laurence collyer playing electric, acoustic and treated guitars, effects, banjo, lap steel, box harp, zither, piano, organ, casios, omnichord, harmonium, shruti box, radios, tapes, melodicas, percussion, bells, glockenspiel, electronics, found sounds, field recordings, voice, harmonicas.

http://www.archive.org/details/OneToTwenty

http://www.myspace.com/electronicmusiklabel

Hildegard Westerkamp is a composer, radio artist and sound ecologist.
She presents soundscape workshops and lectures internationally,
performs and writes.

Ημέρες Ηλεκτροακουστικής Μουσικής 2009

DREAMING IN A CONCENTRATION CAMP

«Famous russian experimentalist Bogdan Dullsky – responsible for the Quest Room Project – returns to test tube with a mixed-media release, to much of my own pleasure as I’m a big fan of his work. For this ‘Freedom Reflex | Second’ he invited some friends to collaborate, namely Barandash (the visual artist who created the amazing images that accompany this work); Nikita Golyshev (founder and curator of netlabel Musica Excentrica and musician) on samplers and synthesizers; Olliver Wichman (founder and curator of netlabel Petcord and musician) on piano, and also Ray Kondrashov on acoustic and midi percussions.
On this follow-up of a previous work, Bogdan and friends create a fantastic work of various levels in complexity, rendering the listener numb and dazzled. ‘Freedom Reflex | Second’ is, simply put, an audio-visual materialization of what life could have been in a concentration camp (one like KZ Mauthausen). Life on the edge, full of horrors, misfortune, sadness and agony, but also a life. What is life when you know it will eventually end, sooner than you think? What if you had to enjoy in the best possible way even knowing you would be eventually tortured and executed? What would fill your mind? What kind of pleasure would you try to take from those moments? What would you dream? Would you dream about Death? Despair? Freedom?

There are many answers to these questions. One possible answer is in ‘Freedom Reflex | Second’. Listen to it, and watch the images closely» – Pedro Leitão

«One year ago I had a terrible dream. Both simultaneously grandiose and beautiful. The whole year I have spent attempting to reproduce landscapes of the spiritual world behind the looking glass, in a sound…

Perhaps. Which that was possible. You check up…

It would be desirable that we have stayed near to prisoners of concentration camp Mauthausen and other camps of death. In what time and in what place they would not be… Can not listen to this album… Simply pray for, that some things. Never repeated… Though… What am I to speak for it? It will repeat again and again… I have impudence pretentiously to trust in a good victory

Take care…» – Bogdan Dullsky

• tube’|mm002 – Bogdan Dullsky - Freedom Reflex | Second

The album consists of two lives shows recorded this year of which the whole content is completely improvised.

Id of Mobius are:
Shaun Blezzard (electronics / bass)
Simon Jones (violin / electroacoustic instruments)
Ian Simpson (electronics / lapsteel)
Harry Gallimore (electronics / kaoss instruments)

Id of Mobius had its roots in last years Centrifuge concerts at the Kings Arms in Salford, Manchester which were organised by Frakture (Liverpool). The chance grouping of Shaun, Harry, Ian & Simon received extremely positive feedback with many audience members requesting they ‘do it again’ sometime. Excursions is exactly that, Id of Mobius ‘doing it’.

Id of Mobius features members from Fonik, Good Noise Bad Noise and Noise Club.

My faith in Electronic Musik has been restored (Phil Morton, Frakture)

www.archive.org/details/ca322_im

www.clinicalarchives.spyw.com

OK just checked out some things about Musique Concrete, something that was raised in our lecture this week. Here’s a link. I think that this level of experimentation and discovery is amazing for it’s day. No Cubase or Pro Tools to deconstruct sounds with, just some clever engineering a bit of maths and some real imagination. It has a number of films on You Tube featuring some contemporary homages to the elders, you can check one out here.

The technique was developed about 1948 by the French composer Pierre Schaeffer and his associates at the Studio d’Essai (“Experimental Studio”) of the French radio system (Encyclopedia Britannica). He would gather an assortment of natural sounds including voices and instruments and arrange these sounds varying their pitch and tone to create some weird and wonderful results that varied in intensity and feel.

This was the first time that electronic aids were used to extend the repertoire  of the composer yet was still frowned upon by more traditionally educated musicians. It is a controversial subject, some people just hear noise, uncomfortable noisy non tempo-ed noise. Others can appreciate the technique, the style and mood of which is meant to be felt.

One of the godfathers of Musique Concrete

Not all traditionally trained composers felt the same way. Three years later in 1951 Schaeffer joined forces with Pierre Henry, who has been worshiped alongside Schaffer as being the pioneers of Musique Concrete. There’s an interesting article here bought the fact that the contemporary theme-song to the TV show ‘Futurama’ was inspired by Henry’s 1967 composition called ‘Psyche Rock’.

