Artist: scissor shock WTF Album: psychic existentialism Tags: frantic, progressive, collage, hyperactive, atonal WTF Quality: non-idiomatic uncategorizable music using fairly simple sounds that rolls and rolls round and round and rarely repeats itself Lifespan: 2003 - Country: USA  welcome to psychic existentialism, a 13 course 32 minute discourse on the secret techniques of mind warping, neuron juggling, wave honing, future reading, phantasm bathing, rock hounding, and exotic tastes. In the first course you will be escorted by swami E. Gulzaiye into the isolation hydroponic chamber where mental beams protruding from cyclopean driblet dispensers sprinkle creamy Kegel sauce upon your law of thermodynamics. Following your initiation into the basic fundamentals of the training procedure, you begin the introduction of the hypnotic trance.  From January to February 1817, San Martín led the Army over the Andes in an audacious move that turned the tables on the royalists. The salad is divine. Breathe and feel the one-ness. Students should understand the following issues: quick panning meta-poly-morpho-rhythm diving atmosphere habitats the capitalist system goes from a complementary symbiosis to a parasitism that kills the host audial hue Connoisseurs who have ridden the Puma concolor through the realm of the "shrine of salvaged junk" should be well familiar with some of the taste waves on display. These are made by obstructing the glottis (the space between the vocal cords) or oral cavity (the mouth) and either simultaneously or subsequently letting out air from the lungs. This time, attention has been paid to the minute details of p-branes, wooden mallets, 10 year bond yields, hard protein called keratin, ad infinitum. Be prepared for increased rainfall, rising sea levels, and tropical cyclones. A Pâté made from dinosaur fossils, giant millipede legs, squid ink sac, and rubber tree butter will be served on a dish of very delicate porcelain in the style of the Ming emperor Chenghua. Upon mastery of these techniques the initiate will be forced to consume sugarcane to stimulate vomiting and defecation, as a way of internally cleansing their body. We survey some aspects of the theory of the integrated density of states (IDS) of random Schroedinger operators. Therefore: • Fire setting • Hydraulic mining • Reverse overshot water-wheels  Learning Objectives: 1. guitar 2. here kitty kitty kitty 3. Hawaiian alphabet 4. cut Variations in the exploratory behaviour of Great Tits (Parus major) have been found to be linked with a gene orthologous to the human gene DRD4 (Dopamine receptor D4) which is known to be associated with novelty-seeking behaviour. Specific Tasks Accomplished: 1. Students will demonstrate a mythical union between a lion and a human princess 2. Students will demonstrate establishment of decentralized guerrilla commands 3. Students will demonstrate catalytic purification by hydrodemetallisation (HDM), hydrodesulfurization (HDS) and hydrodenitrogenation 4. Students will demonstrate dictus autem Monoecus vel quod pulsis omnibus illic solus habitavit Grading Policy: a. crack cocaine 25 % b. pastrami 75 % Total Snake 100% It goes beyond good times into the meta-critical point concerning the normative conditions of possibility for theorizing the critical-emancipatory project which concerns the addressees of and participants in processes of theoretical and practical enlightenment for dessert, utensils. http://www.mediafire.com/?b28upiail4y5a57 -Jeemobon | |
scissor shock - psychic existentialism
Emmanuel Lorien Spinelli - Lands and Genotypes
Artist: Emmanuel Lorien Spinelli
WTF Album: Lands and Genotypes
Tags: Ecoutism, Objects, Electro-Acoustic, Sound-Collage, Acoustic-Ecology, Interview/Text-Based-Material, Found-Sound, Environmental, Sound-Scape, Live-Electronics, Contemporary-Composition, Acousmatic
WTF Quality: Using people as subjects to create music with, finding musical qualities within human speech, extended use of objects and field recordings, unique editing techniques
Lifespan: 1998 -
Country: UK
Links: http://www.emalorien.com / http://www.myspace.com/emmanuellorienspinelli / http://www.myspace.com/blankimprov
I'm very proud to introduce a fascinating artist, a treasure hidden in the depths of London: Emmanuel Lorien Spinelli. A man of intriguing stories and unique approaches in unraveling them.
He's involved with various musical projects but today I would like to look at one specific project of his: "Lands and Genotypes".
With this particular project he combines soundscapes using objects and field recordings with the musical qualities in the inflections of speech to get to the heart of the perception of identities and the problems that are involved.
"Lands and Genotypes" is an act of voyeurism. Or as Emamanuel prefers to call it, "Ecoutism" - voyeurism with your ears.
Each piece is centered around a person, or a subject (or group of subjects), and built from there.
Interviews of the subject are conducted and recorded to be used as material for the piece.
Field recordings are then made of places and objects that relate to the subject.
Spinelli helps shed some light on this process, "Each sound must have a relationship, in one way or another, to the people interviewed during the composition process, and all these sounds are part of their sonorous environments, their personal soundscape. Prior to the field recordings, I always ask my interviewees to map the different locations where they usually spend most of their time and, when appropriate, sounds they remember from those places. I usually record much more material in those locations to capture other sounds they might not be aware of and seemed less obvious in order to highlight other sound-marks that are part of the sound-subjects' surroundings in a more detailed fashion."
What follows is an interview I conducted with Mr. Spinelli that starts off explaining the editing process of "Lands and Genotypes" - after the subjects and the field recordings and objects have been recorded.
It quickly sets deeper into the mind of Emmanuel Lorien Spinelli and the subjects that make up his music.
It's a beautiful and thought-provoking story and one worth reading.
So, just relax with a cup of coffee and throw on some "Lands and Genotypes" (all tracks available for free streaming here -http://www.last.fm/music/Emmanuel+lorien+spinelli/Lands+and+Genotypes) in the background and enjoy the interview.
onionpalac: Could you run through your approach in constructing your "Lands and Genotypes" pieces?
Emmanuel: Once I've got all the material, interviews and field recordings, I do two things.
I draw a map from memory where actual locations get mixed up with imaginary or sensual concrete sounds. I often use the sort of inside/outside concept. Then I spend most of my time chopping up voices. The objects that belong to the inside, like a gas pipe, air conditioner, kitchen appliances etc. and the subjects' personal objects are mixed with the field recordings of specific locations that carry meaning for my subject, such as place of birth, hang outs etc...
As for the vocal edits, I usually create a bunch of folders organized by themes for example, "ducks" or "visit to Auschwitz" (used in "Anseriformes Twins"). Then I use some randomized playlist like winamp to create random patterns and see what kind of strange associations the different "bits of interview" can convey. This is my basic techniques for editing the voices. I am very influenced by Cut-up, William Burroughs, Antonin Artaud and the surrealists poets.
onionpalac: Do you feel that listeners should understand the background of these pieces to fully appreciate them?
Emmanuel: Yes and no, indeed.
Yes because it helps make sense of what may seem abstract at first glance.
And no because I don't consider people stupid and if they don't to know the story behind it, they can create their own, which is very often even more relevant.
Nevertheless it is an unresolved question.
onionpalac: If you don't supply the background then why go through the whole process that you do? You can make it all up instead, no?
Emmanuel: It is an interesting question.
It is a necessary condition. But the process has to be truthful to have an interest for me.
It is important to me because it is a process that informs myself about myself as well.
onionpalac: Are you a voyeur yourself?
Emmanuel: YES! I am an ECOUTEUR/voyeur!
onionpalac: Do you have a background in voyeurism? Are there other voyeur activities you have been involved with?
Emmanuel: No, not really. Actually to be a voyeur you have to enjoy watching and unfortunately I don't.
onionpalac: Haha - you enjoy listening . . .
Emmanuel: Yep, indeed!
onionpalac: Could you talk about transitions? How one event or scene blends into another.
Emmanuel: Well, it is a difficult territory because I am a workaholic. I can spend up to a year and half to mix the first version of a piece. The "Anseriformes Twins" piece took 3 years.
So yeah, transitions are essentials. I can spend days on a couple of cross fades with a bunch of sounds. To be honest, I can spend a whole day trickling the button of one of my children toys in preparation for an improv.
onionpalac: The reason I ask is because I listen for transitions in music very deeply - and in music such as yours I think it's a key ingredient but you pull it off really well.
Emmanuel: Thanks, I agree. I always pay close attention to this these sort of things in other people's music as well. When a transition sucks, you loose the magic.
onionpalac: Which brings me to ask you about influences.
Emmanuel: I have two kinds of influences: on one side composers like R. Murray Schafer, John Levack Drever, Annea Lockwood, of course Jean Luc Goddard and Tarkovsky for film, and sound poets like Kurt Schwitters, the Fluxus movement, etc...
And on the other side, of course Cage, Merzbow, John Zorn (huge...) and all the free improv freaks - the obscure and delightful!
onionpalac: Do you think of film theory while piecing your work together?
Emmanuel: Not at all. Except maybe Goddard and his schizo-narrative.
The reason I say I don't think of film theory is that I don't think in terms of narrative, story, construction of meaning but in terms of "opening a wound" or maybe "a womb" where
meaning happens no matter what. I just try to highlight the paradoxical, playful, and dark moments that occur during one's self account. I think in musical terms even with the spoken words.
onionpalac: But it's all related to the subject - the person you're wrapping everything around.
Emmanuel: Yes, of course. And that's the magic thing about it. Because all these fragmented elements relate to the same subject (or group of subjects), I don't have to think about narrative.
onionpalac: And that in itself is the narrative, story and meaning.
Emmanuel: Yes, you're right. That is the narrative, in a way . . .
onionpalac: It's up to the listener.
Emmanuel: Yes, that's why I call it opening a wound because then the listener has to stitch the whole thing together on his or her own.
onionpalac: What made you come up with the whole Ecouteur and "Lands and Genotypes" idea?
Emmanuel: HA! The truth is I have been a stutterer all my life. When I was younger I used to start a sentence, get stuck, change my mind and say something else. When I started listening to people talking I realized I wasn't the only one and we all do it in a way. I just try to capture that in people. If you have this mental stutter that happens when you breathe, think and talk at the same time, then you're not that different from me.
onionpalac: Because of this you took detailed notice in speech.
Emmanuel: Yes, I had to learn to listen and reproduce.
onionpalac: Are you bilingual?
Emmanuel: Yes, French and English.
I was brought up in France but my mum (who had been brought up in the UK) always spoke to me in English. But she died in 1983. That's partly why i moved to the UK, to know more about myself. Also, she was of Jewish decent, which i didn't know until about ten years ago. So i've spoken both languages all my life but English was kind of kept hidden inside. I often realize that I know certain words without understanding where I learned them from. They're just there inside.
onionpalac: I ask because when learning another language as an adult it can open up the subtleties of speech in one's mother tongue. I wonder if that had any impact on your thinking.
Emmanuel: Yes, indeed. A huge impact. And, in fact, the core of my research is based on the idea of trans-identity in foreigners living in London.
onionpalac: "Learn a new language and get a new soul." ~Czech Proverb
Emmanuel: Of Course, and it is also having a double conscience. It is a treasure.
onionpalac: So, you would say that the root of your research is from being aware of your uncontrolled stutter and extending that onto how others do it - be it a lot less?
Emmanuel: I guess it's maybe not the root of my research but it dictated a big part of my aesthetic and process. The root of my research is really about the perception of identities, trying to understand what's at play during the process of expressing oneself, and it is about practice. How to use all these elements in order to make music.
onionpalac: So, what is the root of your study in the perception of identities?
