ConundromCd

I thought it might be a good idea to make a bit of a clear list of the ConundromCd's sofar.

So here we go:

0

Zilch

This was "released" in '98.

It was a trio with me and Han Bennink and Wilbert de Joode in Utrecht. Nobody showed up but we played a set anyway (for the people working there). It was recorded quite badly because I forgot my datmachine and we used a simple cassettedeck instead. The recording levels where way off so the whole thing is rather distorted. 

This one is OOP.

1

DJ Cor Blimey and his pigeon: "10 songs in 62 minutes and 23 seconds".

1999, being sick of all this fuss about 2000 coming up I wanted to release it in the last millenium. 500 made, so plenty cds (not cdrs) left still.

The concept was a combination of 3 things for every song: one of my keyboards, a sample from some easy listening tune and a spoken word LP. It was kind of a joke towards all this DJ crapp stuff I heared all the time. It's also about numbers and there is a complicated code all through the cd.....

I'm still happy with track 4 being a long unedited keyolin solo (I only just build it then) on top of some indian music samples..

2

Whistlelight

Here the "real" cdr series start. Me on EMS Synthi AKS, just analogue electronics.

3

Rowe/Fuhler

A duo with me on acoustic piano and Keith Rowe on guitar/electronics.

4

Slee

Solo on acoustic piano, focussing on the keys this time.

A kind of study in speed and sleep.

Brian Olewnick wrote a nice write up of this one and number 3 at Bagatellen + some reactions from me which you can read here.

5

TCOD (the Condition of dreaming)

A solo but dubbed in recording on keyolin, prepared cymbalom and transistor organ.

I made this in the same perdiod as above, so it's part of the same study. And I added a study in springreverbs: 2 Springs attatched to the bridge of the keyolin, the internal springreverb of the organ (a Dakota, with the most beatifull springreverb I have ever come across) and the cymbalom going trough an external spring reverb box.

6

CRAX

 A live concert with me on piano (+ some primitive amplifiaction and preparations with various speakers inside the piano), Axel Dörner - slide trumpet and Clare Cooper - harp.

For me this was a study in changing roles, either you are the lightperson in a theatre show or the actor/actress.

7 

Het Kabinet

A kind of  freakshow, 7 insruments that do not have a history together at all. An experiment.

I wrote something here.

8

Wenen

Solo on piano, trying to combine the feedback piano with various vibrating machines etc, all within a acoustic domain.

I wrote somehting here.

Our good friend Richard Pinnell wrote something here, and our good friend Brian Olewnick wrote something here.

They can be obtained at my concerts (if I didn't forget them, so if you're interested, please email me beforehand to make sure) or at Erstdist.

Going to France in a couple of days, looking forward to seeing a few nice concerts and museums in Paris!

Västerås, Brest and Paris

Do not have much time to report anything. Plenty thoughts after some great musuems in Barcelona. But to busy with work, (and that's good!) Tomorrow of to Sweden for the great Perspectives festival.  And next week to France (Brest and Paris), so not sure when I will post.....

Looking forward to seeing Taku, Sachiko, Mats, Otomo etc

EMS external reverb + Barcelona

Working on an external reverb for the EMS Synthi AKS. I'm making a switch so I can choose between the normal internal one and another "something". I have several spring reverbs but for this I'm going to make a plate reverb from a tamtam cymbal. Just have to find the right multi toned tamtam.

But first I'm having a well deserved break. Going to Barcelona for a week with the family, Jippie!!!!!!

Back on the 28th

Multiple personality order

I just released ConundromCd 8 last week, a live recording of a piano solo concert (thanks to mr Pinnell for the pic). It was recorded Januari 22, so just a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to Hannes Löschel for inviting me to Vienna and making this possible.

When I started (more than 10 years ago by now) a trio with Han Bennink on drums and Wilbert de Joode on double bass, my aim was to not only work on "instant composing" but also on "instant arranging". Being one person I can immediately play what I just played on various instruments: piano, keyolin, melodica, electric organ, celesta. The thing is, it's not just a transformation in sound/colour, but many more things.

The sound of the piano starts from gravity, the melodica from air, the keyolin from a bow, the organ from a volume pedal. Playing them all at the same time gives a very complex problem, using different parts of the brain and body, projection etc.  Also the drums and double bass change in sound if I change instruments. This was the thing I wanted to explore within a Jazz context and it resulted in 2 cds: Bellagram (1998) and Tinderbox (2002).

It took me quite a bit of time to come to terms with a DX7 synth in my student time. I remember a moment a shouted to myself, "the sound comes from the speaker!! accept it!!". from then I felt more at home with it and it became fun, which resulted in i.g. "Border, live in Zürich" (1995) by Palinckx.

One thing I learned from playing the keyolin is a totally different way of blending in with other instruments, I almost had to start from scratch again. That was a great thing to do, it puts everything in another perspective. And learning it's all in the bowing.....

