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sinceileftyoublog · 3 years

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Wobbly Interview: Going for Happy

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Thurston Moore Ensemble/Negativland band member Jon Leidecker has been releasing electronic music under the moniker Wobbly for over two decades now. In Chicago experimental label Hausu Mountain, he seems to have found kindred spirits, matching his far out idiosyncrasies. 2019′s Monitress and its follow-up, Popular Monitress, which came out earlier this month, are albums about and by machines, as Leidecker ran his music into pitch trackers and synth apps on his phones and tablets, embracing the errors and randomness that were produced along the way. While the source material on Monitress was mostly improvised, the songs on Popular Monitress are more structured and composed, resulting in songs like “Authenticated Krell”, which follows a comparatively clean synth arpeggio before being enveloped by texture, or “Lent Foot”, where the various instruments trail each other. It’s remarkable just how familiar certain sounds are even if not traditionally instrumental ones, like the typewriter clacks of “Illiac Ergodos 7!” or the zooming notes of the thumping title track. Blurring the lines between what’s instrument and what’s not, and even further, what’s composed music and what’s not, Popular Monitress is a defining statement for both Leidecker and Hausu.

I was able to ask Leidecker about various songs on the album and their inspirations. Read his answers below!

Since I Left You: You chose to write more structured songs this time around before running them through the pitch tracker. Do those nuggets of recognizable structures make the final product all the more disorienting?

Jon Leidecker: Hopefully! On both albums, the main thing is keeping the focus on just how live those pitch trackers are. It’s Monitress as long as you can hear how they’re listening. For years, it was strictly a piece for live performance--I needed to be improvising myself, and able to respond instantly, to really underline just how spontaneous the machine responses are. So the first record tried to keep more of that sense of flow. Large stretches of it are simply baked down from stereo recordings of concerts & radio performances of it. Overdubbing more layers of trackers seemed legal, as long all the voices were following that one original sound.

Of course, when you play a tune, something composed or even quantized, it definitely becomes easier to hear what they’re doing. The exact same code running on each phone will respond in very different ways to the same source audio, and you get a chorus of individual voices. They play a lot of wrong notes, but oddly, if you feed the trackers lots of consonant, major chords, it stops being dissonance, and you can tell they’re going for happy. You hear these weird things, trying to sing in unison, and..the result is just pure delight. Weirdly emotional! What’s a mistake? What’s music?

SILY: How did you come up with the song titles? For instance, is there anything particularly Appalachian about "Appalachian Gendy"?

JL: They’re mostly mashed up references to landmark works in the field of generative & algorithmic composition, from the 50’s up to the early 90’s. The recent push of stories on AI musical tools seems to be about automation and labor-saving, but the field of how to develop tools for more creative ends goes back all the way to Bebe and Louis Barron going to the Macy Conferences on Cybernetics and designing their first self-oscillating feedback circuit.

So while my tracks aren’t really in the musical style of the works they reference--something like “Appalachian Gendy”, which sprung up a fantasy Spiegel/Xenakis tribute, got paired to that stompdown track, and once it did, I added a solo on iGendyn.

SILY: To what extent is your music here inspired by the inner workings of the brain?

JL: Once you get a grip on just how simply neurons and synapses interact, how reassuringly physical thinking is, the electronic music I’ve always found most inspiring often involve feedback systems, self-playing devices, generative music, things that learn rather than settle. Music that helps you model thought. The whole East Coast/West Coast 60’s divide in synth design boiled down to Moog reducing your options until you could easily dial in what you already know you want, and Buchla designing uncertainty machines to be networked together until they approach the complexity of an unknown brain.

SILY: "Synaptic Padberg" and "Every Piano" have moments of recognizable instruments as opposed to alien instruments (strings and piano, respectively). Was that just a product of the errors/randomness of the music-making, or purposeful?

JL: It's supposed to sound orchestral, so I hit my Mellotron and Chamberlin apps pretty hard with this piece. Not like anything remains plausibly real once they're getting hammered by the trackers. That is a real grand piano, however: me playing the tune at SnowGhost Music in Montana. Brett Allen deserves an engineering credit, but I also wanted the first listen to make you wonder.

SILY: There's almost a funky rhythm to "Motown Electronium". Do you envision folks dancing to this record?

JL: Would have been plain wrong to put that title on an unworthy beat. What would a room full of people dancing to this even be like? Maybe in Baltimore.

SILY: Do you think "Training Lullaby" is what a computer trying to write a lullaby would sound like?

JL: Not that relaxing, is it? That’s ten seconds pulled from a five minute live improvisation, just a little burst of fury in the middle. Which I’ve heard enough now that I can sing along to it; so now, for me, it is calming.

I finally had to admit to myself that I’m a fan of the OpenAI Jukebox stuff. It’s right at that stage where their results are still primitive enough to remain a little mysterious. All the context and relationships intrinsic to what humans call music is irrelevant to those GANs. They don’t need culture to make music, they just need waveforms. What does it tell us that simple pattern analysis and brute number crunching on a large enough data set can produce those sounds? They’re training us. I have twelve hours of their Soundcloud dump ripped to my phone, and I play it a lot, though I wouldn’t play it for anyone under four. Can definitely sing along to some of the weirder ones by now.

