Piano Phase - First Section

Piano Phase

Pulsar (No Pulse)



Who says I don't do cover versions? Well it's sort of a cover version in that there is no way I can play even one Piano that consistently let alone playing two with a gradual slipping of phase. I couldn't even use the standard VB timer as a tick because it was just too coarse to be any use. Had to dig deep into the CPU clock to manage it. So the bottom line is that this is simply 12 notes played in succession by two clock signals ever so slightly out of synch. Piano Phase actually has three sections, of which this is the first. I don't have the score to get the other two parts though I know that the last part is just a subsection of the first. One day Rodders.

The second piece is almost as simple though I actually did press all the notes in real time. It uses a VST which simulates a massively long tape delay - including tape noise and stretch and flutter if you want it - which is basically Frippertronics but without all that tedious mucking about in Hyperspace with massive tape loops wound over broom handles and the like. In standard mode it doesn't actually produce any sound until it's been through the delay once so part of the beauty is the randomness and guesswork it involves. I just need to get some programmatic access to the instruments and I can take the weak point out of the whole set-up - ie me. The other clicky sound in the first few minutes of this one is from some notes I meant to cut before I rendered it which were an attempt to use the sound of a real pulsar in it. I will try again when I get that sound processed into something a little more suitable. This be the Star.



And now all very apt (or maybe just a tenuous link) my son's hero, Marcus du Sautoy presented yet another Horizon Programme yesterday. This was on The Search for AI and managed to avoid loads of Gee Whizzery, so much so that it gave over about ten minutes to watching said Maths Superman trying to tight-wire walk to illustrate the suggestion that machines will have to have attached bodies in order to achieve anything close to human consciousness. I suppose this undoes some of the idea of human's being downloaded into some sort of global machine. It looks like we'll have to make substitute bodies for ourselves, something like The Borg.

Eighth Blackbird Wonder

I have of course been waiting sometime for this recording of something which won the Pulitzer Prize for Steve Reich and Eighth Blackbird so long ago and more annoyingly was performed in a local venue without me hearing a peep of publicity. While Double Sextet itself does not disappoint one bit, the accompanying 2x5 performed by Bang on a Can is slightly weedy in comparison - some feedback and room simulation might have been useful just to give it a bit more drive. However, the third movement contains some trademark Reichian interlocks which make up for this a bit. But the obvious star of the release is the three-movement Double Sextet which I suppose is the definitive Reich piece. It moves at just the correct speed in all places and the interlocks here are myriad - jittery mixtures of time signatures just to keep anyone thinking of using the piece as dance music well and truly on their toes. It is amazing that there are only two of every instrument - the conceit being Reich's favourite device of having an artist or artists play against a tape of themselves (though the premier had two live sextets) - the texture is rich and deep. A slight technical niggle which may be my player, is that the Piano recording level seems to be too high meaning that it distorts a little; it was not audible when I played it through speakers last night but it is occasionally jarring in earphones.

Despite the slight negativity about Bang on a Can above, I am interested to see that they are performing a new opera by Evan Ziporyn with Gamelan Salukat called A House in Bali which is based on the book by Colin McPhee. I read the book years ago and it is a gentle story of nothing much other than composing and playing music in Bali. So there is that to look forward to as well.

Drone Poem Sequence

Listening to ... er .... this.

If you can, set to HD. I did and it was like having little people playing music on my lap. This has not yet been released as a commercial recording so this is the only way to hear it all. I would hope that it comes out with the latest SR mallet composition and the new rock-based piece - 2 x 5. There is a clip of a rehearsal of the latter but the sound is very weedy.