Three from Eh? I’m especially excited to showcase some records from this awesome label with long-standing Midwest connections. Public Eyesore, founded by creative improviser and instrument designer Bryan Day, will turn 15 later this year! Public Eyesore has been a home for a wide variety of recordings, “progressive and regressive,” from artists all over the world, and they added a second line of CDR-based releases around four years ago under the Eh? imprint. In my opinion, they’re a particularly important label to follow if you’re interested in free improv and EAI music, but they also release music from a wide range of other disciplines, giving voice to the feral edges of pop, rock, jazz, and classical musics.Full disclosure: PE released an album of mine back in 2006. But I had already been a long-time fan of the label, having released some of my favorite records from artists like Blue Collar (Nate Wooley/Steve Swell/Tatsuya Nakatani), Jesse Krakow, Mike Pride, Amy Denio, and many more. PE is a label that will consistently surprise you—one never knows what kind of auditory surprises might be awaiting you when you put on a random release of theirs. Recently I’ve covered a couple of their new albums from Philip Gayle and Ydestroyde, and here’s another batch of compelling recent releases. All three of these are officially under the “Eh?” imprint, shipped as CDRs in paper sleeves with poly jackets—not the most fancy packaging, but it gets this music into the world, which is the most important thing. There were similarly spartan releases earlier in the “proper” PE catalog, but nowadays those have gotten fancy packaging—I’ll be covering a couple of those releases in the near future as well (awesome job on the Anderson/Pepper/Tamura/Petit release!). I’m especially excited about the upcoming Normal Love full-length being co-released by Weasel Walter’s ugEXPLODE, and the Cactus Truck album sounds promising, too…KBD(uo) - Any Port in a StormThis release features the “principal agents” behind the KBD Sonic Cooperative, with Michael Kimaid on percussion and electronics, and Gabe Beam on guitar and electronics. This is the second Eh? release from these folks, minus Ryan Dohm who also appeared on the earlier “Four Plus One” album. This time around, we get six more untitled tracks of EAI, very cleanly recorded in a very “controlled” sounding, intimate room. The music is produced with percussion (including a lot of bowed cymbals/gongs), guitar (which mostly sounds like “tabletop guitar” with effects), and an arsenal of electronics.The music evolves slowly in these pieces, usually letting ideas overlap one another for a long time. The first two tracks focus on long tones and sustained atmospheres, and the third piece starts to introduce contrasting ideas, made mostly of short, pointillistic bursts. Polyrhythms of sorts are featured in the fourth piece, with oscillations against softly-repeated drums that come and go amidst subtle guitar manipulations. Like their previous release, the final track is a live performance around 25 minutes in length: while the album mostly works with gentle, carefully unfolding textures, things can get much louder and more intense in live performance, briefly building up to a wall of sound around the six minute mark. But that’s an exception, and most of the live set stays well below fortissimo as well, thoughtfully blending a variety of axillary percussion tools, cymbals, gongs, and occasional undercurrents of sizzling electronic drones.Hag - Moist AreasLike KBD, Hag’s name comes from the last names of the musicians involved: in this case, Brad Henkel on trumpet, Sean Ali on bass, and David Grollman on snare drum. This Brooklyn trio plays a fine brand of meditative free improv, working with layers of texture rather than any kind of trad jazz vocabulary. Henkel’s trumpet work sometimes reminds me of Nate Wooley’s catalog of otherworldly sounds, and David Grollman’s snare drum work similarly deconstructs his instrument of choice—I don’t think there’s a moment on the album where I would’ve pinpointed what I’m hearing as coming from a snare. Instead he works with scraping, rubbing, and (I’m pretty sure) blowing directly on the drum head, as there are moments where it sounds like there are two horns playing. Sean Ali’s bass playing is the closest to convention on the album, with occasional cascades of chromatically ascending or descending lines and even brief passages of bowed work, but he too works to draw extended sounds from his bass.My favorite track is also the longest, “Moist Again,” placed in the center of the album. It shows off how well the group listens to one another, each member getting moments where they lead the ensemble, coming to the front of the mix and moving the group into new variations in texture. It also features an especially wide dynamic range, contrasting not just loud and quiet sections in terms of volume but also with variations in density at both ends of the volume spectrum. The title track, which closes the album, also features some of the louder passages on the record, as well as some trumpet lines played with considerable crunch in the instrument’s lower range, sounding surprisingly like a woodwind instrument instead of brass. Psychotic Quartet - SpherelonMy favorite of this batch of Eh? releases, Psychotic Quartet is a Philly-based group that brings together a number of really exciting musicians from one of my favorite music scenes in a free improvisation context. Trombonist Dan Blacksberg also plays in Archer Spade with guitarist Nick Milleovi (whose own recent contribution to an Eh? release will be covered soon), bassist Evan Lipson plays in one of my favorite bands, Normal Love (and was probably the only person who could successfully follow Jesse Krakow in Dynamite Club), and violinist Kat Hernandez (who recently relocated to Sweden) specializes in microtonal and alternate tuning systems, a recent obsession of mine. They’re joined by NYC drummer Michael Evans for five rounds of complex improvisation referencing a wide range of musical traditions.Microtonal doesn’t necessarily equate with “out of tune,” of course. While it can mean touching quarter tones or making waves of weird noise, it also points to playing music that can be even more “in tune” than is possible within equal temperament. I was excited to note that all three melodic instruments working on this album have the potential to play outside of the constraints of ET with little effort, and I found myself re-listening to this album many times with my attention directed at subtle adjustments in pitch happening organically as a simple side effect of listening carefully to one another. And the group keeps things interesting with moments of duo and trio playing, too. The music breathes with the kind of control many groups can only get through composition, but this is what you can achieve when you put four virtuosos who all have their own compositional chops together: cooperation truly equals instant composition.This is much more note-oriented than the other two releases covered here, which more closely follows my own musical obsessions. Though it is a very “free” affair, there are allusions to various musical genres, especially jazz and even bits of swing violin, that can give listeners moments of stylistic context which slide around in interesting ways that frequently reminded me of very early Anthony Braxton ensemble playing. And that’s a high compliment—parts of this sound like a kind of extension of Braxton’s BYG Actual 6 album from ‘69, one of my favorite records, and that’s a style that just didn’t get enough love for my ears. While sections of this music can be very “serious,” there is also a great sense of humor, humility, and fun running throughout the record. You can tell the musicians are having a great time playing together, and they’ve been kind enough to invite us to listen in. I’m looking forward to the next invitation.—Scott Scholz