Dealing with all these "special effects, extented techniques, different instruments" and making them not "special effects, extended techniques, different instruments" but just part of the music by building a long term relationship with them, is why I was quite happy with the outcome of above mentioned "Wenen". All these elements I mentioned come together in the piano, the percussion (the keyed notes etc), the electronics (I send radio sounds, noise and stations to the string by electromagnetism), the acoustic feedback resulting in ultrahigh sinewaves, the fysical versus the automised parts and how to project all this.

Had a great week, nice concert with Evan Parker and Michael Vatcher, and seeing Keith Rowe and Oren Ambarchi the day after.

It was great to see Evan and Keith having these enormously strong relationships with their instruments. A really strong foundation.

Oh, and I did my first concert on guitar last tuesday.... (they called me just beforhand that the hammers were gone out of the local piano, so I had to decide quickly what to bring)

It never stops.

the super soccerteam

How many people can make a soccerteam with just brothers?

Well my dad could. He was one of 15 kids, 3 girls, 12 boys, and mind you, no twins, no halfbrothers/sisters (well, you never know).

So the team even had one brother to spare (or maybe he was the coach?)

Looking forward to this Saturday (me and Evan Parker and Michael Vatcher in Groningen).

 

Going to see Oren Ambarchi and Keith Rowe at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam the day after. Pleasantly surprised they play there!

I hear it was warm in Adelaide, with koalas coming in for some cooling down:

Vienna, skating and telecasters

(Me and Darius, my youngest son)


Had a nice solo concert in Vienna last week. And played with Burkhard Stangl and Paul Skrepek for the first time. Nice!Been working a lot on the piano lately. My latest set-up:

The organiser and pianist Hannes Löschel gave me a cd: Ereb-Afrik, a Stangl composition for 2  pianos (1 player), where Hannes plays the piano and Josef Novotny does the sound projection.

Very recommendable! great piece, great playing.

One thing I noticed about pick-ups on an electric guitar: its either 2 or 3  single coils, (Fender tele and strat), 1, 2 (or even 3) humbuckers (Gibson), humbucker-single-humbucker (popularized by Ibanez), but where-ever I looked, never a single coil-humbucker-single coil... So guess what I did......

I added a humbucker pick-up to my telecaster electric guitar inbetween the 2 single coils. I still have to add the 5-way switch and the switch for parallel/single etc for the humbucker.

I had quite a few guitar pick ups lying around because of experiments with the piano, but because I had build my own ebow/ pick-up kinda devices, they're just asking to be used...

I'ts been cold but unfortunately not cold enough to scate on the big lakes in Holland, as it was a few weeks back: (Lucian, my oldest son)

het Kabinet

Dutch - English dictionary:

Kabinet: cabinet (government), office, bureau (piece of furniture), gallery/collection.

With the more usual instruments (piano, saxophone, violin, drums, etc etc etc) there are lots of unwritten rules/habits/assumptions you are  semi-aware of, but there are even more at a subconsious level. E.g. when a trumpet plays with a double bass, there is a history, influencing what you play, things you (and the audience) have learned because this situation has happened before, records that have set in your mind, etc

Now, if you combine a keyolin, lute, timpani, glasharmonica, harmonium, radio, doublebass-clarinet, electronics, singing saw and a strohviol, there are none of these historic and often burdoning relationships.....

With this in mind I set up a group for the Doek festival 5 1/2. With musicians that are used to playing in the more traditional setting, but with a very open mind, playing unusual instruments that have no history in this perticular combination.

When MIMEO started there was a similar exploratory feeling. Technical developments of live electronics and the way we used them, was very new. So the world was open and full of surprise and wonder.

Another aspect is my sympathy for the unusual, and often failed attempts to create something new. It is my believe history is a road taken by chance. If you made/discovered some things that accidentally fit on that road, you are the Nobel prise winner, the cult figure, and what not. If you made something not on that path, you will just disapear in the annals of history, but you are absolutely of no less value IMO.

The result with "het Kabinet" is for sure not the best record ever made, but nevertheless, it is intriging and often funny. Warning: a  resistance for some noodling is a requirement... But in the Netherlands, that has been cultivated  a bit already, in a different way then other parts of Europe, wich is yet another level/layer/friction.

Anyway, NOW AVAILLABLE!!!! the Kabinet.......

25 made, and I doubt I will ever sell them.

(For sale at concerts only, sorry about that)

Cor Fuhler - keyolin, Hohner guitaret, Niglo 1, roll-up piano, Aleks Kolkowski - strohviol, singing saw, Jacques Palinckx - lute, resonator guitar, Gert-Jan Prins - timpani, radio, electronics, Peter van Bergen - doublebass-clarinet, Michael Vatcher - glasharmonica, 2 meter bass drum, percussion, Frank van Bommel -  harmonium, metalophones.