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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
"I found Magdalen in the garden. 'Heavens, Mr. Stubbs!' said she, as in my new uniform I appeared before her, 'I really did never--such a handsome officer--expect to see you;' and she made as if she would blush, and began to tremble violently. I led her to a garden seat. I seized her hand--it was not withdrawn. I pressed it;--I thought the pressure was returned. I flung myself on my knees, and then I poured into her ear a little speech which I had made on the top of the coach. 'Divine Miss Crutty,' said I; idol of my soul! It was but to catch one glimpse of you that I passed through this garden. I never intended to breathe the secret passion (oh no! of course not!) which was wearing my life away. You know my unfortunate pre-engagement,--it is broken, and for ever! I am free!--free, but to be your slave,--your humblest, fondest, truest slave:' and so on."
from The Comic Almanack an Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing Merry Tales, Humorous Poetry, Quips and Oddities, First Series, 1835-1843
Texts
Recorded
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
Solo at Solo - Peterman [from Red Vinyl, split with Jaguar Shark]
intersecting social and economic desires
seeking their optimal tuning
Gradus 332 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 30, 2018]
a note
a motion of the body
a gesture
a recorded note
is also a recording
of the motion of the body
of a physical
gesture
embodied
in the sound of the note
or
heard as
such
archipelagos of notes
scattered across a surface
the cloud of lingering resonance
propagates outwards
from each
island
in each archipelago
across
that same surface
notes' gestures
notes' ripples
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
1997 - Pete Comley [from Paintronics Volume 6: Guitar with Digital Looping]
throbbing cycles
something heedless this way spins
followed by
gulls
and their chatter
all
are absorbed
in the cycling throb
buffed
to a
solid shine
Madrigals, Book VIII: Ogni amante è guerrier - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
this music
sings
with its hands and face
in active
participation
enunciation theater
reveling
in the language
discovered to
literature
by Dante
Es spricht der unweisen Mund wohl, BuxWV 187 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
he spreads this music out
as on a worktable
a puttering thinker
Premier livre de clavecin: Deuxieme Ordre (fin) : La Volupteuse. Rondeau. Tendrement, &c. - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
all the finest silks and weaves
Was soll Ich aus dir machen, Ephraim, BWV 89 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Ton Koopman
long held melismas
on ü
long strings
of music talking at us
this one's right jolly
there's the chorale
we must be at the
end
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Sonata in D (for organ), Kk. 187 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
what follows a figure
is put together
in terms of a mapping
of the figure
that is
we line them up
a remembered
sequence
upon a new presented sequence
Prelude in F Major, Op. 28 #23 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
pleasant magic in every direction
Album für die Jugend "Mai, lieber Mai, bald bist du wieder da!" Op. 68 #13 - Robert Schumann - Éric Le Sage
lost in reverie
Poème Satanique, Op 36 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
introduces themself so charmingly
theosophical exoticism
revels in
projection of power
Empty Bed Blues - Bessie Smith [from That Devilin' Tune]
the trombone commentary
occupies the end of each line
Practice Makes Perfect (take 2) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
the title
omits
the crucial
if
that precedes it
and
the then
of the conditional clause
Sonatas and Interludes: Third Interlude - John Cage - Boris Berman
I wonder
whether
there is a differentiation
in the use of
the prepared notes
between the Sonatas
and the Interludes
or
does the distinction flow
from some other aspect of these?