Three from Eh?

I’m especially excited to showcase some records from this awesome label with long-standing Midwest connections. Public Eyesore, founded by creative improviser and instrument designer Bryan Day, will turn 15 later this year! Public Eyesore has been a home for a wide variety of recordings, “progressive and regressive,” from artists all over the world, and they added a second line of CDR-based releases around four years ago under the Eh? imprint. In my opinion, they’re a particularly important label to follow if you’re interested in free improv and EAI music, but they also release music from a wide range of other disciplines, giving voice to the feral edges of pop, rock, jazz, and classical musics.

Full disclosure: PE released an album of mine back in 2006. But I had already been a long-time fan of the label, having released some of my favorite records from artists like Blue Collar (Nate Wooley/Steve Swell/Tatsuya Nakatani), Jesse Krakow, Mike Pride, Amy Denio, and many more. PE is a label that will consistently surprise you—one never knows what kind of auditory surprises might be awaiting you when you put on a random release of theirs. Recently I’ve covered a couple of their new albums from Philip Gayle and Ydestroyde, and here’s another batch of compelling recent releases. All three of these are officially under the “Eh?” imprint, shipped as CDRs in paper sleeves with poly jackets—not the most fancy packaging, but it gets this music into the world, which is the most important thing. There were similarly spartan releases earlier in the “proper” PE catalog, but nowadays those have gotten fancy packaging—I’ll be covering a couple of those releases in the near future as well (awesome job on the Anderson/Pepper/Tamura/Petit release!). I’m especially excited about the upcoming Normal Love full-length being co-released by Weasel Walter’s ugEXPLODE, and the Cactus Truck album sounds promising, too…

KBD(uo) - Any Port in a Storm

This release features the “principal agents” behind the KBD Sonic Cooperative, with Michael Kimaid on percussion and electronics, and Gabe Beam on guitar and electronics. This is the second Eh? release from these folks, minus Ryan Dohm who also appeared on the earlier “Four Plus One” album. This time around, we get six more untitled tracks of EAI, very cleanly recorded in a very “controlled” sounding, intimate room. The music is produced with percussion (including a lot of bowed cymbals/gongs), guitar (which mostly sounds like “tabletop guitar” with effects), and an arsenal of electronics.