Here’s ‘Psyche Rock’ by Henry. I didn’t know there was a Fatboy Slim remix too! Check it out here.

I had the pleasure of hearing ‘Vocalises’ by Pierre Henry (1951), you can listen to it here.

I’m really liking this idea of layering up sounds to create something new. I think I would like to use both .WAV files as well as MIDI instruments and create a mix of old and new. It’s not long until the deadline (27/10/09) so I’d better get cracking as I intend for my piece to closer mimic the movements of the film.Every motion should have a sound. I will use Ableton Live as it is a piece of software I have never used before. I have used things like Reason and Cubase quite a lot so using something new should encourage that feeling of experimentation as I learn how to use Ableton. Hopefully this will show in my final piece. I intend to use a range of frequencies to depict certain movements as well as using spatial awareness to trick the listeners psycho-acoustic awareness. There’s a brief article here about Psychoacoustics, something that I find fascinating. Another thing I am interested in is effects such as Convolution Reverb, the method of taking an impulse response of an acoustic space and convoluting the resulting reverberation with an instrument to make the instrument sound like it is actually being played in the space. People have uploaded their own efforts to forums and includes the Sydney Opera House! You live at the Sydney Opera House! There are some more obscure ones such as plant pots and the back of peoples vans. You can download a copy of SIR here.

SIR is a FREEWARE VST plug in Reverb effect module that allows the use of convolution reverb, great fun, have a go.

Andrea Parkins, « Faulty (Broken Orbit) »

C’est l’adaptation pour CD d’une installation sonore effectuée dans une galerie d’art à New York. Andrea Parkins m’intéresse beaucoup pour son travail sur l’accordéon (depuis un très ancien concert entendu au Vooruit où elle accompagnait Eskelin).  L’accordéon est toujours présent mais dans un dispositif entre l’installation sonore et la musique d’investigation domestique. Andrea Parkins manipule des objets quotidiens et des surfaces familières, usuelles, d’une maison, d’une cuisine… Elle module la plasticité disparate du bruitage quotidien. C’est un peu perturbant parce que si cela évoque bien un monde connu, même de loin – des sonorités font penser à des actes, des gestes, des manipulations ménagères, des ustensiles, au toucher de certaines matières, aux résonances de tel outil sur tel revêtement, aux hoquets électroniques d’un robot – le rendu est très différent, très éloigné aussi des bruits quotidiens tels qu’on les connaît. En tout cas, dans la vraie vie, ils sont discrets, ténus, diffus, comme accidentels. Rien de tout ça avec cet enregistrement. J’imagine, par exemple, que les surfaces deviennent sonores grâce au placement de micros et au frottement, au toucher de la musicienne, directement, ou par objet interposé. En tout cas, il y a contact. La frontière entre l’objet et la main est bouleversée, les frottements donnent des formes, induisent des développements, des transformations de l’accidentel, favorisent l’émergence d’un rythme, en même temps que s’installe une porosité entre ces objets et le monde proprement musical, il y a construction d’un vocabulaire sonore. J’éprouve un certain désarroi pour en évaluer la réussite (contrairement à ce qui se produit avec les meilleurs Voice Crack), tout en reconnaissant que se dégage une atmosphère particulière, forte. Hantée. (Mais ce n’est pas totalement inédit, il y a souvent ce caractère dans ces tentatives de recyclages, de faire musiquer les objets banals de tous les jours). Sauf qu’il y a l’accordéon connecté à tout ça. Il traîne dans les tréfonds de tous les morceaux (assez longs) comme un sous-marin. Ou tout en haut, au-dessus de la surface sonore, comme un ballon voyageur à la dérive. Il capte les ondes, récolte les vibrations périphériques, toutes les secousses des objets et surfaces manipulés déversent en lui, en ses soufflets électriques, des rubans sonores ondulants, monochromes. Il avale et recrache, essaie des harmoniques faussées, des distorsions chancelantes magnétiques qui attirent, des oscillations dansantes un peu barges qui absorbent dans du liant, juste un courant minimal qui balaie et rassemble tout l’épars dans un même flux hésitant, stagnant. Des chants mutiques, balbutiants, troués et aigus, le genre que l’on prêterait facilement à d’imperceptibles phénomènes paranormaux, la visite d’ombres immatérielles, venues d’autres dimensions, le passage d’êtres et d’objets « revenant », des âmes sonores enfin libérées, futiles, insaisissables, justes des filets sonores, des flashs, des drones sourds. Tout le dispositif semble calculé pour « faire parler » les dimensions cachées de l’accordéon, il est au centre, à la même place, strictement, que le corps de l’artiste, ils se superposent, s’équivalent, ils soufflent et résonnent de la même manière. Identité. Idée. C’est par cette juxtaposition, cet change de corps et d’identité entre elle et l’instrument qui fait basculer la musique dans une fiction, qu’elle raconte, murmure des histoires brisées, (inter)rompues. L’accordéon se coule ainsi dans l’étrangeté de la texture quotidienne des choses et des fantômes. Ondes parmi les ondes. Je voulais surtout dire que je ne parviens pas à me décider si l’entreprise est réussie (sans doute qu’il y a du flottement, le discours n’est pas ferme, il y a exploration), pourtant elle attire mon écoute, je l’écoute en plusieurs situations, au calme recueilli, affairé à la cuisine, dans le tumulte des transports en commun, pour essayer de le faire parler par rapport à des contextes. Qu’importe le jugement final, l’important est bien là : susciter l’écoute, l’envie d’examiner de quoi c’est fait. Andrea Parkins est de toute façon une musicienne qui mérite l’attention. (PH) – Andrea Parkins en médiathèque – Avec Eskelin – Andrea Parkins vidéos -