Twirl, Twirl - Norman Monath [from Songs of the Pogo]
alliteration waltz
Ask Me Why - The Beatles [from Please Please Me]
you
woo woo woo
I
yai yai yai
Let There Be More Light - Pink Floyd [from A Saucerful of Secrets]
microphone on the move
psychedelic scifi connection
Ooh Yea - Betty Davis [from Betty Davis]
stylized speech rhythm
over stylized pulse structure
breakouts
from the cycle
help to articulate the cycle
proto hip hop
language activated dance music
Candy's Room - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at the Roxy, July 7, 1978]
giving the drummer a workout
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
Improvisation - Keith Eisenbrey, Dan Sedia [August 7, 1983]
both of us on piano(s)
duet for two personalities
conversing in
piano
judging by the extraneous sounds
this may have been made in a public
space
(I don't recall)
a thoughtful and considerate session
wherever it was made
we are distracted
by the lovely acoustic diffusion
occasioned
by their independent intonational philosophies
this session
sticks with it
hangs right in there
the piano on the right
I think it is me
is not willing to emerge
far
from its mindset
Fafner at slumber
after circling warily
statements are firmly made
and seconded
we seek paths through the instreaming data
in order for it
to be
parseable
as experience
the paths
are
our experience
of experiencing it
The Day You're Mine - Big Daddy Kane [from Long Live The Kane]
my manufactured sound
is more manufactured
than yours
two musics
over a common beat
each of which
translates the
other
through textual affinity of subject
presenting his suit
Irish Debussy - S. Eric Scribner [from Pianosphere]
piano and a free reed instrument of some ilk
upon which an old tune is
writ
Slump - Outkast [from Aquemini]
structured dialog
syllable spew
choral chorus
gives 'm a
breather
Song of Solomon 3:1-3 050510C - Keith Eisenbrey Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, May 10, 2005]
the rhythms in the midbits
the 5/8 bars
are intended to confound
each other
we made some additional takes
but I don't know what I thought had gone
wrong in that one
3 Translation of the Works of Maurizio Mochetti: No. 3, Rebounds - Alvin Lucier - Alter Ego
pebble put plain
one word each
home ground of the muse
Banned Rehearsal 847 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [November 11, 2013]
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
we all do
on the midi-sampler
all the control buttons
could be (have been)
designed
as an additional keyboard
with which to compose
with machine instructions
by direct manipulation
elbows in
the charming articulations
of clumsiness
wooden dancers
observe the bells rung above
there's that
unwilling to emerge
piano growler
grumping
away
ocean drum
rinse cycle
the waves
of the tides
the
ringing drum
and now
a word from the haunted castle
ding dong
sudden inset locations of sound
the muse wanders the room
not on the tape
so
assigned to a committee
persistence of
activity
Banned if I can find it - Steve Kennedy, Lisa Puteska [from Untitled Album]
now that's what I call a ring tone!
what fun!
Banned Rehearsal 1079 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt [July 3, 2023]
invocate the arena
listen back at its response
frame drum articulates the ceremony
we slide our wedge of sounds
between the ambiance and the silence
our modest music tent bubble
of here now
July 3rd fireworks
go bang
urban sirens
sounds keeping to themselves
in company
with the yard's critters
Take It Easy - Duke Ellington [from That Devilin' Tune]
an inexhaustible back stage of talent
to trot out before the lights
March No. 6 for Piano, with Here's to Good Old Yale (1943) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives Plays Charles Ives]
needs the flicker of a projector
and bumbling cops
in tall black
helmets
St. George and the Dragonet - Stan Freberg [from The Very Best of Stan Freberg]
narrates like a hardboiled police report
its monotone is its color
scheme
Joy To The World [from The Life Treasury of Christmas Music]
every syllable
to be pounded out
with mighty hammers
this arrangement
has been over-Handeled
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
the private epistle genre
of lyric voice
Happy (Love Song from Lady Sings The Blues) - Michael Jackson [from Music & Me]
full employment for spotlights
Constructive Neutrons - Sun Ra, Walt Dickerson [from Visions]
running crab spider mallet-work
