this to be “music” but I have developed an ear for it; to me, it still “sounds” like music, and it is created to be a modernist idea of music, and a vision futuristic music. It is a fusion of several genres of music, including rock (guitars, drum set), jazz (horns, cymbals, scat singing), classical (strings, larger horns, especially seen in the Zorn works), and even elements of hip-hop, punk, and metal.

I think much of this work as ‘pataphysical implications, mostly due to the unusual and random nature of some of the sounds. Consider the conjuring of Faustroll in Book I, chapter 7: “Across the foliated space of the twenty-seven equivalents, Faustroll conjured up into the third dimension” (190) which continues with a list of items that are “conjured” from the 27 equal books. One could argue that musical and non-musical elements are “conjured” from their original purpose to create music. It also has elements of the clinamen, such as a quote of Book VI, chapter 34 describes the Painting Machine:

…Meanwhile, after there was no one left in the world, the Painting Machine…like a spinning top, it dashed itself against the pillars, swayed and veered in infinitely varied directions, and followed its own whim in blowing onto the walls’ canvas the succession of primary colors…(238)

Much like the painting machine randomly puts color around its canvas, the sounds used in the music seems just as random: musical representations of the work of the Painting Machine.

Thanks for reading, and I'm sorry for the length. I think I got carried away.