Best of the Aughts

Copralalia, la la la- Mary Jane Leach (2002)

Copralalia, la la la- Mary Jane Leach (2002)

Copralalia, la la la- Mary Jane Leach (2002)

“is for two sopranos and taped voices. “Copralalia” is the term for the vocal outbursts of Tourette’s Syndrome sufferers. It derives from the Greek word “copros,” meaning “shit.” I wrote this piece when I was working on a project about witches, trying to find explanations for why some people were/are called witches. I thought that the vocal outbursts of Turette’s Syndrome would be frightening and perhaps sufferers from it could be called witches. The lyrics are by the medieval French poet Castelloza”

Mary Jane Leach website

Download Copralalia, la la la- Mary Jane Leach (2002)

Libretto

“God knows I should have had my fill of song –
the more I sing
the worse I fare in love,
and tears and cares
make me their home;
I’ve placed my heart and soul
in jeopardy,
and if I don’t end this poem no
it will already be too long.

Oh handsome friend, just once before I die
of grief, show me
your handsome face; the other lovers say
you are a beast – but still, though no joy
comes to me from you,
I’m proud to love you always
in good faith, with an unfickle heart.”

Poem by Castelloza (born c. 1200)
The lyrics are interspersed with profanities in the song.



Paul Bailey: Obsessive Love (2002)

Paul Bailey: Obsessive Love (2002)

Obsessive Love (Music for Summerland EP, 2002) explores the juxtaposition of pop song forms and harmonies through post-minimalism. Summerland refers to a mythical-emotional place where we escape daily routine by making music; composing, rehearsing and performing. This music lies somewhere between art music (music meant to be contemplated) and pop music (music meant for mass consumption).’

Play Obsessive Love

<a href="http://paulbailey.bandcamp.com/track/obsessive-love" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','paulbailey.bandcamp.com']);">Obsessive Love by paul bailey</a>

curated via Jim Perkins from his twigetticast (itunes podcast)


Jon Brenner: Sonata (2006)

Jon Brenner: Sonata (2006)

Jon Brenner: Sonata (2006)

“sonata was written for violinist emily packard at mills college. like most of my pieces, the instrumentation is flexible and the violin may be substituted by vibraphone, clarinet, or flute.  the marimba tape may be substituted by piano, two marimbas.”

<a href="http://jonbrenner.bandcamp.com/track/sonata" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','jonbrenner.bandcamp.com']);">sonata by jon brenner</a>

duration: 9:45

website
bandcamp

curated by Paul Muller


Paul Greenhaw: Use the Bridge Between the Trees to Avoid Blindness (2005)

Paul Greenhaw: Use the Bridge Between the Trees to Avoid Blindness (2005)


“Use the Bridge Between the Trees to Avoid Blindness (2005) is a four movement work for two organs and drums. Because the music is written specifically to accompany a video, the performers perform the piece using a click-track, thus giving rise to stringently synchronized visuals and music. The work is designed within a just intonation schema which uses, exclusively, the prime integers 3 and 11. The recording you hear here has Sean Ferguson on organ and Paul Greenhaw on organ and drums — it was recorded by Wharton Tiers at his New York, NY studio. The piece should be heard at a relatively high volume.”

1st mvt
2nd mvt
3rd mvt
4th mvt

website
curated by jon brenner


Steve Peters: Mountains Hidden in Mountains (2004)

Steve Peters: Mountains Hidden in Mountains (2004)

Steve Peters: Mountains Hidden in Mountains (2004)

“Made in 2004 as a sound installation inside a faux bell tower at the Santa Fe Art Institute. When rung by a visitor, the beater triggers a recording of the bell that fades in imperceptibly as the real sound decays, creating the illusion of an endless tone. The sound changes subtly over 30 minutes (this is a greatly condensed version), slowly mixing in layers of pitch-shifted bell tones that get increasingly lower until they finally evaporate into silence.”

curated by Bruce Hamilton


James Ross: Winds and Strings (2007)

James Ross: Winds and Strings (2007)

James Ross: Winds and Strings (2009)

“Winds and Strings” is concerned with the possibilities of composition with a very limited number of pitch classes; each instrumental part has its own pitch material (though there are some common tones), and the entire gamut of pitches was derived by combining the pool of tones. The piece is completely multicyclic–every instrumental part travels in a 3-, 5- or 7-bar orbit of 3/4 time.”

website


Joshua Parmenter: Cadence (III. Decrescendo) for computer realized sound (2005)

Joshua Parmenter: Cadence (III. Decrescendo) for computer realized sound (2005)

Joshua Parmenter: Cadence (III. Decrescendo) for computer realized sound (2005)

“Cadence for computer realized sound is the third in a series of pieces exploring four musical changes: crescendo, decrescendo, accelerando and ritardando. Cadence uses the last few seconds of Schubert’s quartettsatz in c minor as source material for a large scale decrescendo. Rather then just turning the volume down on the sound, the piece is shaped spectrally over its duration, gradually stripping away more and more of the sound until it disappears completely.”

website

curated by: Bruce Hamilton


Jeff Harrington-Agnus Dei Wave (2002)

Jeff Harrington-Agnus Dei Wave (2002)

Jeff Harrington-Agnus Dei Wave (2002)

“AgnusDeiWave is an ecstatic ambient voyage through choral textures in deep space; the culmination of a series of experiments in formant wave synthesis. Vocal analysis from a recording of Josquin’s Agnus Dei motivates a timeless series of crashing heavenly vocal chords. My first piece on my Yamaha FS1R formant synthesizer.”

