WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Charles Wuorinen's "Time's Encomium"

Charles Wuorinen has been a powerful voice in American music for over four decades, and his early piece "Time's Encomium" representing one of his most famous works. With "Time's Encomium," Wuorinen became the youngest ever composer to be awarded a Pulitzer prize. Released originally on Nonesuch, then on Tzadik, "Time's Encomium" is representative of Wuorinen's distinctive early style. Of the piece, the composer said, "'Time's Encomium' is the title because in this work everyting depends on the absolute, not the seeming, length of events and sections. Being electronic, 'Time's Enconium' has no inflective dimension. Its rhythm is always quantitative, never qualitative. Because I need time, I praise it." 

 

Philip Corner & Manuel Zurria - "Feelings (A Music)"

 

I stumbled upon this track today. Originally setting out to find Philip Corner's brilliant 1963 piece "Big Trombone," I was shocked by the dearth of audio samples available on the internet of the brilliant composer and musician's work. I was in for a far greater and far more pleasant shock -- this is, without a doubt, one of the most stunning explorations of sonic texture I've ever heard. Corner here collaborates with Manuel Zurria, an outstanding Italian composer who, like Corner, produces incredibly thoughtful, textured electroacoustic music. Released on 2011's Joy Flashings by fantastic Italian electronic label Die Schachtel, "Feelings (A Music)" is a delicate improvisation in which acoustic instruments are seamlessly blended together with electronics and an iPhone. The piece is incredibly bright yet also cathartic, and, wave-like,  gently washes over you. In the liner notes, Zurria writes, "Philip gave me the key to enter a secret and wonderful room, full of fabulous things and made me discover a part of me I did not know." Listening to "Feelings (A Music)," you also feel as though you are entering a secret and wonderful room.

"There is no pilot" - Laurie Anderson on "Good Morning Mr. Orwell"

On January 1, 1984, PBS aired Nam June Paik's "Good Morning Mr. Orwell." The entire concept, of PBS airing a series of bizarre happenings with artists ranging from Salvador Dali to Oingo Boingo, is pretty hard to imagine nowadays. Actually watching clips from the program is even stranger. A collection of clips from the program can be seen here, and gives a slight taste of what it must have been like to watch the program back in the day. John Cage plays amplified cactus with Takehisa Kosugi, Oingo Boingo is...Oingo Boingo, and Allen Ginsberg chants a sing songy tune with Arthur Russell on cello. The most striking piece, though, is Laurie Anderson's solo piece, "The Language of the Future." The piece also appears on Anderson's wonderful release, "United States Live." Her 1984 T.V. performance is transfixing: 

 

"Man, oh man, you know, like, oh man! It's so...digital!" And she just meant that the relationship was on again, off again, always two things, switching, current runs through bodies, and then...it doesn't. It was a language of sounds, of noise, of switching, of signals. It was the language of the rabbit, the caribou, the penguin, the beaver, a language of the past. Current runs through bodies and then it doesn't. On again. Off again. Always two things switching. One thing instantly replaces another. It was the Language of the Future."

When Brevity is Best: 10 artists in 10 minutes on "60 Second Compilation"

**EDIT*******************

WFMU's Fatty Jubbo pointed out that I had mixed up the 7" sides -- oof. My bad. The track I so aggressively canned, the Duotron track, was actually the track I liked most, which I mistakenly credited to Zeena Parkins. Zeena Parkins, apparently, was responsible for the track that I had such a big "Uh oh!" response to. Similarly, the track I loved, which I thought was the comp's opener, was actually the Jackwacker track. Regardless of whose track is whose, definitely still check out this recording -- it's fun, interesting, and incredibly weird. I learned two lessons. The first is that I should double check my listening when I don't know the majority of bands/artists involved (and also definitely not be so quick to assume the stand out tracks are by the "big(ger) name" artists). The second lesson is just, damn - WFMU folks know their stuff! Always pretty amazing to be totally schooled (very nicely, though), and in the process, learn about a really great band. Seriously check out the link to Duotron mp3s Fatty Jubbo posted in the comment section. Oh, and a third lesson - definitely do NOT make a lame joke about a song called "Dum Dum" when you're talking about the wrong song. So, without further ado, here's my original write up, making me look like a big, ol' Dum Dum.

"60 Second Compilation" just about says it. The 7", put out by Coat-Tail Records in 1995, is exactly what the title directly states -- a compilation with 60 second tracks by each artist. That uniformity of track length, though, is where this album's continuity seems to end. Seriously, the only thing sonically all these tracks have in common are the fact that they are physically imprinted onto the same album. 

This heterogeneous mix has a couple truly spectacular stand-out tracks...and a few that made me want to stopper up my ears. Below are both sides of the comp, including each track. I'm including all of them because, hey, one lady's trash is another person's treasure, am I right? So who knows, the sickeningly slinky and jazzy cabaret-esque track by Duotron that makes me cringe for all of its brief 60 seconds might be your treasure (the track, though is fittingly called "I feel dum"...just saying).

Side A: Chris Cochrane - "Piss On My Food"; Don Caballero, "If You've Read Dr. Adder, Then You Know What I Want"; Duotron - "I Feel Dum"; The Flying Luttenbachers, "Deception"; Gneissmaker - "Fanfare"

But wait! I'm not just here to point out the one (okay, one of two or three) lame track! This comp is, despite (or perhaps because of) its frankly bizarre-o selection of tunes and artists, a pretty incredible listen. What's more, it's just....fun. Which I know might not seem like a particularly high bar to hold a release to, but one that sticks to its gimmicky 60-second track length rule, and also has artists ranging from Elliott Sharp to the Flying Luttenbachers to Zeena Parkins to Chris Cochrane to....well, really each of the tracks featured is completely different from all the rest. 60 Second Compilations is a strong albeit uneven listen because of the incredible variety of sounds and textures featured on it.

Side A starts off with Chris Cochrane's "Piss On My Food." It is dissonant, dystopian, and cacophonous, and I fully expect to hear this track again when the apocalypse is finally upon us. There's a nice track by Don Cabellero, followed by the aforementioned Duotron mess. Then comes the fast-paced, anxiety-inducing Flying Luttenbachers' track. It is called "Deception," it reminds me of Esplendor Geometrico, and it rules (but also might induce some serious anxiety if listened to on repeat). Side A wraps up with the heavy, thumping Gneissmaker piece, "Fanfare."

Side B: Jackwacker -"This Is My Home"; L-R Duo, "Tandt"; Zeena Parkins, "Sleazy"; Elliott Sharp, "Roil"; White, "Deer Chunk Carcass"

Jackwacker's "This Is My Home" starts off the B-side. It's good, weird, rhythmic rock and roll. L-R Duo's track is a slower, more thoughtful "rock" track, and it's a relatively peaceful track. This brief peace is pretty nice, coming before the Zeena Parkins track, "Sleazy." Which is absolutely amazing. As one would expect, from Zeena Parkins. It's by far the most energetic track on the comp, and ties for my favorite along with the first Chris Cochrane track. Listening to "Sleazy," you just want to get up and stomp your clunky boots and scrunch up your face while screaming, just like Zeena does -- amidst the din and vocal howling, "Sleazy" make for the ultimate brat anthem.

Next up is a really great Elliott Sharp track, "Roil." It builds beautifully, ending abruptly with an incredibly tense electronic shriek -- really nice. Finally, the comp ends pretty appropriately, with a fun, rhythmic track, courtesy of White, called Deer Chunk Carcass." The last three tracks of 60 Second Compilation definitely provide the strongest period of the album, and you're left feeling satisfied with the album, despite it clocking in at a brief 10 minutes. 

Homayun Sakhi and the Rubâb

Homayun Sakhi, Mukhtor Muborakqadomov, Sirojiddin Juraev, Salar Nader, "Zuhal's Song," Music of Central Asia Vol. 9: In the Footsteps of Babur: Musical Encounters from the Lands of the Mughals

From a region known for its virtuoso musicians, Homayun Sakhi stands out as the world's leading player of the Afghan rubâb. To listen to Sakhi play the rubâb results in near-hypnosis, and watching clips of his playing shows how charismatic and brilliant a performer he really is. Sakhi is making a rare appearance this week, allowing New Yorkers to experience just how brilliant a performer Sakhi is. The deftness with which he handles the rubâb makes it near impossible to detect where the player ends and the instrument begins. The rubâb itself has a rich and earthy sound, with each note standing alone. Homayun Sakhi hails from Kabul, a city whose music had come under the influence of the Persian, Indian, and Central Asian traditions. At ten years old, he began studying the rubâb under his father's tutelage. His father himself was a disciple of Ustâd Mohammed Omar, the most renowned rubâb player of the 20th century, whose musical lineage can be traced back over a century to the revered North Indian court musicians imported to Kabul by Amir Sher Ali Khan. 

A Young Omar Khorshid Video Clip

 

 

No comments necessary, just watch this clip. Thanks to the folks at Norient for posting this a while back. 

Joan La Barbara Performs Cage's "Solo for Voice 45" on "Tapesongs" (1977)

    35 years after its release, Tapesongs remains one of the most stunning albums in Joan La Barbara's discography. No mean feat, given that every album La Barbara has released stands as a powerful testament to the capabilities of the human voice as not only the "original instrument," as she asserts on another album, but also the best instrument.

    The most striking of the trio of pieces on Tapesongs is La Barbara's realization of John Cage's "Solo for Voice 45," from his Song Books. La Barbara had worked closely with Cage before and had performed and worked on portions of the piece before recording Tapesongs. For the album, La Barbara decided to record the entirety of the piece. She approached Cage with the idea of recording "Solo for Voice 45" in horizontal layers; he then worked with La Barbara to distribute the 18 pages of the score into 16 separate tracks. Each track was panned into 16 individual "pieces" across the stereo spectrum to maximize "spatial movement," as La Barbara writes in her own description of the piece.

Joan La Barbara, "Solo for Voice 45" (John Cage), "Tapesongs" (1977)

    "Solo for Voice 45" is a "classic" Cage piece, taking on a new form at each performance dictated by chance operations and the singer's interpretation of the piece. The piece's pitches were derived from star maps, with its organization dictated by chance operations, utilizing the I Ching. There are numeric instructions as to how and how many times the singer should sing each note, and, according to La Barbara, the groups of pitches, "Are to be sung as fast as possible in calligraphic strokes approximating the star configurations they represent." La Barbara used chance operations herself in order to determine which phrases were to be sung with the French pronunciation of the alphabet, and which were to be sung in the English pronunciation.

Yvonne Rainer "Hand Movie" (1966)

 

"The Love of Zero" (1927)

 

Robert Florey's "The Love of Zero," is a zippy, lil' short tracking the, you guessed it, love of Zero. Zero's everything I want a 1920s film character to be -- a Chaplin-esque fella strolling around in an impressionistic world (silent, of course), playing on his trombone to impress a coy damsel. The damsel in question, Beatrix, immediately falls for the enthusiastic trombonist. What follows is a sweet story of their courtship, and the inevitable problem posed for the happy couple when Beatrix receives a letter instructing her to get back post-haste to the Grand Vizier's Palace (this was 1927, let's remember - Grand Viziers and their palaces of lusty sin were a part of the vaguely mainstream consciousness).

The short incorporates some seriously stunning shots and innovative uses of film, back when film was still a relatively revolutionary medium."Love of Zero," with its excellent jangly piano and trombone soundtrack, kaleidoscope shots, and genuinely sweet plot, is a welcome break from the inundation of holiday schmaltz we're all suffering from this late in December. Also, while a love story about Zero and Beatrix, it's one of the best odes to the trombone I've ever stumbled upon.

Pierre Henry's "Variations for a Door and a Sigh"

On Pierre Henry's 84th birthday, it only seemed fitting to put on some of his records with my morning coffee and celebrate one of the leading innovators of the 20th century's sound. Henry learned from the greats, studying under Messiaen, Boulanger, and Passerone. With Pierre Schaeffer, Henry "founded" musique concrète. Founded might not be the proper word, as musique concrète is not a genre or a style, but rather a framework in which to explore sound -- musique concrète and the French composers who pioneered it radically opened up the way we think about music and media. 

Art lived so long / with its head stuck in the myth of realism / that it got sand up its nose / that it forgot it was always abstract. / Music lived so long as an abstraction / that it forgot it could be anything else.

