Samn Johnson Der lindenbaum-Mahler 1 Remix (2011)
Samn Johnson Der lindenbaum-Mahler 1 Remix (2011)
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“I created my “remix” of the first movement of Mahler for a contest held by the Berlin Philharmonic. My approach was to dissect the piece to its basic units such as chords or short gestures, and then reconfiguring these basic materials in my own style. To me this represents an interesting study into the workings of the obvious influence larger scale form exerts on the perception of style. It is very appealing to me to create music that sounds almost nothing like Mahler (whose style i would never want to imitate) but still is derived from his work. Despite not wanting to sound like Mahler, I enjoy and admire his music a lot, and am glad this piece allowed me to make a nod to it, while staying true to my own stylistic ideas. In order to embellish the orchestral samples, I also recorded some of my own celesta and organ playing, which I subjected to the same degree of cutting up and processing as the Mahler. It was all put together in Ableton Live.” via the composer
bandcamp EP http://samnjohnson.bandcamp.com/album/shades
Persian Surgery Dervishes, Terry Riley (1972)
Persian Surgery Dervishes, Terry Riley (May 24 1972)
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Persian Surgery Dervishes is a minimalist recording of two live solo electric organ concerts, the first held in Los Angeles on (18 April 1971) and the second in Paris on (24 May 1972), by avant-garde minimalist composer Terry Riley (see also “A Rainbow in Curved Air” and “In C” inter alia). The two very different performances of the same composition “Persian Surgery Dervishes” are meant to show the importance of improvisation in Riley’s music. Riley plays a modified Yamaha electric organ tuned in just intonation.
The original double-record version was released by legendary French label Shandar, then republished by Mantra Records, first, and Dunya Records later. There existed also a single-record version, also on Shandar, containing just the Paris concert, which had been sponsored by the label itself.
Parts of this album served as soundtrack for a French film released in 1973, named “La chute d’un corps” and directed by a renowned French columnist,Michel Polac”
Richard Lainhart, Wavelength (2005)
Richard Lainhart, Wavelength (2005)
“I found this track on a drive while looking for something else. It’s from 2005, and that’s all I know about it – I can’t remember when or how I did it. But I like it, so I thought I’d share it here.”
(from Richard via Soundcloud)
Richard Lainhart (February 14, 1953 – December 30, 2011)
Dear friends of Richard,
It is with a heavy heart that I that I must tell you Richard Lainhart, composer, musician, technologist, filmmaker, and digital artisan died Friday, December 30, 2011. On December 17, Richard complained of pains in his side and was admitted to the hospital for tests which showed an intestinal cancer. He was operated on on December 21. After the surgery (which showed the cancer had not spread), there were infectious complications which took his life on December 30.
He struggled valiantly to overcome his infection, but it was not to be. We are all in shock and cannot grasp the idea of his not making music, talking music, teaching, posting and playing.
Caroline Meyers
Richard Lainhart’s wife
I never met Richard personally but did exchange some emails with him and I was impressed with his lack of dogma when it came to electronic music. On one hand he a big part in the early days of electronic music but he was also embracing making music with whatever software or hardware that best helped him express himself. You can hear more of his music on his soundcloud page and also ImprovFriday members hosted a tribute posted dedications for him last weekend (Jan 5-7 2012).
Richard Lainhart Improv Friday Dedication, Jan 5-7 2011
Richard Lainhart SoundCloud Page
Richard Lainhart, archive.org
Vimeo
Youtube
Synthtopia obituary
Create Digital Music obituary
Quotes
“Lainhart crafts sounds in a tonal, musical fashion – sustained tones, drones, melodic fragments – and electronically manipulates them into beautiful tapestries of sound.” (Waterfront Week)
[His] “music reflects the spirit of possibility that once defined electronic music, bringing with it a sense of past, present and future that transcends time, technology and cultural assumptions. The spell- binding music seemed to evoke feelings that can’t quite be named, and suggest music I might rather imagine for myself in silence than trust most composers to compose.” (The Village Voice).
