Swing

More often than not, I wake up at night (by my kids or something else) and can't get back to sleep for something like 3 hours or so. Mostly I come up with solutions about pieces that I'm writing or things I don't know yet how to build. But sometimes I make nursery rhymes. Mostly I forget them straight away, but this time I could still cite it when my oldest boy came waking me up: 

There was a boy called Ling

he had a ring

and dreams about a king

who flies on a wing

to a country called Ming

where all the people sing

just about the spring:

Spring, spring, spring

I'm sitting on a swing

and having a fling

with a girl called Jing

Spring, spring, spring

she's a lovely thing

then broke the string

and gone was Jing

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing

AFG + Music boxes

So, the recording I was refering to 2 posts ago, is out now: ConundromCd9!  Me, Dale Gorfinkel and Robbie Avenaim  (called AFG).  The disc is called Plains. On every cdr there is a different postage stamp with a plane on it (above picture is the one I keep myself with a stamp from Afganistan from '84, but they're all unique and from countries like Poland, Cuba, CCCP, Mongolia etc etc).

It was an interesting combination (2 vibraphones and 2 pianos), and I think we did some very interesting stuff in a beautifull place called the Old Darlington School in Sydney on Feb 7 and 8 in 2006, recorded by the great and wonderfull Jim Denley. We all think we can do much better now, but I think you allways have that feeling. "Plains" is great as it is and worthy of presenting I think.

We're planning to do some more work in 2010 in Oz, recording as well as performing.

Been working on playing the piano with Music boxes (with the terrible original song cut out obviously). I'm not a fan of cyclic music when it is 100% cyclic, so with 2 or more boxes (I made 6 by now) it plays the (prepared) strings in a cyclic way but changing all the time and never the same. Something like rain... And a great percussive addition to the sustained sounds I can generate through electromagnetism.

I also will write a piece for 2 pianos (duo Post & Mulder will perform it in November) for these boxes and the 2 players. Should be fun: dense but also light.

Wow!

Off to the Antarctic as Mr Pinnell's assistant to do some sound research on the effects of ice on birdcalls. Man, this came just out of the blue. Soooo psyched about this.

So, won't be seeing you all for a while.

And huhh, happy birhtday sister in law!

Been listening to some recordings I made with Robbie Avenaim and Dale Gorfinkel. Made me realize again how vivid the Australian scene is and how much I miss it.

We recorded at the Old Darlington School in Sydney, one afternoon in 2006 I think. I played on 2 grand pianos and Dale and Robbie on 2 vibraphones (and Robbie on some percussion as well). They worked a lot with machines on their vibraphones, and that also inspired me at the time to explore a similar territory. And odd combination it was maybe but for EAI very good. Does anybody know of vibraphone players that work in the field of EAI? Well they have a cd out on 2 of them on Splitrec.

Anyway, listening after a few years I still sounded great. Maybe it'll become ConundromCd number 9.

Here's a pic from that day:

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