Sampling is one of the most important cultural methods of the 20th Century. What began in 1913 as a manifesto of the italian futurist Luigi Rossolo
to replace music with 'The Art Of Noise' and continued in France with the musique concréte-experiments of Pierre Schaefer, led to the thousands of
DJ-Megamixes, Cut-And-Paste-Tracks and 'plunderphonics' of the new Century.
The musique concréte-school attended to experiment with recording technology and tape manipulation exploiting any sound they could get their hands on.
The author William S. Burroughs, together with avantgarde painter Brion Gysin, developed the cut-up technique – cutting text at random
and rearrange it to create a new text - to break the linearity of common literature.
Together these avantgarde artists influenced thousands of musicians and Djs like John Oswald, Art Of Noise, Steven 'Steinksi' Stein,
Tim 'Bomb The Bass' Simenon or Coldcut. At the end of the Eighties they conquered the billboard charts using radical collaged music.
In the beginning of the 21st Century the technique of MashUp was driven by millions of anonymous producers and Djs to insane levels.
Following 'Culture Jamming' the documentary 'Sampling' is the second part of the postmodern culture series by the german director David Schwertgen.
The documentary is recounting the history of sampling from the very beginning in 1913 to the present day, using historical footage,
interviews with important musicians and live appearances of contemporary artists.