“He’s evolved a singular vision as a composer, performer and engineer of darkly seductive minimalism.” (Peter Marsh, BBC)
ve been weary of the day a member of ImprovFriday would pass away. In terms of his involvement with ImprovFriday: I could ask Richard to play live for IF and he would literally get back to me within hours and set it up. As most of you know, he also was generous enough to lend a tune for ImprovFriday Vol. 2 and participated in numerous events. We are really going to miss Richard. Next week’s theme will be “Richard Lainhart Dedications”
Richard was by far one of the true contemporary electronic music genius’s and his knowledge of its roots put him way ahead of most of us. Richard’s contribution to contemporary electronic music was immense and his knowledge of its historical applications was legendary. – Steve Moshier
Richard changed the way I listen to music – and there is no greater compliment that one musician can pay to another. He will be missed very, very much. – Paul Muller
Biography (via O-Townmedia)
Richard Lainhart is an award-winning composer, author, and filmmaker – a digital artisan who works with sonic and visual data. Since childhood, he’s been interested in natural processes such as waves, flames and clouds, in harmonics and harmony, and in creative interactions with machines, using them as compositional methods to present sounds and images that are as beautiful as he can make them.
Lainhart studied composition and electronic music with Joel Chadabe at the State University of New York at Albany. He has composed music for film, television, CD-ROMs, interactive applications, and the Web. His compositions have been performed in the US, England, Sweden, Germany, Australia, and Japan. Recordings of his music have appeared on the Periodic Music, Vacant Lot, XI Records, Airglow Music, Tobira Records, and ExOvo labels. As an active performer, Lainhart has appeared in public approximately 2000 times. Besides performing his own work, he has worked and performed with John Cage, David Tudor, Steve Reich, Phill Niblock, David Berhman, and Jordan Rudess, among many others. He has composed over 100 electronic and acoustic works. In 2008, he was commissioned by the Electronic Music Foundation to contribute a work to New York Soundscape.
Lainhart’s animations and short films have been shown at festivals in the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, and Korea, and online at ResFest, The New Venue, The Bitscreen, and Streaming Cinema 2.0. His film “A Haiku Setting” won awards in several categories at the 2002 International Festival of Cinema and Technology in Toronto. In 2009, he was awarded a Film & Media grant by the New York State Council on the Arts for “No Other Time”, full-length intermedia performance designed for a large reverberant space, combining live analog electronics with four-channel playback, and high-definition computer-animated film projection.
Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Small Gestures #1 (2011)
Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Small Gestures #1 (2011)
A Finnish composer, writer and visual artist who resides in Kitee, Finland. Jukka-Pekka specializes in software and algorythm-driven musical compositions including the programming of 8-bit video game chips. His compositions are distinctively electronic in nature and that is why this piece – ‘Small Gestures #1′ – is something of a surprise to those who are familiar with his music.
‘Small Gestures #1′ is a minimalist piece in the classic sense and here Jukka-Pekka has managed to capture the energy and optimism that characterized the early works of Reich and Glass.
Jukka-Pekka Kervinen contributed a piece to the most recent Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival and the Jyvaskylan taidemuseo (music for videos), Finland, also in 2011. When he is not writing music, Jukka-Pekka is involved in photography, poetry and publishing. Further information here.
Eris – Jon Brenner (2011)
From the composer:
“‘Eris’ was originally written as a wind ensemble piece in late 2006. the piece is named after the dwarf planet that was responsible for the ousting of pluto. This version of ‘Eris’ was recorded in May, 2011, with synthesizers, electric guitars, electric piccolo bass, and electric bass with one on a part.”
Jon Brenner is a Seattle-based composer and musician who writes contemporary art music and performs chamber music, new and old. His works include music for soloists, chamber ensembles, film, art installations, and larger ensembles. Jon plays viola da gamba and harpsichord and has appeared with the New Baroque Orchestra in Seattle.
Artwork for ‘Eris’ by Jon Brenner
Further information at www.jonbrenner.com.