SILY: How did you approach the order of tracks on the record? I'm struck by, for instance, the chaos of "Grossi Polyphony" following the comparative lull of "Every Piano".

JL: Just trying to show the range, and keep the surprises coming. Perpetual variety becomes monotony so quickly, so there is a very careful balancing act to play between shorter and longer tracks. I like a record where on first listen, any new section that begins, you feel like there are no guarantees how long it’ll last, eight seconds or eight minutes. Even things that sound like they should be songs: no guarantees. I still remember the first time I heard The Faust Tapes as a teenager.

SILY: Did you actually use musical dice to write "Wurfelspiel"?

JL: “Wurfelspiel” is just name-dropping Mozart’s generative piece--again, a real piano, but no musical dice involved.

SILY: The beats towards the end of the album--the pseudo hip-hop of "Cope By Design", techno of "Dusthorn Sawpipe", krautrock of "Help Desk"--seem to me to be far more propulsive than anything else here. Do you see a connection between those tracks?

JL: The album hits you with all these miniatures in the middle to keep things moving, and those three are the last little barrage of them before the shift into the final stretch with the longer, more hypnotic pieces. Can be tough to sequence an album when you’ve got so many short tracks, but it’s also total freedom.

SILY: How did you like getting the Hausu Mountain album art treatment?

JL: Totally family. All the Monitress packaging has always been iPhone panorama mode artifacts, visual glitches not entirely unlike what my phone’s trackers do to what they hear. I gave one of those images to [Hausu Mountain co-founder Max Allison] to work with the cover of the first Monitress, and he sent back this image, saying, “Here’s the initial stage: Your photo reduced to color blocks I’ll carefully render out later.” So when the second hyper-detailed one came back in a more proper Hausu style, they already seemed like a sequence, and this second one was already in place, so it all clicked. Any version of Monitress, the music is different, but it’s always the same piece. I’m really happy they asked me for something. [Label co-founder Doug Kaplan] and Max are just coming from the good place.

SILY: Are you doing any live streams or socially distant shows any time soon?

JL: Multi-location live streams are a blast. The time modulation inherent in all streaming is deeply psychedelic. The kind of listening you have to do when you know that the relationship of sounds together in time is different for each musician involved? I’m learning utterly new tricks, and it’s astonishing just how live the result is. I sat in on a live stream with Thurston Moore Group a few months ago, the four of them in London, and me hooked up to an amp not far from where I normally am when I play with them. And everyone agreed: It felt like I was there, right up until the instant I quit the app.

I’ve been pre-recording some home live sets for Hausu, Curious Music and High Zero Foundation. Negativland is putting together an hour long performance with Sue-C for the Ann Arbor Film Festival in late March. I finished an album mostly recorded outdoors with my old friend Cheryl E. Leonard for Gilgongo, and we’re going to try to a few outdoor concerts, too.

SILY: What else are you currently working on/what's next?

JL: The second album with Sagan, with Blevin Blectum & J Lesser, is coming out in late April. That one took 14 years to finish. There’s a trio record with Thomas Dimuzio and Anla Courtis coming out on Oscarson. Doing a revision of the last episode of my podcast on sampling music, Variations, to incorporate that OpenAI music. Some Negativland releases tying together the last two albums. There are about four of five other albums that might be done, though it takes time to be sure.

SILY: Anything you've been listening to, reading, or watching lately?

JL: This month has been Maryanne Amacher’s collected writings, Keeping Together in Time by William H. McNeill, Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, important even with happy ending. Interview with Karl Friston - Of Woodlice And Men. Listening to a lot of “Blue” Gene Tyranny, Xenakis & Lang Elliott, and last week every Ghédalia Tazartès album in reverse chronological order. I don’t care what anybody says: That guy’s immortal.

SILY: Anything I didn't ask about you want to say?

JL: Thank you for your questions!

Popular Monitress by Wobbly

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chojrak-making-things · 4 years

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I don’t like talk/write about myself, but since many people doing this tag and I don’t recently play TS3 to show anything new, I decided to give it a try.

Favorite color? -- Probably navy blue, also like red and white.

Last song I listened to? -- Hard to say cause I usually listen to compilations or whole albums on youtube. Recently Voyage Futur - Inner Sphere, Suzanne Ciani ‎– Buchla Concerts 1975, Terry Riley ‎- Happy Ending. Sometimes also citypop compilations or vaporwave.

Last film I watched? -- Don’t watch films too often so don’t remember, but it was most probably horror, sci-fi or action.

Last TV show I watched? -- The Legend of Korra. I had marathon with both avatar series. It was my second attempt to TLoK after years, and I’m glad I finished it.

Sweet, savory or spicy? -- Savory is like salty? Never heard this word tbh and google doesn’t help, lol. I’m 10% for sweet, 50% for savory, and 40% of spicy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Bubbly water, tea or coffee? -- Tea, recently pure peppermint (with almond cookies ᶘᵒᴥᵒᶅ).

Pets? -- I’ve never had pets. :/ As a child because of my parents will. Now because I can’t afford to maintain it, I mean food, vet, etc. Tbh I don’t even have much contact with pets/animals in my town, cause there’s no that many.

