Electronic Frequencies
wo 16 mei 2018 23:00 uur
Sonic Poets – music by Robert Ashley and Paul DeMarinis, the Beach Boys, Iva Bittová, Ricardo Arias and AGF. 1. ROBERT ASHLEY & PAUL DEMARINIS • In Sara, Mencken, Christ, and Beethoven There Were Men and Women (1973). 40'40" – Lovely Music, Ltd. – LCD 4921. 2. THE BEACH BOYS • God Only Knows (1966). 2'51" – Capitol Records T 2458. 3. IVA BITTOVÁ • Ne Nehledej (1994). 14′ – Ariola 74321 24858 2. 4. RICARDO ARIAS & ANNE WELLMER • die zigarette danach oder doch nicht (2003). 30″ (fragment) – unpublished. 5. AGF • Sedaktiv (2011). 0'55" – AGF016CD. Info: • ROBERT ASHLEY & PAUL DEMARINIS • In Sara, Mencken, Christ, and Beethoven There Were Men and Women (1973) • 40'40" • Music by Robert Ashley & Paul DeMarinis • Paul DeMarinis – Moog Synthesizer & Electronics Design • Robert Ashley – Voice • Text by John Barton Wolgamot • Notes to the setting for voice, Moog Synthesizer and control electronics by Robert Ashley and Paul DeMarinis, January, 1973. Text by John Barton Wolgamot (printed privately in 1944), a poem of 128 stanzas, each stanza the same sentence with four variables, three of which are names or name groups or name constructions, the fourth the adverb of the active verb. To my mind one of the most unusual and beautiful sentences in English. "In its very truly great manners of Ludwig van Beethoven very heroically the very cruelly ancestral death of Sara Powell Haardt had very ironically come amongst his very really grand men and women to Rafael Sabatini, George Ade, Margaret Storm Jameson, Ford Madox Heuffer, Jean-Jacques Bernard, Louis Bromfield, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche and Helen Brown Norden very titanically." • The permutations of the four variables over the 128 stanzas give the poem a clear musical form (suggesting both fugue and sonata), binding together groups of names and adverbs into structural "themes" that have obvious counterparts in classical western music. Fourteen names (seven each men and women) appear in various number hierarchies throughout the poem. These I understand to be the heroes and heroines of the story. Other names are repeated to form secondary themes. And finally there are hundreds of names that occur only once (all of the great names of Western culture since the Greek philosophers, with the list becoming more comprehensive and enigmatic as it includes the American literary and musical culture of the early 20th century), whose poetic function is accountable to the very syllable. The plan for the musical setting of the poem allows for the possibility of any number of densities of events that follow the stanza structure of the poem synchronously, and includes instrumental accompaniment, vocal embellishments and elaboration of the physical environment in any of the sensory modes. In this realization the sounds of the voice are analyzed by means of peak-filtering (resolution to the single frequency) to plot the rate of occurrence of seven different sound components (plosive attacks, fundamental frequencies, and five harmonics); the products of the filter-analysis are converted to digital information that guides the synthesizer in synchronization with the reading of the poem. The seven tracks of synthesizer activity are mixed together with the voice and distributed over a four-channel matrix; the four-channel product is remixed to stereo for this recording. —Robert Ashley, 1973 • Recorded at the Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College, 1973 • http://www.lovely.com/albumnotes/notes4921.html • IVA BITTOVÁ • Ne Nehledej (1994) Engl. No, do not look • Iva Bittova – voice and violin • Text by Karel David • Ne ne nehledej • sama nevím kam • kam se schovávám • nevím kam • ani já a a ani sen • svetlo ani tma • má a ani tvá • ani bílá ani cern • potom ani hned • tady ani ted • ani tma a a a ni den • tady ani tam • nemám ani mám • Ani já a ani sen • voda ani prach • radost ani strach • ani bílá a a ani cern • ohen ani led • potom ani hned • ani tma a a ani den • málo ani moc • den a a ni noc • ani já a a ani sen • tady ani tam • sama ani sám • Ne ne necekej • sama nevím kam • kam se schovávám • nevím kam • Dávno jsem oba tam • a já dávno zpet • potom ani hned • necekám • Dávno jsme oba zpet • a já dávno tam • sama nevím kam • nevíš sám • Ani tma a a ani den • málo ani moc • den a ani noc • ani já a a ani sen • tady ani tam • sama ani sám • ani bílá a a ani cern • dobrá ani zlá • ty a ani já • Nehledej me kde se snadno hledá • neklekej si kde je zeme mekká • neklekej si kde te hlína ceká • kde horí kdyz cekáš klesám i já • V láhvích je hladina zvlnená • mezi dlanemi perí perin stisklé • nedýchá ani pírko se nehýbá • k ústum se voda nahýbá • Nehledej me kde pokazdé cekáš • neklekej si kde je zeme mekká • neklekej si kde te hlína ceká • cekáš kdyz horí kdyz klesám i já • v láhvích je hladina zvlnená • mezi dlanemi perí perin stisklé • nedýchá ani pírko se nehýbá • ted výšku nabírá a vzlétá ? letí! Jak me ted pohladíš • rukama v ploutve ztuhlé • jak me ted políbíš • tou vlcí tlamou • jak se ke mne pritulíš • šupinatým telem • tak co mi odpovíš • co mi ted chceš ríct. https://www.bittova.com/texty-zobraz.php?id=10 • RICARDO ARIAS & ANNE WELLMER • die zigarette danach oder doch nicht (2003) • Ricardo Arias – Balloons • Anne Wellmer – live electronic processing • Recorded at 136 High Street in Middletown, CT. AGF • Sedaktiv (2011) • from the Album Beatnadel • Beatnadel (Beat Needle) is a piercing sonic outburst of razor-edged beats and pilot vocal art. AGF aka Antye Greie is a rare combination of a composer/ producer and vocalist. This is digital songwriting with beat structures and penetrating sound sculptures to inspire the mind. The tracks have been constructed out of large self-designed sample banks, voice, bass, synthesized sounds and discerning effect treatments. The music is sequenced to a large extend and holds an aggressive undertone compared to her recent works. AGF has cut out original tracks with surprise narrative and breathtaking precision in editing and sculpturing the sound. Deconstructed poetry, aggressive beat patterns, tender song writing, drone parts, full frequency spectrum • released October 2011 • https://agf-poemproducer.bandcamp.com/album/beatnadel