Dave Seidel (Mysterybear), Following a Line Part II (2011)
Dave Seidel (Mysterybear), Following a Line Part II (2011)
“Another improv, this one for the ImprovFriday Jan. 13-15 session. Auduino, FM2 and FM3 Buddha Machines, Memory Man delay box, MoogerFooger ring modulator. Trimmed at the beginning and end.
This track is also available as part of the “Following A Line” release on the mysterybear netlabel:”
Wash 2 – James Ross (2010)
James Ross is a Brooklyn, NY-based composer and performer who writes music for orchestral and chamber ensembles, as well as solo music for the guitar and the zhongruan (a type of Chinese lute). He has also performed and recorded electronic and improvised music. I find his most compelling work to be reflective looped ambient pieces, of which ‘Wash 2′ is an excellent example.
Ross’ music unfolds slowly into an introspective space that carries the listener along on a gentle current of soft sounds and textures. Even at its full 25 minutes ‘Wash 2′ seems short – the music is fully engaging the entire time.
Embody the Struggle, Evan Kuchar (2010)
Embody the Struggle, Evan Kuchar (2010)
“Chamber minimalism with electronics. Violin, clarinet, cello, bass clarinet, piano, synths, drum machines. Slowly unfolding introspection, building, climaxing, remixing.”
Embody the Struggle by evankuchar
C. J. Boyd: Dynamos/Scrumpin’ (2006)
C. J. Boyd: Dynamos/Scrumpin’ (2006) (right click to download)
“This is a song from my “minor label debut”, The Greatest Weight, released by Sounds Are Active in 2006. Having been performing live with a loop pedal for a few years, I started writing more songs with that in mind. But I didn’t like the idea of using the loop pedal to record. So I actually played everything all the way through, even the really repetitive parts. This song became a kind of zen practice. It’s so much harder to play the same 6 notes over and over for 10-15 minutes than it is to rip a gnarly solo for the same amount of time. The recording process took ages, but it was so methodical and centering. “
Joanne Gabriel: Looking for Something… (2008)
Joanne Gabriel: Looking for Something… (2008) (right click to download)
“This track was part of a session I played for the 50/90 challenge (= write 50 songs in 90 days) in 2008, before I came to t61.
I completed the challenge by recording 10 chapters (consisting in 6 songs each and with a specific theme). “Looking for something” belonged to the “Dreams” chapter, following “Flying” and built on the same chord progression, as it was supposed to describe what happened after the flight. In my head it was an errand just like when you have this dream where you’re on a quest but don’t really know what you’re looking for. It was originally named “Looking for something, looking for someone, looking for somewhere…” but the title was unnecessarily long so I cut it. For the “Dreams” chapter I experimented with sounds in order to get something thick and light at the same time, solid and ethereal (for instance I applied pitch and distorsion on the keyboards). In “Looking for something” the voices were supposed to mingle with the guitars, the guitars with the synth, etc. The textures aimed at rendering the impression I often have in my dreams, when I can’t distinguish lights from sounds, and when emotions look like they take shape. The whole chapter has a dirty touch that make it all the more valuable for me, because it’s closer to the blurry print of my dreams.”
C Garden – Steve Layton (2011)
C Garden – Steve Layton (2011)
(feat. Paul Hertz, Diego Monroy, Jim Goodin, Paul Muller)
A mashup by Steve Layton from mid-2011. Paul Hetrz’s organ playing anchors this like a foghorn in dangerous waters. The other parts flow perfectly around this to form a beautiful texture, bubbling in a sort of reflective optimism – like a sunset the after the perfect day.
Steve Layton is a Dallas-based composer specializing in mixing and mashing of disparate pieces. C Garden was originally created for an ImprovFriday event on August 12, 2011.