I tag everyone who want to do this. (¬‿¬)

#nonsims #about me #tag thing #gif warning

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supersupersounds · 4 years

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Buchla Concerts 1975 by Suzanne Ciani

Suzanne Ciani - Buchla Concerts - 1975 LP

I already loved Suzanne Ciani's work, but this album takes it to a whole new level. Unlike so much experimental electronic music, both of these live Buchla improvisations are incredibly fluid, restrained and just intensely musical. Cascading arpeggios never sounded so good! I'm so glad these shows were recorded, its such a pleasure to be able to witness a true master at work. -Kris

#abstract #electronic #ambient #female #american #1975

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leafened · 4 years

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my partner/sort of ex partner and i both liked suzanne ciani a lot and thought for a year we were on the same page and had conversations like oh suzanne ciani is so good. but he was thinking of her buchla concerts stuff, and i was thinking of the velocity of love, and once he was like ‘do you mind if i put on suzanne ciani while we sleep’ and i was like no that sounds great. but it was buchla concerts and i was just like what in the fuck

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whifferdills · 4 years

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maresdotes replied to your post“17 Questions Tag Game tagged by @maresdotes and @hvngryheart gracias! ...”

That instrument is freaking awesome. I'm going to have to look up more of her stuff because I love that kind of organic electronica sound.

my personal favorites are the live recordings - Quadraphonic and the 1975 concerts especially but even like, a random youtube video will have some great stuff

youtube

she also did a collab with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, who imo really expertly carries the torch of ‘emotive modular bleep music that happily wanders into new-age territory’

youtube

(east coast v west coast (ie Moog vs Buchla) isn’t really an argument people have any more but i love the approach to synthesis that treats the instrument like a small brain that you must guide towards your destination. keyboard-with-neat-sounds-attached is also cool and good dgmw, time and place for everything. but like - i love that Ciani uses an ipad in performances bc that’s exactly the kind of abstract, precisely-imprecise input that Buchla was going for, and it encourages a type of relationship to and inventiveness with the music that a traditional keyboard doesn’t)

#maresdotes

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acehotel · 5 years

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A Conversation Between Suzanne Ciani & Julianna Barwick

Suzanne Ciani is a sonic pioneer — a world builder in the realm of synth, music composition and Quadraphonic sound, the early bones of what we now call “surround sound.” Spanning over five decades, her mastery of music and electronic instruments has produced 15 albums from her self-run music label Seventh Wave and an illustrious touring and professional career. Here she chats with Ace friend and experimental music auteur Julianna Barwick about their shared creative impulses, “communicating with a physical object,” and finding ways to honor performance.

A handful of Suzanne Ciani’s LIVE Quadraphonic — a rare live recording that was performed by Suzanne in San Francisco in 2016, her first solo Buchla performance in over 40 years — is available at Ace Hotels and online.

youtube

Julianna Barwick: How are you today?

Suzanne Ciani: Everything's great, how are you?

JB: I'm good. I'm in Portland, Maine right now. And it's a gray, rainy day. Very beautiful. I'm really happy to speak with you. We met briefly at Moogfest 2016.

SC: Okay. Was that in Durham?

JB: Yes, it was in Durham, and you were performing with the Quad system.

SC: Yes, that's what I continue to do. That's my modus operandi.

JB: That was a really wonderful performance. I enjoyed that a lot, and that's the reason for the season, and this interview for the Ace Blog, because the Ace is selling the Quad record.

SC: Isn't that amazing? I think KamranV is so creative that he has found a unique marketing approach with it. I appreciate that all this is happening.

JB: KamranV’s the producer of the record and this project? How did he get in touch with you?

SC: He apparently worked with Moog in the past, producing Moogfest. He’s an amazing person. He's young. He's smart. He's capable. And he took this project on, on his own. He really created it. I didn't have any bandwidth to even think about releasing anything, I've been so busy touring. Yes, he took it on. He picked that comeback concert, the very first solo Buchla concert that I did in about forty years. He did that. It was Moog that actually initiated the concert. They asked me if I would play in San Francisco in March. I live so close to San Francisco, I couldn't say no, so I put my Buchla in the back seat of my car and went into San Francisco for that concert. It was a real milestone for me. There were some very wonderful people in the audience. I had studied years and years ago with Max Mathews, who is the father of computer music. I studied with him at Stanford. He has passed away, but several of his family members came to see me backstage after the concert. I was so touched that they had come.

JB: And you studied with him in the 70s at Stanford?

SC: Yes. I went to UC Berkeley from 68 to 70, but that was a traditional master’s degree in Music Composition. I would go to the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Stanford. First, I took a summer course with Max, and John Chowning, who is famous for popularizing the FM approach to synthesis. It was a very fertile moment, historically.

JB: Absolutely. The program at Berkeley exposed you to working with synthesizers?

SC: No. The program at Berkeley, which is University of California Berkeley, not to be confused with Berklee College of Music in Boston, was a traditional Music Composition degree. You know, scoring, orchestras, you know, historically, in the classical tradition. My electronic thing happened outside of my graduate degree. It happened at Stanford, and it happened meeting Don Buchla.

JB: Through the Artificial Intelligence program at Stanford?

SC: No. Buchla actually lived in Berkeley. His next door neighbor was the sculptor, Harold Paris. My boyfriend at the time was a teaching assistant for Harold Paris. I met Harold, and Harold introduced me to Buchla.

JB: That's amazing. Was Buchla teaching at the time, or did you become friends with him and apprentice under him for a while?

SC: Buchla would never teach. He was a very eccentric and maverick inventor — a genius. I call him “the Leonardo da Vinci of electronic instruments.” He was really the first one to make an analog modular music instrument. He did that in 1963. I met him about five, six years later, and after graduate school, I went to work for him.

JB: That's so wonderful. You were able to work with the Buchla 200. Was that the first one that you worked with, with him?

SC: The first one I worked with was the 100. The very first 100 was at a place called the San Francisco Tape Music Center. That was housed — it was not part of, but it was housed at Mills College.

JB: Did it appeal to your constitution completely, as a music maker?

SC: I always thought of myself primarily as a composer. But when I got involved with the Buchla, I did not use any keyboard. Traditional keyboard. It was a whole new world. I don't know how to explain the attraction that I had, but it was overpowering and complete, and I really stopped all my piano playing for about ten years while I played just the Buchla.

I started the Buchla as a compositional instrument, and it allowed me to, as a composer, to completely control the music. Traditionally, a composer is dependent on outside musicians. You know, you have to find the orchestra, you have to get... It's very tricky. But, with the Buchla you could do it all, and it was in Quadraphonic. Always played in Quad, from the very beginning. What's not to love? It's amazing.

JB: It's an absolute joy creating with it, I'm sure. That's how I felt when I discovered looping, vocal looping. I didn't need any outside players of any kind, and it was very intuitive and instant, and I didn't have to compose ahead of time. It just seemed to flow out, and that was a real joyful experience. I've been doing it ever since!

SC: I love that looping. I've never tried it myself, but I think it's wonderful. It's so musical.

JB: It's a wonderful way to make music on your own. I was curious about when you entered Wellesley — what kind of music were you making? What kind of instruments were you playing when you started going to school?

SC: I started playing the piano when I was about six. That was my main instrument. At Wellesley, I was a music major. Very small department. There were only four, five of us. My goal always was to write. I can't explain it, but I always saw myself as a composer. I think the big problem with being a female composer is that we don't have any role models. There certainly have been a lot of women composers, but we just don't know about them.

JB: I know. It's amazing. I discover new ones all the time. I'm like, "Why don't I know about this woman?"

SC: Right. What's going on here? What's going on? I played at Royal Albert Hall this year as part of a program about women pioneers, and they premiered a symphony by Daphne Oram that she wrote in 1943. I cried! It was so beautiful! It just never saw the light of day.

JB: Incredible. You've definitely been an inspiration to me, for sure. Being a solo music maker, especially when it's in an unclassifiable genre, I feel like I get lumped into classical or new age. Just kind of depends on whoever's sitting at the desk that classifies it, you know? It's definitely an interesting group of women making interesting sounds by themselves. I'm curious — you hadn't played the Buchla live in forty years, right? Before two and a half years ago. Were you touring a whole lot during that time?

SC: I was touring. I had released fifteen albums. Everything from pure electronic studio albums to solo piano. Piano and orchestra. Piano with jazz group. A lot of studio albums that were accomplished with electronics. My progression was – the first album, Seven Waves, was 100% electronic, but it was not the Buchla. The Buchla, I did that for ten years, but it never caught on.

JB: Right. With the public?

SC: Yeah. There was no place. It was hard to play in Quad. The theaters didn't want to set up the four speakers, et cetera. As time went on and my Buchla broke and half of it got stolen, I just moved on to different forms of electronics. Then gradually started to add acoustic instruments, because that was my history. That peaked in 1994 when I did “Dream Suite,” which was orchestra and piano. Then I started an independent record label in 1994.

JB: What's the name of that?

SC: Seventh Wave. It's named after my first album, Seven Waves.

JB: Is it still in operation?

SC: Yes, it is. It hasn't released any of my electronic music. I mean, my new Buchla music. I haven't had time to do that. But I think next year, I'm going to focus on a sub-label called “Atmospheric” that I started years ago, but I never used it. I'm going to keep “Seventh Wave” as my romantic music imprint, and then start “Atmospheric” as the electronic —

JB: The Buchla and synthesizer and beyond label.

SC: Yeah. Live. Really all live.

JB: All live things. Are you releasing other artists’ works, or primarily for your own recordings?

SC: When I first started my label, I was forced to have other artists because this distribution channel didn't allow a one-artist label. I did have a lot of artists on my original “Seventh Wave” label but then all the rules changed, and I was able to be solo indie. But the rules changed again, because the indie distribution network fell apart. Then digital came in. Digital is working fine. I don't know how it's gonna work with the next stage, because the kids want LPs. We're back to shipping and storage.

JB: Absolutely. Wait times for production, and all of that. That's so inspiring to me, as an artist. I wasn't aware that you owned and operated the labels that release your work. That's extremely cool. Have you toured a lot since you started releasing music, and do you enjoy it?

SC: In the old days, I used to tour a lot. I had a group called The Wave, and we went to Asia and Europe and around the States. I used to play a lot in Spain. I used to do a tour almost every year in Spain. Now, with my new incarnation it's way fun. I had no idea how pervasive this interest in analog, electronic music was. I've been invited to, mostly festivals and that's new for me, because I used to play solo. My concert. And somebody would open for me, but it was not a festival.

Now, it's festivals and it's a lot of fun, and there are lots of people. Every once in a while, I'm a headliner and it's just me. The more traditional structure of the concert. I love it because it's very international. I've traveled more now than I ever thought possible. Before, I was invited to play in Australia. I never wanted to go to Australia, it was too far away. I go to Australia, and from Australia, I go to Sweden. It's summer in Australia, and winter in Sweden. In one day. It's really amazing. Change seasons, on one tour.

JB: I believe I have experienced that a time or two. When you said that you traveled with a group in the early days, did that mean that people were on stage with you or just management, and things like that?

SC: No, people were on stage with me. I had a group called The Wave, and we did a live recording for television. There is a DVD some place of our performance at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, and it was on public television for a while. I've been around a long time.

JB: You've done so many amazing things. I wish I could talk to you all day, but not possible. I have so many questions. I wondered if you could talk a little bit about your earliest memories of music and earliest memories of music and technology interaction?

SC: My earliest memories are not that early, for technology. I was in college when the idea of music technology was starting to grow, visibly. One night, my class at Wellesley went to MIT because that was our brother school. They just started that brother/sister relationship in my junior year or senior year at college. We were exchanging classes and things. It was at MIT that I saw a professor try to make a sound with his computer. In those days, the computers were huge. They filled whole rooms.

It's really fun to witness the evolution of technology. I like to make a distinction between the concepts and the actual manifestation of them because the way we express things is always changing because the physical technology is changing. But, the concepts go way back. The idea that you could make music with a machine is kind of old.

SC: We're getting better at it. Let's just say that right now, we're in a mature stage of these instruments. The same way I've come back after forty years, I think we're reconnecting with the deep origins of these possibilities. When Buchla designed an instrument, he had a vision that was inspired by this new possibility.

JB: Absolutely.

SC: Yeah. And we lost touch with that vision over the years.

JB: I agree. Do you think that the renewed interest in modular systems is a reaction to laptop music, and laptop music making?

SC: That's an amazing miracle to me. I am so grateful and so happy that people started to look backwards, because I've hated all that digital stuff.

JB: Right. I think a lot of people do.

SC: Isn't that great?

JB: Yeah. It's more intuitive for me, personally to have something in front of me that's a physical object that I can interact with, and almost communicate with.

SC: Yeah. The distinction is, "Can you perform it?" If you have to go in and go to a menu, and look for something, you're out of real time. When you design modules, if you keep that in mind, that things need to be accessible, you can in fact honor performance.

A lot of instruments don't. When I go to the NAMM Show, or whatever, and I look at what’s happening now, and it's starting to get better, because you need visual feedback. You need to know what's going on inside the machine, or you can't perform it. There are two different worlds. One is, you're in the studio and you're recording. The other one is, you're out. It's portable. You can carry it, and you can interact with it in the moment. And that’s the world that I came from with Buchla.

JB: Exactly. And you don't have to worry about some computer color wheel coming up and hindering your creation or your performance.

SC: Right. How old are you? I'm just curious.

JB: I'm 39. I've been performing music for about ten years, I would say. Getting close to it. I went to school for darkroom photography and was always tinkering at home, always singing and stuff, and then put out my first CD after I made vocal loops on a guitar pedal.

SC: Wow. You'll have to send me some of your stuff. A URL, or something, where I can listen.

JB: I'd love to.

SC: Yeah. I'd love to hear it.

JB: I'll send it your way, for sure.

SC: I'm also involved in photography.

JB: Really?

SC: Yeah. I collected it for years in the 80s. I did take a course in darkroom just once, and it helped me. The stuff that I collect is mostly from the 30s. Those prints were so amazing.

JB: Absolutely. So, the course helped you do what with the work that you were collecting?

SC: I got to appreciate the art form of the print. People don't understand that a print is a unique expression. They think of photography as this stamped thing. They don't realize that each print is an original.

JB: Absolutely. There's so many variables that go into one print, for sure.

SC: Where do you live, Julianna?

JB: I live in Los Angeles now.

SC: Okay. Cool. Do you like it?

JB: I like it a lot. I lived in New York for sixteen years, and then moved to LA almost two years ago. I'm really enjoying it. I feel like New York is still my home, but I'm really liking my experience in LA a lot. It's nice and sunny. And you live in California as well, right?

SC: Yeah. I lived in New York for nineteen years.

JB: Was that in the 80s?

SC: I lived there from 74 to 92.

JB: Amazing.

SC: I know what it feels like to leave New York, but California — everyone seems to be moving to LA, in your age group.

JB: It's true. It's really true. Was it a heartbreaking experience to leave New York?

SC: I missed it so much, but I say I'm a prisoner of beauty here because it's so amazing. I sleep with the sound of the ocean. The air is clean. There's no noise.

JB: That's heaven. That's a goal for me. That's where I wanna be in ten years or so, hopefully. That is something I'd really want to be able to do is walk onto my back deck and see and hear the ocean. That's an ultimate dream, for sure. Okay. We’ve got a couple of minutes. I have ten million questions for you. I wish I could ask them all. Maybe one day. I was wondering one last process question. Have you found that your techniques have changed with the newer models you're using?

