4/23/12

Audio Still 1

Audio Still 1 by Jimmy-James Rice

So, a few notes:
This is, of course, a rough draft based on my thoughts from last night's post.
It was played on an electric organ, not multiple instruments.
There are multiple parts: Part A is something of a melody, to see how it would relate to the non-melody of Part B, which has two sub-parts.
I played one of the notes with my nose.
It's not really a "still" in the "electronically sustained slice of sound" sense, as I manually played the notes the entire time, and the rotary speakers
  are influencing the sound waves...
I think actively playing the notes is better than artificial sustainment after-the-fact, although harder to achieve with non-electric instruments.
Listen for the change in sound when I switch off the rotaries around 4:15. All that's left is the oscillation of the sound waves.
Also, the robot noises at the end aren't in the original recording, my software glitched doing noise-reduction and I liked it.

More Late-Night Music and Unsolicited Thoughts

A bad feeling: wanting to listen to a very specific kind of music, but not knowing any bands in the genre, or what to call the style. Tonight I wanted the slowest droning, must brutally distorted and grinding sustained down-tuned guitars, without stupid growling or operatic singing to distract from the emotion and noise. I found a few good bands, but nothing I was in the mood for. I could hear what I wanted to hear in my head, so even noises that came close were disappointing. Finding new and good music is such a grueling, laborious and disappointing effort. While I have a few choice bands in my reservoir, I don't dip into the metal-zone enough to know how to describe what I'm listening for tonight, and it seems the metal corner of music is particularly fussy about sub-genres. Fraught with failure, especially when there are 14,000 stupid Finish sludge metal bands that think they should sing about mythology and 12 funeral metal bands that just make bad sounds. How many hours of rubbish must I endure to find a few good things?

Eagle Twin is definitely not what I was looking for, but there are a lot of noises here that I have been interested in on other nights. Tuvan throaty, and lots of Aboriginal and Native American influence.


This is a little closer, I guess, but again not at all what I wanted originally. I guess I wanted instrumental music made out of single, intensely forceful notes. This is not that:


Of course, as is typical of late-night web-crawls, I found something else I had no intention of finding, but which is very much interesting (to me). In the past couple weeks I've been rereading Gauguin's writing on art... symbolists, of course, make everything symbolic ad nauseum. A specific hue corresponds to and evokes a specific feeling or idea. Gauguin, like any other artist interested in "total art," compares relationships of colors/tones to relationships of musical notes/tones, but complains: "...The art of painting tells whatever it wishes, with the advantage that the reader immediately knows the prelude, the setting, and the ending. Literature and music require an effort of memory for the appreciation of the whole; the last named is the most incomplete and least powerful of the arts." (Notes Sythetiques)

Well, what if a piece of music simply consists of one note or chord per instrument, simultaneously played, and sustained (perhaps electronically, if it's to be done perfectly) without dynamic or timbric change etc. for several minutes? It would be like taking the most infinitesimal slice out of a piece of music and stretching that sonic moment into several minutes. Then the listener would be able to explore the sound like a painting without disruption, either appreciating the whole/general piece, or focusing in on small details, individual instruments, correlations and vibrations. An auditory still... Red and green vibrate violently, forever––what will a reedy aerophone and a smooth idiophone do? The specific notes and instruments would be chosen as carefully as a subjectivist painter chooses his colors, both for their relation to each other and individual messages. I am sure some stuffy composer has already dedicated their life to this minimalist and reductive thought, but again, I have no idea where to start in order to find their music. I guess I should be happy that Philip Glass has repeated himself as much as he has; at least I can listen to intervals forever. Since I don't even know what I'm thinking about or how to find out if anybody else has thought about it, I'm tempted to try it myself, just to get an earful of it and see if it's even interesting. I probably won't though; it would be very tiresome for everybody involved, plus I have no idea how.

(As far as "everyday" music goes, I think of a music "video" comprised of an unchanging image accompanying the music, to act as a counterbalance, maybe a foil, to the requirement of memory to appreciate the musical whole. The audience could rest on the image, and let the variable [sound] interact with the static [sight]. Eh. It's pointless, wasted thoughts. I've painted a yellow spot on a green leaf, hoping to see a similar static/variable relationship play out over time, as the leaf dies and yellows. Simply a stupid diversion.)

ANYWAY. My thoughts on experimental sounds and musical minimalism found an agreeable meal––though not to the reductive extent I am thinking off––when I somehow or other was led to Rhys Catham's Guitar Trio. Of course, I have always loved drones, so I'm predisposed to this stuff... but good golly this is great!

Gosh, I hope nobody reads this but me.

4/6/12

Elements of Chip Music

If you enjoy old school video games, music, or are a geek/nerd, hollow out a liter of time and watch this presentation by lft/Linus Ã…kesson.
You'll learn something.