Cerebral Rift

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..

Artist: Ergo Phizmiz

Title: The Faust Cycle (or The House of Dr. Faustus)

The subtitle for this section is “The Bird Machines”.  I listened to part of this section over the weekend, and the whole thing again today.

This section starts with Ergo waking up in a hallway, observing Marcel Duchamp teaching a group of small birds.  A gramophone approaches, music playing, baboon like legs clanking against the floor.  Ergo watches from a corner, not wanting to interrupt the happenings.  He watches as the gramophone changes records via it’s fused in record changer.  The new record is “Dr. Faustus Book of Birds”.

The selection that is presented next is a musical interpretation / narrative of this selection of birds.  When the record ends, a book is extended from the bell of the gramophone.  Upon opening the book, Ergo finds himself in another hallway full of doors, with a film projected at the far end.  He looks through the peep holes in the doors, which is accompanied by a rather lengthy sound collage. There is a narrative about ducks, followed by another sound collage, before going into a song.  When the song concludes we are taken into another lengthy sound collage: first of birds, then bells, chimes and carnival music which concludes this section of the piece.

My attention to detail may not be quite as great in this section, as I said I listened to it twice, but was so lost in the collages and the musical interludes that I didn’t pay as much attention to the narrative relationships.  The  one thing that I did notice was the restoration of Ergo to the main house now, instead of being in the sewers or the ballroom.

The other thing that impresses me in this section is the emergence of the birds.  I’ve been thinking that many of the creatures and animals have some form of symbolic meaning.  Obviously, this is all the stuff that dreams are made of, but frequently dreams are a manifestation of our real lives.    No matter what, these narratives are thickly layered with all sorts of things that can be interpreted.  But the task of trying to assemble and interpret all of this would be a daunting task.

Onwards…

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.

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Artist: Ergo Phizmiz

Title: The Faust Cycle (or The House of Dr. Faustus)

So today’s listening was a turning point on The Faust Cycle for me.  Actually, it wasn’t a single turning point, but rather multiple turning points.

First was the introduction of The Faust Cycle Podcast.  My first impression about this was: what a wonderful thing to do.  Sharing this work with a group of kids, getting them the experience of making free-form music, and experimentation.  Getting them excited about the process of recording this type of work.  It’s a completely wonderful way to expand these kids horizons, but also extend the community of the Creative Commons and Libre Culture to another generation.

The inclusion of their podcast in The Faust Cycle itself adds another, very interesting, dimension to the piece.  Those who are familiar with the writings of Jorge Louis Borges, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and James Joyce, to name a very few (it can be argued that I am referring back to Laurence Sterne again as well),  have undoubtedly heard of the term meta-fiction.

Meta-fiction is typically fiction about fiction, or at least is self-aware in one way or another.  The introduction of the podcast in this context adds another type of meta-fictional element: this is now an audio piece that is aware of itself, aware of the elements that have gone into it’s production.

Of Kinetoscopes & Dung

Now, back at the main piece we arrive to the next twist of the narrative: Ergo finds that he has become human again and is no longer a puppet.  He realizes that he has no idea what amount of time has transpired: hours, days weeks?  And he realizes that he’s about to burst, and sets off to find a lavatory to relieve himself.  And, after finding an appropriate room, with one enormous push he is emptied.

While this activity is normal and necessary, he has a realization that he feels more empty than normal, that something is wrong.  While playing a harmonica, trying to figure out what is wrong, he hears wailing from the pipes beneath where his soul has gone with his bowel movement.  After noting the irony, Ergo realizes that he must get his soul back and thus flushes himself down the pipes.

What transpires in the sewage system below can only be described as hellish in ways we haven’t encountered thus far. Ergo watches several kinetoscopes of films about Lucifer, but is unable to decide what they mean.  However, after the 2nd film, he hears a piano off in the distance, and decides to follow the sound to find his soul.

The piano we hear, is the same James Nye piece that has been used throughout: An Evening In Hell.  Ergo finds himself in a ballroom, where many people are dancing and humming.  As he stands in the corner, where only the piano has noticed his presence, he suddenly hears a voice in his ear reciting nonsensical poetry.  He looks around to find the source of the voice, only to find a pig, which when patted squeals and expands to the size of the room then falls to pieces.

Lonely Violin music, and an interpretation of “Le Tango Perpetuel” and “An Evening in Hell” close this section of the piece.

Onwards…

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…

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…

Artist: Ergo Phizmiz

Title: The Faust Cycle (or The House of Dr. Faustus)

This is day two of listening to this extremely experimental piece.  I have to say, some of the things that I initially suspect are coming true.  The narrative is turning into a twisting and turning shaggy-dog story.  As I mentioned on my day one piece, the grandfather of this type of piece is Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.  This is a book I have attempted to read numerous times throughout the years, and have never been successful.  The problem with reading the book isn’t the narrative form or style, rather it is the period in which the novel was written.  I always seem to not quite get a lot of the jokes, an therefore some of the tangents that the narrative is going through.

The other most notable novel which this piece may be compared to is James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.  However, unlike the Sterne novel, I have never attempted to read the James Joyce novel.  However, I have read several other works by James Joyce, and have enough respect for those works to know that it would take an extremely long time to read, and fully understand.  I know there are scholars who have dedicated a substantial portion of their careers to this one book.

My current experience with this piece is similar to my attempted readings of Tristram Shandy.  I seem to be losing track of some of the narrative elements as we twist through the layers of sound collages and musical interpretations.  I suspect, however, that I may be able to understand the piece better if I could focus on it completely.

I did, however, review the release notes on the Headphonica about this piece, and can see now where there is another perspective to the whole concept.  This can also be seen as an audio form story cycle.   This does make it easier to accept that there are different segments to the piece, and that it isn’t necessary to link each segment to the overall piece.  However, I still have my suspicions that there is more to this piece as even Tristram Shandy can be seen as a story cycle.

As it is, even without completely linking the narrative to the sound collages, I am enjoying the piece.  Whether I am in a narrative section, or in the musical sections, I am enjoying the piece.

Artist: Ergo Phizmiz

Title: The Faust Cycle (or The House of Dr. Faustus)

Ergo Phizmiz & Firends have an accomplishment that is possibly the most insane thing I have seen yet: they have produced a 14+ hour piece and released it on the netlabel Headphonica.  So the question becomes, how do you listen to such a piece?  Well, for me, the best way I can think of approaching the piece is to break it up into 14 sections that are about an hour each, and try to listen to it over 14 days…  So, as I do this, I plan to try to write something each day on the experience.
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