Emmanuel: It's a long story but in a nut shell: it all started with a fascination for the stupidity of what I read in the news in France and when I discovered elements of my past that stayed hidden in my family because it was considered shameful. I realized part of my family where spitting pork under the tables at the restaurant to look like everyone else. So, I guess I try to make sense of all this crap and the roots of my research come from the fundamental curiosity and this puzzling experience. So much is hidden in all of us.
onionpalac: How do you choose your subjects?
Emmanuel: The truth is I don't. They are all average Joes.
onionpalac: Don't they ever get freaked out in the process of you in a way stalking them?
Emmanuel: Yeah, sometimes . . .
onionpalac: Yeah - you're getting your nose all up in their business. Has anyone abruptly just called it off?
Emmanuel: Yes, that happens quite regularly but usually early in the process.
onionpalac: Do you have any preferences for your subjects?
Emmanuel: No, not really but I tend to get attracted to people with strong political backgrounds. It gives me something to start with. But it deviates quickly after that.
onionpalac: What are the reactions of the subjects when they hear the final product - the music?
Emmanuel: They are often surprised by the things they said and don't always realize that the whole thing is edited. I guess the best is when they react to the sounds and recognize the places. Some of them get quite emotional, like the old lady who cried when she heard the harbor sounds or amused when the twins heard the sound of the washing machine and the lady from the shop swearing. Their mum was staring in the void when listening to the ducks and said, "You know, I know these ducks." I said, "Well, your sons said their first words at that location." She looked like she had a moment of revelation and she started laughing. She was great, very sweet.
onionpalac: Thats a great story - the after effect!
Emmanuel: Yep, these are often the best moments.
onionpalac: So, you sit down with the subjects for their first listen?
Emmanuel: Yes, I normally bring my laptop, put a big pair of headphone on their ears and play a stereo reduction of the piece . It kind of isolates them so I don't get punched half way through!
onionpalac: How do you approach your subjects to do this? What do you say? I can't imagine . . .
Emmanuel: I don't say anything in particular. It depends on the person. Some are very sensitive and others don't give a rat's ass. Maybe they just think they'll be famous.
onionpalac: Britain's Got Talent!
Emmanuel: Can you imagine!
onionpalac: "Do you mind if I poke around your life and record everything about you?" kind of thing?
Emmanuel: Yeah man, "I'm that freak everyone is talking about! I'm featured in a fucked up experimental piece!"
onionpalac: Haha! Really, I think it's nuts how you get these people to agree!
Emmanuel: Nutters I tell you!
onionpalac: So, would you do it?
Emmanuel: Do what?
onionpalac: Would you be a subject for your own work?
Emmanuel: That's THE question!!
onionpalac: There it is!
Emmanuel: Well, yes i would. Obviously, I can't do it myself.
And yes, I'm terrified to do it.
onionpalac: You would need a complete stranger to do it.
Emmanuel: You're right, but who? I need someone who understands the work.
onionpalac: Maybe one of our readers out there can volunteer to take on such as task. You can be sure that we'll be following it the whole way through.
And on that note I believe we can wrap it up.
Thanks Emmanuel, it's been a pleasure.
Emmanuel: Same here. Till next time!
Please take time to investigate these engaging pieces of strangers' lives.
Step into the soul of someone through aural transportation.
These pieces are true experiences in themselves.
They can enlighten and cast discovery upon yourself and the life around you.
And while you're at it please dive into the rest of Emmanuel Lorien Spinelli's music from his website. He has a lot of it and it may seem overwhelming.
I suggest his improv unit Blank Ensemble, made up of:
Emmanuel Lorien Spinelli: Guitars, Lap-top, Midi-guitar, Toys & Objects + Live Electronics
Tom Slater: Percussions, Samplers, Folios
Jean-Michel Unglas: Chapman Stick, Handsonic, Objects
Mickey Kirkpatrick: Flutes, Melodica, Objects
Charlie Richardson: Saxophone, Clarinet, Objects
Their album "Small Mechanisms" is a roller-coaster of object sounds mixed with tight free improv.
Find that here - http://www.last.fm/music/Emmanuel+lorien+spinelli/Small+Mechanisms
"Lands and Genotypes" can be streamed and partially downloaded from Last.FM:
http://www.last.fm/music/Emmanuel+lorien+spinelli/Lands+and+Genotypes
You can also immerse yourself with the ideas of the album at his myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/emmanuellorienspinelli
Further discussion of this artist and album can be found: HERE
-onionpalac
WTF Album: Lands and Genotypes
Tags: Ecoutism, Objects, Electro-Acoustic, Sound-Collage, Acoustic-Ecology, Interview/Text-Based-Material, Found-Sound, Environmental, Sound-Scape, Live-Electronics, Contemporary-Composition, Acousmatic
WTF Quality: Using people as subjects to create music with, finding musical qualities within human speech, extended use of objects and field recordings, unique editing techniques
Lifespan: 1998 -
Country: UK
Links: http://www.emalorien.com / http://www.myspace.com/emmanuellorienspinelli / http://www.myspace.com/blankimprov
I'm very proud to introduce a fascinating artist, a treasure hidden in the depths of London: Emmanuel Lorien Spinelli. A man of intriguing stories and unique approaches in unraveling them.
He's involved with various musical projects but today I would like to look at one specific project of his: "Lands and Genotypes".
With this particular project he combines soundscapes using objects and field recordings with the musical qualities in the inflections of speech to get to the heart of the perception of identities and the problems that are involved.
"Lands and Genotypes" is an act of voyeurism. Or as Emamanuel prefers to call it, "Ecoutism" - voyeurism with your ears.
Each piece is centered around a person, or a subject (or group of subjects), and built from there.
Interviews of the subject are conducted and recorded to be used as material for the piece.
Field recordings are then made of places and objects that relate to the subject.
Spinelli helps shed some light on this process, "Each sound must have a relationship, in one way or another, to the people interviewed during the composition process, and all these sounds are part of their sonorous environments, their personal soundscape. Prior to the field recordings, I always ask my interviewees to map the different locations where they usually spend most of their time and, when appropriate, sounds they remember from those places. I usually record much more material in those locations to capture other sounds they might not be aware of and seemed less obvious in order to highlight other sound-marks that are part of the sound-subjects' surroundings in a more detailed fashion."
What follows is an interview I conducted with Mr. Spinelli that starts off explaining the editing process of "Lands and Genotypes" - after the subjects and the field recordings and objects have been recorded.
It quickly sets deeper into the mind of Emmanuel Lorien Spinelli and the subjects that make up his music.
It's a beautiful and thought-provoking story and one worth reading.
So, just relax with a cup of coffee and throw on some "Lands and Genotypes" (all tracks available for free streaming here -http://www.last.fm/music/Emmanuel+lorien+spinelli/Lands+and+Genotypes) in the background and enjoy the interview.
onionpalac: Could you run through your approach in constructing your "Lands and Genotypes" pieces?
Emmanuel: Once I've got all the material, interviews and field recordings, I do two things.
I draw a map from memory where actual locations get mixed up with imaginary or sensual concrete sounds. I often use the sort of inside/outside concept. Then I spend most of my time chopping up voices. The objects that belong to the inside, like a gas pipe, air conditioner, kitchen appliances etc. and the subjects' personal objects are mixed with the field recordings of specific locations that carry meaning for my subject, such as place of birth, hang outs etc...
As for the vocal edits, I usually create a bunch of folders organized by themes for example, "ducks" or "visit to Auschwitz" (used in "Anseriformes Twins"). Then I use some randomized playlist like winamp to create random patterns and see what kind of strange associations the different "bits of interview" can convey. This is my basic techniques for editing the voices. I am very influenced by Cut-up, William Burroughs, Antonin Artaud and the surrealists poets.
onionpalac: Do you feel that listeners should understand the background of these pieces to fully appreciate them?
Emmanuel: Yes and no, indeed.
Yes because it helps make sense of what may seem abstract at first glance.
And no because I don't consider people stupid and if they don't to know the story behind it, they can create their own, which is very often even more relevant.
Nevertheless it is an unresolved question.
onionpalac: If you don't supply the background then why go through the whole process that you do? You can make it all up instead, no?
Emmanuel: It is an interesting question.
It is a necessary condition. But the process has to be truthful to have an interest for me.
It is important to me because it is a process that informs myself about myself as well.
onionpalac: Are you a voyeur yourself?
Emmanuel: YES! I am an ECOUTEUR/voyeur!
onionpalac: Do you have a background in voyeurism? Are there other voyeur activities you have been involved with?
Emmanuel: No, not really. Actually to be a voyeur you have to enjoy watching and unfortunately I don't.
onionpalac: Haha - you enjoy listening . . .
Emmanuel: Yep, indeed!
onionpalac: Could you talk about transitions? How one event or scene blends into another.
Emmanuel: Well, it is a difficult territory because I am a workaholic. I can spend up to a year and half to mix the first version of a piece. The "Anseriformes Twins" piece took 3 years.
So yeah, transitions are essentials. I can spend days on a couple of cross fades with a bunch of sounds. To be honest, I can spend a whole day trickling the button of one of my children toys in preparation for an improv.
onionpalac: The reason I ask is because I listen for transitions in music very deeply - and in music such as yours I think it's a key ingredient but you pull it off really well.
Emmanuel: Thanks, I agree. I always pay close attention to this these sort of things in other people's music as well. When a transition sucks, you loose the magic.
onionpalac: Which brings me to ask you about influences.
Emmanuel: I have two kinds of influences: on one side composers like R. Murray Schafer, John Levack Drever, Annea Lockwood, of course Jean Luc Goddard and Tarkovsky for film, and sound poets like Kurt Schwitters, the Fluxus movement, etc...
And on the other side, of course Cage, Merzbow, John Zorn (huge...) and all the free improv freaks - the obscure and delightful!
onionpalac: Do you think of film theory while piecing your work together?
Emmanuel: Not at all. Except maybe Goddard and his schizo-narrative.
The reason I say I don't think of film theory is that I don't think in terms of narrative, story, construction of meaning but in terms of "opening a wound" or maybe "a womb" where
meaning happens no matter what. I just try to highlight the paradoxical, playful, and dark moments that occur during one's self account. I think in musical terms even with the spoken words.
onionpalac: But it's all related to the subject - the person you're wrapping everything around.
Emmanuel: Yes, of course. And that's the magic thing about it. Because all these fragmented elements relate to the same subject (or group of subjects), I don't have to think about narrative.
onionpalac: And that in itself is the narrative, story and meaning.
Emmanuel: Yes, you're right. That is the narrative, in a way . . .
onionpalac: It's up to the listener.
Emmanuel: Yes, that's why I call it opening a wound because then the listener has to stitch the whole thing together on his or her own.
onionpalac: What made you come up with the whole Ecouteur and "Lands and Genotypes" idea?
Emmanuel: HA! The truth is I have been a stutterer all my life. When I was younger I used to start a sentence, get stuck, change my mind and say something else. When I started listening to people talking I realized I wasn't the only one and we all do it in a way. I just try to capture that in people. If you have this mental stutter that happens when you breathe, think and talk at the same time, then you're not that different from me.
onionpalac: Because of this you took detailed notice in speech.
Emmanuel: Yes, I had to learn to listen and reproduce.
onionpalac: Are you bilingual?