Pierre Henry, Variations for a Door and a Sigh, Side A - "Slumber," "Hesitation," "Song 1," "Awakening," "Song 2," "Stretching," "Gestures," "Reckoning," "Fever 1," "Yawning," "Song 3," "Wrath," "Hesitation 2," and "Breathing"

Listening this morning to "Variations pour Une Porte et Un Soupir" ("Variations for a Door and a Sigh") absolutely reaffirmed for me Henry's place as one of the greatest sculptors of sound. The idea of "sculpting" sound is a critical aspect Henry's "approach" to composition. In 1981, Henry himself said, "The origin of this music is also found in the interest in 'plastifying' music, of rendering it plastic like sculpture." 

The Instruments of Harry Partch

"The creative person shows himself naked. And the more vigorous his creative act, the more naked he appears, sometimes totally vulnerable, yet always invulnerable in the sense of his own integrity. I am now 69 as this is being said, and I've been Doing My Own Thing for five and a half decades. This "Thing" began with Truth, and Truth does exist. For some hundreds of years, The Truth of just intonation (which is defined in any good music dictionary) has been hidden, one could almost say maliciously, because truth always threatens the ruling hierarchy, or, they think so."

So Harry Partch dramatically begins his Prologue in the original LP release of "Delusion of the Fury: A Ritual of Dream and Delusion." Harry Partch's "Delusion of the Fury" has long been heralded as his masterwork. The piece is a music & theatre piece (to describe it as "musical theatre" would be misleading), in which musicians and dancers perform the continuous 90-minute piece, blurring the lines of musical concert and performance piece. Until The Japan Society commissioned a performance of the piece in 2007, the 1969 premiere was the only performance of "Delusion," and the premiere, released originally as a two-disc release by Columbia Masterworks in 1971, remains the standard recording of the piece.

Harry Partch, "Side A-Partch in Prologue; Adapted Viola; Chromelodeon I Blo-Boy; Adapted Guitar; Kithara; Harmonic Canon II; Diamond Marimba; Bass Marimba; Cloud-Chamber Marimba; Spoils of War; Marimba Eroica; Surrogate Kithara; Kithara II"

When Tapes Were New: Listening to Ussachevsky & Luening's 1952 "Tape Music"

Before laptop performances, computer composition, even synthesizers, became de rigueur in the music world, there was the tape. Specifically, the cumbersome, complex world of reel-to-reel magnetic tapes, with which some of the most astounding musical innovations were realized.

On 28 October 1952, Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky took the stage at the Modern Museum of Art, to participate in a special concert, being broadcast live. This concert makes up the entirety of the 1968 Desto Records LP, "Tape Music An Historic Concert." The music documented is deserving of the adjective "historic," as the first tape music concert in the United States, radically changed the face of contemporary musical composition. It was because of this particular 1952 concert of Luening and Ussachevsky's music that the term "Tape Music" actually came into being.

Early Kazumoto Endo: Listening to "Evergreen"

The album art for Kazumoto Endo's Evergreen so starkly contrasts the actual sonic contents of the green 7" that a previous listener scribbled on the copy I listened to, "NOT the instrument used to make this record" with an arrow aggressively drawn in the direction of the acoustic guitar.

For anyone familiar with Kazumoto Endo's work, this wouldn't exactly be a surprise. Kazumoto Endo has been a noise innovator since he began his solo Killer Bug project in the mid 1990s, bringing particularly dense, highly textured static collages into the noise scene. Evergreen is a prime example of Endo doing exactly what he does best.

Kazumoto Endo, "Jujika Mori No Yoru"

The droning static makes way for increasingly shrill arcs of "pure" sound. The track is perfectly paced, without the onslaught of over-aggression that often characterizes the work of Endo's contemporaries. Endo inundates his listener with wave upon wave of sound, with careful attention paid not only to the density and "feel" of each component, but also an intense attention to the interlocking of rhythms. 

Kazumoto Endo, "Beagle-ken To No Seikatsu"

Side B's track, "Beagle-ken To No Seikatsu," has a haunting, underlying phrase, at times hidden underneath what sounds like the scraping together of metal scraps, and at others emerges as the primary sound source. The track beautifully devolves at exactly the halfway point into a harsh noise bit, only to itself breakdown in a pulsating onslaught of static. 

Every moment is perfectly controlled; even at the heaviest and most complex moments on the 7", Endo is in absolute control -- you never forget that these are two Kazumoto Endo tracks. Evergreen was released in a limited batch of 300 copies on now defunct label Pinch A Loaf Productions. Both tracks that make up the release are incredibly precise, cathartic explorations in form and texture that really make Evergreen a stunning display of Kazumoto Endo's craftwork.

"A Serious Night Of Noise" - Live at Mama Kin, 1996

"ALRIGHT...straight from some foreign country...MASONNNAAA!"

With that, "A Serious Night Of Noise" begins. "Serious Night" is a compilation out on Statutory Tape, a sub-label of Massachusetts noise & experimental label RRRecords. Recorded live at the now-defunct Mama Kin Music Hall (named after Aerosmith's song of the same name by the band) 14 October 1996, the 2-cassette box set release has a pretty heavy set of contributers.

Masonna, "Untitled (A1)"

Masonna shares the A-side with Emil Beaulieau, aka Ron Lessard (founder of RRRecords), with a Beaulieau track and a Japanese Torture Comedy Hour track sharing the B side. Nightstick and Skin Creme come next, with the final side featuring an extended Merzbow set.

There are a pretty wide range of sonic stylings on this album, from the crunchy, psychedelic-tinged Night Stick track to perfectly orchestrated electrical storm of the closing Merzbow track.

Emil Beaulieau, "Untitled (B1)"

Merzbow, "Untitled (D)" (excerpt)

Preserving all the applauses, "woooo-hooooo"'ings, and interjections from the audience, the comp (referred to on the box back as a "Souvenir Recording") keeps the loose feel of actually being front and center at a show. The Masonna set has a few pauses, in which whoops and cheers fill the silence. From that particularly strong start, the comp is incredibly fast-paced and exciting.

The fun continues, through the piercing back-to-back Emil B. tracks and the Japanese Torture Comedy Hour one. The tone changes with the sludgy rock feel of Nightstick, then the Skin Creme track. Merzbow's 25 minute track closes the comp, and shows Masami Akita at his finest. Recorded 15 years ago this Friday, "A Serious Night of Noise" is still seriously fun.

Marrakesh Market Music: Listening to "The Ecstatic Music of Jemaa El Fna"

Jemaa El Fna has for centuries been an integral and vibrant part of the unique culture of Marrakesh. This Moroccan square, whose name can be translated to mean "the mosque of death," or "the rendezvous of the dead," is a historic gathering place, and with the marketplace, array of cafes, and constant, ever-changing stream of performers, from snake charmers to fortune tellers, is an always-bustling part of Marrakesh today. Sublime Frequencies's "Ecstatic Music of the Jemaa El Fna" provides lasting documentation of the local musicians who frequent the square, and of the blistering and beautiful music they make there every day.

 Troupe Majidi, "Essiniya (Nass El Ghiwane)"

"Ecstatic Music" was recorded live by Hisham Mayet in 2005, and features the performance of songs taken from the Moroccan pop music canon by Troupe Majidi, Amal Saha, and Mustapha Mahjoub. Each track is recorded live, in Jemaa El Fna, with instruments powered by car batteries and amplified by megaphone speakers. In stark contrast to the incredibly precise, heavily-mastered studio recordings of Arabic music that circulate most frequently, each track on "Ecstatic Music of Jemaa El Fna" provides a heady, aggressive, and paired-down mix of thumping rhythms, fuzzy vocals, and piercing mandolin and banjo strings. 

Amal Saha, "Lahmami (Nass El Ghiwane)"

Mustapha Mahjoub, "Tal Raibak Arzali (Cheb Hosni)"

With calls from the audience distinctly heard in Mustapha Mahjoub's "Tal Raibak Arzali (Cheb Hosni)" to the raucous hand-clapping and whistling of the gathered crowd during Amal Saha's "Lahmami (Nass El Ghiwane)," each song is felt to be not simply entertainment, but rather the product of a participatory group performance.

The tracks are crunchy, raw, and incredibly emotional. Each song is catchy and just plain fun; taken all together, though, "The Ecstatic Music of Jemaa El Fna" is a perfect representation of just why live music is so exciting, regardless of the time or place. The album has the personal and liberating quality of a spontaneous field-recording, with the content and quality of a studio album. The title of the album is particularly fitting; you can't help but feel ecstatic listening to these communal and free celebrations of music. Even without being physically present, the urgency and excitement of these Marrakesh musicians and their audiences is transmitted through each piece, making "The Ecstatic Music of Jemaa El Fna" the dazzling album that it is.

 

Bringing Music to #OccupyWallStreet

 

Hundreds of people congregated in Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan (Wall Street itself was barricaded and off limits) this weekend in the "inauguration" of #OccupyWallStreet. The protest bills itself as New York's "Tahrir Square," a peaceful occupation begun Saturday, September 17, meant to call attention to the the state of capitalism, corruption, and corporate globalization in America today. While many, some wearing the ominous Anonymous masks, are enraged, some protestors are channeling a more positive energy through the use of organized, ritualized musical performance. The drum circle pictured above, filmed late Saturday night, is not the only major form of music-making; Saturday saw guitarists and other groups of people forming hum circles and bursting into song throughout the first day.

The protest is about, in the words of one drum circler, "A rejection of the lack of transparency and abstraction in our society. To make that position clear we're using bodies as the most material thing we have." When asked why a drum circle, a protestor said, "Because it's fun and it's not just destructive anger. We need to channel productive anger, so we're aiming towards the positivity that communal music-making allows." As #OccupyWallStreet continues, this positive coming-together through positive and hopeful music-making also continues, as an alternative to violent and destructive attempts at creating social change.

A Little Ana-Maria Avram: Some Selected Birthday Listening

 

This Monday marks the 50th birthday of Romanian composer Ana-Maria Avram. Avrams descends musically from a long line of European spectralist composers. Listening to her pieces forces one to recall the tradition of composers like Grisey and Murail, and sonically is incredibly reminiscent of earlier proto-spectralists like Giacinto Scelsi. She is most closely associated with fellow Romanian hyper-spectralist Iancu Dumitrescu, with whom Avram works closely as a composer, conductor, and pianist in the Hyperion Ensemble (founded by Dumitrescu in the 1970s). Hyperion is a Bucharest-based chamber ensemble specializing in contemporary classical music, particularly of the spectral, acousmatic variety.

Spectral music can sometimes seem a bit cold, even mechanical, in its execution. Avram's music is particularly remarkable because of the very real warmth with which she imbues each of her pieces. Whether composing a solo work which she herself performs, or a piece for electronics, pre-recorded tape, and an entire chamber ensemble, Avram has a brilliant flair for the dramatic paired with a sense of subtlety that lends great contrast and excitement to each moment of each of her works.

 

Like other Romanian contemporary composers, such as Stefan Niculescu and Horatiu Radulescu (as well as, of course, Dumitrescu), Avram focuses on the use of bird calls, wind sounds, bells, and "natural" sounds that mix harmonic and inharmonic elements in the creation of her hyper-spectralist pieces. Her music is wonderfully textural and phenomenally beautiful. These clips included here are just a few examples of the already deep contributions Avram has made, at only age 50, to the world of New Music.

 

 

Labordaze Jams: A Double Dose of Borbetomagus

No need for a lengthy introduction to Borbetomagus. The legendary trio of guitarist Donald Miller and saxophonists Don Dietrich and Jim Sauter have straddled, and subsequently radically transformed the intersection where free improvisation meets noise since the late 1970s.

Thomas Pynchon, writing the liner notes for a collaboration between Dietrich and Sauter (that absolutely applies to the aggressive brutality that is Donald Miller on guitar) with Thurston Moore in early 1990, said it best: "These two men are the freest, loudest, swingin'est white motherfuckers to ever jaw-cleave an industrial strength reed. Their work with Borbetomagus has long been a raucous fountain of tonal explosion and aesthetic purity, as well as a black-gloved fist up the diz of all conservative musical architects." So, keeping those immortal words of Pynchon in mind, here are two tracks, off of two particularly choice Borbeto 7"'s, for your listening pleasure.

 First up, 1990's incredible "The Original Chirping Chicken." The title track, filling all of Side A, is a particularly controlled and brooding, almost, track for Borbetomagus. With a few pauses interspersed towards the middle of the track, I felt myself actually exhaling, so relieved was I that the track was concluding, only to be started up again a split second later. This is not a criticism of the track, or Borbetomagus's music in general. On the contrary, the tension in this track, and the B Side, "Choking Olga," is something that few groups can achieve, and Borbetomagus makes clear, on this recording, that they've mastered. 

