Samstag, 23. Februar 2008

Lewis Carroll in the Mix??

Here are the first 3 of 6 mixes made as musical/acoustic backdrops for six chapters from Lewis Carroll's strange little book, "Sylvie and Bruno". The mixes represent something like "variations on ...": I didn't try to illustrate anything from the story, although some parts get rather picturesque sometimes.

The first two parts are rather frugal regarding the sounds & music I used. "Light come, Light go" starts off with very beautiful piece for three recorders by the Swedish composer Lars Hallnäs. He hasn't got released much, but if you see any of the CDs from the Swedish "content" label with his works, grab it. Highly recommended. "Light come, Light go" closes with a magic little tune from a dubstep EP by Luca Venezia.
* * *
The second part, "Through the Ivory Door", revolves around a percussion piece of mine, featuring an unsual sound-painting from Gavin Bryars' "Chambre d'Ecoute" and Modul's minimalistic pulsations. Additional FX & treatments by me.
* * *
"Crossing the Line", the last part, draws a wide musical arc from Howard Skempton's miniature "Prelude" for hornto Deepchord's ultra-deep electronic dub, via Gimmer Nicholson's electronic folk from the late sixties, some heavily processed 12th century Templar Knight chants and the sweet "Woven Clouds" by Carter Tutti (of Throbbing Gristle fame).
* * *
"Five o'clock tea! Ever to thee Faithful I'll be, Five o'clock tea!"


Montag, 11. Februar 2008

Narrative Musical Wallpaper


Live mix: Feb. 10, 2008

And so, finally - here's the second mix from my "HCE" series. It's a rather airy and flutey affair with some noisy excursions, inspired by episodes from Master Francis Rabelais' fantastic and preposterous epic "Five Books of the Lives, Heroic Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and his Son Pantagruel".

You will find Takemitsu and Feldman here, a nice ditty by Aphex Twin spiced up with the voice of Aleister Crowley, a piece by electronic pioneer Franca Sacchi from Italy, a lengthy Sho solo by Mayumi Miyata and some perfectly static Gamelan music from Java. All glued together and modelled with music & sounds from me.

The first segment is structured after and uses samples from Peter Szöke's "The Unknown Music Of Birds". On this LP, the Hungarian musico-ornithologist reveals hidden aspects of birdsong via tape-manipulation. Fascinating. I'll post it in the "Closet of Curiosities" soon.

Enjoy the journey.

By the way: listener feedback is welcome and appreciated. If you downloaded the first mix, "Malachus Micgranes Teahouse #1", please leave a comment - how you liked it, and whatnot.