Emmanuel: Yes, French and English.
I was brought up in France but my mum (who had been brought up in the UK) always spoke to me in English. But she died in 1983. That's partly why i moved to the UK, to know more about myself. Also, she was of Jewish decent, which i didn't know until about ten years ago. So i've spoken both languages all my life but English was kind of kept hidden inside. I often realize that I know certain words without understanding where I learned them from. They're just there inside.
onionpalac: I ask because when learning another language as an adult it can open up the subtleties of speech in one's mother tongue. I wonder if that had any impact on your thinking.
Emmanuel: Yes, indeed. A huge impact. And, in fact, the core of my research is based on the idea of trans-identity in foreigners living in London.
onionpalac: "Learn a new language and get a new soul." ~Czech Proverb
Emmanuel: Of Course, and it is also having a double conscience. It is a treasure.
onionpalac: So, you would say that the root of your research is from being aware of your uncontrolled stutter and extending that onto how others do it - be it a lot less?
Emmanuel: I guess it's maybe not the root of my research but it dictated a big part of my aesthetic and process. The root of my research is really about the perception of identities, trying to understand what's at play during the process of expressing oneself, and it is about practice. How to use all these elements in order to make music.
onionpalac: So, what is the root of your study in the perception of identities?
Emmanuel: It's a long story but in a nut shell: it all started with a fascination for the stupidity of what I read in the news in France and when I discovered elements of my past that stayed hidden in my family because it was considered shameful. I realized part of my family where spitting pork under the tables at the restaurant to look like everyone else. So, I guess I try to make sense of all this crap and the roots of my research come from the fundamental curiosity and this puzzling experience. So much is hidden in all of us.
onionpalac: How do you choose your subjects?
Emmanuel: The truth is I don't. They are all average Joes.
onionpalac: Don't they ever get freaked out in the process of you in a way stalking them?
Emmanuel: Yeah, sometimes . . .
onionpalac: Yeah - you're getting your nose all up in their business. Has anyone abruptly just called it off?
Emmanuel: Yes, that happens quite regularly but usually early in the process.
onionpalac: Do you have any preferences for your subjects?
Emmanuel: No, not really but I tend to get attracted to people with strong political backgrounds. It gives me something to start with. But it deviates quickly after that.
onionpalac: What are the reactions of the subjects when they hear the final product - the music?
Emmanuel: They are often surprised by the things they said and don't always realize that the whole thing is edited. I guess the best is when they react to the sounds and recognize the places. Some of them get quite emotional, like the old lady who cried when she heard the harbor sounds or amused when the twins heard the sound of the washing machine and the lady from the shop swearing. Their mum was staring in the void when listening to the ducks and said, "You know, I know these ducks." I said, "Well, your sons said their first words at that location." She looked like she had a moment of revelation and she started laughing. She was great, very sweet.
onionpalac: Thats a great story - the after effect!
Emmanuel: Yep, these are often the best moments.
onionpalac: So, you sit down with the subjects for their first listen?
Emmanuel: Yes, I normally bring my laptop, put a big pair of headphone on their ears and play a stereo reduction of the piece . It kind of isolates them so I don't get punched half way through!
onionpalac: How do you approach your subjects to do this? What do you say? I can't imagine . . .
Emmanuel: I don't say anything in particular. It depends on the person. Some are very sensitive and others don't give a rat's ass. Maybe they just think they'll be famous.
onionpalac: Britain's Got Talent!
Emmanuel: Can you imagine!
onionpalac: "Do you mind if I poke around your life and record everything about you?" kind of thing?
Emmanuel: Yeah man, "I'm that freak everyone is talking about! I'm featured in a fucked up experimental piece!"
onionpalac: Haha! Really, I think it's nuts how you get these people to agree!
Emmanuel: Nutters I tell you!
onionpalac: So, would you do it?
Emmanuel: Do what?
onionpalac: Would you be a subject for your own work?
Emmanuel: That's THE question!!
onionpalac: There it is!
Emmanuel: Well, yes i would. Obviously, I can't do it myself.
And yes, I'm terrified to do it.
onionpalac: You would need a complete stranger to do it.
Emmanuel: You're right, but who? I need someone who understands the work.
onionpalac: Maybe one of our readers out there can volunteer to take on such as task. You can be sure that we'll be following it the whole way through.
And on that note I believe we can wrap it up.
Thanks Emmanuel, it's been a pleasure.
Emmanuel: Same here. Till next time!
Please take time to investigate these engaging pieces of strangers' lives.
Step into the soul of someone through aural transportation.
These pieces are true experiences in themselves.
They can enlighten and cast discovery upon yourself and the life around you.
And while you're at it please dive into the rest of Emmanuel Lorien Spinelli's music from his website. He has a lot of it and it may seem overwhelming.
I suggest his improv unit Blank Ensemble, made up of:
Emmanuel Lorien Spinelli: Guitars, Lap-top, Midi-guitar, Toys & Objects + Live Electronics
Tom Slater: Percussions, Samplers, Folios
Jean-Michel Unglas: Chapman Stick, Handsonic, Objects
Mickey Kirkpatrick: Flutes, Melodica, Objects
Charlie Richardson: Saxophone, Clarinet, Objects
Their album "Small Mechanisms" is a roller-coaster of object sounds mixed with tight free improv.
Find that here - http://www.last.fm/music/Emmanuel+lorien+spinelli/Small+Mechanisms
"Lands and Genotypes" can be streamed and partially downloaded from Last.FM:
http://www.last.fm/music/Emmanuel+lorien+spinelli/Lands+and+Genotypes
You can also immerse yourself with the ideas of the album at his myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/emmanuellorienspinelli
Further discussion of this artist and album can be found: HERE
-onionpalac
Tribalmazoot - Petit à petit l'oiseau bouffe ses petits
Artist: Tribalmazoot
WTF Album: Petit à petit l'oiseau bouffe ses petits
Tags: Circus, progressive, demented vocals, electronic, tribal, noise
WTF Quality: a hyperactive freakout of evil dance carnival music
Country: France
Charles Baudelaire's 8 bit opium dream starts. The Parisian gentlemen practice
their didgeridoos on top of Eiffel tower shaped stilts. Rimbaud's ghost howls
obscenities at the people who pass by. They know better than to talk to him
and instead chase the shadows of their children up the steps of Montmartre.
Photographs are taken and the smiling tourists lose their minds and wallets.
The cafe is full as Hemingway teaches Joyce how to play pong and how to read
"Le Petit Prince" in his nuclear shower. What of my shower head? Cry the
forgotten portrait painters as they try to sell imitations of Cézanne's still-
life scenes.
And all this is accentuated by the music of a strange gentleman named:
Tribalmazoot. He stands on the street corner and conducts his environment
forcing it to make the sounds that he dreams and imagines. The police are not
amused but he turns them into accordions and plays a melody that is both
infectious and challenging. Cars race by as their engines churn out ghostly
donkey rhythms. Whores throw themselves under the vehicles just so the funeral
bands have something to play for. But the band never learned how to play
funeral standards....
The album he delivers is entitled: Petit à petit l'oiseau bouffe ses
petits. What exactly is this album? If one is to seek an understanding from a
piece of art in any medium they will be ultimately disappointed. The same
applies if they expect something from or of it. What Tribalmazoot offers is
simply a large serving of his imagination. It is honest and pure. It sounds
French: but it is far removed from any traditional French music one has ever
heard. It is bold in its style & soaked in the sounds of the artist's culture
yet pushed so far forward it is barely distinguishable.
- The Importance of Birds
download: http://tribalmazoot.bandcamp.com/album/petit-petit-loiseau-bouffe-ses-petits
WTF Album: Petit à petit l'oiseau bouffe ses petits
Tags: Circus, progressive, demented vocals, electronic, tribal, noise
WTF Quality: a hyperactive freakout of evil dance carnival music
Country: France
Charles Baudelaire's 8 bit opium dream starts. The Parisian gentlemen practice
their didgeridoos on top of Eiffel tower shaped stilts. Rimbaud's ghost howls
obscenities at the people who pass by. They know better than to talk to him
and instead chase the shadows of their children up the steps of Montmartre.
Photographs are taken and the smiling tourists lose their minds and wallets.
The cafe is full as Hemingway teaches Joyce how to play pong and how to read
"Le Petit Prince" in his nuclear shower. What of my shower head? Cry the
forgotten portrait painters as they try to sell imitations of Cézanne's still-
life scenes.
And all this is accentuated by the music of a strange gentleman named:
Tribalmazoot. He stands on the street corner and conducts his environment
forcing it to make the sounds that he dreams and imagines. The police are not
amused but he turns them into accordions and plays a melody that is both
infectious and challenging. Cars race by as their engines churn out ghostly
donkey rhythms. Whores throw themselves under the vehicles just so the funeral
bands have something to play for. But the band never learned how to play
funeral standards....
The album he delivers is entitled: Petit à petit l'oiseau bouffe ses
petits. What exactly is this album? If one is to seek an understanding from a
piece of art in any medium they will be ultimately disappointed. The same
applies if they expect something from or of it. What Tribalmazoot offers is
simply a large serving of his imagination. It is honest and pure. It sounds
French: but it is far removed from any traditional French music one has ever
heard. It is bold in its style & soaked in the sounds of the artist's culture
yet pushed so far forward it is barely distinguishable.
- The Importance of Birds
download: http://tribalmazoot.bandcamp.com/album/petit-petit-loiseau-bouffe-ses-petits
Unknown Covers Marathon Radio Playlist and Album Download!
Listen to all the songs from the Unknown Covers Marathon on shuffle in the WTFM Featured Radio playlist.
Simply click on the play button above the Featured title.
These songs are the result of wtfmusic.org's "Unknown Cover Marathon".
It started on June 16th, 2010 and ended on August 1st, 2010.
Anyone could post lyrics to a song without the names of the song-writers or bands, usually somewhat famous, and others would pick the songs they didn't know and attempt to cover them - of course in unconventional and strange ways.
The main thread for the marathon is located here:
http://wtfmusic.org/#topic/1276621890
If you would like to participate in a WTFM Marathon just visit wtfmusic.org and find out what marathon is currently running.
More about marathons in general (rules, questions, ideas) here -> http://wtfmusic.org/#topic/1261887100
Download the Unknown Covers Album here:
DOWNLOAD
Simply click on the play button above the Featured title.
These songs are the result of wtfmusic.org's "Unknown Cover Marathon".
It started on June 16th, 2010 and ended on August 1st, 2010.
Anyone could post lyrics to a song without the names of the song-writers or bands, usually somewhat famous, and others would pick the songs they didn't know and attempt to cover them - of course in unconventional and strange ways.
The main thread for the marathon is located here:
http://wtfmusic.org/#topic/1276621890
If you would like to participate in a WTFM Marathon just visit wtfmusic.org and find out what marathon is currently running.
More about marathons in general (rules, questions, ideas) here -> http://wtfmusic.org/#topic/1261887100
Download the Unknown Covers Album here:
DOWNLOAD
Ian Simpson - Bacillus / Noise Research
Artist: Ian Simpson WTF projects: Bacillus / Noise Research Tags: Experimental, noise, soundscape, ambient, electronic, musique concrete WTF Quality: deep and sensitive divings into elements of sound Lifespan 1980s - Country: UK           One artist, two pseudonyms. Bacillus and Noise Research. In the albums of Bacillus, long sweeping sound panoramas drift on through suspended moments. We travel through oceans  and float above the waves  we dive through forests, sit in stillness, then run through the trees, zig zag, return, lift up, and rustle through treetops  we enter abandoned factories inhabited by ghosts who slowly and imperceptibly wind up the machinery to unleash their rusty groans, the power flickers on and off, wind blows through, rats scurry by  we are teleported into alien crafts and hear the telepathic language of beings who exist in the rift between dimensions. Spinning, low glow in darkness, traveling at immense speeds yet simultaneously stationary  we watch ages of history roll beyond to the tune of cybotic angels' voices  we walk down endless train tunnels, a barely comprehensible woman's voice reading off nonsense through the intercom system  fields of crystalline rainbow flowers  priest mages in long dark robes, faces shrouded, reciting incantations through the electricity in their fingertips, as they walk in circles  foreign planetary habitats  In the music of noise research, we enter the sounds, into the realm where sonic vibrations and electricity merge.  the sound of pulses cycling through a circuit, different switches, amplitudes, wave forms  feedback loops of micro-frequencies  the static chaos of twisted frayed wires sending the signal in all directions, back around, splitting, joining, leaping, and dying.  a magnetic tape, wrinkled and warped, speed erratic, blurbing through vaguely recorded sounds  the synthesizer's guts revealed and subtly prodded  radio waves, sent through space, into satellites, bouncing between towers, striking antennae, all in a moment  the echoes of deep space emulated in the trans-dimensional winding of strings and quarks  You can find Bacillus and Noise Research music here: http://www.archive.org/details/FirstCircuit First Circuit (on EM) http://www.archive.org/details/CollapseEpem073 Collapse EP (on EM) http://www.archive.org/details/SlowlyImploding Slowly Imploding (on EM) http://www.archive.org/details/LithiumBurnem074 Lithium Burn (split with Fonik on EM) http://www.archive.org/details/NoiseResearchI Noise Research I (on EM) http://www.archive.org/details/NoiseResearchIi Noise Research II (on EM) http://www.archive.org/details/noise_research_experiment_III Noise Research III (on Bivouac) http://www.archive.org/details/emp064 Noise Research IV (on EMP) http://www.archive.org/details/ca347_gdnr Ocean Epicure (with Graham Dunning on Clinical Archives) http://www.archive.org/details/evoluon_amp045 Evoluon EP (AMP Recs) - Jeemobon | |
Joewl Levis - Even Rag Dolls Know
Artist: Joewl Levis
WTF Album: Even Rag Dolls Know
Tags: Lo-Fi, Bedroom, Outsider, Noisy, Bizarre, Humor, Eart
WTF Quality: "Drums + electric guitar + SS Dagger + child like vocals + a whole lot of mental shit = Rag time, free kraut jazz etc."
Country: Eart
Anybody who is familiar with the Great Emperor’s previous work is not going to be disappointed with this offering. It delivers what one comes to expect from him: mental. Joewl takes it beyond human decency once again: but this is what we paid admission for is it not?
Even Rag Dolls Know. What do they know Joewl? That you are mental? That your life’s ambition is to save Eart from their evil machinations? That you are close to defeating them? Now I know what the Rag Dolls know, you have created a new type of music. What is this music? Drums + electric guitar + SS Dagger + child like vocals + a whole lot of mental shit = Rag time, free kraut jazz etc. Call it what you will. If you are not interested in commercial music Joewl is here to lick your toes and serenade your lady. He will give you his opinion on historical political leaders. Ever wondered why Hitler sounds like a footy coach well wait no longer Joewl explains why. He will even go further and give you an eye witness account from Hitler’s beloved pet dog. I know what you are thinking: what a great man and I agree.
Joewl has created an art form here that is driven by the ghosts of the original Dadaists. This is not music in the sense of Beethoven, Joewl rapes and mutilates his 5th symphony then gets drunk and sings about it. There is collage, movie references he does the leather face dance on top of a sign that reads: POST MODERNISM. But all this is subconscious all these things are Joewl. Joewl was born in the dark room where Man Ray made love to Lee Miller. And let us finish with Man Ray ‘s epitaph: unconcerned, but not indifferent. I think if you were to some up this album in a sentence I think that would be quite fitting.
download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T9BA7Z09
-The Importance of Birds
WTF Album: Even Rag Dolls Know
Tags: Lo-Fi, Bedroom, Outsider, Noisy, Bizarre, Humor, Eart
WTF Quality: "Drums + electric guitar + SS Dagger + child like vocals + a whole lot of mental shit = Rag time, free kraut jazz etc."
Country: Eart
Anybody who is familiar with the Great Emperor’s previous work is not going to be disappointed with this offering. It delivers what one comes to expect from him: mental. Joewl takes it beyond human decency once again: but this is what we paid admission for is it not?
Even Rag Dolls Know. What do they know Joewl? That you are mental? That your life’s ambition is to save Eart from their evil machinations? That you are close to defeating them? Now I know what the Rag Dolls know, you have created a new type of music. What is this music? Drums + electric guitar + SS Dagger + child like vocals + a whole lot of mental shit = Rag time, free kraut jazz etc. Call it what you will. If you are not interested in commercial music Joewl is here to lick your toes and serenade your lady. He will give you his opinion on historical political leaders. Ever wondered why Hitler sounds like a footy coach well wait no longer Joewl explains why. He will even go further and give you an eye witness account from Hitler’s beloved pet dog. I know what you are thinking: what a great man and I agree.
Joewl has created an art form here that is driven by the ghosts of the original Dadaists. This is not music in the sense of Beethoven, Joewl rapes and mutilates his 5th symphony then gets drunk and sings about it. There is collage, movie references he does the leather face dance on top of a sign that reads: POST MODERNISM. But all this is subconscious all these things are Joewl. Joewl was born in the dark room where Man Ray made love to Lee Miller. And let us finish with Man Ray ‘s epitaph: unconcerned, but not indifferent. I think if you were to some up this album in a sentence I think that would be quite fitting.
download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T9BA7Z09
-The Importance of Birds
Martin Rach - Labyrinth Garden / Concerto for Imaginary Ensemble and Electronics
Artist: Martin Rach
WTF Album: Labyrinth Garden / Concerto for Imaginary Ensemble and Electronics
Tags: Contemporary-Composition, Chamber, Electro-Acoustic, Avant-Garde, Electronic, Soundscape. Experimental, Drone
WTF Quality: A bizarre mix of slow loop beats, contemporary composition and dronal mist, other-worldly soundscapes, a schizophrenic indecisive quality between sleep and dance - "sleep dance" perhaps (?)
Country: Lithuania
It may be a childish activity on my part but I enjoy playing various listening games with myself while listening to music.
One such game I call Creative Active Listening.
It involves imagining that the music is different than what it actually is.
For example, a basic first step in starting this game out would be to imagine that it's from a different time in history.
I sometimes do this when I hear some neo-psychedelic music that I can't get into. Tricking myself into believing that it's from the mid to late sixties will always spark an appreciation for it.
Sometimes placing the music in a different area will help:
Pretending that an uninspired acoustic version of Terry Riley's "In C" is from an undiscovered tribe hidden under the Amazon River.
You can turn it around as well by imaging that something that is not being played as music is music.
I survived a plane flight with a baby who would go off crying every hour or so by imagining that the sounds of the cries were lost recordings of one of my favorite free-jazz sax players, Charles Gayle.
Of course this game can be taken further beyond using it simply for false appreciation.
Let's see.
Anyone who gives me permission to review their music should know that I'm gonna have fun with it, and more than likely it will involve some kind of imagery imagination connected with the music in question. And this was no exception.
I went around and played excerpts of Martin Rach's album "Labyrinth Garden" to various people.
I did this to mostly Japanese people of various ages, a few Americans, one African and two Swedish girl strangers who seemed so friendly to me at first but grew scared the more I talked to them and played them music.
I would ask the people to close their eyes and to tell me what images conquered in their head with the sounds I played.
During the song "Dark Piece" the most used words were "horror movie " - or variation of the word movie such as film (13 times), "scary" (12), "dark" (12 - no, I didn't tell them the title of the piece), "ghosts" (9) "crawling" (7), and so on.
And understandably, with the dense low clusters of chords and swelling arrangements.
After the song ended we would talk a bit about why they imagined the things they did and about the music itself.
The next step was to reverse their initial ideas.
I instructed them to close their eyes and place the same music in an opposite scenario of what they previously imaged - say a colorful happy children's movie. Let the music roll and their imagination flow and see what happens.
It was also important to note not to use the contradicting superimposition effect that films use to heighten a particular emotion. For example, a happy folk song playing on top of bloody visuals of war combat. No, the music should lead the visuals and create them but the person must control it in a predetermined way - the reversal of their initial ideas of the music.
So, what was the outcome?
Same song and same people.
Some favorites (all paraphrased for translation and to give the idea in short sentences) :
*A sand-dune whirl-pool sucking in trees doing push-ups. (WTF?! - from a square looking salaryman)
*Various house appliances raining down in slow-motion from the sky. (from an African musician)
*A swarm of ants rushing to feed their queen as if something big was going to happen. (from a female university student)
*Doraemon (famous Japanese kids character) rolling down a mountain and then rolling back up. (from a 7 year old girl)
*Extreme close-up shot of a woman's face talking with no sound coming out of her mouth, slowly pan out to reveal she is surrounded by hundreds of other people squashed together, facing random directions and also talking with no sound coming out. (from an older man who I frequently see walking his dog in the park)
*The earth turning itself inside-out to reveal a bunch of balloons tied together as they fly away into space (from a male university student)
*"I don't know, an old lady eating soup?" (as her friend replies) "Yeah . . . out of a straw . . . ?" (not paraphrased. From those two young Swedish women. Possibly the worst one so I had to post it here.)
Martin Rach's music is well designed and artistically balanced with tight arrangements between "traditional" instruments and electronics. It's long drone like qualities with a knack for evolving loops might be difficult for some to digest and fully appreciate.
I was trying to find a way to get people who may not easily gravitate towards this kind of music to understand that they have the power to play with it - to squeeze it into digestible chunks with the help of their imaginations and the natural desire to simply play with foreign yet safe external stimuli.
In the composer's own words about two particular releases:
"This is a particular body of work constituted around wave shaped power electronics together with electroacoustic/acousmatic soundworld. These are two albums, in sequence, where my exploration into that composing/sound world are made clear. From walking the angles and cul de sacs in 'Labyrint Garden' to more conceptually clear and contrastingly resolute work in 'Concerto for Imaginary Ensemble and Electronics'."
These releases are also filled with surprises. Once I felt as if I understood the pattern of the music it would take a hard turn into something completely unexpected.
For example this continued to happen in the song "Su Holy Ambientas" - It begins on a light breathing drone and soaks me in on it's pillow of sound. A light motif shimmers down from the clouds and eventually a quiet rhythm unnoticeably emerges from the lower smoke. Suddenly I'm hit heavy by strong dub-step drum beats and circular hissing. It feels as if a train is chasing me. Before I know it the engineer is yelling distorted screams at me from the train window. All this eventually quiets down again to finish the whole thing off. Just beautiful!
But trying to describe this artist is extremely difficult because everything I've heard from him is completely different form what I heard before. You're gonna have to go explore Martin Rach's music yourself.
I'm sure most people of this community don't need any help in appreciating this kind of music but that doesn't mean you should miss out on all the fun.
So, I challenge anyone willing to try and force their visuals of this music the first time you listen to it.
What do you see?
Old ladies drinking soup from a straw perhaps?
Further discussion of this artist and album can be found HERE.
Links for free downloads:
*Labyrinth Garden (This album contains the song that I used on the visualizing experiment "Dark Piece") - http://www.4shared.com/file/168242715/4861efb8/_2__labyrinth_garden.html
*Concerto for Imaginary Ensemble and Electronics - http://www.4shared.com/file/168229835/294ab8a6/_2__concerto_for_imaginary_ens.html
-OnionPalac
WTF Album: Labyrinth Garden / Concerto for Imaginary Ensemble and Electronics
Tags: Contemporary-Composition, Chamber, Electro-Acoustic, Avant-Garde, Electronic, Soundscape. Experimental, Drone
WTF Quality: A bizarre mix of slow loop beats, contemporary composition and dronal mist, other-worldly soundscapes, a schizophrenic indecisive quality between sleep and dance - "sleep dance" perhaps (?)
Country: Lithuania
It may be a childish activity on my part but I enjoy playing various listening games with myself while listening to music.
One such game I call Creative Active Listening.
It involves imagining that the music is different than what it actually is.
For example, a basic first step in starting this game out would be to imagine that it's from a different time in history.
I sometimes do this when I hear some neo-psychedelic music that I can't get into. Tricking myself into believing that it's from the mid to late sixties will always spark an appreciation for it.
Sometimes placing the music in a different area will help:
Pretending that an uninspired acoustic version of Terry Riley's "In C" is from an undiscovered tribe hidden under the Amazon River.
You can turn it around as well by imaging that something that is not being played as music is music.
I survived a plane flight with a baby who would go off crying every hour or so by imagining that the sounds of the cries were lost recordings of one of my favorite free-jazz sax players, Charles Gayle.
Of course this game can be taken further beyond using it simply for false appreciation.
Let's see.
Anyone who gives me permission to review their music should know that I'm gonna have fun with it, and more than likely it will involve some kind of imagery imagination connected with the music in question. And this was no exception.
I went around and played excerpts of Martin Rach's album "Labyrinth Garden" to various people.
I did this to mostly Japanese people of various ages, a few Americans, one African and two Swedish girl strangers who seemed so friendly to me at first but grew scared the more I talked to them and played them music.
I would ask the people to close their eyes and to tell me what images conquered in their head with the sounds I played.
During the song "Dark Piece" the most used words were "horror movie " - or variation of the word movie such as film (13 times), "scary" (12), "dark" (12 - no, I didn't tell them the title of the piece), "ghosts" (9) "crawling" (7), and so on.
And understandably, with the dense low clusters of chords and swelling arrangements.
After the song ended we would talk a bit about why they imagined the things they did and about the music itself.
The next step was to reverse their initial ideas.
I instructed them to close their eyes and place the same music in an opposite scenario of what they previously imaged - say a colorful happy children's movie. Let the music roll and their imagination flow and see what happens.
It was also important to note not to use the contradicting superimposition effect that films use to heighten a particular emotion. For example, a happy folk song playing on top of bloody visuals of war combat. No, the music should lead the visuals and create them but the person must control it in a predetermined way - the reversal of their initial ideas of the music.
So, what was the outcome?
Same song and same people.
Some favorites (all paraphrased for translation and to give the idea in short sentences) :
*A sand-dune whirl-pool sucking in trees doing push-ups. (WTF?! - from a square looking salaryman)
*Various house appliances raining down in slow-motion from the sky. (from an African musician)
*A swarm of ants rushing to feed their queen as if something big was going to happen. (from a female university student)
*Doraemon (famous Japanese kids character) rolling down a mountain and then rolling back up. (from a 7 year old girl)
*Extreme close-up shot of a woman's face talking with no sound coming out of her mouth, slowly pan out to reveal she is surrounded by hundreds of other people squashed together, facing random directions and also talking with no sound coming out. (from an older man who I frequently see walking his dog in the park)
*The earth turning itself inside-out to reveal a bunch of balloons tied together as they fly away into space (from a male university student)
*"I don't know, an old lady eating soup?" (as her friend replies) "Yeah . . . out of a straw . . . ?" (not paraphrased. From those two young Swedish women. Possibly the worst one so I had to post it here.)
Martin Rach's music is well designed and artistically balanced with tight arrangements between "traditional" instruments and electronics. It's long drone like qualities with a knack for evolving loops might be difficult for some to digest and fully appreciate.
I was trying to find a way to get people who may not easily gravitate towards this kind of music to understand that they have the power to play with it - to squeeze it into digestible chunks with the help of their imaginations and the natural desire to simply play with foreign yet safe external stimuli.
In the composer's own words about two particular releases:
"This is a particular body of work constituted around wave shaped power electronics together with electroacoustic/acousmatic soundworld. These are two albums, in sequence, where my exploration into that composing/sound world are made clear. From walking the angles and cul de sacs in 'Labyrint Garden' to more conceptually clear and contrastingly resolute work in 'Concerto for Imaginary Ensemble and Electronics'."
These releases are also filled with surprises. Once I felt as if I understood the pattern of the music it would take a hard turn into something completely unexpected.
For example this continued to happen in the song "Su Holy Ambientas" - It begins on a light breathing drone and soaks me in on it's pillow of sound. A light motif shimmers down from the clouds and eventually a quiet rhythm unnoticeably emerges from the lower smoke. Suddenly I'm hit heavy by strong dub-step drum beats and circular hissing. It feels as if a train is chasing me. Before I know it the engineer is yelling distorted screams at me from the train window. All this eventually quiets down again to finish the whole thing off. Just beautiful!
But trying to describe this artist is extremely difficult because everything I've heard from him is completely different form what I heard before. You're gonna have to go explore Martin Rach's music yourself.
I'm sure most people of this community don't need any help in appreciating this kind of music but that doesn't mean you should miss out on all the fun.
So, I challenge anyone willing to try and force their visuals of this music the first time you listen to it.
What do you see?
Old ladies drinking soup from a straw perhaps?
Further discussion of this artist and album can be found HERE.
Links for free downloads:
*Labyrinth Garden (This album contains the song that I used on the visualizing experiment "Dark Piece") - http://www.4shared.com/file/168242715/4861efb8/_2__labyrinth_garden.html
*Concerto for Imaginary Ensemble and Electronics - http://www.4shared.com/file/168229835/294ab8a6/_2__concerto_for_imaginary_ens.html
-OnionPalac
Critical Best – Enneract
Critical Best – Enneract
Time is something everyone is obsessed with either consciously or subconsciously. Art is full of great examples of this infatuation. Let’s look at the opening couplet from Lonnie Johnson’s nineteen forty-seven hit ‘Tomorrow Night’: ‘Tomorrow night, will you remember what you said tonight? Tomorrow night, will all the thrills be gone?’ Now think about the complexity around the sense of time Johnson uses in this couplet. He is asking in the present if in the future if his sweetheart will remember how she feels in the present. Yeah – if only modern pop songs could provoke such mind swirling thoughts. Not only does Critical Best hint and acknowledge the strength of time on the human psyche he marries and courts it proudly within his LP ‘Enneract’.
That sense of shifting time is a pinning point in this album and it often boils over on certain tracks. Let’s look at ‘Arundel Tomb’. The lyrics in this piece are taken from Philip Larkin’s poem ‘An Arundel Tomb’. The poem tells us of time passing over tombs. Now the vocal in the track is obscured by effects throughout but the last line is brought to the forefront at the end of the piece: ‘What will survive of us is love.’ Heavy stuff for an album that is ninety nine percent instrumental. That is the only clear thing Critical Best wanted to communicate to us in the English language the whole thirty six minutes and thirty seven seconds of his musical discourse. So he is telling us that when time has eliminated our memories all that remains is love.
The album actually starts with time manipulation. Oh no what is this shit is the first thing that comes to mind when it starts? ‘Phossy Jaw’ commences and I find myself in a Berlin techno bar surrounded by German weightlifters wearing homoerotic leather lederhosen. Get me out of here. Then I notice why I came here. One minute thirty into the first track Critical Best manipulates the sound and slows the tempo of the track and all comfort of sense of place and time evaporates and we are given an audio vision of a shemale breast feeding an albino giraffe. Yeah – what the fuck? I swear to God that sums up exactly what happens in this track. Then a waitress wearing a Barrack Obama mask comes round and offers me some strange looking pills. It can’t get any worse – I down the whole lot.
The pills kick in – I see De Niro in the opium den scene from ‘Once upon a time in America’. He asks me what I’m doing here. I ask him the same thing. We smile and zone out listening to ‘Manxome’. Time comes for me to leave – I ask for my coat. Throughout the album you feel an uneasy sense of being here before. The audio transports you back in time to personal memories and scenes in movies. In the title track on the album a memory of standing in a doorway in New York avoiding the rain is provoked. The thing is I have never been to New York. The visual strength of these pieces is so strong that when it is juxtaposed with the consciousness of time it is a wicked heady combination.
Tomorrow night, will you remember what you said tonight?
Tomorrow night, will all the thrills be gone?
Tomorrow night, will it be just another memory?
Or just another lovely song that's in my heart to linger on?
- The Importance Of Birds
Further discussion of this artist and album can be found HERE.
Free download
Time is something everyone is obsessed with either consciously or subconsciously. Art is full of great examples of this infatuation. Let’s look at the opening couplet from Lonnie Johnson’s nineteen forty-seven hit ‘Tomorrow Night’: ‘Tomorrow night, will you remember what you said tonight? Tomorrow night, will all the thrills be gone?’ Now think about the complexity around the sense of time Johnson uses in this couplet. He is asking in the present if in the future if his sweetheart will remember how she feels in the present. Yeah – if only modern pop songs could provoke such mind swirling thoughts. Not only does Critical Best hint and acknowledge the strength of time on the human psyche he marries and courts it proudly within his LP ‘Enneract’.
That sense of shifting time is a pinning point in this album and it often boils over on certain tracks. Let’s look at ‘Arundel Tomb’. The lyrics in this piece are taken from Philip Larkin’s poem ‘An Arundel Tomb’. The poem tells us of time passing over tombs. Now the vocal in the track is obscured by effects throughout but the last line is brought to the forefront at the end of the piece: ‘What will survive of us is love.’ Heavy stuff for an album that is ninety nine percent instrumental. That is the only clear thing Critical Best wanted to communicate to us in the English language the whole thirty six minutes and thirty seven seconds of his musical discourse. So he is telling us that when time has eliminated our memories all that remains is love.
The album actually starts with time manipulation. Oh no what is this shit is the first thing that comes to mind when it starts? ‘Phossy Jaw’ commences and I find myself in a Berlin techno bar surrounded by German weightlifters wearing homoerotic leather lederhosen. Get me out of here. Then I notice why I came here. One minute thirty into the first track Critical Best manipulates the sound and slows the tempo of the track and all comfort of sense of place and time evaporates and we are given an audio vision of a shemale breast feeding an albino giraffe. Yeah – what the fuck? I swear to God that sums up exactly what happens in this track. Then a waitress wearing a Barrack Obama mask comes round and offers me some strange looking pills. It can’t get any worse – I down the whole lot.