The music evolves slowly in these pieces, usually letting ideas overlap one another for a long time. The first two tracks focus on long tones and sustained atmospheres, and the third piece starts to introduce contrasting ideas, made mostly of short, pointillistic bursts. Polyrhythms of sorts are featured in the fourth piece, with oscillations against softly-repeated drums that come and go amidst subtle guitar manipulations. Like their previous release, the final track is a live performance around 25 minutes in length: while the album mostly works with gentle, carefully unfolding textures, things can get much louder and more intense in live performance, briefly building up to a wall of sound around the six minute mark. But that’s an exception, and most of the live set stays well below fortissimo as well, thoughtfully blending a variety of axillary percussion tools, cymbals, gongs, and occasional undercurrents of sizzling electronic drones.

Hag - Moist Areas

Like KBD, Hag’s name comes from the last names of the musicians involved: in this case, Brad Henkel on trumpet, Sean Ali on bass, and David Grollman on snare drum. This Brooklyn trio plays a fine brand of meditative free improv, working with layers of texture rather than any kind of trad jazz vocabulary. Henkel’s trumpet work sometimes reminds me of Nate Wooley’s catalog of otherworldly sounds, and David Grollman’s snare drum work similarly deconstructs his instrument of choice—I don’t think there’s a moment on the album where I would’ve pinpointed what I’m hearing as coming from a snare. Instead he works with scraping, rubbing, and (I’m pretty sure) blowing directly on the drum head, as there are moments where it sounds like there are two horns playing. Sean Ali’s bass playing is the closest to convention on the album, with occasional cascades of chromatically ascending or descending lines and even brief passages of bowed work, but he too works to draw extended sounds from his bass.

My favorite track is also the longest, “Moist Again,” placed in the center of the album. It shows off how well the group listens to one another, each member getting moments where they lead the ensemble, coming to the front of the mix and moving the group into new variations in texture. It also features an especially wide dynamic range, contrasting not just loud and quiet sections in terms of volume but also with variations in density at both ends of the volume spectrum. The title track, which closes the album, also features some of the louder passages on the record, as well as some trumpet lines played with considerable crunch in the instrument’s lower range, sounding surprisingly like a woodwind instrument instead of brass. 

Psychotic Quartet - Spherelon

My favorite of this batch of Eh? releases, Psychotic Quartet is a Philly-based group that brings together a number of really exciting musicians from one of my favorite music scenes in a free improvisation context. Trombonist Dan Blacksberg also plays in Archer Spade with guitarist Nick Milleovi (whose own recent contribution to an Eh? release will be covered soon), bassist Evan Lipson plays in one of my favorite bands, Normal Love (and was probably the only person who could successfully follow Jesse Krakow in Dynamite Club), and violinist Kat Hernandez (who recently relocated to Sweden) specializes in microtonal and alternate tuning systems, a recent obsession of mine. They’re joined by NYC drummer Michael Evans for five rounds of complex improvisation referencing a wide range of musical traditions.

Microtonal doesn’t necessarily equate with “out of tune,” of course. While it can mean touching quarter tones or making waves of weird noise, it also points to playing music that can be even more “in tune” than is possible within equal temperament. I was excited to note that all three melodic instruments working on this album have the potential to play outside of the constraints of ET with little effort, and I found myself re-listening to this album many times with my attention directed at subtle adjustments in pitch happening organically as a simple side effect of listening carefully to one another. And the group keeps things interesting with moments of duo and trio playing, too. The music breathes with the kind of control many groups can only get through composition, but this is what you can achieve when you put four virtuosos who all have their own compositional chops together: cooperation truly equals instant composition.

