Playlist

Recorded

June 5, 2018
Psalm 23 (meditation, responses) (vocal take) - Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 1991]

I made this quasi-setting of the 23rd Psalm in 1991 for speaking voice and clavichord, intending the

Eastern Washington

finished product to be some sort of recorded rendition. When Neal read the Psalm for me that August I wasn't entirely certain how the text would fit in with the clavichord commentary. Eventually there were two finished versions, the first accomplished with analog dubbing, and the second, realized some years later, with digital. Listening to my verbal instructions to Neal I find that my concept of how texts ought to be set has not changed much over the decades. I want to hear the sound of the words going by so that they mean what they mean, with minimal dramatic characterization or word-painting, and always being cognizant of the poetic structure.

Coffin and a Six Pack - The Boss Martians [from 13 Evil Tales]

vintage sounds
sample-ready

Thirty-Three Seconds - Storrs Barrett Booch-Williams [from Sonicabal 2001]

apparently a Cage tribute track

Shenandoah - Bruce Springsteen [from The Seeger Sessions]

Baker City, Oregon

Of all the various ilks of americana out there, I think I mistrust the overinflated rural-sentimental the most, as it winds so close to icky ante-bellum nostalgia.

Circle Song - Steve Scribner - Ivan Arteaga, Mike Sentkewitz (?) [from Storm Sound Cycle (live on May 21, 2011)]

against a backdrop
augmenting the distance to the lively made sounds
nocturnal
during
sleep

Good Friend - Ravenna Woods [from Alleyways and Animals]

careful and organized arrangement
buttjoints
greeting card sentiment

June 6, 2018
A Fancie - William Byrd - Elizabeth Farr [from My Ladye Nevells Booke]

imitative
proto-fugal
any passing place can generate all things new
routes kept open
civilization seeps outward

Big Butter and Egg Man from the West - Louis Armstrong's Hot Five with May Alix [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

vocals occupy a lesser place within the song structure
it is a song, but the instrumentals are the show, the vocal bits are present only enough to register

Since I Met You Baby - Ivory Joe Hunter [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

another greeting card
an illustrated letter
it is what she wants to hear so it is what you tell her

River Line Blues - Shirley Griffith [from The Art of Field Recording vol. 1]

guitar and voice are one
pitch/meterpoint syncopation // guitarstringtimbre voice word confluence and retrofluence

For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her - Simon & Garfunkel [from Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme]

I can't help but think Paul was as frustrated with Pop as with folk rock - but that the full on blues had been foreclosed by Mr. Dylan. He had to futz around for a bit before he really hit his song-writing stride.

Track 2 - Tillicum Junior High School Orchestra [from a private tape of concert given March 3, 1971]

bass booms out into a time warp
affects not just the EQ but also the rhythm sense, as in organ music

June 7, 2018
Terminal Preppie - Dead Kennedys [from Plastic Surgery Disasters]

feeds off some of the same misanthropic sophomoranticisms as Saint Zappa.

Readings of a Sonata - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 1986]

Neal and I dink around with another old score of mine, Sonata 1979
We trade-off readings to use up unused tape footage
We accomplish 3 full readings and the first part of a fourth

It's a graphic score so all the notes and rhythms are different, to varying degrees

sounds great, in that cruddy way we had, all the way

8-Ball Deluxe - 7 Year Bitch [from Kill Rock Stars]

Batman rhythm with a slippery bit
quantitive meter in action as rhythm

C'mon Jenny - The Boss Martians [from 13 Evil Tales]

what surf rock sounds like sitting in the rhythm section

Tokyo Fist - Alex Keller [from Sonicabal 2001]

radio signal morsey sound
(love it!)

Banned Rehearsal 702 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 2006]

geography of inhabiting

how where and across what extent do the determinable agendi specify their place or their vectors or their circulations

never quite settling for a trio for long

though the constant xylophone (all hail!)

sound assembly takes time (give it)

and so delicate

because it isn't what it is without how it got to be

In Session at the Tintinabulary
June 5, 2018
Banned Rehearsal 960 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer

June 11, 2018
Yellowstone 180611 - Keith Eisenbrey

I skipped blogging last Saturday because Karen and I were on the road by mid-that-morning to make a week's long loop among the five northwestern states: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, in order of our arrival in each. At the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone, on a windy day (hang on to your britches, dear, it's pretty gusty) I made this recording of our footfalls on one of the older boardwalks.

June 13, 2018
Phillipsburg 180613 - Keith Eisenbrey

10 years ago, during a similar road trip, we passed through the lovely little town of Phillipsburg, in

Montana. The memory stuck in my head all these years as "wouldn't it be nice to spend some time here?" So this time we did. After supper at Silver Mill Restaurant & Saloon (quite nice!) Karen and I opened the balcony windows of our room at The Kaiser House (the Mural Room) to take in the fresh air. I quickly grabbed my recording device to pull in the bird songs and the hominine shouts and the motor roars from the magic hour far from home.