The pills kick in – I see De Niro in the opium den scene from ‘Once upon a time in America’. He asks me what I’m doing here. I ask him the same thing. We smile and zone out listening to ‘Manxome’. Time comes for me to leave – I ask for my coat. Throughout the album you feel an uneasy sense of being here before. The audio transports you back in time to personal memories and scenes in movies. In the title track on the album a memory of standing in a doorway in New York avoiding the rain is provoked. The thing is I have never been to New York. The visual strength of these pieces is so strong that when it is juxtaposed with the consciousness of time it is a wicked heady combination.
Tomorrow night, will you remember what you said tonight?
Tomorrow night, will all the thrills be gone?
Tomorrow night, will it be just another memory?
Or just another lovely song that's in my heart to linger on?
- The Importance Of Birds
Further discussion of this artist and album can be found HERE.
Free download
LFC – Asschoes
LFC – Asschoes
The music starts on this LP and we are instantly thrown head long into a sci-fi western/frontier. The mind is pursed with images of a bearded scientist stranded in an Antarctic research station. The credits progress, ‘Deodorant Spray Song’, introduction of the cast, and we are given the first clues as to what kind of movie we are about to watch. Supporting introductions are over, ‘Atmosiren’, bleeds in and we see the director’s name and the title of the film obscuring the helicopter’s landing. Instead of a reprise or an explanation to these unusual scenes we find ourselves in ‘Insomnia Land’ a soundscape more disturbing than the previous two pieces especially when that something starts to run around in the darkened room. You’ll be glad the lights are turned off because whatever is in that room has to be as ugly and mean as a Rottweiler on methamphetamines. Did you see it? It ran by you, how could you of missed it? Let’s get the fuck out of here.
Then we are greeted with ‘Squeezemoon’. One step ahead of you Chief, the skidoo is running outside. Oh shit Chief it’s following us. Faster, if we don’t get out of here to warn the others the whole world is doomed. I think we can out run it Chester. Look Chief it’s coming up on our right flank. Watch out Chester, we nearly crashed. Shit chief this thing is relentless. Thank fuck for that Chester we finally made it back to base, and we seem to have lost that... whatever the fuck it was.
‘Ranho Amarello’, lets us now that Chester and the Chief didn’t escape the monster and that they don’t need to worry about the rest of the crew because they’ve all mysteriously disappeared. They can here the monster outside stalking the base. ‘Alien Refrigerator’ starts and Chester and the Chief notice strange noises coming from the air vents. What the fuck is it chief? Damned if I know Chester. Well let’s find out: pass me that shotgun Chester? Just as the Chief is about to fire someone falls from the ceiling. It’s the Chief’s brother John.
‘Trim Trum’ starts and John tells the Chief and Chester what happened to the rest of the crew. How they walked out into the Arctic wilderness one by one seemingly hypnotised, carrying no supplies. John doesn’t know anything about the monster – so Chester and The Chief fills him in. ‘Space Burger Fog Blues’ starts to play as Chester pours the two brother a glass of whiskey. What we gonna do the radio’s are still out from yesterday’s storm? I don’t know. Well all I know is if that monster wants to make a meal out of me I’m gonna give that motherfucker some serious indigestion. Right on. Hey chief what explosives we got round here?
‘Caverna’. The three men are watching out of the window and see the monster head into the building where the snowploughs are kept. Chester puts the dynamite into a bag, and the three men look at each as exhaustion and fear crucifies their faces. The chief leads them to the garage, they enter and we can hear the monster scurrying around. Light it Chester. Chester lights the fuse. The monster hears the men and you can hear his movements become more aggressive. But before we can see what happens the screen cuts to black, and the end credits role to the sound of ‘Arctic Frequency’.
So let me conclude, what LFC gives us here is a very fine film score to a film that doesn’t exist (well not yet). Though we have heard similar soundscapes like this in many fine eighties sci-fi films let that not distract you from it. If you like this kind of film score, put the headphones on and close your eyes – I promise it won’t disappoint.
- The Importance Of Birds
Further discussion of this artist and album can be found here:
http://wtfmusic.org/#topic/1277260202
Free Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ct2yyrm0diw
The music starts on this LP and we are instantly thrown head long into a sci-fi western/frontier. The mind is pursed with images of a bearded scientist stranded in an Antarctic research station. The credits progress, ‘Deodorant Spray Song’, introduction of the cast, and we are given the first clues as to what kind of movie we are about to watch. Supporting introductions are over, ‘Atmosiren’, bleeds in and we see the director’s name and the title of the film obscuring the helicopter’s landing. Instead of a reprise or an explanation to these unusual scenes we find ourselves in ‘Insomnia Land’ a soundscape more disturbing than the previous two pieces especially when that something starts to run around in the darkened room. You’ll be glad the lights are turned off because whatever is in that room has to be as ugly and mean as a Rottweiler on methamphetamines. Did you see it? It ran by you, how could you of missed it? Let’s get the fuck out of here.
Then we are greeted with ‘Squeezemoon’. One step ahead of you Chief, the skidoo is running outside. Oh shit Chief it’s following us. Faster, if we don’t get out of here to warn the others the whole world is doomed. I think we can out run it Chester. Look Chief it’s coming up on our right flank. Watch out Chester, we nearly crashed. Shit chief this thing is relentless. Thank fuck for that Chester we finally made it back to base, and we seem to have lost that... whatever the fuck it was.
‘Ranho Amarello’, lets us now that Chester and the Chief didn’t escape the monster and that they don’t need to worry about the rest of the crew because they’ve all mysteriously disappeared. They can here the monster outside stalking the base. ‘Alien Refrigerator’ starts and Chester and the Chief notice strange noises coming from the air vents. What the fuck is it chief? Damned if I know Chester. Well let’s find out: pass me that shotgun Chester? Just as the Chief is about to fire someone falls from the ceiling. It’s the Chief’s brother John.
‘Trim Trum’ starts and John tells the Chief and Chester what happened to the rest of the crew. How they walked out into the Arctic wilderness one by one seemingly hypnotised, carrying no supplies. John doesn’t know anything about the monster – so Chester and The Chief fills him in. ‘Space Burger Fog Blues’ starts to play as Chester pours the two brother a glass of whiskey. What we gonna do the radio’s are still out from yesterday’s storm? I don’t know. Well all I know is if that monster wants to make a meal out of me I’m gonna give that motherfucker some serious indigestion. Right on. Hey chief what explosives we got round here?
‘Caverna’. The three men are watching out of the window and see the monster head into the building where the snowploughs are kept. Chester puts the dynamite into a bag, and the three men look at each as exhaustion and fear crucifies their faces. The chief leads them to the garage, they enter and we can hear the monster scurrying around. Light it Chester. Chester lights the fuse. The monster hears the men and you can hear his movements become more aggressive. But before we can see what happens the screen cuts to black, and the end credits role to the sound of ‘Arctic Frequency’.
So let me conclude, what LFC gives us here is a very fine film score to a film that doesn’t exist (well not yet). Though we have heard similar soundscapes like this in many fine eighties sci-fi films let that not distract you from it. If you like this kind of film score, put the headphones on and close your eyes – I promise it won’t disappoint.
- The Importance Of Birds
Further discussion of this artist and album can be found here:
http://wtfmusic.org/#topic/1277260202
Free Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ct2yyrm0diw
Gretel - Casket
Can a shadow tell a story? Can light be cast from said shadows? Well this is what happens when one stares into the heart of Gretel’s ‘Casket’ LP. Gretel whirls you to a world occupied by nostalgia, the brothers Grimm and, Miyazaki. But instead of seven foot cats and cannibalistic old ladies we are greeted by folk visions of another distinct far away land: where is this land? This land is found in the shadows of youth all tense relevance abandoned like a great Dylan song or a Di Chirico painting. And like the sense of time you are abandoned to wonder was that just a shadow or was it something more sinister? Why are those cats screeching outside the adult in you tells a story of mating season, while the child destroys this false sense of security with images of hooded monsters pandering to pagan requests.
The sense of exploration compressed in this music is unsettling as we are drowned by pieces like ‘Formless’. It screams at us: ‘We are formless and all thought of form is just that’. When I think of this music as music then I am insulting my intuition and ignoring the feeling that I am being watched, because I know Gretel is watching right now as I check underneath the bed at the three minute mark in ‘Formless’. Voyeuristic paranoia tweaking the string section as hell is let loose and the woods are set on fire by the poem’s of Gretel’s elders.
‘Masked Ball’, piece number twelve on this LP, assures me that this is just thought and there is nothing here to really harm you. The last two pieces after ‘Masked Ball’, guide us safely out of the shadowy forest. But we must not forget what we saw on this journey. We must remember the shadows so we can tell are children and so as they can tell their children. For what is a child if the child doesn’t believe in shadows?
An excerpt from Apollinaire’s ‘Shadow’
Impalpable and ark presence who have assumed
the changing shape of my shadow
an Indian on the watch through all Eternity
shadow you creep beside me
but you do not hear me any more
you will not know any more the divine poems I sing
but I hear you still and see you still
Destinies
Multiple shadows may the sun preserve you
You who love me so much that you will never leave me
And who dance in the sun without stirring the dust
Shadow ink of the sun
Signature of my light
Holder of sorrows
A god that condescends.
- The Importance Of Birds
Further discussion of this artist and album can be found here:
http://wtfmusic.org/#topic/1276638944
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/katallinaaa
Free album download: http://depositfiles.com/ru/files/sicg1a98u?redirect
[WTF Review] Alphacore - Experimental Sounds - Algorithmic Composition - Text to Music
Artist: Alphacore
WTF website: Experimental Sounds - Algorithmic Composition - Text to Music
Tags: digital, fractal, aleatoric, text based, programming, noise, ambient, algorithmic, electronic
WTF Quality: "Musician and Programmer of Text to Music and new forms of experimental music that uses everyday written text and computer generated software to create New Experimental Sounds Compositions.. "
Lifespan: 2008 -
Country: Seattle, USA
Links: http://compositions-of-alphacore.blogspot.com/
- John Cage
One such method is the use of data processed through digital software. Data can come from any source - images, numerical charts, fractals, equations, or text.
Gabriel G., also known as Alphacore, has created a blog which is full of detailed descriptions of how one can convert any of the above mentioned forms of data into sound, along with plenty of audio, visual, and technical examples.
- from Alphacore's blog
All digital information, fundamentally binary and numerical, transferable from one form to another, is open to the imagination as a source for creativity. The process of the transformation is as limitless as the available data, and a huge part of this creative process deals not with making sound itself but devising methods for how to code the data. It is like building an instrument, which can be a complex and laborious task.
Some more quotes and images from Alphacore's blog will give you an idea of these processes, although this is like a thin crust of a surface to what I assume must be a pretty thickly layered cake. Here is some of what Alphacore cooks up:
Of course Alphacore releases his music on the net (download links at the bottom of the page) and the result of these fractal / text / image / digital processings is of course somewhat chaotic and unusual in its form. A common complaint about such music is that it is cold. This is true, the sound lacks human expression, and it does not express emotions familiar to our normal life experience. This is experimental music, testing grounds of possibilities in the binary kingdom. I must confess my personal distaste for many MIDI instrument sounds, having worked with them like crazy when I was a student and always getting the feeling that my music would sound so much better played by humans. But while a MIDI cello sounds fake and cheap to my ears, the realm of digital sound synthesis through MIDI can produce very unique and interesting sounds. The track "Sin Vs. Cos" (uploaded on wtfm) is not "played" using basic MIDI instruments but to my ears must have been generated from processing pure wave forms. I don't know all of the details for the compositional process of this piece but I would say it sounds more "organic" than other text and graphic based music.
However using such terms should be de-emphasized when listening to this music. Understanding the processes and seeing the coding and data is as much a part of the experience as the sound. The lack of human expression in the sound itself is somehow balanced in the conceptual experience of the total art. Such expression is and never was a necessary element to music anyway, it just seems to be what a lot of people want to hear. Leave things to chance, let sounds be sounds, and appreciate them for what they are, without critiquing and comparing them to notions of what music is supposed to be. I feel this philosophy behind Alphacore's works.
I have often wondered how one could convert fractals into sound convincingly to the point where one could recognize a piece of sound as a fractal as opposed to one that was randomly generated. The problem of converting images into sound of course is the aspect of dimension, the x and y of 2D space and the waveform / time axis of sound. I have heard other artists' interpretations of fractals in music, as free jazz, traditional notated compositions, and other algorithmic methods. Ultimately these interpretations are only that, with the fractals exhibiting themselves as an inspiration only. And what about the text?
Of course the text becomes a garbled and incoherent splattering of sounds which we could only understand as words if our brains had the processing power of an ultra super computer, so what is the meaning behind using text to make sound? Also one can use equations:
Interestingly, the music here is mixed into a heavy electronic beat sound. The whole concept of the equations is then receded far into the background; the listener would never pick up on it, and only hear some experimental kind of dance music.
My answer to these questions is that it doesn't matter if the original piece of data is lost in translation. These are explorations into new ways of creating sound integrated with the digital environment which is more and more becoming a part of our lives. I can imagine that years down the line the methods of this practice will become increasingly evolved, to the point where who knows what to expect.
A final note: this review encompasses the multimedia works of a net based artist, and as the medium of output changes, so does our concept of how we experience music, how it is framed, how it fits into our lives, etc. Go to the site and check out the art - there is much more to see and hear.
music downloads:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/36987 - Define Haiku n1 ( Single )
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/30495 - Text for 3 Wheels
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/47707 - Entangled Jazz Strings
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/47415 - Wolfram Experiment
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/32560 - Improv_?_n - Jamendo
the site:
http://compositions-of-alphacore.blogspot.com/
- Jeemobon
WTF website: Experimental Sounds - Algorithmic Composition - Text to Music
Tags: digital, fractal, aleatoric, text based, programming, noise, ambient, algorithmic, electronic
WTF Quality: "Musician and Programmer of Text to Music and new forms of experimental music that uses everyday written text and computer generated software to create New Experimental Sounds Compositions.. "
Lifespan: 2008 -
Country: Seattle, USA
Links: http://compositions-of-alphacore.blogspot.com/
It is thus possible to make a musical composition the continuity
of which is free of individual taste and memory (psychology)
and also of the literature and ‘traditions’ of the art.
- John Cage
One such method is the use of data processed through digital software. Data can come from any source - images, numerical charts, fractals, equations, or text.
Gabriel G., also known as Alphacore, has created a blog which is full of detailed descriptions of how one can convert any of the above mentioned forms of data into sound, along with plenty of audio, visual, and technical examples.
Using the chart below and looking @ the above example you can see easily how you can convert any word, sentence, books into a musical composition . Here is its theory in its simplest form text2midi is a concept core meaning that there that there is a exact sciences and form to the converting of text into midi. There are thousands to millions of compositions that can be created & reproduced using the Theory.
- from Alphacore's blog
All digital information, fundamentally binary and numerical, transferable from one form to another, is open to the imagination as a source for creativity. The process of the transformation is as limitless as the available data, and a huge part of this creative process deals not with making sound itself but devising methods for how to code the data. It is like building an instrument, which can be a complex and laborious task.
Some more quotes and images from Alphacore's blog will give you an idea of these processes, although this is like a thin crust of a surface to what I assume must be a pretty thickly layered cake. Here is some of what Alphacore cooks up:
def sample_chance_composition_designer
dice_roll=rand(5)+1
puts "You rolled a #{ dice_roll }"
dice_roll.times do
puts "The sample to be added is the #{rand(42)+1} down"
end
end
sample_chance_composition_designer
Of course Alphacore releases his music on the net (download links at the bottom of the page) and the result of these fractal / text / image / digital processings is of course somewhat chaotic and unusual in its form. A common complaint about such music is that it is cold. This is true, the sound lacks human expression, and it does not express emotions familiar to our normal life experience. This is experimental music, testing grounds of possibilities in the binary kingdom. I must confess my personal distaste for many MIDI instrument sounds, having worked with them like crazy when I was a student and always getting the feeling that my music would sound so much better played by humans. But while a MIDI cello sounds fake and cheap to my ears, the realm of digital sound synthesis through MIDI can produce very unique and interesting sounds. The track "Sin Vs. Cos" (uploaded on wtfm) is not "played" using basic MIDI instruments but to my ears must have been generated from processing pure wave forms. I don't know all of the details for the compositional process of this piece but I would say it sounds more "organic" than other text and graphic based music.
However using such terms should be de-emphasized when listening to this music. Understanding the processes and seeing the coding and data is as much a part of the experience as the sound. The lack of human expression in the sound itself is somehow balanced in the conceptual experience of the total art. Such expression is and never was a necessary element to music anyway, it just seems to be what a lot of people want to hear. Leave things to chance, let sounds be sounds, and appreciate them for what they are, without critiquing and comparing them to notions of what music is supposed to be. I feel this philosophy behind Alphacore's works.
I think that these are just a few ways people can start exploring a whole new world of creating experimental sounds and Algorithmic Compositions
I have often wondered how one could convert fractals into sound convincingly to the point where one could recognize a piece of sound as a fractal as opposed to one that was randomly generated. The problem of converting images into sound of course is the aspect of dimension, the x and y of 2D space and the waveform / time axis of sound. I have heard other artists' interpretations of fractals in music, as free jazz, traditional notated compositions, and other algorithmic methods. Ultimately these interpretations are only that, with the fractals exhibiting themselves as an inspiration only. And what about the text?
this is a experiment into the world of text_2_midi using diffrent haiku for each channels ...
Of course the text becomes a garbled and incoherent splattering of sounds which we could only understand as words if our brains had the processing power of an ultra super computer, so what is the meaning behind using text to make sound? Also one can use equations:
This is a projected based on Wolfram Equations to generate compositional Music
And relied on http://tones.wolfram.com/generate/advanced.html?generator for the basic
generation of the compositions generating several different short compositions ranging
between 15 to 20 seconds they were then mixed together in a live environment..
Interestingly, the music here is mixed into a heavy electronic beat sound. The whole concept of the equations is then receded far into the background; the listener would never pick up on it, and only hear some experimental kind of dance music.
My answer to these questions is that it doesn't matter if the original piece of data is lost in translation. These are explorations into new ways of creating sound integrated with the digital environment which is more and more becoming a part of our lives. I can imagine that years down the line the methods of this practice will become increasingly evolved, to the point where who knows what to expect.
A final note: this review encompasses the multimedia works of a net based artist, and as the medium of output changes, so does our concept of how we experience music, how it is framed, how it fits into our lives, etc. Go to the site and check out the art - there is much more to see and hear.
music downloads:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/36987 - Define Haiku n1 ( Single )
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/30495 - Text for 3 Wheels
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/47707 - Entangled Jazz Strings
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/47415 - Wolfram Experiment
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/32560 - Improv_?_n - Jamendo
the site:
http://compositions-of-alphacore.blogspot.com/
- Jeemobon
The Importance Of Birds - Spotting Birds
Artist: The Importance Of Birds
WTF Album: Spotting Birds
Tags: Sound-Collage, Noise, Acousmatic, Field-Recordings, Experimental, Bird songs
WTF Quality: Short pieces of hard to identify noise, no structure, mysteriously humorous
Release date: 2010
Country: Ireland
Links: http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/67889?mailhash=19cfe305c9e66f22b63a828d6b833903
"What's making those sounds?"
"I have no idea . . ."
Anyone familiar with the term "acousmatic" in music should be familiar with Pythagoras - the philosopher who lectured his students from behind a curtain so as to not influence their thought processes while taking in information.
Acousmatic simply means to hear a sound without seeing what made it.
Before recorded music made it's way into the public intentional Acousmatic methods for the composer were hard to come by. Very few players desired to hide behind a curtain and play for a blinded audience.
When dealing with acousmatics in music we also have to take in consideration the origin of the sounds. It should be hard, if not impossible, to define what is actually making the sound that we are hearing. At least that's what the pioneers of musique concrète were hoping for.
The Importance Of Birds created a collection of such sounds.
In fact, it almost plays as an audio game of "Can You Guess What's Making This Sound?"
Heavily reverberated refrigerators, delayed ocean waves, overblown microphones, distorted synths, filtered power tools?
The guessing goes on and on.
But that's not where the interest ends.
The transitions between each sound and overlapping of various noises make this a worthwhile album to further investigate and purely enjoy.
Another curious aspect of the whole package is the title of the album itself along with the titles of the songs - all dealing with the anatomy of birds.
Of course my first reaction is to try and piece the meaning of the titles with the sounds of the music.
And this is where the acousmatic syndrome, and a good bit of imagination, come into play.
I have managed to tie the names of the songs with the sounds.
First, let me confess that I know my synth sounds pretty well, I can tell one effect from another and the kinds of noises a computer can make are no mystery to me.
But none of that should matter. It's very easy to shut that information out while listening to music like this. Such knowledge and logical analysis could only hinder the experience.
For example, the appropriate ending title for the album, "Tail Feathers", trails off in a fluttering of weightless static that slowly disappears resembling the lightness and movement of a bird's tail feathers while flying away into the sky.
The image so easily projected in my mind while listening.
The song titled "Toes" - a multitude of static points bouncing around like hundreds of birds walking on a tin roof.
It's all there.
Though, it shouldn't matter how you wish to listen to this EP.
Be it through playing a sound guessing game, bird visualizing imagination, or letting it just go on without a thought in the world.
This is a unique sound experience that should catch the attention of anyone looking for a little WTF in their music.
Further discussion of this artist and album can be found here:
http://wtfmusic.org/#topic/1275818027
-OnionPalac
Get the whole thing here for free:
DOWNLOAD
Joewl Levis - basement Tapes
 | |
WTF Album: basement Tapes Tags: tape recorder, low fi, Eart, vocal, found sound, dusty WTF Quality: The emperor of Eart makes music for Eart people and curses fucking rag dolls Lifespan: 2001 - Country: Australia Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=O79TZ4RG Fucking rag dolls. This is the fucking fucked up album the Eart needs to hear urgently, for without the knowledge, courage, wisdom, and unending love of Eart bestowed upon its inhabitants by the just emperor Jeowl, we would surely all succumb to the impending doom. Do not take this lightly. The music, honed through an eternity of dedication and perseverance, displays that ruddy, primitive, rustic, grimy quality that transmits the emotions of our great Eart leader; his hardships, trials, tribulations, triumphs, and his true inner soul. Formerly known as Earth, the land was ridden with hideous bureaucrats and impotent leaders who subjected their citizens through harsh domination - hail the great Jeowl who rules with a spirit of kindness and true understanding for the good of all. This music contains the great secrets. Secrets feared by rag dolls, secrets of galactic wisdom and the knowledge of Eart man's explorations and discoveries in space. Secrets of pussy and dick, asshole, fucking, fuck, shit, masturbation, love and hate, good and evil, the Eart man condition. Anyone who visits wtfmusic.org probably already well knows these secrets. This message is for the uninitiated. I can only attempt to emulate Joewl's message of hope and spread the word throughout the internet. Get fucked, drink a beer, listen to the Basement Tapes, become enlightened, jerk off, kill some rag dolls, water your plants, get a burger, detune your guitar, take a shit, take another shit, take a long ass shit and record it, tell some admins to get fucked (us included), listen to a song about it, join campaigns throughout the galaxy, praise Joewl, follow him on an audio journey of his daily life, sleep, feel happy, rejoice, and celebrate, all ye Eart men and Eart women. The music will take you places you have never been, you will see and taste things from the catacombs of ages forgotten and yet to be lived, wheeling and swerving through karmic cycles and gestation periods of great ages beyond what Eart minds can calculate or comprehend. The stench of a dull sultry brown texture will permeate your skin and you will grow amphibious lumps and ooze out your pores. Pure simplicity, direct, honest, emotional, dire, endless, and madness. Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=O79TZ4RG Jeemobon | |
The Chadderandom Abyss - The Middle Child Is Always A Flaming Terror
WTF Album: The Middle Child Is Always A Flaming Terror
Tags: detuned guitar, detuned vocals, drum machine, lo-fi, singer-songwriter, off-rhythm, modified instruments, DIY
WTF Quality: obscure sounding songs with bizarre lyrics inspired by dreams
Lifespan: 2006 -
Country: USA
Link: http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/chadderandom.abyss
Do you enjoy music that sounds sloppy, off balance, and haphazardly thrown together? With lyrics that are at times incoherent, at other times, barely understandable, at other times, rambling, and generally spontaneously random? Do you love to listen to music that would make most people turn their heads and say wtf is this shit? And do you also dig it when this music has a mysterious and surreal logic to it, where the sounds actually fit together and create a very unusual and overall consistent mood, with stream of conscious lyrics that tell an interwoven story? Sure, don't we all?
I was having a chat with an old friend on facebook, and he asked what I was doing, so I told him I was listening to strange music and sent him the jamendo link. His reaction was funny; these would make some nice promotional quotes for an album advert:
"... this music is demented!"
"holy cacophony! Like Beefheart on heroin or something"
"God, dude, this is beyond bizarre"
"strangely charming, yet unsettling too"
"Sounds like he's fuck-slamming a cello or something . . . strings so slackened that they're just flopping everywhere"
"I'll have to have Cori hear this shit. 'Tripping Out in the dark...' funny lyrics"
If you're looking for something fucked up, "The Middle Child Is Always A Flaming Terror" won't disappoint.
One particular vocal theme makes me feel like the whole album was made just for wtfm. From the song "Just A Vortex (Overcome)" - "the day feels so bizarre, far beyond paleolythic, but I don't feel so with it. Pat 'em on the head. I'm almost adamant (?) about being dead, being dead, being dead ..."
And then in "Power Drive Line" - "The day feels so bizarre, but I'm just livin' it out, seein' where it'll take me. It's already gotten pretty surreal, here's the deal ..."
And again, several times.
The Chadderandom Abyss is made by some guy in Nebraska, but I don't know his name. I drove through Nebraska once, and other than on a boat in the ocean, I've never experienced such flatness on land. I'm not sure if that influences the music. But he seems to be a strange person, not surprisingly.
His words regarding this album:
"most of the songs were spawned from dreams which were usually spawned from what I was reading before I went to sleep, like the first song combines R. Bud Dwyer, getting trapped in a wash machine with clothes that have pot filled pockets and the native american myth of a boy being born from a blood clot."
and:
"Other songs on that album: George Michael rapes me, getting lost in pictures from the civil war that feature a group of friends with one of them missing their head, someone accidentally killing their wife while practicing martial arts moves and a dragon that acts as my protector"
and, his self-proclaimed "sounds like" blurb from myspace:
"How about this: The Residents, Jandek, Castanets, Beck, Scratch Acid, David Allan Coe and Xiu Xiu all meet your mom on the toilet and made her forget to flush, now she's all sadcore, huddled up on the cold unforgiving tile in the fetal position crying. On crack."
I hope he joins this site.
Download all his shit:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/chadderandom.abyss
-Jeemobon
Tags: detuned guitar, detuned vocals, drum machine, lo-fi, singer-songwriter, off-rhythm, modified instruments, DIY
WTF Quality: obscure sounding songs with bizarre lyrics inspired by dreams
Lifespan: 2006 -
Country: USA
Link: http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/chadderandom.abyss
Do you enjoy music that sounds sloppy, off balance, and haphazardly thrown together? With lyrics that are at times incoherent, at other times, barely understandable, at other times, rambling, and generally spontaneously random? Do you love to listen to music that would make most people turn their heads and say wtf is this shit? And do you also dig it when this music has a mysterious and surreal logic to it, where the sounds actually fit together and create a very unusual and overall consistent mood, with stream of conscious lyrics that tell an interwoven story? Sure, don't we all?
I was having a chat with an old friend on facebook, and he asked what I was doing, so I told him I was listening to strange music and sent him the jamendo link. His reaction was funny; these would make some nice promotional quotes for an album advert:
"... this music is demented!"
"holy cacophony! Like Beefheart on heroin or something"
"God, dude, this is beyond bizarre"
"strangely charming, yet unsettling too"
"Sounds like he's fuck-slamming a cello or something . . . strings so slackened that they're just flopping everywhere"
"I'll have to have Cori hear this shit. 'Tripping Out in the dark...' funny lyrics"
If you're looking for something fucked up, "The Middle Child Is Always A Flaming Terror" won't disappoint.
One particular vocal theme makes me feel like the whole album was made just for wtfm. From the song "Just A Vortex (Overcome)" - "the day feels so bizarre, far beyond paleolythic, but I don't feel so with it. Pat 'em on the head. I'm almost adamant (?) about being dead, being dead, being dead ..."
And then in "Power Drive Line" - "The day feels so bizarre, but I'm just livin' it out, seein' where it'll take me. It's already gotten pretty surreal, here's the deal ..."
And again, several times.
The Chadderandom Abyss is made by some guy in Nebraska, but I don't know his name. I drove through Nebraska once, and other than on a boat in the ocean, I've never experienced such flatness on land. I'm not sure if that influences the music. But he seems to be a strange person, not surprisingly.
His words regarding this album:
"most of the songs were spawned from dreams which were usually spawned from what I was reading before I went to sleep, like the first song combines R. Bud Dwyer, getting trapped in a wash machine with clothes that have pot filled pockets and the native american myth of a boy being born from a blood clot."
and:
"Other songs on that album: George Michael rapes me, getting lost in pictures from the civil war that feature a group of friends with one of them missing their head, someone accidentally killing their wife while practicing martial arts moves and a dragon that acts as my protector"
and, his self-proclaimed "sounds like" blurb from myspace:
"How about this: The Residents, Jandek, Castanets, Beck, Scratch Acid, David Allan Coe and Xiu Xiu all meet your mom on the toilet and made her forget to flush, now she's all sadcore, huddled up on the cold unforgiving tile in the fetal position crying. On crack."
I hope he joins this site.
Download all his shit:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/chadderandom.abyss
-Jeemobon
Diaenoxe - Sadomasochisme Satanique & Heresies Diverses
WTF Album: Sadomasochisme Satanique & Heresies Diverses
Tags: Electronic, sexual, experimental, abstract
WTF Quality: Abstract bizarre sex ritual music
Lifespan: 1980 -
Country: France
Link: http://www.archive.org/details/Diaenoxe-SadomasochismeSataniqueEtHeresiesDiverses
Music throughout known history has been used to accompany stories. Vibrations we know as real "sound" are fitted with tales of epic events and thus are imbued with "atmosphere" and "mood." Stripped of the words, much of modern non-vocal music is a kind of open-ended storytelling with various scenes, events, transitions, developments, and perhaps dynamic tension and release. The sounds are real. Sometimes we know how they are produced (what they are), other times they are unknown. When we listen we interpret them into feelings.
This album is a collaborative effort, an "InterRemix" between Diaenoxe (Phillippe Rivrain) and Uberlulul (Martin Lulu) [Lulu, by the way, translates into "Excentric" in English]. Rivrain describes the music as "apocolyptic, absurd," and the album's title and artwork, together with the sounds to be heard within, are sure to conjure up images of bizarre sex rituals.
While the representation of the music seems clear and straightforward, the music itself contains an abundance of sounds that cannot be linked to images or ideas in such a clear fashion. They are left open to the imagination. A sound event containing complex timbres and harmonics could be almost anything - water motion, a winding machine, close up sounds of micro-organisms, an oscillating electric circuit, planets colliding, the dream of a fairy creature, and so on ad infinitum, whereas the sound of a moaning female leaves little room for interpretation. Once we know what it is, we simply cannot, for all intents and purposes, escape this knowledge.
Many of the sounds in Sadomasochisme Satanique & Heresies Diverses lie in between the two extremes of recognizability. Some sounds certainly have a strange deep vocal groaning quality, but more like that of a demon or cyborg, not of any natural human voice. Other sounds are reminiscent of water droplets, while others could represent animal sounds. Still many others are so far from sounds we know and have stored in our minds as to be fairly novel. If we listen to lots of abstract experimental music, we may have crude ways of describing such sounds - fluttery, crunchy, swoopy, gliding, harmonically rich, thin, piercing, throbbing, tightly buzzing, scratchy; we may also use onomatopoeia, or, as above, we may use metaphor. We naturally tend to visualize, some of us more than others, but interplay between the senses is a common human trait.
The word "abstract" can take on many meanings depending on its context; in visual art, there is a design but no real objects being depicted. In philosophy it is thinking about thought itself apart from real world phenomena. As a strict definition, abstraction means "apart from concrete existence," so all verbal communication is in essence abstract. Reality itself, our experience of senses as processes within the brain, can be perceived as a foggy, dreamlike notion. In music, it is hard to define what is abstraction. One possibility is in music that lacks traditional elements - tonality and melody, as well form based on those elements. Another possibility, detached from history, is that the sounds themselves are of unknown origin and we therefore cannot visualize their source.
In both senses, Diaenoxe's music is highly abstract, particularly another recent album, Obd Gong Damötöu. The track titles are not in English (perhaps a few of the words are French?) and the music is fairly devoid of rhythm, tonality, melody, harmony, or concrete sounds. I have no idea what it's supposed to be, other than strange music.
Sadomasochisme Satanique & Heresies Diverses is interesting in that it combines this highly abstract approach with a strongly cinematic theme underlying the music. Only the first track has a fairly straight rhythmic beat and harmony - the following tracks lead us on a trip into a strange place which resembles our reality but is not quite so.
Download here:
Sadomasochisme Satanique & Heresies Diverses
http://www.archive.org/details/Diaenoxe-SadomasochismeSataniqueEtHeresiesDiverses
Obd Gong Damötöu
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/64631
Visit Diaenoxe on the web:
http://twitter.com/diaenoxe
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111941242002
http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/diaenoxe/shop
-Jeemobon
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