website


Peter Thoegersen: Solo Clarinet in Bb (2005)

Peter Thoegersen: Solo Clarinet in Bb (2005)
From an email by the composer:
“The Bb clarinet piece was written in 2002 while I was working on my MM in composition. It was written in one swoop and I wanted it to represent some extended techniques. That version was recorded at U of I in Urbana in 2005, but I can’t remember the performer’s name.”
http://netnewmusic.ning.com/profile/peterthoegersen
curated: paul muller

Killsonic Marching Gang: Liberation Technology (2008)

Killsonic Marching Gang: Liberation Technology (2008)

Killsonic Marching Gang: Liberation Technology (Live at KXLU June 7th 2008)


Killsonic is a collective of musicians operating in the Greater Los Angeles Area specializing in the creation, development and performance of new hybridized music. Comprised of a core quartet of guitar, bass, drums and woodwinds, the group names its primary musical source as the free jazz of Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy. Similar to these artists, Killsonic also takes inspiration from contemporary art and sound. Listen closely for hints of Roni Size, Radiohead, Sonic Youth and Arab on Radar to Gyorgy Ligeti and Olivier Messiaen. Killsonic often performs with an expanded ten-member group that includes horns and vocalists. Members of the band have also performed alongside Arkestra Clandestina, Money Mark, Bobby Bradford, and Vinny Golia.
Killsonic’s debut album features a guest appearance by cornet and trumpet hero Bobby Bradford, of Ornette Coleman fame. Each track experiments with different instrumentation, from a clarinet/guitar duo, to an expanded group that includes a female choir.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/killsonic


Trent Reznor: Ghosts 1.1 (2008)

Trent Reznor: Ghosts 1.1 (2008)

Trent Rezor: Ghosts 1.1

“This music arrived unexpectedly as the result of an experiment. The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as… something.

The team: Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder and myself with some help from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew and Brian Viglione. Rob Sheridan collaborated with Artist in Residence (A+R) to create the accompanying visual and physical aesthetic.

We began improvising and let the music decide the direction. Eyes were closed, hands played instruments and it began. Within a matter of days it became clear we were on to something, and a lot of material began appearing. What we thought could be a five song EP became much more. I invited some friends over to join in and we all enjoyed the process of collaborating on this.

The end result is a wildly varied body of music that we’re able to present to the world in ways the confines of a major record label would never have allowed – from a 100% DRM-free, high-quality download, to the most luxurious physical package we’ve ever created.

More volumes of Ghosts are likely to appear in the future.”

- Trent Reznor, March 2, 2008
NIN Ghosts: I-IV


Samuel Vriezen: 20 Worlds (2005)

Samuel Vriezen: 20 Worlds (2005)

Samuel Vriezen: 20 Worlds (2005)

Two pianists journey together through a circular universe of twenty possible worlds. The worlds appear and disappear one by one, echoed between the two piano parts, and up to four of them may be present at the same time in a gradually shifting multi-cultural mosaic of musical worlds.In this piece, just as in the 5 extremely short “possible world” pieces I wrote in 2003, a ‘world’ is identified by a typical basic motivic gesture. Each ‘world’ varies on its basic gesture according to its own laws. These twenty worlds (Possible Worlds nr. 6-25?) are then intertwined to appear in eighty numbered sections. The eighty sections are arranged in a circular way: section 1 can follow section 80. The odd sections are only played by pianist I. Pianist II plays the even sections. Taken together, the odd and the even sections make use of the same material.

20 Worlds is dedicated to Dante Oei. If not for the many conversations we’ve had about Cage, Xenakis, Sibelius, etc. and his wonderful insights and intuitions about music, a piece like this would have been unlikely.


Samuel Vriezen

Amsterdam, October 19, 2005

Samuel Vriezen: Recordings

via david toub


Steve Layton: “Charlotte, Too Soon” (2006)

Steve Layton: “Charlotte, Too Soon”  (2006)

(Music source: samples from old answering machine tape treated and arranged in ACID) — Voices of relatives and friends of cellist / performance artist Charlotte Moorman (1933-1991), from one of her old answering machine tapes (mid-late 1970s?). All other sounds as well are derived from noises on the same tape.” via niwo.com

Steve Layton: “Charlotte, too soon” 2006


David Toub: this piece intentionally left blank (2006)

David Toub: this piece intentionally left blank (2006)

“This came about as an improvisation, and is virtually unchanged other than a few minor tweaks. It was composed using an Ensoniq KS-32 synthesizer providing input into Reason 3.0.4. The score is a pretty close approximation of what was improvised, but is not 100% accurate. It can be performed by any keyboard, although it could also be performed for any group of instruments. I felt the bass line would be very interesting if played by a bass guitar, for example. This work is dedicated to my friend Kel Smith. It was premiered on May 9th, 2007 by the Diverse Instrument Ensemble under Lloyd Rogers at Cal State Fullerton in an arrangement by Paul Bailey for oboe, alto sax, french horn, trombone, bass guitar and two vibraphones.”

this piece intentionally left blank


Lloyd Rodgers: The Black Book (04.01.01)

Lloyd Rodgers: The Black Book (04.01.01)

Lloyd Rodgers: The Black Book 04.01.01

from Lloyd Rodgers.com

“the black book-a private music consists of 374 compositions, exercises, and epigrams written, usually one a day from 12.28.00 to 12.27.01., notated in ink with no edits; a year long musical journal”