Jaime Fennelly (MindOverMirrors): Gearlidine (2010)
Jaime Fennelly (MindOverMirrors): Gearlidine (2010)
Mind Over Mirrors is the solitary reeling of American harmoniumist/electronicist Jaime Fennelly. Known primarily as a founding member of transatlantic gothic junk folk expressionists Peeesseye, and psychedelic free jazz trio Acid Birds, Fennelly developed Mind Over Mirrors while living on a remote island in the Salish Sea of Washington State from 2007 – 2010. Utilizing a custom made Indian pedal harmonium, oscillators, tape delays, and an assortment of synthesizing guitar pedals, Fennelly bends slowly-building, repetitive melodies into massive sonic mountains, that fits somewhere between American Primitive, Drone and Kosmische aural territory, and as XXJFG eulogized, sounds “like some drum-less-techno titan stalking the sand blasted bazaars of a near-future, eastern city.”
mindovermirrors.com
facebook page
http://www.sswilloughby.com/
Polymetric Piano Counterpoint (The Dawn), Fabio Anile (2010)
Polymetric Piano Counterpoint (The Dawn), Fabio Anile (2010)
“Minimalist composition based on patterns of different lengths sharing the same pulse. Instruments: grand piano, marimba, shakers, claves, live looping software.”
Dance – Polymetric Piano Counterpoint by Fabio Anile
Fabio Anile website (www.eterogeneo.com)
Send Me Your Money, Chris Burden (1979)
Send Me Your Money, Chris Burden (1979)
The artist asks the listeners to imagine sending him money. Broadcast on KPFK, Close Radio, (recorded live) March 21, 1979, 55 min. 45 sec.
I Will Begin a Journey – Jim Goodin (2011)
I Will Begin a Journey – Jim Goodin (2011)
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Jim Goodin is a Brooklyn-based musician who frequently contributes to ImprovFriday. “I Will Begin a Journey” is a simple folk tune that begins with a series of pizzicato arpeggios that are looped, creating an infectious texture that is complimented by the tune that emerges towards the middle. This is excellent traveling music!
Ground Machine, (After Purcell) Lloyd Rodgers (1984)
Ground Machine (After Purcell), Lloyd Rodgers (1984)
performed by the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra
this groundbreaking group featured compositions by Michael Bayer, Chuck Estes, Douglas Hein, William Houston, Steve Moshier, Frank Riddick, and Lloyd Rodgers. at various times, the orchestra featured musicians Jannine Livingston, harpsichord; John Glenn, bass; Lloyd Rodgers, clarinet and keyboard; Douglas Hein, acoustic guitar; Diana Halpern, violin; Joeseph Goodman, violin; and Michael Baer, violincello
http://www.lloydrodgers.com/
The Fulcrum; Elliot Cole and Brad Balliett (2011)
The Fulcrum, Elliot Cole and Brad Balliett (2011)
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Lyrics:Elliot Cole
Music: Brad Balliett and Elliot Cole
from the album The Oracle Hysterical 2011
via the Elliot Cole Website
The religious imagination – with its long memory, appetite for layering metaphors on metaphors, and genial ‘suspension of disbelief’ – often strikes me as more dazzling and profligate than the secular, ‘artistic’ imagination. Whereas the market-pressed artist today chases difference, the religious imagination pursues resonance, drawing on deep cultural memories and freely (re)mixing words, images, symbols and references to that end. This EP – my first experiment writing rhymes and rapping them – was a project of this kind of imagination. As I wrote this ‘history of the world (to c.2000BCE)’ I worked hard to layer each image on a resonant one from a distant source: the Biblical Wheels of Gagallin are imagined as the spinning circles that draw sine waves, sine waves as the regular crest-and-trough of farmland and irrigation channel, irrigation channels as formants in a tone. The result: my own personal mythic syncretism of folk cosmogonies, Lucretian materialism, fake Deleuze, Mesopotamian history, acoustics and, well, a hundred other things.