This is much more note-oriented than the other two releases covered here, which more closely follows my own musical obsessions. Though it is a very “free” affair, there are allusions to various musical genres, especially jazz and even bits of swing violin, that can give listeners moments of stylistic context which slide around in interesting ways that frequently reminded me of very early Anthony Braxton ensemble playing. And that’s a high compliment—parts of this sound like a kind of extension of Braxton’s BYG Actual 6 album from ‘69, one of my favorite records, and that’s a style that just didn’t get enough love for my ears. While sections of this music can be very “serious,” there is also a great sense of humor, humility, and fun running throughout the record. You can tell the musicians are having a great time playing together, and they’ve been kind enough to invite us to listen in. I’m looking forward to the next invitation.

—Scott Scholz

I wouldn’t say that what happened when I heard this album was the most unexpected thing. But simply because by ontological default, I always expect the worst, therefore the last thing I expect has to be bad, and what happens in this album is so good. Disclaimer made, I can assure you that the second to most unexpected thing happened when I started delving into ‘Semi-Impressionism’, and it was nothing short of revelatory. Toshimaru Nakamura & Tetuzi Akiyama, thereby turn out to be Vinícius de Moraes and Baden Powell of EAI, implying that ‘Semi-Impressionism’ is a possible onkyo version of the anthological ‘Afro-Sambas’. Along these lines one nodal-point shared by the latter and the former sets of compositions grouped in the two releases is the centrality of rhythm, which, noblesse oblige, becomes explicit and authoritative in the ‘Afro-Sambas’, while it becomes non-invasive, sinuous (though not at all less pervasive) in the sartorial sonic elegance of ‘Semi-Impressionism’. Sensuality oozes from both cases in spite of discrepancies in form, it goes without saying, otherwise the comparison would probably be far fetched.The chord-spacing and the associated guitar phrasing make sure that the said (and sad) spacing shall be treated as a component that is as inviolable as the chords, whilst demonstrating by practising that there is an assumed ‘method (even if in the Cage-enesque guise of no-methodology) underlying the Japanese stone garden-like volatile aural nihilism transpiring from all the pieces. That is a method that preserves the spontaneity of Nakamura and Akiyama works, to the same extent that Powell’s technique preserves the spontaneity of the African rhythms injected into Brazilian bossa-nova. Taku Sugimoto & Moe Kamura’s ‘Saritote’ I and II are remarkable. However, the (semi)bossa-nova craze of sorts showcased in ‘Semi-Impressionism’ conjures up a much more powerful ability to onkyonise audible realities, by the same token making that music genre titled ‘onkyo’ much more resourceful and unpredictable. An unpredictability that occurs full-on, but never at expenses of the obvious, which appears to be the stepping stone of onkyo works, or at least has been so far. docperkins

I wouldn’t say that what happened when I heard this album was the most unexpected thing. But simply because by ontological default, I always expect the worst, therefore the last thing I expect has to be bad, and what happens in this album is so good. Disclaimer made, I can assure you that the second to most unexpected thing happened when I started delving into ‘Semi-Impressionism’, and it was nothing short of revelatory.

Toshimaru Nakamura & Tetuzi Akiyama, thereby turn out to be Vinícius de Moraes and Baden Powell of EAI, implying that ‘Semi-Impressionism’ is a possible onkyo version of the anthological ‘Afro-Sambas’. Along these lines one nodal-point shared by the latter and the former sets of compositions grouped in the two releases is the centrality of rhythm, which, noblesse oblige, becomes explicit and authoritative in the ‘Afro-Sambas’, while it becomes non-invasive, sinuous (though not at all less pervasive) in the sartorial sonic elegance of ‘Semi-Impressionism’. Sensuality oozes from both cases in spite of discrepancies in form, it goes without saying, otherwise the comparison would probably be far fetched.

