Monk Mink Pink Punk

This independent and infrequent publication devoted to innovative, distinctive and creative music and art was started in 1994.

CONTACT: Josh Ronsen • 2001 Brentwood • Austin TX 78757 • USA • josh (at) ronsen (dot) org

Interviews

 

Essays

 

Reviews

Kaoru Abe • Alial Straa • Ron Anderson • Koji Asano • Augur & Birds of Tin • Avocado Baby • Derek Bailey • Agnes Bernelle • John Berndt • Bikini Kill • Olivia Block • Bottlecap • Bougouni Yaalali • Anthony Braxton • Anthony Braxton • Anthony Braxton • Anthony Braxton & Richard Teitelbaum • Caspar Brötzmann Massaker • Nigel Bunn • John Cage • John Cage • John Cage • John Cage & David Tudor • Jani Christou • John Clyde-Evans • Computer Soup • Congotronics • Tony Conrad • Eric Cordier • Eric Cordier • Eric Cordier • Cruel Frederick • Cyanosis • Moniek Darge • Das Synthetische Mischgewebe • Willem deRidder • Chrispoher DeLaurenti • Jim Denley • Directions in Music • Don Caballero • DQE • Iancu Dumitrescu • Earzumba • Brian Eno • the Ex • Morton Feldman • Felt • Fibulator • Milo Fine Free Jazz Ensemble • Milo Fine • Kenneth Gaburo • Kenneth Gaburo • Gil San Marcos • God Is My Co-Pilot • Grundik + Slava / Victoria Hanna • Guru • The Hafler Trio • Luc Houtkamp • John Hudak • Kozo Ikeno • Illusion of Safety • Illusion of Safety • Jandek • Jib Kidder • jgrznich & mnortham • Arsenije Jovanovic • Arsenije Jovanovic • Kampec Delores • Kicking Giant • Alison Knowles • Helmut Lachenmann • Dale Lloyd • Brian Locklin & John French • Francisco Lopez • Francisco Lopez • Machine for Making Sense • Magic Hour • Barbara Manning • Marcus Maeder • Masada • Charles Mingus • Alfredo Costa Monteiro • Tatsuya Nakatani • Seth Nehil • Luigi Nono • Luigi Nono • nmperign • Nurse with Wound • Object • Jim O'Rourke • Jim O'Rourke • Steve Peters • PO! • PO! • PO! • Project W • Dick Raaijmakers • Julie Ruin • Rick Reed • Rubble • George Russell • Sabalon Glitz • Seeded Plain • Kendra Smith • Azalia Snail • Mathias Spahlinger • Splinter Orchestra • Sonic Systems Laboratory • Syllyk • Taming Power • Ghedalia Tazartes • Tel Aviv Aftermath • Giancarlo Toniutti • Tortoise • Trophy Wife • Voice of Eye • Voices of Kwann • Dimitri Voudouris • Dimitri Voudouris • Chris Watson • Glenn Weyant • Iannis Xenakis • RHY Yau • Yomillak

 

Art

 

Music (downloads)

music issues:

#20 NOW AVAILABLE!
— Interviews with Azalia Snail and Jim Denley
— Writings on the music of Rick Reed, Rubble, Voice of Eye, John Berndt, Dimitri Voudouris, Trophy Wife, Ron Anderson and others
— A letter from 1945. Which Frogs? Murals! Cross out art.
Available only at http://ronsen.org/monkminkpinkpunk/20.

#17 Online issue:
— Interviews with Philip Krumm and Dianne Bertrand
— Writings on the music of Anthony Braxton, Eric Cordier, Sonic Systems Laboratory, Dimitri Voudouris, Taming Power, Marcus Maeder, Milo Fine, Giancarlo Toniutti
— Essays on Aldous Huxley, Caravaggio and Lee Smolin
Available only at http://ronsen.org/monkminkpinkpunk/17.