Charlie Hoistman: Skittery I (excerpt, 2011)
Charlie Hoistman: Skittery I (excerpt, 2011)
“Skittery 1″ is a short excerpt from a longer 25-minute electronic piece made with SuperCollider, my preferred noisemaking environment. I had made lots of pieces in a kind of Fripp & Eno style long-delay, sound-on-sound method, using steady tones with long attack and decay. I wanted to try a very different texture from this, so fed a sequence of some of these same tones through a short clipped envelope with an extremely short attack and release, which had the effect of chopping them up into short staccato blips. As I recorded the results I tweaked the note and delay length to alter the texture. Harmonically, the piece uses a pentatonic scale using Just Intonation.”
Programmed and recorded January 15, 2011
you can also find more of his music at a snow of butterflies and the soundbites podcast
Dan Kreiger (aka For Jerz): The Notorious B.I.G. & Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag: Just Playing/Dreams (NSFW)
Dan Kreiger (aka For Jerz): Just Playing (Dreams) ft. The Notorious B.I.G. & Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag (NSFW)
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The Notorious B.I.G. ft. Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” – Just Playing (Dreams) [pianist/pd: Dan Kreiger] by Dan Kreiger aka For Jerz
“One thing that I have always loved about The Notorious B.I.G. is the overall musicality and beauty of his voice. It is somehow simultaneously low and high in timbre, and also carries a passionate tone that I find indescribably gripping.
Because of his natural ownership of the meter, as well as the timeless quality of his voice, I believe that Biggie’s rapping invites different accompaniments. I decided play Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” in its entirety along with Biggie’s “Dreams (Just Playin).”
Perhaps the least organic aspect of this project was using ProTools. In other words, I close mic’ed a Boston acoustic grand piano, put on headphones, and played Joplin’s classic ragtime piece along with Biggie’s acapella vocal track.
John Coltrane once said that losing his place while playing with Thelonious Monk was like “falling down an empty elevator shaft.” Coltrane was commenting on the fact that Monk had a sense of time so unique and solid, that one must be completely engaged and immersed in the groove in order to follow along.
The challenge while creating this Joplin/Notorious B.I.G. piece was reminiscent of Coltrane’s quote. Biggie’s time is spot on and one wrong note or rhythmic error on my part meant “edit, undo, start over.” Therefore, I had to know Joplin’s piece well before I could play it with Biggie. BIG’s always in the pocket, and therefore I knew that as long as I stuck with him rhythmically and dynamically, then the music would hook up.”
http://www.dankreiger.de
http://www.dankreiger.com
soundcloud page
Douglas Leedy: Entropical Paradise (1968)
Douglas Leedy: Entropical Paradise (1968)
six sonic environments created on the moog synthesizer and buchla modular electronic music system
Tracklist (right click to download)
A Entropical Paradise I 20:14
B Entropical Paradise II 20:28
C White Landscape 20:00
D The Harmonarium 19:40
E Star Engine 21:00
F Doria 20:50
notes by douglas leedy
“entropical paradise is different in concept, execution and purpose from most recordings of music. in fact, it isn’t intended as music at all, but as sound, as acoustical environmental “programming” which should be heard but not necessarily listened to. (you may listen to it, however, as music, if you like.)
each record side is the result of a different “program” governing in a random way decisions of pitch, amplitude, duration and to a certain extent timbre, and each creates a different atmosphere when it is played. you may find some sides pleasant, others not, and your reaction may depend on external circumstances – the time of day, where you are, whose company you are in, and so on. you may play the records to your taste – in any order, loudly or softly, a whole side or just a part. if you want more than the twenty-or-so minutes per side and you have an automatic turntable, you may be able to set the mechanism to play one record again and again.
these audio environments, once programmed and set in motion on the moog and buchla electronic music systems, could theoretically run continuously but without repetition indefinitely. that is, the programs are non-repetitive since certain random characteristics have been introduced (owing to limitations of the equipment used, a small portion of several programs had to be realized manually.) there are many analogies in nature to this type of programming, and in fact it is the operation of nature after which these sound environments are patterned. one analogy is the breaking of waves upon an ocean shore: there is an endless succession of waves, and yet each wave is different, even unique. so constant repetition and constant change are one organic process.