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Derrida

It is of a certain regard that french philosopher Jacques Derrida didn’t accept to be photographed until 1979, at the age of 49. By the way, few years before his death in 2004 he agreed to a movie almost fully centered on his own figure.
“Derrida” by filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman, 2002, put an eye on the philosopher in the attempt to discover the man and close the circle; showing from everyday life to symbolic episodes such as the visit to Mandela’s prison, conferences and teaching activities as well as private camera-talks, the movie (re)presents the algerian born thinker as a person and not only as a philosopher.
But there is an unpredictable depth in Derrida’s eyes, enigmatic as his writing, glances that cross the evidence, always mesmerising and not analising.
The soundtrack composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto was not inspired by this everyday person, neither by his books.
I think he pointed exactly at his eyes.

Aware of the limits of language Sakamoto displays only small and penetrating sound portraits, sharp forms of conversations without words, beyond human language and its duality. The result goes far beyond the soundtrack role itself, fully responding to a listening-only experience and at the same time improving so much of the focus searched in the movie.
Divided into 29 tracks engineered by Fernando Aponte and published by KAB America, this record presents Sakamoto at his best, a passionate scientist and a cold lover, electronic, acoustic and acousmatic.
Mainly worked on piano solo and effects balancing, with the precious collaboration of Phil Romano as piano-tuner, it also includes concrète materials, worked with a cut similar to Akira Rabelais’ Satie re-treatment.
Tracks from a fluid approach more than a deconstructured process.
Luminous connections for enigmatic traces.

sitesakamoto
derridathemovie

Like, six deep in some strage yard.

Today’s specials: With actual, you know, melodies and such.

Some Matt – Freedom Is Just Another Word For Oops
Some Matt – Hppy Yddhs
Some Matt – Let’s Wake Up Together Sometime

A Million Years To Sigh Part 2

I Me Matt – A Million Years To Sigh Part 2
A ten minute meditation tune, with guest vocals from the Conet Numbers Project.

Inspired by the (accidental) discovery of my Macs built in microphone, and our lectures on Luigi Russolo and John Cage, i have composed my own piece of Musique Concrete. You can stream the track ‘HeadScape’ from my myspace profile here : www.myspace.com/toxicdwarf

I had great fun recording all manner of noises for this, from rattling my bracelets, to the flick of a lighter (10 points to anyone who can identify the lighter in the track). I really like the reverb that seems to be present on all the recordings i made (although i have added some different reverb settings to several channels). However i want to get a usb soundcard and nice mic so i can get cleaner recordings.
I am working on another piece in the same style and will be uploading soon. Hope you enjoy this one!

Get the clear and straight sound – download yourself

Get the clear and straight sound – download yourself

Get the clear and straight sound – download yourself

Get the clear and straight sound – download yourself

Meditation

Get the clear and straight sound – download yourself

Get the clear and straight sound – download yourself

Turkey Makes Me Sleepy celebrated its 10 Year Anniversary on April 26th, 2007 with an all-day improvisational recording session. Before that day, group members Michael Adams (Mikadams), Charles Rice Goff III, and Eric Matchett had not all been in a single room at the same time since 2000. The session took place at the Taped Rugs Productions studio in Lawrence, Kansas.

Goff edited the audio highlights of the groupâs anniversary marathon into the seven pieces presented here. Some portions of the recordings were deleted; some of the remaining portions were spliced together; no sound effects were added. What you have here is essentially “the big part of the wishbone.”

A video recording camera was placed in a corner of the studio for a brief time during this session. Goff subsequently played around some with the resulting video, adding photos, effects, and the in-line audio track, creating the lo fi video presented at the link below:

www.archive.org/download/TheBigPartOfTheWishbone/Americabra.mpg

Taped Rugs Productions has produced twelve Turkey Makes Me Sleepy audio releases since 1997. Band members Mikadams, C. Goff III, and Eric Matchett each have a long history of being involved in experimental audio projects and other artistic endeavors.

copyright 2007
Taped Rugs Productions

www.archive.org/details/ca309_tmms

www.clinicalarchives.spyw.com

Play It Loud!

Get the clear and straight sound – download yourself