SC: That brings up this idea that in 1976 or 75, I wrote a paper about how to play the Buchla. It was techniques for performance, and I actually use those same techniques today. The 200e has a digital component, which is a memory that I use with a lot of discretion, so I don't memorize everything.

SC: I memorize a few things. It is different. The approach is different because in the early days, there was no memory at all, but also, some of the modules were more powerful.

I have some clones of these earlier modules, because I couldn't live without them. I think it's good to look at the early stuff. I think some of the ideas represented there, like by the multiple arbitrary function generator, otherwise known as the MARF... I think those are some of the highest level designs in a performable analog instrument.

It's a collaborative process with the artist: the tool is designed by the engineer with feedback from the artist. What can I say? The artist is dependent on the tool. We need to direct the design of the tool in a meaningful way.

JB: Absolutely. That's really cool. I understand growing attached to an instrument. I've used a Boss RC-50 Vocal Looper for ten years, and it started not functioning as well as it did, and I had to search high and low to find a new one because it was discontinued. It was the only thing that lent itself best to creation for me, and performance. So I understand that commitment you can have to something that you perform with and create with, for sure.

SC: That's interesting. So, the new ones didn't do what the old one did.

JB: They're just different. The new one had a giant foot pedal, volume pedal and weird effects, and it just wasn't the same. I could use the RC-50 with my eyes closed, kind of thing, so it was like part of me. You know?

SC: Yeah. That's interesting. It doesn't always get better. They always say technology is marching forward. Something's marching forward, but it's not the design.

JB: Right. I'd much prefer the older design, for sure. It definitely works better for what I try to do. I'm gonna let you go. Are you performing at The Ace in October? I guess it is October! Happy October!

SC: Happy October. I'm on my way to England, actually. I have a tour in England, then I come back and I go to South America. I think I wanted to play that, but it didn't work out.

JB: Alright. Have a wonderful time in England, and South America. That sounds heavenly. Thank you for talking to me for a little bit. I really appreciate it.

SC: Thanks, Julianna. That was really nice to speak with you.

JB: Alright. Have a good day. Have fun with your friends.

SC: Don't forget to send me your music, so I can hear it.

JB: I definitely will. I hope we cross paths again.

#yes #interview #julianna barwick #suzanne ciani #electronic #music #quadraphonic #sound #live music #electronic music #sound design #seventh wave

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albertaacheson2-blog · 5 years

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Fashionable Mexican Music Genres And Their Characteristics

Trendy pop music originated from the United States and the United Kingdom. Like Tupac, the Notorious B.I.G. is considered one of modern day music's most influential artists. Though he was gunned down in 1997, Biggie's spirit nonetheless lives on, whether or not in samples or printed on t-shirts, it is clear that we'll all the time love Huge Poppa. Classify rock music. Rock n' roll is a broad type of pop music that contains nearly 100 spin offs and subgenres. The characteristic sound of rock n' roll is a robust beat, simple (sometimes superior) chord construction, and performed loudly. Rock n' roll was born in the Fifties out of rhythm and blues. It typically options an electric guitar (sometimes distorted), drums, bass, and vocals. Adult contemporary is such a singular style, because singers from relatively totally different genres often get put into this camp as well, or find yourself here on the peak of their career. It is primarily pop singing, however the lyrics are decidedly grown-up, or grownup." Think of it because the Mom and Dad of teenage bubblegum pop. You are not singing, for example, about that get together in the usA." You are singing about life's experiences gone by in the united statesA., what you have realized, and http://www.audio-transcoder.com the plans for your future.

A seven-time Grammy winner, Prince had High 10 hits like Little Crimson Corvette," When Doves Cry," Let's Go Crazy," Kiss" and The Most Beautiful Woman in the World"; albums like Dirty Thoughts," 1999" and Sign ' the Instances" were full-size statements. His songs additionally turned hits for others, amongst them Nothing Compares 2 U" for Sinead 'Connor, Manic Monday" for the Bangles and I Really feel for You" for Chaka Khan. With the 1984 film and album Purple Rain," he instructed a fictionalized model of his personal story: biracial (although Prince's dad and mom have been both African-American), gifted, spectacularly formidable. Its music won him an Academy Award, and the album offered greater than 13 million copies in the United States alone. Borthwick, Stuart, & Moy, Ron (2004) Fashionable Music Genres: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. These 6 genres are superior and can change the way of listening music. Dubstep is the right style for all the bass heads out there. With dubstep, the wub wub sounds fill your ears to be able to head bang your coronary heart out. Dubstep also tends to give attention to the usage of sub bass and sometimes included scattered and screeching sounds. This style has a cult like following as a result of it's so different from many other sorts of music and is not for the faint of heart however quite the arduous core bass fanatics. Music critics love genres. Whether or not praising or gutting an artist or scene, they're helpful identifiers for reviewing music. And the one thing music journalists love more than dropping a style is creating one. Sometimes, as in the case of the so-known as witch home subgenre, artists even pull them out of skinny air for laughs, maybe even as a approach of screwing with music critics. Hip-Hop and Rock ‘n' Roll are the two main worlds of musical system revealed by the activity of the over 3 million musicians and bands on Area of interest genres are the other" to each: porous communities fluidly combining, missing any bigger touchstone to bind them collectively. Absolutely. I wasn't thinking of the Buchla as being complicated as a result of it was what I knew. Being with an uncommon instrument did give me an edge. I may do things with that machine that other applied sciences of that time couldn't do. There was a complete artistic freedom as a result of no person knew what you have been doing. Electronic music makes girls unbiased. Hey, have you ever heard that EDM is lifeless? Yup, it died. But that doesn't imply that digital music died too. No, opposite to what quite a lot of properly-that means but below-informed journalists could have you imagine, EDM and digital music are not one and the same thing.

Shaped in Tønsberg, Seigmen has continuously advanced their music, released a dozen albums, and proceed to play reside shows in Norway. Pavarotti (Born on twelfth October, 1935 - Died on 6th September, 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor, who also crossed over into widespread music, finally becoming one of the vital commercially successful tenors of all time. Though writers of lists of "rudimentary components of music" can differ their lists depending on their personal (or institutional) priorities, the perceptual parts of music should consist of a longtime (or proven) record of discrete parts which may be independently manipulated to achieve an intended musical impact. It seems at this stage that there is nonetheless analysis to be performed on this space.

Jihadi nasheed (anasheed jihadiya) is a music genre synonymous with radical Islamic terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Songs in the genre all the time have radical and violent lyrics promoting the ideology and activities of these teams or glorifying their founders. FRITH, Simon (ed.), Taking Common Music Critically, Ashgate, Hampshire, 2007. It could not be simpler! Simply activate on the $forty charge plan. Music Limitless is included at no further cost. Stream as a lot music as you need in your smartphone from high streaming companies, together with Pandora, iHeartRadio, Apple Music, Napster, Slacker, Spotify and Milk Music - and it will not rely towards your 4G LTE data plan.Eurgh, right here we go, give it to me straight. Again in the early 90s, home had hit some extent where it splintered. A kind of instructions was toward huge, vocal-and-piano-heavy bangers that, now, would simply be considered previous-skool house music (think Black Field 'Journey On Time'). The sound was thought-about more industrial and naturally acquired most of the persist with purse house becoming a casually misogynistic phrase that furthered perpetuated the stereotype of 'mushy, silly' music for 'gentle, foolish' people like girls. Whether Hardbag reinforces or breaks down the purse home stereotype, it positively was a thing with Felix's 'Don't You Want Me' thought of the beginning and the style's pinnacle coming in the mid-90s. Moodier chords, hardcore-type drums and rather less soaring vocal characterise these tracks.A distinction is often made between music performed for a stay audience and music that's performed in a studio in order that it can be recorded and distributed through the music retail system or the broadcasting system. Nonetheless, there are additionally many cases where a reside performance in front of an viewers can also be recorded and distributed. Live concert recordings are in style in each classical music and in widespread music forms comparable to rock, where illegally taped dwell concert events are prized by music lovers. In the jam band scene, dwell, improvised jam sessions are preferred to studio recordings.

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alivingroomatthebottomofalake · 5 years

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20 tracks to help celebrate International Women’s Day 2019!

Here is a top 20 type list of music by the women who have inspired me to not only love and make music, but to be a better fucking person in the world. It is in no way exhaustive, but I wanted to share some favourite pieces of music from inspirational women.

Happy International Women's Day. Keep shaking the tree.

Bjork: Who Is It? Bjork has just always been my go to when people ask, "who is your favourite musician?" I can't really think of anyone more influential on me, from how I hear music, to how I compose, how I think about the world. So what better song to kick off this list than one asking the very same question?

Who Is It? It is you Bjork. Always you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppXfsX9ph7k

YoshimiO: Oizumio (OOIOO) From Boredoms to OOIOO, OLaibi, and more. Whether on drums, or guitar or vocals or trumpet or whatever madness she tries her hand at, the music is always phenomenal. This track is taken from the all female band OOIOO's second album Feather Float.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQcDd5kCGSk

Braids: Lemonade Canadian group Braids have changed a lot over the years, but this is when they were at their best (sorry, but that's just how I feel eh). Such effortlessness in the way the songs connect and flow, it's a true wonder. Yet the lyrics are hard and fierce. This album, "Native Speaker" is one of my all time favourite albums to just chill out with. And this is how it opens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwPZmcgUBJM

Melt Banana: Circle Jack (Chase the magic words, Lego Lego) When I first heard this band my head exploded. It still does. This song was the first thing I heard by the band. I can't believe the way this woman maintains such an energy from song to song. It's fucking brutal. This song is from the album Charlie, which for me is still the best one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKmyeH0nA6Q

Amiina: Crocodile Starting life as a string group but quickly expanding into a lush cinematic ensemble of various timbres and possibilities, Amiina are one of my favourite ever live performances, opening for Sigur Ros (and stealing the show with their amazing and entertaining personalities). This track is from the album Fantomas, an interesting record where the group scored a soundtrack to the old school silent movie of the same name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N8qw8Mr4TE

Eliane Radigue: Islas resonantes No one comes close to touching on the infinitesimal the way that Eliane Radigue does. Her work is a true extension of time and space, a hypnotic exploration of patience and true extended listening. She was also a pioneer of synthesis, and pretty much single-handedly created the drone genre. Many of her works are enormous in duration, and thus here is one favourite in part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RrsiGmLp_E