#15 Online issue:
— Interviews with Jim O'Rourke and Michael Northam
— A Survey on the nature of today's avant-garde
— Reviews of noise music from Israel, Africa, the Mid-East and Asia
— Writings on the music of Kenneth Gaburo, Arsenije Jovanovic, the Splinter Orchestra, Object and others
— Artwork by Rick Reed
— Never before seen photos of 1970s jazz in Chicago: Mingus! Braxton! Sun Ra! Max Roach! Cecil Taylor!
Available only at http://ronsen.org/monkminkpinkpunk/15.
yet another fantastic collection of reviews and thoughts about new music for literate-minded folks — Startling Moniker

#12 Online issue:
— Interviews with Eric Cordier and Keith Rowe
— The Hidden Meaning of “2001: A Space Odyssey”
— Reviews of noise music from Israel, Texas and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
— Writings on the music of Nigel Bunn, Christopher Delaurenti, Jim Denley and Glen Weyant
— Artwork by Josh Russell
— A collaborative story
Available only at http://ronsen.org/monkminkpinkpunk/12. Free!

#11 Online issue:
— 10 year follow up interview with Anthony Coleman
— A Defense of Abstract Art
— Reviews of Israeli and Korean music CDs
— Writings on the music of John Cage and Dale Lloyd
Available only at http://ronsen.org/monkminkpinkpunk/11. Free!

#9 6 Interviews with Gygory Ligeti 1972-1997, 2 published in English for the first time! Available only at http://ronsen.org/monkminkpinkpunk/9. Free!

#7 Translations of French interviews with Romanian acousmatic composers Iancu Dumitrescu and Ana-Maria Avram.
Available only at: http://ronsen.org/monkminkpinkpunk/7/. Free!

#6 “Essays By Sound Artists:” writings/graphics by Giancarlo Toniutti, Francisco Lopez, John Hudak, Michael Northam, John Grzinich, Seth Nehil, Gerard Klauder, RHY Yau, Christopher DeLaurenti, brekekekexkoaxkoax, Aletha Irby, Joseph Zitt, Eric Cordier, Steve Peters (writing about Alison Knowles), Brandon LaBelle, Iancu Dumitrescu, Ana-Maria Avram, and Arsenije Jovanovic. 20 unusual pages on special paper in an aluminum foil cover, NOW ONLINE!!!
....a beautiful new issue. -- Anomalous Records catalog
....Half of this stuff is over my head, but that's a large part of what's so wonderful about sifting through it. As you go through here, a weird world begins to come into focus... This issue is highly recommended... -- Invisible City
....Special issue of this always cool Austin, Texas-based music 'zine. -- Aquarius Records

#5 Translations of French interviews with Giancarlo Toniutti, David Grubbs (Gastr del Sol), Bernhard Günter, Eric Cordier, Eric LaCasa (Syllyk) and Oliver Charrier. Photo-art by Seth Nehil. True fiction by Seth Tisue (with photos). 32 double pgs, $3
....Very intelligent. -- Kick Bright Zine Listings & Review
....And building connections and networks of international artistic communication--the tasks that Mr. Ronsen's zine is undoubtedly committed to--requires us to check our cultural defenses at the door, set aside these cliches, and maybe actually listen and learn something. -- Invisible City
....MMPP is an information magazine with a clear layout that gives some interesting news from music all around the world. -- Sztuka Fabryka Archive
.......one of the most vital and eclectic music zines going. With some uniformly solid record review coverage sitting like cherries on top, this is a labour of love that is already compulsory reading. -- Broken Pencil #14

#4 interviews with Anthony Coleman, Zusaan Kali Fasteau and the Coctails. A suggestion of Mingus records. Personal information of my life and work history. 48pgs, $2
....Josh's mix of the personal and learned, the humorous and the serious, is appreciated and all too rare these days. -- Caught in Flux #7
....a rather impressive scope, no? -- Power Toot Catalog #8
....prints some of the most thoughtful record reviews ever. -- Review Addict
....a zine that stands out from the rest, reviews of records you're unlikely to find in any other zine. -- Factsheet 5 #62

