roachboy

comrades!

i havent posted anything to this forum before, mostly beause i am without particular ability in visual materials and because i was waiting to see what happened with a seperate music space...and so here we are.

the collective i work with--clairaudient/the windsleepers--has just put two new recordings on our website--they are linked together as a small series around the notion of decay. one is a new soundtrack for the film "decasia" and the other a poetry/sound poetry performance. both are available here:

www.clairaudient.org

under the performances link

i am curious about what folk make of this stuff. have a listen and let me know, please--it would be really helpful (i am probably the last person on earth who should evaluate this material...but we are going to be using it as a lead for another attempt at surfacing publically..whence the request for feedback)

the decasia set is a bit over an hour long. if you have the film, it synchs best if you start the recording after the first film sequence (the dancer)--but it should stand on its own as well---so have a listen. the reading is about a half hour and moves through several sections---the last two are what i am most interested in, although responses to the whole are welcome.

thanks.

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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

analinguist

i couldn't hear any of the mp3s...what are you compressing them with?

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roachboy

i think there is some proprietary stuff somewhere---the website works best (for me) off explorer...any download should play through quicktime if you dont direct it elsewhere.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

roachboy

no reactions?
try a bump---i have no shame,.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

ARTelevision

Thanks for the chance, roachboy.

I’ve commented to you personally regarding the dynamism and experimentalism of your concrete piano music. These pieces add extra dimension to awareness of the fully fleshed-out sound and conceptualization/actualization of your work and the work of your collective.

Deteriorate:
“trailblazing…techtonic…g-force…fetish…ruthless…contemplate…a mere mask…senses vibration…silver fur…!”

intimate and concrete at the same time, personal and existential, public and ambient

Good universal stuff there…

Decasia:

This one – upon hearing it again, I decided to “environmentalize” it. There’s so much in your journal about “space” so I figured I should experience the sound here spatially. In my previous session with this piece, I attended to the musicality and the insistent experience of the sound-in-the-present as played by players – instantaneous listening, if you will.

Hearing it as a movement in space – of space, opens up new paths of aural experience. I’ll carry this new openness with me throughout the day and beyond. Thanks for the mind-expansion!

(...still planning to make it to a clairaudient/the windsleepers event soon)

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create evolution

roachboy

hey--thanks art. i appreciate the commentary....

on the question of space/spatialization: sadly an xlr cable died during the performance with two results--the mix is mono and was recorded from mics not positioned optimally to make a mono recording. this is a drag, because what i thought was happening across the first part of the set was that the elements in the piano parts were getting pushed further and further apart in the environment--and were hollowing out as they moved. i was pretty sure it was happening--but on the recording, you only hear traces of it. tant pis--we have to play with the cards dealt. but this is why we are thinking of doing another version in april.

but thanks for having a listen to the series.


anyone else--commentary appreciated.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

ARTelevision

It does seem to me that "preparing" a "house" piano is a political action. I'm interested in how you see that operating aesthetically?

In some sense, the documentation of the interaction between the "preparer" and the "custodian" of the "house piano" would constitute a performative, documentable, and fascinating "piece" in itself.

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create evolution

roachboy

i set this potential chain of events into motion last night, so we'll see what kind of battle develops. right now, i am assuming that it will be ok--but worried that they might see a contradiction between splashing out to get the piano tuned and regulated and the idea of my putting screws and rubber things and erasers between the wires on the soundboard.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite