Monday, October 16, 2006

Four Reverbs and Four Reverbs "PRE-SET"

"Four Reverbs" – what's that in my sidebar?
Every four days my sidebar will be updated. It's kind of a podcast or whatever... four days, four tracks, mixed together carefully. From now on... The reason is an amount of music passing by. Some stuff is old, some is off time, some have been released as single or a compilation element, some have no actual correspondence to the blog content as a full-length but contain a few brilliants. All the scarps are at 128 kbps and packed with the whole bunch of info. Well, check it out from 12.03.2006.
"Four Reverbs "PRE–SET"" – what's that?
Four Reverbs Podcast special serie marked with "PRE-SET" is a mixed result of my research in the field of pre-digital music era. Titles from early 50's to nowdays. All around musique concrète, electro-acoustic music etc. Unheralded Classics of Electronic Music. Look for updates.
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Sunday, October 15, 2006

Four Reverbs | Playlists and links

P R E - S E T
• Fabian Racca, "Rain" | Musicworks ' 2004 ("Musicworks 89" CD comes with the Summer 2004 issue of Musicworks. no info neither on this particular composition nor on composer. Any help would be appreciated.)
• Bernard Parmegiani, "Dedans-dehors-jeux" | INA GRM ' 1992 (Bernard Parmegiani (1927) is a French composer of musique concrete who trained (1959) under Pierre Schaeffer in person. Originally a sound engineer and a mime, his first major composition was the theater piece Violostries (1964), compiled on the double-disc Violostries (Ina-GRM, 1992), that also contains Pour en Finir Avec le Pouvoir d'Orphee (1972), Exercisme 3 (1986), Le Present Compose' (1991), etc."Violostries" is from 1964 and is scored for solo violin and four channels." – Woebot's blog tells. Originally distributed by Philips France. "I implore you to find Parmegiani's "La Creation du Monde" or better yet "De Natura Sonorum" or better yet (well DNS is the accepted classic, but I have a personal fondness for this) "Dedan-Dehors" They're all available on CD.")
• Gordon Monohan, "Danse Aquatique" | Musicworks ' 2004 (Gordon Monahan's works for piano, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer-controlled sound environments span various genres from avant-garde concert music to multi-media installation and sound art. As a composer and sound artist, he juxtaposes the quantitative and qualitative aspects of natural acoustical phenomena with elements of media technology, environment, architecture, popular culture, and live performance. Early in his career, he specialized as a pianist, performing John Cage's Etudes Australes, premiering pieces by James Tenney and Udo Kasemets, and composing extended works for acoustic piano (Piano Mechanics, 1981) and amplified prepared piano (This Piano Thing, 1989). The renowned composer John Cage once said, "At the piano, Gordon Monahan produces sounds we haven't heard before." Beginning in the late 1970's, he created sound works using elements of natural forces and the environment, eventually constructing long string installations activated by wind (Long Aeolian Piano, 1984-88), by water vortices (Aquaeolian Whirlpool, 1990) and by indoor air draughts (Spontaneously Harmonious in Certain Kinds of Weather, 1996). His work for electronic tone generators and human speaker swingers (Speaker Swinging, 1982), is a hybrid of science, music, and performance art, where minimalistic trance music based on the Doppler Effect contrasts with issues central to performance art such as physical struggle and 'implied threat'. Viewing the loudspeaker as a discrete instrument for generating or 'representing' music, Monahan has constructed a loudspeaker catapult (A Magnet That Speaks Also Attracts, 1986) and a series of 'imitation' loudspeaker installations (Music From Nowhere, 1989). During the 1990's he developed an ensemble of multi-functional computer-controlled sound-machines which undergo various transformations as performance and installation environments. In Machine Matrix (1994-96) a programmable MIDI computer controls the actions of a network of machine sculptures built from electronic surplus and industrial trash, which generate complex layers of acoustically produced sounds. A remote-controlled robot enters this environment and pretends to learn how to perform and behave on a public stage. He created an interactive mechanical sound installation for the Sony Center in Berlin (2000), and has recently developed new installations using computer-controlled water drops falling upon amplified objects (When it Rains, 2000/2002). Monahan's interest in 'hi- and low-tech' and 'high and low culture' led him to collaborate with Laura Kikauka and Bastiaan Maris in establishing The Glowing Pickle (Berlin, 1993-95), an electronic surplus store using 20 tons of discarded East German scientific equipment, parodying both communist and capitalist cultures.
Monohan has independently released several LPs ,CDs, and videotapes of his work. He also appears on the Electra/Nonesuch CD compilation Imaginary Landscapes: New Electronic Music. His first solo CD was released on Swerve Editions (Zone Books) in 1992. His videotapes are distributed through V-Tape (Toronto), The Kitchen (NY), and Verge (Peterborough, Canada). Monahan's written texts have been published in Musicworks (Toronto), Ear Magazine (New York), and Zeitschrift für Neue Musik (Frankfurt-Main).)

• Ann Southam, "Rewind" | CBC Records ' 2006 ("Ovation Volume 4" release notes: "CBC Records is proud to release OVATION: VOLUME 4, the next set of the multi-volume project documenting the emergence of a generation of pioneering professional composers that have established Canada’s place on the world’s musical map. This distinctly Canadian music is of the highest order but has not had the audiences nor the attention it deserves.
Each disc in this set, is dedicated to a single composer; each collects in one convenient place that composer’s most accessible and representative works. This fourth set celebrates the music of Robert Turner, Ann Southam, Brian Cherney and Istvan Anhalt." "Rewind" was recorded in 1984 for Toronto Arts Productions.)

Download 01.30.2007 (21.7.5 Mb)

P R E - S E T
• Vladimir Ussachevsky, "Two Sketches for a Computer Piece No.2" | New World Records ' 1991 (Obligatory lazy paste from a website: "Pioneers of Electronic Music" collects works created at the Columbia-Princeton Music Center, one of the more important early centers for electronic music. Included are works by Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening, Pril Smiley, Bülent Arel, Mario Davidovsky, and Alice Shields. The works selected are from 1952 to 1971. Ussachevsky contributes several analog electronic pieces. His "Two Sketches for a Computer Piece" are completely electronic, and are the result of using a computer to sequence pitches. "...piece 2" is dated 1971." You, obviously, will hear a repeating sequence of sound, sort of loop, on the second minute of the track that seemed interesting to me not only as a cross-fade point but as a form of rhythm design, latter adopted by early techno musicians, now days known as "Basic Channel sound". As well, you can hear a hardly flanged layer over that loop... second track is coming effected by Traktor FX console.)
• Doris Hays, "Sacred trip" | Lo Recordings ' 2000 (The track was released on collection of library tracks compiled by Add N To (X) front-man Barry 7. The original recording is dated, surmisingly, 1960's/1970's. Still waiting for reply to my letter to LOAF, wait for update in this playlist.)
• Johann M. Beyer, "Music Of The Spheres" | Sub Rosa ' 2003 (Released on Sub rosa as a part of compilation "An anthology of noise & electronic music vol. 2 – second a-chronology 1936-2003" "Music of the Spheres" (1938) by little known American composer Johanna M. Beyer (1888-1944) has a Scelsi-like aura about it commencing with growling rasps (originally scored for lion-roar) and then evolving into hovering sonorities that softly undulate for the remainder of the 5:59 duration of the work. The work, perhaps one of the first to be scored for electronic instrumentation, was originally conceived as part of a theatre work and was scored for "three electronic instruments or strings". It was performed for this recording in 1977 by The Electric Weasel Ensemble boasting such distinguished members as Allen Strange, Brenda Hutchinson, Donald Buchla and Amirkhanian himself performing on Music Easel Synthesizers, live frequency shifting and triangle.)
• Jim Burton, "Passages From A Buried Script" | Musicworks ' 2004 ("Musicworks 89" CD comes with the Summer 2004 issue of Musicworks. Jim Burton is one of the most active participants of the vibrant New Music explosion that took place in NY in the 1970's. I won't say a word on Jim Burton cause this person inspires me so much, posting space suits better for the description... check for update. "Passages From A Buried Script" is one of the late opuses, can't name the date exactly.)
Download 01.26.2007 (13.5 Mb)

P R E - S E T
• Paul Bonneau, "Touch Typing" | Lo Recordings ' 2001 (Paul Bonneau studied music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris and received the premier prix d'harmonie (1937) in the class of Jean Gallon; the premier prix de fugue (1942) in the class of Noël Gallon; and the premier prix de composition (1945) in the class of Henri Busser. Bonneau was a prolific composer and arranger. He collaborated on 51 French films and a number of courts-métrages" – wikipedia compressed data. Preambule No. 36 was released on collection of library tracks compiled by Add N To (X) front-man Barry 7. The original recording is dated, surmisingly, 1960's/1970's. Wrote a letter to LOAF asking to clear the situation... but it's time to update Four Reverbs "PRE-SET", wait for update in this playlist.)
• Pierre Henry, "Trille" | Philips (France) ' 2000 (In 2000, Philips Music Group (France) released "Mix 02.0" (4 CD) including tracks from Henry's album "Investigations" originally recoded in Studio Apsome, pressed(?) by La Galerie Internationale d'Art Contemporain a Paris in 1959. )
• Takis Velianitis, "Klidon" | ETEBA ' 1997 (No info.... 5 CD release called "Greek Avant-Garde Music of the 20th Century". Could be released on Nonesuch in the series with quarter artwork on the envelope around 1968-69... but it's only a supposition)
• Oliver Messiaen, "Oraison" | Sub Rosa ' 2006 (Originally recorded in 1937!)
Download 01.22.2007 (21.6 Mb)

P R E - S E T (?)
• John Bischoff and Tim Perkis, "Touch Typing" | Artifact Recordings ' 1989 (Composer: Tim Perkis. Performer: Tim Perkis. Recorded: Mills College Concert Hall. This piece grew out of attempts to build a work based on the behavior of genes in biological systems. Perkis used a simplified model of sex and mutation: A string of bits defining a sound event (a "gene") is randomly mutated – one bit, selected at random, is flipped – or the entire gene is cut in half and mixed with another one. These actions are all done under the control of keys on the computer keyboard, which either play events ("express" the gene), cause a mutation to happen, or cause an event to be "bred" with another. This set of controls defines an instrument, which Perkis freely plays in the performance: "I fill the role of natural selection, by choosing to keep some sounds and discard others.")
• Bülent Arel, " Postlude from Music for A Sacred Service" | New World Records ' 1998 (among the others, New World's "Columbia – Princeton Electronic Music Center 1961- 1973" CD includes some works of the head of the Western music programs on Radio Ankara, founder and conductor of the Madrigal Chorus, designer and installer of the Yale’s first electronic music studio – Bülent Arel. His play "Music for a Sacred Service" was commissioned by the United Methodist Church of Illinois. The "Postlude" (mentioned in the list) is composed of cascading patterns, based on purely electronic sound sources modified by mixing and an orgy of tape splicing. The piece moves as a whole, in speed and complexity, from a broad and serious beginning to a virtuosic conclusion. Finished in 1961, it is is an example of finely detailed handwork in the pre-synthesizer days of electronic music. )
• Bülent Arel and Daria Semegen, "Out of into" | New World Records ' 1998 ("Out of Into" is a ribald animated film by Irving Krieberg of metamorphosing figures. The electronic music soundtrack for "Out of Into" was composed by Bülent Arel at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1971, with the technical and musical help of Daria Semegen. The sound sources are electronic. Techniques of construction include loops, mixing, and synchronized tape reels. Both composers also collaborated on the electronic piece "Trill Study", which was created with sound materials used for "Out of Into".)
• Toychestra, "Iren" | S.K. records ' 2002 (Toychestra is an all-women musical ensemble that plays toys. Some are actual instruments like toddler-sized pianos and xylophones and drums. Others just make great sounds, like the pink zoo train or Boo Megaphone or the acoustic, multi-sonic Activity Center. Still others are used for percussion, like the washboard, Don’t Wake Daddy, and woodblock. Each instrument is individually amplified with contact microphones and the collection is mixed live for a bigger electronic sound. This creates a sophisticated aural experience that is a far cry from a bunch of kiddies banging around.)
Download 01.18.2007 (21.6 Mb)

P R E - S E T (?)
• Pierre Henry, "Mouvement" | Philips (France) ' 2000 (In 2000, Philips Music Group (France) released "Mix 02.0" (4 CD) including tracks from Henry's album "Investigations" originally recoded in Studio Apsome, pressed(?) by La Galerie Internationale d'Art Contemporain a Paris in 1959.)
• Hugh Le Caine, "Dripsody" | Radio Canada Intl. ' 2004 ("Dripsody: An Étude for Variable Speed Recorder" (mono version) recorded in 1955 was Le Caine's first project for his new Multi-track Tape Recorder (formally known as the Special Purpose Tape Recorder). It was composed in one night using a recording of a drop of water falling into a bucket, re-recorded at different speeds to produce the pitches of a pentatonic scale. The version mentioned above is a stereo version dubbed in 1957, yet in National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in Ottawa, in spite of the fact that his musical activities were permitted in NRC for the benefit of his work on the development of the first radar systems.)
• Hugh Le Caine, "Mobile" | Electronic Music Foundation ' 1999 ("Mobile: The Computer Laughed (Perpetual Motion)", composed in 1970, was one of the first pieces to be produced on the NRC Computer Music System. The form was influenced by the mobiles of Alexander Calder: the elements seem to build recognizable harmony and counterpoint, but then shift to something unexpected.)
• Pekka Airaksinen, "Sukirti" | Love Records ' 2004 (Love Records put out "Madam I'm Adam", a double CD collection of Airaksinen's music from 1968 to 2003. Most of the which consist of brand new material, but also a few reinterpretations of popular The Sperm (underground/performance group, formed in 1967) favourites from "the golden sixties". "Sukirti" is the piece from 1983, a piece of cosmic "electro-jazz" Airaksinen developed in the 80's, fusing bebop, free jazz and the 808 drum machine sound, still astonishes.)
Download 01.14.2007 (21.6 Mb)