backwards in heels
sonorities
that accept all within their embrace
When Numbers Get Serious - Paul Simon [from Hearts and Bones]
using arithmetical equations
as neutral statements
for payoff
rhymes
August 13, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 140 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Sharon Watson [June 14, 1988]
in Bickleton
walk with small instruments
play fishwhistle
for the horses
multiple layers of doing
the deep background
the stepping in gravel road
the wind in the microphone
the
fishwhistles and harmonica
the conversation
each
clearly
distinguishable
as a distinct doing
strolling minstrels
cowboy dance
the long straight road
that leads to a gully
stops being
straight
don't know where they live blues
walking in gravel
sounds like chewing crunchies
using a law degree
as an excuse
to write variations
on Scott
Joplin tunes
we crunch along the road
chewing it thoroughly
burying a musical insight
where it will never be found
inside
an obscure bit
of Joycean prose
meanwhile
the fishwhistlers whistle
on the road to perdition
and declension
cute as a cufflink
oops there's a fence
frogs in their pond
You've Been Around - David Bowie [from Black Tie White Noise]
blank face dancing
Banned Rehearsal 505 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 29, 1998]
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
make a glorious splash
into a tense balance
the mature stress
of the decade of chaos
still
almost
holding it together
the chamber symphony
is wandering into dissipation
overtly music-making
a bit techy on the drums there
duly noted
we'll hang out in the mellow room
sensitivity
is not synonymous
with expertise
expertise
being a mode
of sensitivity
in the service
of melody
processes
and
involved
in making a melody
out of an
incoming sound
(mental processes)
or
of making "sense" of it
at all
quite a fine strong session
of making music overtly
from a
multitude of voices
the fictional audience
hypothecated for mere form's sake
a split of persons
an editor
a magnificent sneeze ah<CHOO!
to match
the glorious splash
from above
now we're getting all harmonic and learned
sitting upon an electric guitar
pianissimo blissout
articulating
an endless chorale
late stage Pastorale (C.O.W., the)
thousands and thousands of chords along
disruptor in the back row
scherzic time
bang and clank and clangor
and woe
banging with cans
at close range
chimney can
wind up for the finish
{journal entry of September 24, 2006:
mostly an admirably transparent mix - punctuated}
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
a music from given sounds
{midi samples?}
their music
is not
from
where
they were given
no fancy sheen
where we may be
within this
is unanswerable
Gradus 144 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 19, 2008]
causeways
along a perilous rim
a yelp
play with dynamics
and characterization
extremes of contrast
jump scare
the village bell tolls gently in the night
propensity to dreamstate
I Don't Know - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at Victory Lounge, July 6, 2013]
post Pouch set
in the costume of dive-bar music
Lamb Day 180505 A - Keith Eisenbrey [May 5, 2018]
if it sounds like a sheep
it might be a sheep
if it sounds like
somebody
imitating a sheep
then
it is a sheep
dogs birds
even a rooster
among the lambs and folks
of
several ages
Sedna - Steve Layton [from Bedtime Stories]
in the wastes of existential dread
fear factory transit hub
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
Blues in the Bottle - Prince Albert Hunt [from Really The Blues]
one could transcribe this note for note
into written form
in such written form
it could be analyzed
as a sung sequence of
notes
a fiddled sequence of notes
and a strummed sequence of notes
and surmised relations among them
but
if we are confident
there is such an analysis possible
then is it worth doing?
seeking insight
by means of abstraction
Tell Me How - Buddy Holly [from The 'Chirping' Crickets]
as one could do with this
mutatis mutandis
could be used
as
a basis of comparison
but
we must keep in mind
that we would
be comparing abstractions
subject to the spin
that abstraction
inflicts
back into its object
and
our prejudice
about
what to abstract
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
interesting that the entirety of this album
is of the secular side of
Christmas
save for the Silent Night sop
at the end
is that
the one Mr. Ick talks over?
