Revisiting Brion Gysin and his mind-altering Dreamachine

A vinyl reissue arriving this spring will bring renewed attention to a rare and unusual sound work by Brion Gysin, which I’m unsure how to categorise, in terms of genre, style or classification; perhaps that’s why I feel compelled to share the news with you here. Long treated as a peripheral Beat figure, Gysin was a restless experimenter whose work incorporated writing, painting, performance and invention.

His Dreamachine sound piece, recorded in the 1980s and pressed on vinyl for the first time by the brilliant Wewantsounds label to coincide with a new exhibition opening in Paris in April, will offer a distinct insight into how he thought art should function as a social tool for shifting perspectives.

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Born in England, Gysin lived for long periods in Tangier, Paris and New York, bouncing between literary and artistic scenes without fully committing to either. He wrote novels, painted, staged performances and immersed himself in North African music and spiritual traditions. He also collaborated with William Burroughs on his famous ‘cut up technique’, where texts are cut into pieces to create new narratives; this association somewhat eclipsed Gysin’s own brilliant contributions from the same era.

The Dreamachine recording is a sonic reinterpretation of the physical Dreamachine Gysin co-created in the late 1950s; a rotating cylinder placed over a light bulb, designed to be experienced with the eyes closed. The flickering light stimulated the brain, theoretically producing colours, patterns or dream-like states. The record follows the same logic, a listening experience built around voice, repetition and rhythm, although it is eminently listenable too purely as entertainment.

I absorbed it on first listen as a sort of mumbly, post-punk jazz piece, bearing in mind Gysin’s influence on David Bowie, Laurie Anderson and Genesis P Orridge. Further listens reveal something more bespoke and personal. It was co-created with Ramuntcho Matta, an artist and musician who worked closely with Gysin during the final years of his life. Matta was introduced to Gysin at 15 by his poetry teacher. “We worked together when we had nothing better to do,” Matta tells me. 

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The bulk of the piece is built around recordings of Gysin’s voice – he reads from unpublished or alternate versions of his writing, moving fluidly between draft, improvisation and spoken performance. Friends and contemporaries also appear in cameo. “A few weeks before passing away he gave me 23 tapes that he recorded himself,” Matta says. “In some you have William Burroughs, in other the Master Musicians of Jajouka, on some others Brion and friends.”

“My cultural context is to hang around with interesting people,” Matta says when I ask him to set the scene of the record’s creation. “When we have nothing more interesting (to do) than speak to each other, walk in the street, eat wonderful food, read books and see movies, dance or theatre, then we will fool around with sounds and sometimes it works… and sometimes not.”

The music itself, which features French bassist Steve Salibur, American soprano sax player Steve Lacy and Matta on guitars, tapes, effects and programming came together through experimentation and improvisation. The musicians respond instinctively to Gysin’s words. At points, the recordings even capture the sound of Gysin writing as he speaks, pen scratching on paper beneath his voice.

The record also features another, shorter piece called The Door, which approaches similar techniques from a different angle. More theatrical and playful, it reflects Gysin’s curiosity about death and what might lie beyond it. “He wanted to do his own version of what would happen the moment you die,” Matta says.

“I recorded the door of the closet of the room of Félix Guattari (the French psychoanalyst and philosopher); that was when the ghosts come out at night… and I asked Steve Lacy to speak with the doors.”

Like the light device, the recording of Dreamachine is meant to be experienced with eyes closed, allowing sound to trigger internal responses rather than demanding focused attention. 

“To some people it will give direct access to instant dreaming,” Matta explains. “For others it will give [an] altered mind state, like with LSD or mushrooms. For others, absolutely nothing. This record will give the experience Brion wanted you to have.”

Brion Gysin’s Dreamachine is reissued on 13 March on Wewantsounds

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