Talk:Brion Gysin

Photo change?
Don't be so sure. I posted the record cover photo (the front cover of which was signed and dedicated by Brion in Paris in 1985) out of nostalgia for someone I respected. I won't "take issue" and, in fact, encourage anyone with a less "kind of silly" photo to replace it. -Regards. --- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.202.6.189 (talk) 21:28, 23 April 2008 (UTC) How about a photo of Gysin alone? The image posted is kind of silly, considering there are better shots, ones which don't need to state 'upper left' in order to be understood. That said, I'm sure whoever posted it will take issue. --- Sounds like a cool guy. --- What about Gysin's drawings and paintings? - Biography published: "Nothing is True - Everything is Permitted: The Life of Brion Gysin" by John Geiger - Born in England (Location?) of Swiss descent, raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Became a naturalized American, who lived most of his life in Morocco and France. - How does one pronounce his name? - I've seen a lot of different resources that have his name as "Byron Gysin". I was recently reading a book, Acid Dreams, that mentions a "Byron Gysin". Does anyone know what his real name is, or possibly why this is so?

- he was born in england on a army base. his grandfather was swiss and moved to england. his father born in england. his mother was canadian. he was raised in edmonton canada. born as brian john gysin,it became brion from a mistake on a passport. pornounce as brian 'guy - sin' ...went to university in england,went to france,greece,many other european places. he was a member of the surrealist group,but was kicked out most likely for being openly homosexual. joined the american army where he met a relative of the real 'uncle tom' and wrote 'to master a long good night' joined the canadian army also and studied calligraphy.he was a friend of paul bowels he went to morocco and ran a unsuccessful restaurant,and also recorded music of jajouka,long before brian jones of the stones stones did. mostly known as a writter he was also a great visual artist as well as a sound artist. some recordings include BG special,the pool K III,music of jajouka,recordings1964-81,songs with steeve lacy and matta. and self portrait jumping. his name is misspelled alot,ive seen brian guyson,brion guysan ect. in morocco sometimes he went as brion van der gysin. the biography by John Geiger is pretty usefull and full of small details. john also wrote a book and the dreamachine,an invention of gysin and ian sommerville. a man named david woodard sells dreamachines and his web site says 'invented by a 'canadian-islamic' ... im really not sure where to say brion was 'from' england,canada,france,morocco...he usualy claimed to be swiss,but i have never read any info on brion even visiting switzerland,much less BEING swiss. but islamic. no. he had interest in theologies,but never persued with any zeal.


 * I don't know if one ought to take advice on the pronunciation of Brion Gysin's name from someone who writes that he was a friend of "paul bowels [sic]." I must say, though, that was really funny. Wikipedia comes through again. 66.108.4.183 02:30, 12 August 2006 (UTC)


 * wtf? someone writes out an informative paragraph and you pick out a typo. well done.

radiophonic edit
Firstly, I'll have to apologise because I don't actually know too much about what sounds like a really interesting guy here. What I do know is that, despite quite a lot of searching I can find no link between Gysin and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop as was previously stated (and, in fact, is repeated on the 60 or so articles copied the material on this page). He did indeed make what would be considered radiophonic works, and the "pistol poem" (which was mentioned in relation to the workshop before i deleted it) was indeed made for the BBC as it says here, so I can understand where the mix-up would come from. However I can find no evidence he was ever at the Radiophonic Workshop. If anyone can find any source which states otherwise (and isn't connected to the material on this page) then I truly apologise but for now I thought it was best to get rid of it. I've also deleted a couple of links because they didn't seem to link to anything concerning Gysin. I've also discussed it for too long on this page! --Thetriangleguy 19:36, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

In Recordings: 1960-81 on the track "Thoughts on the BBC," he says he was invited by the BBC in the early 60's to play around with a new 32-track they had obtained. He worked with a producer named Douglas Cleverdon. He says he did the Pistol Poem with Cleverton. He doesn't, however, make it clear if it was done at the BBC Workshop. It's pretty clear he did visit the BBC at some point. I don't know enough about the Workshop to know if it's definitely where he would have visited at the BBC, or if he might have visited some other recording studio, so I'll leave the actual judgement to somebody else. Either way, I'd definitely like to see this article grow. He seems to have been vastly undercredited in his influence of Burroughs and others. From these recordings, it sounds as if he was briefly involved with Breton and the Surrealists, as well as Jean Genet. Recnilgiarc 14:16, 2 January 2007 (UTC) In the Radiophonic Workshop's official 25th Anniversary book from 1983 it is referred to. He came to the Workshop and recorded a programme. Frustratingly, the book does not say what year this happened but states his performance included "I Am That I Am", "Rub Out The Words" and "Junk Is No Good Baby". They even devote a whole page to a transcript of "I Am That I Am". Ned

- "He is best known for his rediscovery of Tristan Tzara's cut-up technique" This seems misleading because Gysin discovered this technique independently, and not because of Tzara (besides, their techniques had differences).

If you listen to Dead city radio(burroughs album) he mentions Brion Gysin afew times. He pronounces it 'guy sin' ,furthermore he was friends with Bowles, even lived with Paul&Jane for a short time. It's all in the Geiger biography.

The Process
I've just created a stub article on The Process (novel). I've never read this book, however, so cannot contribute to the article more than I have. If anyone is more familiar with this book, please feel free to add information to the article. Thanks! 23skidoo 18:54, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Article protected
I've just protected this article and a few other related articles as per the mediation process going on at User:FayssalF/JK. Thanks for your understanding. -- FayssalF  - Wiki me up®  15:29, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

recent rewrite
recent rewrite has neglected years 1961 to 1984 ie most of this persons life.

Will help rework

opiumjones 23 (talk) 00:48, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Japanese Language learning in World War Two
As Donald Keene tells us in his memoirs, the World War Two Army-courses included first lessons in "grass"-script - after the soldiers had mastered writing their Kanji in "Japanese elementary school"-script, the stuff universities manage not to teach in years. It is interesting to compare Gysin's Japanese-style with the handwritten examples in some, non-infantile, US-textbooks teaching Kanji (Eleanor Harz Jorden).--Radh (talk) 17:47, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

Misogyny
comment about his misogyny:

'Nasty Burroughs proclaimed him a confirmed misogynist, causing Gysin to respond: “Don’t go calling me a misogynist…a mere misogynist. I am a monumental misanthropist. Man is a bad animal…. Me, I AM a compromise, a compromise between the sexes in a dualistic universe.”'

Dudanotak (talk) 20:44, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060614155830/http://www.23degrees.net:80/cutup/ to http://www.23degrees.net/cutup/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061105174623/http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0149,ashman,30459,10.html to http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0149,ashman,30459,10.html
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071107104038/http://www.jajouka.com:80/williamsburroughs.html to http://www.jajouka.com/williamsburroughs.html

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Flute Music
I recall listening to an album of flute music, performed inside a very large dome (I assume a mosque); the flautist used the echo in the dome as part of the instrument. It was seriously spacey music. I would like to know more about this album.

At the time, I understood that this music was attributable to Bryon Gysin. BTW, I would like to see some guidance on the correct pronunciation of his name; I have always pronounced it (well, since the mid-seventies) as "Ron Geesin". MrDemeanour (talk) 17:51, 6 January 2020 (UTC)