Emel: Ensen Dhaif Tunisian singer Emel blew my mind when I saw her live at MOFO last year. I had already fallen for this album, but live… What a fucking voice. Such a presence on stage too. The most humble spirit, and such a unique voice in popular music right now. I have no idea about her lyrics, but it still moves me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXv5ByGSsbA

Evelyn Glennie. I wanted to put a track from Glennie's improvised album "Shadow behind the Iron Sun on the list, but couldn't find an easy link. So instead, enjoy this performance video. Glennie is deaf, and has been most of her career, but that hasn't stopped her from being one of the most formidable voices in the world of percussion music. The aforementioned album is a masterpiece, and she is an inspiring educator as well as performer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw05QRdBiis

Fatima Al Qadiri: Dragon Tattoo Al Qadiri's music is so much more than just fun, but it manages to make you think at the same time as funk out. Her production is fresh and her minimal layers and messed up approach to beat scattering is amazing. This album is probably my favourite and this song is super infectious. Definitely a high point in recent electronic music for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmSDgtolWKI

FKA Twigs: Give Up. LP1 by FKA Twigs is an emotional ride for me. And it's made even better by the clever twists on pop sounds and formulae that FKA Twigs plays around with. There's heaps of artistry in here, but also heaps of feeling. This song in particular just made me break down every time the chorus kicked in, and still kind of does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO7k_n5379I

IKI: Archaea Scandinavian vocal group IKI are a pretty special thing. All 5 singers are amazing in their own right, but they're also really experimental and adventurous, a character that is missing in a lot of vocal only groups. They also all have a unique sound and unique approach to electronic manipulations, which keeps the flavours interesting from moment to moment/track to track. Also, not to single any of them out, but I met Johanna Sulkunen and she is a really generous soul with lots of great ideas about music. This song is from Oracle, their most recent album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuB9OHJTh50

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith: Existence in the Unfurling One of the biggest names in synthesiser music right now, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is doing amazing things with old school and new school systems, making some of the most lush, rich, and unique sounding music that mixes the 70s era flavours with a more NOW character. EARS was the album that I first heard, and since saw her perform live. Such a great performer, and she was also a really nice person, who enjoyed a good chat about gear. So that;s also nice. This track is the closer from EARS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gerjJPKPfSw

Maja Ratkje: Vacuum Ratkje's voice is amazing and super versatile, she is also a diverse and super accomplished composer and improvisor. She performs with and in many amazing groups, including Phantom Orchid Orchestra (with Zeena Parkins, Ikue Mori, Shayna Dunkelman and others). This song was my introduction to her work, I first heard it when I was working on a piece with dancer Susan Van Den Ham back in the day. Life changed. The album this is from is called "Voice" and it's entirely Rakje exploring vocal and microphone techniques. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XB8fB3QAQs

Phantom Orchid Orchestra: Red Blue and Green An all star ensemble starring Ikue Mori – electronics, Zeena Parkins – electric and acoustic harps, synths, omnichord, objects, Sara Parkins – violin, Maggie Parkins – cello, Shayna Dunkelman – percussion, Maja Soveig Kjelstrup Ratkje – voice and electronics, and Hild Sofie Tafjord – French horn and electronics. Insane and dense contemporary compositions from some of the best musicians alive today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKgF9tBcyss

Nat Grant: Momentum Nat will go down in history with names like Oliveros and Radigue, as a pioneer of contemporary sound practice. As a drummer and percussionist, she is a virtuoso, and as a sound artist she is one of the most dedicated and adventurous listeners/sounders around. Her momentum project shows her extreme dedication to the field of sound. An ongoing practice based project, it is worth starting at the beginning and following it as she continues it. It's one of the best things that has ever happened in music.

https://natgrantmusic.bandcamp.com/album/momentum-box-set

Pauline Oliveros: A Woman Sees How the World Goes With No Eyes There is possibly no one more important in the world of sound than Pauline Oliveros. Her theories of deep listening have shaped the field of sound art and contemporary music practice so strongly. Her works are diverse, from accordion improvisations to tape experiments and more. This piece is a stand out for me, and considering how much work there is to go through, acts as a beautiful starting point for further exploration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hydO1JjMlno

Sarah Davachi: ghosts and all Davachi's work explores stasis and drone, but is also so much more than that. Whether working with synths or acoustic instruments, her music is delves deep into the sonosphere, and invites the listener to really commit to the joyous act lot deep listening. This piece is from the album Vergers, an album made entirely with the EMS VCS3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9V3TT4IpAE

Suzanne Ciani: Concert At WBAI Free Music Store Analogue synth maestro Suzanne Ciani is another one of those artists who totally defined their field, in this case the field of electronic/synthesiser music. The works that she created for the Buchla system are seminal. Her work spans decades and she has always been at the forefront of her field. This particular piece was recorded live in 1975.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCfRqIqnSNY

Yuka Honda: Hydroshpere A bad ass composer/producer and keyboard player, Yuka Honda has several amazing solo records to her name, as well as being one half of the incredible experimental pop duo Cibo Matto. More recently she also produced an opera. She is an amazing artist and prolific too. This track is from her 2010 album heart Chamber Phantoms, an album that blends mad jazz vibes with ambient around pieces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dnWu4Okhfc

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