Run Run Run - The Who [from Magic Bus]
rough sound
not engineered for immaculate hygiene
likely in the
same room at the same time
That's How Things Go Down - Carole King [from Fantasy]
and could one be confident
one had transcribed/abstracted the samples
to equivalent degrees of abstraction
I'm guessing this album tells a story
the songs cut off/into each other
She's The One - Ramones [from Road to Ruin]
for instance
it might not catch
the sense
of presented
abstraction in play
the interval
between an experience
and
the abstraction/transcription thereof
Improvisation - Benjamin Boretz, Jill Borner, Keith Eisenbrey, Dan Sedia [August 9, 1983]
{NB somewhere I had marked this session
as though Sarah Johnson were
playing
rather than Dan,
but see below}
for me
at the time
this session
represented a breakthrough
in how I was listening
to my own playing
during the discussion
that followed our listening back
I was made
aware
that I had dominated the session
(a danger to be aware of)
mea culpa
but
that piano was talking to me
as was
the color depth
of the sounds my comrades were making
this session ended up
in one of the InterPlay tapes
{"Grunt"}
I think that's Sarah on the flutes
Jill on the violin
and Ben
playing the little drum
music
like language
is a communal medium
we can share it
effectively
I think it is Dan
not Sarah on the flutes
now
not so sure
whoever it is
is doing some interesting things
finding ways
to make sounds
chords ought not to sound the same
it is a waste
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
rude come-ons
service charge
parts and service
Legs - PJ Harvey [from Rid of Me]
the image of the room changes
jump cut instant
I think they were
all in the same room together
at the same time
it has that feel
Final Hour - Lauryn Hill [from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill]
twisting rhyme
echo chorus
talk-back-along
eyes on a prize
Song of Solomon 3:1-4 050510B - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, May 10, 2005]
I felt messed up
so we started over
I
was an idiot
about the 5/8 bits
it's so about not lining things up
LUV - Janet Jackson [from Discipline]
aimed at the teen mind
shiny mall
fashion glitz
Silvertone 131112 - Keith Eisenbrey
so I had this device
that could record 8 tracks on it
so I did
these are them
another great ring tone
amoeboid
is the
amoewoid
Changes - Red Car Burns [from split with Dead Bars]
specificity of attitude
is the message
is the media
being
a how to be
Old Hundred - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [July 11, 2023]
squared skewed
cubed skewed
Voice of the Southland - Thelma Terry [from That Devilin' Tune]
the engineering of this recording
is flawless
of its time {1928}
state of the art
Heeby-Jeebies - Little Richard [from Little Richard]
more going on
than can quite be articulated
Brady, Brady, Brady - The Brothers Four [from The Brothers Four Cross Country Concert]
murder
as a comic western hokum tale
Beside You - Van Morrison [from Astral Weeks]
lines are extruded under pressure
like pasta
extrusion expression
begging empathy
as a performance
emotional identification
projection screen
Golden Lady - Stevie Wonder [from Innervisions]
selling the well-dressed pipedream
Under the Light, Yet Under - George Perle - Bethanee Beardslee, Morey Ritt
the limits
of our sphere's
under
and over
-spheres
I Will Folow - U2 [from Under a Blood Red Sky]
the urge to pound ones words
upon a multitude
at high volume
with drums and guitars
to drive home
the message
of
the urge
self-indulgency porn
In Session at The Tintinabulary
August 10, 2025
Azmon - Keith Eisenbrey
August 11, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 1131 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt
Postscripts
Drops
Music of Benjamin Boretz
Keith Eisenbrey, piano
The music of Benjamin Boretz, which I first encountered as an
undergraduate, has played a central role in my own sense of musical
possibility and depth ever since. I was deeply fortunate to study with him for
a few years in the early 80s, and have been blessed with his ongoing
friendship and conversation since that time. It is my distinct pleasure to
share these recordings with you now. Partita was recorded in 2018, the others
in 2024/2025.
1-4. Partita (1955)
Prelude
Gavotte
Allemande
Capriccio
5.
("...what I could hear, trying to crawl out from between the lines of your
last ferocious Sonata...")
(1979)
6. O (2000)
7.
Liebeslied - for a pianist alone (1974)
8.
Lament for Sarah (1990)
9. Invention (1988)
10.
("...my chart shines high where the blue milks upset...") (1976/1977)
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
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