Archive for the ‘Electronic’ Category
The Faust Cycle: Day Eight
Artist: Ergo Phizmiz
Title: The Faust Cycle (or The House of Dr. Faustus)
Today’s section is “The Abduction of the Object”. By this point, I have lost most of the narrative thread of the story, only to say that I do know what the object is, and was surprised by this turn of events, as it represents possibly the only aspect of an actual plot line that isn’t part of the setup, or a set of narrative twists and turns.
Ergo is chasing a Linnet in a part of the house he doesn’t recognize. He doesn’t remember what he did with the parcel, and now imagines that if he happens on Dr. Faustus, he doens’t relish telling him that he’s lost the package. As he chases the Linnet he finds himself in an auditorium with a cross dressing person on stage, reciting odd sing-song-ish poetry than rolls on and on endlessly and barely making any real sense. The audience is a bunch of (again) people dressed in bird suits.
It’s after the cross-dresser that Faustus appears on the stage, wheeling out what appears to be a life size doll: Eloise. With the emergence of Faustus on the stage, we are presented with a series of processes for the construction of an automaton. I won’t explain here, however this section links together several of the more unusual recurring elements of the piece to give us an idea of how Faustus has accomplished a miracle: Eloise is an automaton.
While we and Ergo have been introduced to Eloise before, now she is quite appealing to Ergo. She has become a thing of beauty, something desirable. So desirable that he storms the stage, knocks out Faustus (with a trombone he steals from the orchestra) and grabs Eloise and runs away with her. And thus ends chunk 4 of The Faust Cycle, with possibly one of the most standard plot points of a narrative. However, it doesn’t seem like a cop-out. It works, we have seen Eloise before, and by now (nearly 12 hours into the piece) couldn’t have imagined that this was going to happen.
Much of the music and sound collages in this section were put together by James Nye & Ergo Phizmiz. And in this case, the majority of it has been used to illustrate the construction of Eloise and automata’s. This is possibly one of more distinct and specific examples of an interweaving of the narrative elements with sound collage techniques. Part of the sound collage reveals another source of the elements of The Faust Cycle: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Onwards..
Review: I Step Into The Advent
Cover: I Step Into The Advent
Title: I Step Into The Advent
Artist: Mikael Fyrek
Label: Kahvi Collective
Release Date: 11/10/2009
Catalog No: Kahvi 276
License: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND-SA
Mikael Fyrek is another example of one of the extremely fine electronic musicians that has been on the net for quite sometime. This release is his fifth on the Kahvi Collective, and it exemplifies what one person can do with a home studio and more than a dash of skill and creativity.
re:Sound: Work & Play
Welcome to a new series of articles called re:Sound. The idea for this column came from a couple of magazine columns I have seen in the past. Basically, the idea is to dig back into my collection and select a recording that is worthy of tracking down and listening to. While many of these will be netlabel releases that you can find fairly easily, some of them may be commercial releases that may be more difficult to find. (However, I will stay away from RIAA releases as much as possible in favor of true independent releases…)
So, let’s get to my first choice.
Sunday Re-spin #4
Alright, this week has been hard fought, but quite successful, I would say…
- Six articles on The Faust Cycle have been posted, and there will be six more of them.
- I posted my commentaries on: the Cowon iAudio 7 & 9 players, A Brief Word About Security, and the iPad & iBooks.
- I continued serveral series: Finding Music Online, Shoestring Classical Series.
- I posted part two of my January Classical Listening article.
- I reviewed a new release by Pharmacore on the Pavillion36 label.
- And I started re-working the Links & Locations portion of the site.
The Faust Cycle: Day Five
Artist: Ergo Phizmiz
Title: The Faust Cycle (or The House of Dr. Faustus)
When I left off yesterday, I stated that I wanted to have a separate download of “Improvisation for Cello & Electronics” by Bela Emerson. It is such a captivating piece that I mentioned that it reminded me of a Karlheinz Stockhausen piece, alas I didn’t mention the title: Mantra. I also mentioned Klaus Schulze & Rainer Bloss, but didn’t mention that I was thinking of the 2nd half of the Audentity album.