P R E - S E T (?)
• Mount Vernon Arts Lab, "Electroluminessense" | Via Satellite ' 1996
• Kirk Corey, "Two Part Invention No.1" | Soundprints ' 1996 (Composed using techniques based on theories of chaos; a long catalogue name has been given to the release however I couldn't find any evidence of this label presence.)
• Desmond Leslie, "Invention of The Weapon" | Trunk Records ' 2005 (Released never before, Theme Music from the film: "The Day the Sky Fell In" finished in 1958.)
• Percy Granger, "Free Music 1 (for Four Theremins)" | Sub Rosa ' 2003 (Nothing but the reissue of the composition originally recorded in 1936.)
Download 01.10.2007 (5.6 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
• Jean Schwarz and Alexandre Ouzounoff, "Assolutamente" | Celia Records
• Mats Gustafsson, "Catapult of Solitudes – to Paul Auster" | Doubtmusic
• Taku Sugimoto and Kevin Drumm, "Den #4" | Sonoris
• Bunsho Nishizawa and Tim Olive, "Ushitsuki" | Improvised Music from Japan
Download 01.06.2007 (20.5 Mb)

P R E - S E T (?)
• Jean-Claude Risset, "Mutations" | INA GRM ' 1969
• Pierre Henry, "Sequence" | Philips, France ' 1959 (Released never before 2000.)
• Daniel Teruggi, "Leo Le Jour" | Wergo and INA GRM ' 1997 (Appears to have come as appendix of 5/97 issue of Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, a German New Music magazine.)
• Zack Settel, "Skweeit-Chupp" | Empreintes DIGITALes ' 1990
Download 01.02.2007 (9.2 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
It's only three tracks, one track less. Can I effort, it's a Holy Day after all?
• Chinaboise, "Time-Temp" | Gulcher Records
• Blind Boys Of Alabama, "Precious Lord" | RealWorld/CEMA
• Geeez'n'Gosh, "Oh, Precious Lord (I'm thankful)" | Mille Plateaux
Download 12.24.2006 (7 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
• Solmaz Sporel and Ilhan Mimaroglu, "Gizmeli Kedi" | Creel Pone (released only in Turkey)
• Boris D Hegenbart, "Crockl" | Quecksilber
• Waldron, Stapleton, Sigmarsson, Haynes, Faulhaber, "Candlelight Ceremonies For Killing Time"
| The Helen Scarsdale Agency
• Electronvc, "Mecanictrue" | Acedia
Download 12.20.2006 (8.9 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
• Enore Zaffiri, "Rannoch, BY Glencoe" | Rossbin
• Respirator, "Theremin" | Organic Pipeline
• Manfred Miersch, "Tierpark 03" | Krautopia
• Mats/Morgan Band, "Drum and Theremin" | Ultimate Audio Entertainment
Download 12.16.2006 (12.2 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
It's only two, but enormously long, tracks:
• RFZ, "Berlin Labor er 5" | Krautopia
• Pestrepeller, "My gun scatters, my gun kills" | Important
Download 12.12.2006 (15.8 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
• Sebastien Roux, "The Guitar and Drums Song" | 12k
• Fred Frith, Stevie Wishart, Carla Kihlstedt, "Time goes largo" | Intakt
• Huntsville, "Melon" | Rune Grammofon
• Christina Carter, Andrew MacGregor, " We Know When We are Thinking About Each Other"
| Very Friendly
Download 12.08.2006 (26.6 Mb)

4 R E V E R B S (?)
• Freiband, "Bij" | Crуnica
• Will Guthrie, "Taken" | Cathnor
• Mass Ensemble, "Clear Span" | Aluminum
• Nils Okland, "Slor"| Rune Grammofon
Download 12.03.2006 (15.3 Mb)

Saturday, October 14, 2006

take off

take off.. do not know where i land.. 0:57.. to be continued