entropy is what life and art are said to be continually battling – the inexorable tendency of forces everywhere in the universe, including those within our own bodies, to grow uniform, to come to rest, to achieve a state of equilibrium, to reach the final perfect calm of all things. a paradise, but for whom?
i won’t attempt to describe in words, other than the titles, any of the six environments, since experiencing them makes description unnecessary. two programs, however, were influenced by personal readings in science fiction: “the harmonarium” was suggested by the creatures of which kurt vonnegut, jr., wrote in “the sirens of titan,” creatures who lived in huge underground caverns on the planet mercury and fed upon that planet’s musical vibrations. the creation of “star engine” brought back to my mind c. s. lewis’s sci-fi novel, “out of the star planet.”
the sounds on these records were made by the moog synthesizer and the buchla modular electronic music system of the electronic music studio at the university of california, los angeles. because of the nature of this recording, no attempt has been made to eliminate or reduce electronic background noises such as hiss, hum and occasional unexpected transients. these are ordinarily considered a plague in recording, but here they function as an integral part of the recorded experience.
i am indebted to chris shelton and wadley j. brood for technical assistance, and to the same two and gerald strang, steve soomil, craig buhler, ken yapkowitz, dennis matthews and bob richardson for inspiration, encouragement, cooperation, and for the free sharing of ideas and enthusiasm that has taken place at the ucla electronic music studio. though they may be unaware of it, they have all contributed a great deal to these recordings.”
Thomas McIntosh and Emmanuel Maden (the user): Symphony #2 for Dot Matrix Printers (1999)
Thomas McIntosh and Emmanuel Maden (the user): Symphony #2 for Dot Matrix Printers (1999)
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“The Symphony for dot matrix printers is a work which transforms obsolete office technology into an instrument for musical performance. The Symphony focuses the listener’s attention on a nearly forgotten technology: the dot-matrix printer. Specifically, it employs the noises the printers make as the sole sound source for a musical composition. Leaving the constituent elements untouched, the process imposes a new order upon them, reorganizing the sounds along a musical structure. Dot matrix printers are thus turned into musical ‘instruments’, while a computer network system, typical of a contemporary office, is employed as the ‘orchestra’ used to play them. The orchestra is ‘conducted’ by a network server which reads from a composed ‘score’. Each of the printers plays from a different ‘part’ comprised of rhythms and pitches made up of letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks and other characters. [The User] uses ASCII textfiles to compose, orchestrate, and synchronize sonorous and densely textured, rhythmically-driven music. During the half hour performance, the sounds are amplified and broadcast over a sound system. The audience is also presented with live images of the sound sources: the motions of the mechanisms, rollers and gears are captured using miniature video cameras installed inside the printers and projected onto large screens.”
Derek Rogers: Boxing Demons in Sleep (2010)
Derek Rogers: Boxing Demons in Sleep (2010) “I wrote this piece to demonstrate the five phases of sleep; that is, the moment of awareness before relaxation, the transition from lighter to heavier sleep, and the creation of dreams in the final REM sleep stage. ‘Boxing Demons In Sleep’ was created utilizing guitar, synthesizer, and electronics [...]
Chris Schlarb: Dream State > Police State (2010)
Chris Schlarb: Dream State > Police State (2010) Dream State > Police State by Chris Schlarb “An astounding work of passion and patience over one thousand hours in the making, Long Beach musician/composer Chris Schlarb bestows his latest musical vision, Psychic Temple, onto the world. Known for his work as half of the hypnotic, jazz/drone [...]
Greg Hooper: Unselected (2011)
Greg Hooper: Unselected (2011)
“A new piece using surrogate techniques to generate new works from old. This time I used a recording of the loudest drops of rain falling into a swimming pool as the timing sequence and mapped the pitch sequence of Gymnopedie#1 onto that. It sounded like Brian Eno circa Ambient 1. Some notes didn’t fit and were removed. What remains is that which was unselected.”