#3 interviews with God Is My Co-Pilot, Anthony Coleman (talking about GodCo), PO!, Juliana Lueking. A record guide to the Hafler Trio. 48pgs, $1 (with order of other zines).
....mmpp is filled with lots of unusual stuff. -- Power Toot Catalog #4.
....Finally Josh has published another issue... the always amusing "Reviews of Reviews" section (this issue's hapless target is Option's Lang Thompson). -- Caught in Flux #5
....but hey, it's pretty interesting -- Panacea #1
....It's very "meaty" and neatly arranged, making it a bit like a literary anthology that you want to save or maybe even keep on your bookshelf. I like Josh's writing because it's very unpretentious and sincere considering the type of music he's writing about. -- The Question #2
....A fresh collection of writing... I'm throwing this in my backpack for my next trip to the record store. -- Factsheet 5 #59

#1 interviews with Illusion of Safety and Lida Husik. A record guide to Felt. 36pgs. $1 (with order of other zines).
....One of the more well-versed music zines I've come across this time around. In its sphere of coverage, MMPP reads like a miniaturized version of the late (?) Lowlife or Forced Exposure without the off-putting attitude. -- Caught in Flux #3
....The Review of Reviews column, where they critique other magazine's reviews, is a great idea. -- Browbeat #2
....seems a bit more oriented toward forward-thinking experimental musics. -- Factsheet 5 #52

art issues:

#19 Revising The Century
Booklet with 41 international contributions. Extra copies of the booklet are available for trade, or you can view on the web here.

#18 TINY BOX
Box with 50 international contributions of tiny artworks. All boxes went to artists, but you can view on the web here.

#16 MAIL ANT
Poster with 38 international contributions. Extra copies of the poster are available for trade, or you can view on the web here.

#14 (the 2008 Directory of the Texas Association of Concerned Mail Artists (TACMA)) includes art from Bad News Bingo (Diana Garcia) • Cherie Bright • Denise Hurley • Ex Post Facto • Gail Anderson • Honoria • Junanne Peck • Rene Z. Garza • Rod Stasick • Susan Boren • Twitch • Valerie Calvert
NOT AVAILABLE! (there are a few issues for trades with Mail Art archives)

#13 Mail Art issue on Text-Play. Contributors include: Kat Pukas • Andrew Topel • Don Boyd • Tamara Wyndham • P.K. Harris • Devon Paulson • Carol Starr • Dave Baptiste Chirot • Alex V. Cook • Josh Ronsen • Jeph Jerman • Seth Tisue • Ettore Tomas • John Bennett • Nell Waters • Miguel Jimenez • G.X. Jupiter-Larsen.
NOT AVAILABLE! (there are a few issues for trades with Mail Art archives)

#10 A Very Special Issue dedicated to The Dangers of Mail Art.
12pgs, $1

#8 Special issue: 4 Mail Art Projects from contributors around the world: "Music Heard in Dreams" — "39 words of Lawrence Durrell" — "122 Handwritten Variations on Josh Ronsen" — "Corrections from the Newspaper."
42 tall pages, $3
...'Illiterature for the Literate' is this zine's motif, and oh how true it is. I originally jumped right into reading the guts of this tall skinny zine before reading its forward and slowly began sinking into a confusion cloud, not knowing if it was my lack of vocabulary knowledge, the bowl I smoked before starting, or if maybe the zine was playing silly mind tricks on me. I came to realize it was a bit of all three. Lots of experimental and dementionated writing, but at a very high level of quality. I am impressed, but it's like listening to John Zorn in that the scope of accepting audiences for this seems slim. It's that mixture of sophisticated intellectualism and rowdy punk ass linguistic anarchy. And on top of all that, this was a mail art project including dozens of different writers, but each with that same strange understanding of how to twist words and thoughts. Very nice indeed. — Proper Gander #35