Tag Archive for 'tape'

sanguine

Published
by
sean
on July 22, 2008
in podcast
. 0 Comments

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is a 1632 oil painting by Rembrandt housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Blood is a hot, sweet, temperate, red humour, prepared in the meserais veins, and made of the most temperate parts of the chylus in the liver, whose office is to nourish the whole body, to give it strength and colour, being dispersed by the veins through every part of it. And from it spirits are first begotten in the heart, which afterwards by the arteries are communicated to the other parts.

Music a remedy.… Faventinus are almost immoderate in the commendation of it; a most forcible medicine Jacchinus calls it: Jason Pratensis, “a most admirable thing, and worthy of consideration, that can so mollify the mind, and stay those tempestuous affections of it.” Musica est mentis medicina mœstæ, a roaring-meg against melancholy, to rear and revive the languishing soul; “affecting not only the ears, but the very arteries, the vital and animal spirits, it erects the mind, and makes it nimble.” Lemnius, instit, cap. 44.

…besides that excellent power it hath to expel many other diseases, it is a sovereign remedy against despair and melancholy, and will drive away the devil himself…  Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth; and therefore to such as are discontent, in woe, fear, sorrow, or dejected, it is a most present remedy: it expels cares, alters their grieved minds, and easeth in an instant. Otherwise, saith Plutarch, Musica magis dementat quam vinum; music makes some men mad as a tiger; like Astolphos’ horn in Ariosto; or Mercury’s golden wand in Homer, that made some wake, others sleep, it hath divers effects: and Theophrastus right well prophesied, that diseases were either procured by music, or mitigated.

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) — Robert Burton (1577-1640)

feat. Ilya E. Monosov, Valerio Cosi, James Blackshaw, Black Twig Pickers, Yo La Tengo, Burning Star Core, Steven R. Smith, & Tape

tracklist

 
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Trunk Records to release collection of John Baker recordings

Published
by
sean
on July 17, 2008
in filler
. 1 Comment

Thanks to Trunk Records, BBC Radiophonic Workshop composer John Baker — standout amidst the station’s slew of early electronic pioneers — is receiving the individual attention his recordings deserve, at long last.  The John Baker Tapes, a two disc cd collection along with a vinyl issue of highlights, is scheduled for release in July and August, featuring previously unreleased Radiophonic material, soundtrack materials and home recordings.  Considering the BBC’s notorious ineptitude at properly preserving the Workshop’s recordings, and the scarcity of information about John Baker’s career more generally, this Trunk release is a great relief.

John Baker hard at work at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop BBC, manipulating sounds in June 1965

Along with information about the scheduled July and August releases, Trunk includes a wonderful biography penned by John Baker’s brother, Richard Anthony Baker.

At the start of 1963, he joined the Radiophonic Workshop, which had been founded by Desmond Briscoe five years previously. In the early days of electronic music, its pioneering work of developing new and different sounds was greatly in demand by programme makers.

John invented many techniques. He recorded onto reel-to-reel tape the sound of everyday objects, such as the twanging of a ruler on a desk or a cork being pulled from a bottle. By changing the speed of the tape, he could alter the sounds’ pitch and was then able to compose a melody from these sounds by, for instance, making a minim fill four inches of tape, a crotchet, two, a quaver, one, and so on. More cleverly, if he wanted to introduce a jazz feeling to the tune, he cut a note slightly short so that it anticipated the beat. The work was painstaking and demanded a steady nerve. But it was the job for John. He loved it and was never happier.

additional reading/listening:

John Baker samples @ last.fm & BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop feature, Four sound effects that made TV history

(h/t Gutterbreakz)

Wouter Van Veldhoven’s ‘Four Simple Songs for Five Dead Bumblebees’ (Eat This Media, 2008)

Published
by
sean
on June 2, 2008
in feature, podcast and review
. 0 Comments

After a two month wait, Dutchman Wouter Van Veldhoven’s latest ambient release finally arrived on my doorstep.  Considering the monumental delay, I have to assume the simple square six-inch cardboard package’s journey from Eat This Media’s Dutch offices to The Submersible Dirigible’s NYC-based corporate towers was a laborous one, apparently traveling over land by crab-walk, and over the Atlantic by paddleboat.  Fortunately, Wouter’s latest record turned out to be a soothing remedy for injustice, allowing me to quickly forgive the collaborative failure of the Dutch and American mail-carriers.

coverart

icon for podpress  wouter in context (bookmarked aac): Download (137)

 
icon for podpress  wouter in context (mp3): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (139)
wouter van veldhoden, tim hecker, william basinski, colleen — tracklist.txt

With only a handful of previous releases — I assume Wouter’s work hasn’t yet captured the eye of most ambient music fans.  Considering Wouter’s Four Simple Songs alongside his earlier, far-too-limited Ruststukken (Slaapwell, 2007), it seems likely he’ll soon be to mentioned alongside the best established work from our era’s biggest contemporary-minimalist super-celebrities.  Stylistically, Wouter’s brittle tape-fueled ambient arrangements feel inspired primarily by William Basinski’s own melancholy, high-altitude tape-glaciers.  “Second Simple Song” (see podcast) makes the most convincing case for Basinski’s influence on the record; the track’s leaky organs and inky rythms are drenched in a shrill, pervasive electrostatic leaking from the track’s warmer, ailing melodies.  Decay and crafted interference burden the more emotive instrumentation like a wet blanket, familiar from comparable Basinski releases like The Disintegration Loops (2062, 2002/2003) or Variations for Piano & Tape (2062, 2006).

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