I’ve re-listened to the Bela Emerson piece, and still hold to my words. However, besides Stockhausen and Bloss, I knew there was more that I was thinking about. The next section of The Faust Cycle was to bring the connections to other music that I have listened to throughout the years to the foreground. Hell Kebabs by Angela Valid brought into my mind some of the really classic electroacoustic pieces I’ve listened to throughout the years… One of the better compilations of such pieces can be found in the Archives GRM collection, which features composers / artists like Pierre Boulez, Edgar Varese, Iannis Xenakis, Olivier Messiaen, Luc Ferrari, and Francois Bayle just to name a few.
It also occurred to me that this is one of the things that I am not hearing a lot of the electronic micro-tonal / marco-tonal works that are coming out on netlabels like Resting Bell… While the electronic works are detailed, well structured and thought out, they tend to not have the level of text and detail found in the earliest electroacoustic works from the 1950’s and 1960’s. It’s definitely something that sets The Faust Cycle apart from other works.
After Hell Kebabs we return to a more narration oriented section, although this time, there is some meshing of the electroacoustic work in the background of the narration, even when a tango and waltz are mixed over the top of the abstract and complex texture of Hell Kebabs, which finally fades into the background as we are introduced to “Gretchen”.
Ergo, still in his wooden puppet form, watches Gretchen, and listens to her as she whispers in his ear. She eventually slips into sing chanting portions of Anything Goes. We listen to a a small ensemble perform for a bit, then “Improvisation for Cell & Electronics” is re-introduced behind Gretchen. This is a wonderful bit of meta-audio-narration as the familiar chirping of birds are re-introduced, the mixture of the string ensemble with muted trumpet, and several themes re-emerge.
After the conclusion of “Gretchen” we are cast into “Chronicles of the Suspicious Gentleman”. This section starts with a piece sung by a small ensemble, and then Gretchen narrates the story as depicted by puppets. The story revolves around the Gentleman and Madiana. Much of the stroy is told through musical interpretation that mixes elements in a unique form, sounding like modern electronica, a 1920’s victrola and a carnival barker before giving way to an unusual interpretation (mashup?) of Fever, which gives way to another unusual interpretation — I can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch). This gives a whole new meaning to the context of the song, bringing out the elements of jealousy and insecurity.
This section is a little more successful, or at least a little more obvious, when it comes to linkage between the music and the narrative elements. It’s either that, or I am getting some of my chops back for listening to a more complicated work such as this.
Onwards…
The Faust Cycle: Day Four
Artist: Ergo Phizmiz
Title: The Faust Cycle (or The House of Dr. Faustus)
This section is sub-titled Operatic Laughter. The opening of this portion reminded me of something Negativland would do: use a sample from an opera, chop it up and loop it, then juxtapose it with a really cheesy latin-style jazz piece. This segment is then followed with the Monkey Song.
Ergo, now presumably in the middle of a dream, has come to the realization that he is a puppet, who gets to do a dance once a day. Now he is relegated to watching all manner of unusual performances around him, being unable to move since he is made of wood. The monkey reappears, using Ergo Puppet to relieve himself. It always seems that with the appearance of monkeys the subject turns scatalogical. 
After being used, Ergo is shown several short films… However, first, he is subjected to Igor Stravinsky’s standup routine which ends with Stravinksy disappearing through a picture of Caruso’s buttocks. Then the films.
Eventually there is a filmed production of Eloise. This stage production is about a doll being trained in opera by Dr. Faustus, or rather, someone portraying Dr. Faustus. After the film we are presented with another Negativland style collage of operas being mixed into a new rhytmic and melodic structure, and juxtaposed with a piece of pop music.
This finally gives way to a minimalistic piece for cello and electronics (by Bela Emerson). This is a wonderful piece, reminding me of a cross between a Karlheinz Stockhausen piano piece, and some of the works of Klaus Schulze and Rainer Bloss.
This last piece is just incredibly gorgeous. I’ve started thinking that I want to download the music sections of this piece seperately (I know they are available on FMA), and this piece alone makes the case for having the music as a stand-alone entity.
Onwards…
The Faust Cycle: Day Three
Artist: Ergo Phizmiz
Title: The Faust Cycle (or The House of Dr. Faustus)
This section of The Faust Cycle has been sub-titled Culinary Philosophy. The narrator, Ergo Phizmiz himself (which I have failed to mention previously), finds that while he was asleep he has been relocated in the house. Of course, it has been difficult to realize that this has happened several times, because although he has a sense of being moved in his sleep, he still wakes up in the same room — or at least a room he thinks is the same room.
When Ergo awakens this time, he has an encounter with Mr. Suasage, after having eaten one of his suasages by mistake. Ergo promises to replace Mr. Suasages suasage, only to be informed that he is now 200 miles inside the house of Dr. Faustus. From here, Ergo makes his way to the train station riding on a chair. He attends a dinner with clocks, pigs, Mr. Suasage, and others. And he misses the train.
The narrative of this section seems to have taken a turn. It now seems to have been inspired, or is paying homage to Lewis Caroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass. And, in the same manner this section uses humor and unique visuals to put us into a new world where the impossible becomes possible.
Musically, this section is highly filled out with works by James Nye, and samples from varying classical pieces — including a very hamronically complex symphonic piece that I cannot place for the life of me (although I am certain I have heard it before…it certainly sounds Russian, so I might believe it to be Prokofiev…but I won’t swear to it).
Overall, this section reminded me of listening to a Tom Waits style piece that instead of mixing the musical and narrative elements ala Alice, leaves the pieces seperate to stand on their own, allowing the listener the space to reflect on each element individually and in relation to each other.
Onwards…
Review: Pharmacore – Utopia
Pharmacore: Utopia
Title: Utopia
Artist: Pharmacore
Label: Pavillion36
Catalog No: P36-037
Release Date: 11 January 2010
License: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND
I have to say, this is a first for me. I had not actually heard of a style listed as “IDM with Drill & Bass influence”. However, that being said, I don’t find this release to be un-impressive.
The dark, edgy with some more mechanical elements seems somewhat like Future Sound of London meets Nine Inch Nails. But, this isn’t music that tries to imitate either of these groups. This is music that is very much in the IDM genre, and builds from that into it’s own form. Definitely kind of a nightmare meets the robots.
Finding Music Online: Part Two
This time I’m focusing on Netlabels. What are Netlabels? Well, like the Kahvi Collective mentioned in the first article they are community organizations that have decided to release collections of music either by individual artists, or in compilations in a way that is analogous to what the large record companies do. Many Netlabels release these recordings for free (as in without $$$ charges), and under a Creative Commons license, or a license that is very open.
The other aspect of Netlabels is in their history. Many of the Netlabels have been around for quite a few years. They derived from the Demo Scene: a group of hackers (hackers in the good and correct sense of the word) who work with computers at the lowest possible level to produce demonstrations of what the machines can do. In some cases you would be quite astounded by what could be done with an Apple ][ or Commodore 64. A lot of the music that these intrepid hackers wrote for the demos were initially released as “tracker” files, which predated MP3’s. Eventually, with the rise of the Internet and MP3’s these intrepid multimedia artists started releasing music on their own for the world to listen.
Read the rest of this entry »
Review: OG – 01
I have to say that I was initially skeptical about this release on Jamendo: it was another case where the artist solicited a review of his work. If you recall, I ended up writing a somewhat mixed review (see Review: Bielebny – Punxsutawney). Yet, this artists request was quite courteous and drew my interest. But, in another turn, as I looked at the release page, I noticed several things: (1) this release has been out for over six months, (2) the artist got into a debate with a listener over “spamming” for reviews (what I term “solicitations”), and (3) the artist has over 100 reviews, in seven languages.
So, is history repeating itself? Am I writing another mixed review? Do I have issues with the “solicitation”? Do I have issues with the “spam” debate?