The chord-spacing and the associated guitar phrasing make sure that the said (and sad) spacing shall be treated as a component that is as inviolable as the chords, whilst demonstrating by practising that there is an assumed ‘method (even if in the Cage-enesque guise of no-methodology) underlying the Japanese stone garden-like volatile aural nihilism transpiring from all the pieces. That is a method that preserves the spontaneity of Nakamura and Akiyama works, to the same extent that Powell’s technique preserves the spontaneity of the African rhythms injected into Brazilian bossa-nova.

Taku Sugimoto & Moe Kamura’s ‘Saritote’ I and II are remarkable. However, the (semi)bossa-nova craze of sorts showcased in ‘Semi-Impressionism’ conjures up a much more powerful ability to onkyonise audible realities, by the same token making that music genre titled ‘onkyo’ much more resourceful and unpredictable. An unpredictability that occurs full-on, but never at expenses of the obvious, which appears to be the stepping stone of onkyo works, or at least has been so far.

docperkins

George Bernard Shaw wrote that Shakespeare was a remarkable ‘teller of stories, so long as someone else had told them first’. If I had – fortunately I do not – to characterise EAI, I would start by paraphrasing Shaw: EAI composers are wonderful teller of sonic tales, as long as someone else has told them before. However, the precedent sonic narratives, the ones that ‘were told before’, drew on other forms. And this is the jump of the cat of EAI, or the radical EAI that matters, as opposed to extremist EAI. EAI dwells the music aesthetic realm where form gets the primacy over content par excellence, inasmuch as deconstruction techniques, in EAI, are not an option but imperative. In other words, if one aims to inscribe a sound-pregnant work (aka composition) within the EAI niche, one will have to carry out deconstruction even if one opposes the concept (which, by the way, is not monolithical, it varies according o the paradigm it stems from). This is another — forlorn — green world, also gorgeous, but this time not idealised and performed Brian Eno. Apart from the ironic title, it has nothing to do with Eno’s green reverie. Furthermore, Misters Kelley & Lescalleet, as expected and stressed above, delve into deconstructions of sorts, and they sound powerfully apt at the job.The release spawns good ideas non-atop, as a healthy mouth produces saliva. The percentage of those good ideas that are unfolded, developed, and taken to grounds where in connection with other blissfully loose ends generate new sonic arteries, is impressively high. Along these lines, I feel tempted to claim that the set of works comprised in this release belong to the conglomerate kernel of EAI epistemes that enframe some kind of paideuma, which is something all traceable music genres bear without necessarily counting on the awareness of the composers whose works have been thereby agglutinated. The EAI paideuma counting on ‘Forlorn Green’ in its core would be the conceptual revelation space from where we could, within the labyrinthine EAI aural patterns, point out and propose productive distinctions between those patterns that are radical and those that are merely extremist. By radical I call those components that, showcasing more or less technical knowledge of cause of composers, unsettle common sense (mis)apprehension(s) of the non-music that EAI at the end of the day, when successful, becomes. Whereas extremist are those components that display the composers’ legitimate eagerness to transgress bumping in their technical limitations and self-imposed conceptual misery, generating pieces where presumptuousness is only second to boredom (of the wrong kind).Standout track is “Conquest of the Earth”. To convey the magnitude of the tragedy it describes and excruciatingly explores, the work would be my pick as support gig for a concert including Sofia Gubaidulina’s “Stimmen… Verstummen”, “Silenzio”, and the gloomiest, sick “De Profundis”. That would be the perfect eschatological soundtrack for any forlorn, told and retold green dystopian fairy-tale. I only want to know about fairy-tales that are dystopian, otherwise I will stick to the tedious bites of reality…

George Bernard Shaw wrote that Shakespeare was a remarkable ‘teller of stories, so long as someone else had told them first’. If I had – fortunately I do not – to characterise EAI, I would start by paraphrasing Shaw: EAI composers are wonderful teller of sonic tales, as long as someone else has told them before.

However, the precedent sonic narratives, the ones that ‘were told before’, drew on other forms. And this is the jump of the cat of EAI, or the radical EAI that matters, as opposed to extremist EAI. EAI dwells the music aesthetic realm where form gets the primacy over content par excellence, inasmuch as deconstruction techniques, in EAI, are not an option but imperative. In other words, if one aims to inscribe a sound-pregnant work (aka composition) within the EAI niche, one will have to carry out deconstruction even if one opposes the concept (which, by the way, is not monolithical, it varies according o the paradigm it stems from).

This is another — forlorn — green world, also gorgeous, but this time not idealised and performed Brian Eno. Apart from the ironic title, it has nothing to do with Eno’s green reverie. Furthermore, Misters Kelley & Lescalleet, as expected and stressed above, delve into deconstructions of sorts, and they sound powerfully apt at the job.

The release spawns good ideas non-atop, as a healthy mouth produces saliva. The percentage of those good ideas that are unfolded, developed, and taken to grounds where in connection with other blissfully loose ends generate new sonic arteries, is impressively high.

Along these lines, I feel tempted to claim that the set of works comprised in this release belong to the conglomerate kernel of EAI epistemes that enframe some kind of paideuma, which is something all traceable music genres bear without necessarily counting on the awareness of the composers whose works have been thereby agglutinated. The EAI paideuma counting on ‘Forlorn Green’ in its core would be the conceptual revelation space from where we could, within the labyrinthine EAI aural patterns, point out and propose productive distinctions between those patterns that are radical and those that are merely extremist.

By radical I call those components that, showcasing more or less technical knowledge of cause of composers, unsettle common sense (mis)apprehension(s) of the non-music that EAI at the end of the day, when successful, becomes. Whereas extremist are those components that display the composers’ legitimate eagerness to transgress bumping in their technical limitations and self-imposed conceptual misery, generating pieces where presumptuousness is only second to boredom (of the wrong kind).

Standout track is “Conquest of the Earth”. To convey the magnitude of the tragedy it describes and excruciatingly explores, the work would be my pick as support gig for a concert including Sofia Gubaidulina’s “Stimmen… Verstummen”, “Silenzio”, and the gloomiest, sick “De Profundis”.

That would be the perfect eschatological soundtrack for any forlorn, told and retold green dystopian fairy-tale.
I only want to know about fairy-tales that are dystopian, otherwise I will stick to the tedious bites of reality…

Jason Lescalleet - Electronic Music (RRR, 2003) New post from docperkins:There are composers who I consider part of the spine of my fruition template, but whose legacy I enjoy more than their specific compositions, for instance, John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. To a large extent, the avant-classical music that entertains me, instructs me, and catches my attention would not exist if Cage and Stockhausen had not clinched at such a high level of expertise, insight, and inspiration with strategic nodal points constitutive of hegemonic tonal rationalities. The measure of their success is still to be ascertained so immense the effects and side-effects of their musical interventions have been, at the epistemic and executing dimensions, opening up significant space in grids of intelligibility of absolutely crucial atonal music composers.Hence, even if I am not especially partial to several Cage’s compositions drawing heavily on his principles of indeterminacy, it is impossible to overestimate their impact on Morton Feldman’s aesthetics. The latter, in my view, has never ascribed directly to indeterminacy, but owes significantly to indeterminacy in several respects.The same goes to Stockhausen’s legacy, and sub-genres such as EAI and electronic, which leads us to the four works hereby gathered. Jason Lescalleet ‘s ‘Electronic Music’ would certainly not exist had it not been preceded by Stockhausen’s own ‘Elektronische Musik (Etude; Studie I; Studie II; Gesang der Jünglinge; Kontakte)’. The latter, which is an unmissable release by the way, I could only start really appreciating beyond its conceptual significance retrospectively, under the light of current electronic music and EAI productions; some of them expanding Stockhausen’s entry-points, others vulgarising his achievements, and third ones carrying out a bit of both, expanding and vulgarising.I would place Lescalleet’s release on the last group, inasmuch as it sounds like a leaflet explaining at a remarkable level of thoroughness, what Karheinz was setting out to commit when he wrote the pieces compiled in ‘Elektronische Musik’. However Jason, apparently not content in being merely didactic, risks his electro-neck in timid, but highly enjoyable patterns that unfold some of Stockhausen’s less obvious sonic devices, principally regarding treble oriented effects; the ones in charge of providing electronic pieces with a welcome (to me) false depth dimension. It is a ‘bluesy dimension’ as far as Stockhausenesque riffs go, when properly unfolded, as it is the case at stake.To try and make my verbiage shorter without corrupting my rumblings too much: Stockhausen is to Lescalleet, what Pelé is to Cristiano Ronaldo. The point is that if the album ‘Electronic’ were a soccer match, Lescalleet Ronaldo was having a bloody inspired day.

Jason Lescalleet - Electronic Music (RRR, 2003)

New post from docperkins:

There are composers who I consider part of the spine of my fruition template, but whose legacy I enjoy more than their specific compositions, for instance, John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. To a large extent, the avant-classical music that entertains me, instructs me, and catches my attention would not exist if Cage and Stockhausen had not clinched at such a high level of expertise, insight, and inspiration with strategic nodal points constitutive of hegemonic tonal rationalities. The measure of their success is still to be ascertained so immense the effects and side-effects of their musical interventions have been, at the epistemic and executing dimensions, opening up significant space in grids of intelligibility of absolutely crucial atonal music composers.

Hence, even if I am not especially partial to several Cage’s compositions drawing heavily on his principles of indeterminacy, it is impossible to overestimate their impact on Morton Feldman’s aesthetics. The latter, in my view, has never ascribed directly to indeterminacy, but owes significantly to indeterminacy in several respects.

The same goes to Stockhausen’s legacy, and sub-genres such as EAI and electronic, which leads us to the four works hereby gathered. Jason Lescalleet ‘s ‘Electronic Music’ would certainly not exist had it not been preceded by Stockhausen’s own ‘Elektronische Musik (Etude; Studie I; Studie II; Gesang der Jünglinge; Kontakte)’. The latter, which is an unmissable release by the way, I could only start really appreciating beyond its conceptual significance retrospectively, under the light of current electronic music and EAI productions; some of them expanding Stockhausen’s entry-points, others vulgarising his achievements, and third ones carrying out a bit of both, expanding and vulgarising.

I would place Lescalleet’s release on the last group, inasmuch as it sounds like a leaflet explaining at a remarkable level of thoroughness, what Karheinz was setting out to commit when he wrote the pieces compiled in ‘Elektronische Musik’. However Jason, apparently not content in being merely didactic, risks his electro-neck in timid, but highly enjoyable patterns that unfold some of Stockhausen’s less obvious sonic devices, principally regarding treble oriented effects; the ones in charge of providing electronic pieces with a welcome (to me) false depth dimension. It is a ‘bluesy dimension’ as far as Stockhausenesque riffs go, when properly unfolded, as it is the case at stake.

To try and make my verbiage shorter without corrupting my rumblings too much: Stockhausen is to Lescalleet, what Pelé is to Cristiano Ronaldo. The point is that if the album ‘Electronic’ were a soccer match, Lescalleet Ronaldo was having a bloody inspired day.

Michael Pisaro and Greg Stuart will be performing in Chapel Hill, NC on October 22nd and 23rd. For their set on the 22nd, they will perform a transparent gate (with 10 panels), which is a 100 minute piece for percussion and eight channel sound. This will be at Nightlight Club & Bar; Ryan Gustafson shares the bill.On the 23rd, Michael and Greg will be performing a live, broadcasted set on WXYC 89.3 FM from 2:00 to 3:00 PM. They will perform selections from Michael’s Harmony Series. The station can be streamed by following the preceding link.Facebook

Michael Pisaro and Greg Stuart will be performing in Chapel Hill, NC on October 22nd and 23rd. For their set on the 22nd, they will perform a transparent gate (with 10 panels), which is a 100 minute piece for percussion and eight channel sound. This will be at Nightlight Club & Bar; Ryan Gustafson shares the bill.

On the 23rd, Michael and Greg will be performing a live, broadcasted set on WXYC 89.3 FM from 2:00 to 3:00 PM. They will perform selections from Michael’s Harmony Series. The station can be streamed by following the preceding link.

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atosakav: (via Sachiko Mセッティング。 on Twitpic)

atosakav:

(via Sachiko Mセッティング。 on Twitpic)