"Harpsichord Solo (Poulenc Remix)" [2.9 MB .mp3]
Made these harpsichord samples a few years ago, from a vinyl version of Francis Poulenc's Concert champêtre. This remix includes some passages "straight" except for tempo changes and a middle section where the sampler does its thing. I don't own the rights, fair use, etc. (Poulenc himself was a known "borrower.") This hybrid exists as a thought-experiment-hopefully-with-entertainment-value.
"Moon Joker" [mp3 removed -- please listen on Bandcamp]
My second experiment in converting a lengthy atonal work into a short tonal work. The first cut up maestro was Stockhausen; this one is the original Ahr-nuld (Schoenberg).
I took snippets from a vinyl version of Pierrot Lunaire, op. 21, then looped, layered, and timestretched them onto a 120 bpm timeline/grid.
This is a raw, possible first draft. Normally if something feels missing percussion or reverb would be added. Here the clips were left unenhanced, including all the room tone, artifacts, turntable noise, and hiss from increasing gain on very quiet passages. Hours went into manually de-clicking the loudest pops from the vinyl, but no de-noising or de-crackling software was used (it's expensive!). The remaining noise then becomes part of the piece, in some cases adding rhythmic interest without the need for extraneous percussion.
In his liner notes for the Nonesuch edition of Pierrot Lunaire, Charles Wuorinen describes the work as a culmination of Schoenberg's "contextually atonal" works before the arrival of the composer's 12-tone system. Wuorinen's definition of contextual atonality isn't very clear -- he seems to be saying that each work has its own rules of tonality, as opposed to the Western canon's rules up to that point (1912). He says that Schoenberg made intuitive, ad hoc choices in the arrangement of notes and phrases, causing the music to be unpredictable from minute to minute, while unified by the poetic text and the organization of the work into sections.
Nevertheless, individual runs of notes are quite musical, when de- or re-contextualized. I made 24 clips of varying lengths, and ended up using most of them. Phrases from different sections "stacked" surprisingly well -- that is, shared the same key signature without having to transpose notes.
Why do this? Software makes tonal experiments possible without having to hire musicians. And the noise component adds new timbres and content. Ultimately, though, it's low grade revenge porn.
UK drum-and-bass-era musician Tony Colman shines for his jazz chops and high level of technical polish. Earlier in the '90s he played guitar and keyboards for Izit, featuring bellbottom style a la Deee-Lite and vocal pop songs on the acid jazz periphery.
The two tunes below are infectious in the non-coronavirus sense of having excellent songwriting (by Colman) and mellifluous singing (I believe by Nicola Bright-Thomas):
One by One [hooktube]
Don't Give Up Now [hooktube]
Am busy working on my next musical release. Some experiments with Doepfer's cv-to-midi module, and getting back into the Machinedrum (because it's there).
Was randomly checking out "noise" releases from Mr.Schwarz's YT page.
Found "Untitled B" from a 1983 cassette by David Jackman. [YT audio]
Based on the runtime it appears to be from this tape release listed on Discogs.
Echoing squeaks (possibly violin) overlap and fade, swaddled in tape hiss. Artfully degraded analog sound quality typifies the era and medium.
An accompanying photo on YT shows Jackman outdoors "playing" a mixing desk. No idea whether it relates to "Untitled B" or if it's just a publicity photo from that time period.
What led me to Mr.Schwarz (no space) was his YT of Oeo by Sukora, a vinyl record (which I have) on the LoVid-related Ignivomous label. Amazingly this was reviewed by Discogs user Intransitive:
One side is an arrhythmic tapping on what seems to be a contact mic with no effects on it. the other side seems to be the sound of a record's run-out groove. It's simple, and yet... this is an enjoyable record! I especially like the first side, which instead of being precious, manages to create a certain calming atmosphere. There's no concept or pretense, either. It is what you think it is. Nice.
In a herd of 30 cows, 15 calves were separated from their mothers (for weaning) and put in a separately fenced pasture. The ensuing din of agony was captured in this recording: [5.5 MB .mp3]