Borbetomagus, "The Original Chirping Chicken" 

  Next up, we have 1993's "Coelacanth." The first side, "Coelacanth 6.27.92," stands in sharp contrast to "Chirping Chicken," with far more extreme contrasts. At points, the sax parts sound almost like the chirping of particularly aggressive birds, and the piercing slide of Miller's guitar, cello-like on much of "Chirping Chicken," achieves a piercing quality, not too unlike a human shriek. The texture here, though, is just as rich, with the interplay between Dietrich and Sauter particularly striking -- one can hardly tell where one sax starts and the other ends.

Borbetomagus, "Coelacanth 6.27.92"

What these two tracks, just as much as the longer pieces that make up most of Borbetomagus's full-length LP, the incredible cohesion of Miller, Dietrich, and Sauter is really highlighted, without any individual part losing its distinctive nature. Borbetomagus somehow make what should be simply chaotic free-for-all's of two saxophonists and a guitarist into in-your-face all-out audio assaults.

 

After the deluge, comes AMPLIFY 2011: Jon Abbey brings Erstwhile to New York

With an earthquake and a hurricane out of the way, New York's natural disaster quota for the next few days seems to be filled, just in time for AMPLIFY 2011: stones. AMPLIFY is a festival curated by Jon Abbey, the founder of Erstwhile Records. While the location shifts (past AMPLIFYs have taken place in Tokyo, Prague, Cologne, Berlin, and New York) and the cast of musicians changes, the consistent taste of Abbey guarantees an incredible festival.

First, a little on Erstwhile. The label, started by Abbey in 1999, focuses almost exclusively on free improvisation, particularly of the electroacoustic variety. Erstwhile's roster includes legends like Keith Rowe, Toshimaru Nakamura, Günter Müller, Axel Dörner, Otomo Yoshihide, Jason Lescalleet, Voice Crack...the list goes on and on. Each Erstwhile release, though, remains consistent to a very specific vision and aesthetic, determined by Abbey. AMPLIFY 2011: stones is set to take place 1-17 September, with 1-15 September at The Stone and 16-17 September at Issue Project Room, with multiple sets each night. 

Here are a few words Jon shared on AMPLIFY 2011: stones -- 

On why he's bringing AMPLIFY to New York again, and why The Stone: "John Zorn asked me to curate for two weeks as a part of his 'label' series, and I started inviting people. Pretty much everyone I asked said yes, despite the lack of funding, and after a certain point, I thought the overall lineup was strong enough to call the whole thing an AMPLIFY."

On the "scope" of the festival: "Each festival is different, depending on what city it's in and where we are in the music at the time. This one is much longer than most of the others, but I don't think the scope is necessarily wider than the 2002 or 2004 ones."

On how to choose which musicians would play when, and how much of a hand Abbey takes in structuring his AMPLIFY festivals: "I guess it's a bit like putting together a puzzle, you start putting in pieces and then see the best juxtapositions and the best overall structure. It's a little hard to explain, but it's something I've prided myself on being good at since the first one in 2001. Second question - again, it's case by case, but generally I don't do too much micromanaging of live shows after setting up the overall structure of the festival."

 

 

 

On particularly exciting individual sets: "Really pretty much all of them to different degrees, but specifically the Keith Rowe solo on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, really curious to see how he'll handle that. Also, Taku Unami's series of six sets, it's extremely challenging to try to do that many different sets before one overlapping and discerning audience in such a short period, so also very curious how he'll handle that."

On the connection between Erstwhile Records and the AMPLIFY festivals: "I consider it my main job to run Erstwhile, but I think that festivals like this are essential for the music to thrive if at all possible, and since pretty much no one else does them, I do them when I can."

 

 

 

The festival includes some sure-to-be-brilliant sets from long time collaborators, like Toshimaru Nakamura and Keith Rowe (the 8th). There are also a host of first-time collaborations and premieres, like those of Bonnie Jones/Maria Chavez (the 2nd), Nakamura/Taku Unami (the 9th), and Graham Lambkin/Vanessa Rossetto (the 3rd), that will definitely not disappoint. There is also the Gravity Wave Festival, a sort of "sub-festival" happening 14 and 15 September as a part of AMPLIFY, featuring what promise to be fantastic sets by, among others, Michael Pisaro and Barry Chabala.

It's rare to catch proper electroacoustic shows in New York, nevermind such high quality ones for not one, not two, but seventeen nights, with multiple sets per night, in a row. Check out the AMPLIFY festival this month, and get to hear, in person, the incredible musicians representing Erstwhile.

East Meets West: "The Japanese-American Noise Treaty"

The first thing that happens, when one gets introduced to the world of "noise music," is that someone older and wiser takes you under his wing, to teach you about the different "schools" of noise, for as any noise enthusiast knows, not all noise is created equal. Generally, it seems, all Noise 101 lessons start with the harsh sounds emanating from urban centers in far-away Japan, and then move into homegrown American noise schtuff. From there, you are taught to link these two classes of noise-makers into one ear-splitting transcontinental breed of artists coexisting but rarely interacting in the "heyday" of harsh noise in 1990s Japan and America. I'm sure it's slightly different for everyone, and as someone only recently christened into her 20s, I apologize to those readers who make up the "older and wiser" demographic mentioned above, but this trajectory seems like the standard introduction.

This noise introduction, including required listening to Hijokaidan and C.C.C.C. on one side, and Richard Ramirez and Namanax on the other, is perfectly encapsulated in "The Japanese-American Noise Treaty," a two-disc 1995 release from Relapse Records. Disc 1 features the noise of Japanese artists and Disc 2, of American ones. Each track is a unique representation of each artist's individual work and style, and the album includes a warning from the label that they are not responsible for "degradation and destruction of the following: preamplifiers, power supply components, loudspeakers and/or related transducer assemblies, tape based magnetic storage devices, and personal hearing impairment."

Inside, the booklet accompanying the release features one page, each one designed by the artist, ranging from almost blank pages to those featuring artfully-designed manifestos. Even the design of the album, with the prerequisite warnings against hearing damage and the DIY feel of the booklet, is exactly what is required of a 90s noise comp.

This release really feels like a summary of the first year or two I spent voraciously ripping every single Aube and GX Jupitter-Larsen 7" I could find, determined to really "get" Japanese versus American noise. Even the segregation of Japanese and American artists onto the two separate cds seems to recreate that naive enthusiasm and curiosity in me, making me completely set on finding out the true sonic differences between every artist's "sound" and "style." The division really makes you, regardless of your age and experience, your taste and interests, take sides. I, for example, can't help but really favor the Japanese cuts, they just are so much more brutal, so much more raw. Or perhaps that is the tricky thing about noise comps like this -- they really tend to create a division that, at least considering the tracks chosen, doesn't exist, or at least not as dramatically and neatly as we'd like to think, looking back 16 years. Really, who could say that the MSBR track, coming off of Disc I: Japan, is truly more brutal or raw than the Princess Dragonmom? 

MSBR, "1000 Pulses in Bosnia"

Princess Dragonmom, "HNIA-Gone"

What is shocking about the album is how little both Japanese and American noise have changed since a decade and a half ago. First off, the names are really the same (at least, for me), with Merzbow, Masonna, and Solmania some of the biggest hitters on the Japanese disc, and Haters, Macronympha, and Daniel Menche some of the top guys on the American one. Sonically, the album is really superb - certainly one of the best noise comps I've heard, in its completeness and breadth. Honestly, listening to the pieces now, I can't imagine anything being made now sounding all that different, unless what you define as 'noise' 'music' radically shifts. Which is to say, listening to these tracks, I get a bit worried -- where does noise music really have to go from, say, the chaos of the 40 second Masonna track "Epistle to Dippy," or grimey filth of Pica's "Tightening the Pilliwink"?

There has been change, certainly, but in terms of American noise at least, I can't really see the change having been for the better. While "The Japanese-American Noise Treaty" certainly presents a somewhat blunt take on the most fertile period of noise music, it is far from a musical retrospective relic. Rather, the album is a sort of guideline for what noise should, and generally does, still sound like in 2011. 

Masonna, "Epistle to Dippy"

Pica, "Tightening the Pilliwink"