I first saw a copy of Source when I was a student. I instantly feel in love with it - a real treasure trove from the past, full of weird ideas and interesting people. The blend of art, performance and music (very challenging music to me back then) really did it for me. It had an almost fanzine like feel, even though it had great production quality. The graphic design, paper stock and use of foldouts, transparencies, inserts and not mention 10inch vinyl discs, makes them incredible design objects. Oh yeah and the content is pretty spectacular too, with the likes of John Cage and many from the Fluxus group they really capture that late 60's early 70's art/performance scene. There is also a lot of technology and experimentation going on, with cool diagrams and plans on how to build a range of wonderful music machines.
I eventually got my hands on two issues a few years back. Firstly issue 7/8 a double issue that's flipped back to back. I've taken a few shots fro that for this post as there seems to be little visual reference on the web for them. I'll be posting shots from issue 11 in the next post.
If you want to hear the "music", the brilliant Ubuweb has a bunch of MP3's here: