The Single-Instrument EP (MP3)

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The recent EP Soft Answers by Janes Scenic Drive makes a strong case for the single-instrument recording — in this case not solo piano, or solo cello, but a synthesizer called the Polar, and produced by the company Access. Janes Scenic Drive is a moniker for the active electronic musician Phillip Wilkerson. Here, playing solo on his one select tool, he ekes out plaintive soundscapes. The tracks vary widely, from daybreak haze to industrial droning. One particular highpoint is “In the Country of Her Eyes,” which changes shape as it progresses, and steers a course midway between the collection’s more dissonant and consonant extremes (MP3). The enjoyably meandering quality to the synthesis may be a result of the randomization opportunities employed by Wilkerson. It’s especially pleasurable throughout to keep in mind that this was all produced on a single machine, that the sounds, tempo, the overall approach, all of it, is in part determined by a piece of technology that Wilkerson has taken the time to learn to make the most of. Certainly he is pursuing his own aesthetic goals — but he’s also, arguably, pursuing the aesthetic goals of the instrument’s developer.

[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/SoftAnswers/002InTheCountryOfHerEyes.mp3|titles=”In the Country of Her Eyes”|artists=Janes Scenic Drive]

More on Janes Scenic Drive (aka Phillip Wilkerson) at janesscenicdrive.wordpress.com and twitter.com/philwilkerson. Record released on the netlabel Amorphous, which makes its home at archive.org.

Caroline Park, Live (MP3)

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Moving from noise to signal is along the lines of the loud-quiet-loud of abstract electronic music, albeit minus the structural benefits of the refrain. In the able, laptop-ready hands of Caroline Park, this means an expanse of white noise, one that falls like heavy particulate on a slow-moving windshield for upwards of eight minutes. And like the downpour it resembles, the noise in time conceals less and reveals more, nothing specific, just shapes, patterns, but more than enough to keep the ride interesting. As the noise moves forward, its root tone rises in pitch, for a total of four or perhaps five pitches. The effect is subtle — playing a track in fast forward isn’t the worst way to come to understand its structure — and lends a sense of momentum (MP3).

[audio:http://www.rarefrequency.com/podcasts/Podcast_Spec_Ed_54_Caroline_Park.mp3|titles=”Live on Rare Frequency June 2011″|artists=Caroline Park]

And then the piece switches modes, like an analog radio receiver that tunes into a new station but manages to let the preceding station bleed in and under. In this case the noise continues as light chatter, like someone playing typewriter from an adjacent room. What follows is baroque, albeit baroque in slow motion. It resembles an organ solo, played deep and low, as if heard from the bottom of a swimming pool, all refracted and warped. But according to Park, at her blanksound.org site, the source material is, in fact, voice.

Track originally posted at rarefrequency.com, from which the above photo is borrowed. And you just have to love that cover of the LP of John Denver and the Muppets’ A Christmas Together in the background.

Loup-ing Samples (MP3)

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Yannick Dauby often employs field recordings in his compositions, as is the case with his recent contribution to the Touch Radio podcast series. “Arches” is the title he gives to the piece, which has as its foundation the songs and barks of wolves in a French sanctuary in the Lozère region of France (MP3). Writes Dauby of the wolves, which he recorded in February of last year, “The barks are often associated with aggressive behaviours, meanwhile the chantings are a way to reinforce the cohesion of the group and calm down the tensions.” The piece’s title, “Arches,” comes, apparently, from Dauby’s impression of the wolves’ songs: “Those arch-shaped tones,” he says, “are amongst the most beautiful things one can hear from the animal kingdom.”

[audio:http://www.touchshop.org/touchradio/Radio64.mp3|titles=”Arches”|artists=Yannick Dauby]

Those songs and barks emerge from the haze of Dauby’s production much as they would from the mists of the forest, and he also appears to use those “tones” as the building blocks of some of quasi-melodic material in “Arches.” One note: peculiarly, the Touch Radio description text makes no clear statement about Dauby’s process, aside from clarifying when the field recordings were made and when the “composition” was produced. A casual reader could imagine that this is, in fact, a documentary recording, not a post-production construction.

Piece originally posted at touchradio.org.uk. More info on Dauby at kalerne.net. Above image of a Lozère wolf via Creative Commons from the flickr.com account of a user who goes by the name D’Aragorn. Further images at davemech.com, the website of the scientist who introduced Dauby to the wolves of Lozère.

Past Week at Twitter.com/Disquiet

/ By Marc Weidenbaum
  • To read today's @LATimesEnt email newsletter you'd have no idea E3 took place this week in LA. #videogames #myopia #
  • Weekend agenda: Berkeley, baby shower, Puerto Rican food, writing, museum visit(s?), record shopping. #
  • Drove car home loaded with hand-me-down baby gates & toys, including phone whose ringer buzzed from inside the trunk whenever we hit a bump #
  • That's the one. Thanks! Now wondering if retronym is a retronym. RT @debcha: @disquiet The word you're looking for is 'retronym' #
  • "Webapp" is like "acoustic guitar," one of those terms that only needed to be created after the fact. #
  • "Exterminate! Exterminate!" RIP, "voice of the Daleks" Roy Skelton (b. 1931) http://t.co/AfwVs2q via @guardian #

    • Continue reading “Past Week at Twitter.com/Disquiet”

Japanese Beat (MP3)

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Japan-based Yoshiteru Himuro has been posting a series of “free beats” on his soundcloud.com/himuro-yoshiteru account. The latest, unceremoniously titled “Free Beats Log Day3,” features a deliriously sloggy rhythm, layers of jittery pecussives, snippets of truncated hollahs, and a memorably little chiptune melody. The strongest of its many strong suits is the way it is shot through with momentary asides, those sudden split-second fissures that serve as instrumental hip-hop’s nanotech vision of that traditional songwriting component, the bridge.

This isn’t short-attention-span hip-hop, by any means. The overall piece proceeds willfully. The interactions merely lend drama. Their insinuation of chance fulfills the promise of the underlying beat, taking its fractured cadence and letting it manifest as occasional chunks of fully formed distraction.

The beat is, all in all, a thorough concoction, and comes highly recommended. Track originally posted at soundcloud.com/himuro-yoshiteru. More on Himuro at himuro-yoshiteru.blogspot.com.