John Cage was a highly regarded avant-garde composer of the mid-20th century. In many ways he was an innovator and presaged musical trends, although it may not have been obvious at the time. He experimented with compositional methods that sometimes included found sounds, compositions that included such things as detuned radios and alternate musical notation. His work was informed by concepts such as chance as a compositional tool, and Zen Buddhism. Likely his most well-known (and notorious) piece is 4’33”, in which a performer (or performers) do not play, and the audience is left with the ambient sounds of the space.
“Williams Mix” is a tape manipulation piece that hints at things to come, and lays the groundwork for such diverse musicians/composers as John Oswald, Double-Dee/Steinski, and even the Beatles (“Number 9” on the White Album). It uses a variety of pieces of recorded tape which are assembled. While there doesn’t seem to be a shape to the piece, it becomes apparent over time that there is a method here, as the sound ebbs and flows with layers and juxtapositions. It opens with applause in the background, and closes with applause, which is layered and manipulated. The piece is a precursor of digital sampling, where musicians could take bits of recorded sound and manipulate them in creative ways.