August 23, 2008.
I have the urge to post today- Last night I saw an amazing band, "
Electric Junkyard Gamelan".
They play compositions by, and on instruments built by, Terry Dame.
Right now they are tour heading west, but since they are based in New
York (Brooklyn?), I highly recommend my friends in that area keep an
eye out for them. As the name implies, their music is heavily
Gamelan-influenced, but there are plenty of non-Balinese influences as
well. Sometimes it even rocked a bit, and there was one piece that
combined hip-hop with Balinese chant. All the instruments are
home-made, mostly from "junk" like trash cans, pieces of wood, rubber
bands. The rubber band harp, or "barp", had a very rich, satisfying
sound. The rubber bands were hit with light sticks, and there were a
couple contact microphones on the wooden frame which were routed to a
wah-wah pedal and amplifier. I wouldn't want to have to tune that
thing! I bought the CD, and listening to it now.
Not much new music recorded here at home, but I have been experimenting
the last week or so with SonicBirth and designing interesting delays
that I can play my guitar through. I can use MIDI signals (e.g.
pressing a key on my keyboard) to switch between different length
delays, for example to create the 5-against-9 pattern that is in
"Niagara, part 4" on the new CD I'm working on. I play the 5-note
sequence into a 5-note length delay buffer, and then switch to the
9-note delay to play the 9-note pattern. They continue feeding back and
repeating with shifting overlaps, and I get a similar effect to the
recording I made last month. I can also press a key to route the signal
past the delays, so I can improvise a non-repeating melody over the
repeating patterns. I'm getting interested in live performance a bit
more, partly because last weekend there was a "festival of dreams"
concert in Pittsburgh ("Bring a blanket and pillow... theta wave rest
is encouraged...") which I think some of my newer, more hypnotic music
might have fit in well with. I'll keep playing around with this system,
and see if I can get something performable out of it. If I do, I may
make a video and post it.
Since last month, I've been reading Neil Peart's book "Travelling
Music". This is one of those books that seem like they were really
written for ME. The gist of it is, Neil takes a road trip, and a bunch
of CD's in his car. The book follows the trip (L.A. to Big Bend
National park in Texas, and back) and describes the music he listens
to, and side tracks frequently to events in Neil's life that the music
connects to. It's quite long (300+ pages) but endlessly engaging. One
gets the feeling that Neil Peart has a great psychological need to
connect and share his stories. Well, I guess that's why he wrote almost
all the Rush lyrics. I think I may want to go through it, and make a
list of all the books
and CD's he references, before I return it to the library. Reminds me
of how my officemates at CMU used to kid me about my meandering,
hyper-tangential "Neumann stories". "John," they'd say, "most stories
have a beginning, a middle, and an end." As a going away present for
one officemate, I made a 25-minute CD whrere I rambled on about some
experiences I had in 5th grade, and set it to strange electronic music
I had sitting around.
I just got back from Dick's sporting goods, where I bought a new bike
helmet. I've been enjoying the bike/pedestrian trail along the South
Side where I work. I can avoid the traffic jams along 2nd Avenue and
the Hot Metal Bridge (that's a proper name, not a description) by
parking in a commuter/trailhead lot on my side of the river, and biking
over to work. It only takes 9 minutes, which is sad, because it takes
me almost as long to attach my bike rack and bike to the car. But I
look forward to the ride after work, and not being stuck on the bridge
with the cars (there is a completely separate, parallel section of the
bridge for bikes and pedestrians. Thanks, Luke Ravenstahl, for getting
that built after 10 years of promises by the previous mayor!).
And finally, I've discovered facebook. I found it's a nice way to "feel
connected". When you live near and see people every day, you hear about
all those trivial pieces of information that they probably wouldn't
remember to mention in a phone call or in an email. But the fabric of
life and social interaction is really made of all those little mundane
things.
Cheers!