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| Walla Walla, WA |
"It has been said that the whale only breathes through his spout-hole; if it could truthfully be added that his spouts are mixed with water, then I opine we should be furnished with the reason why his sense of smell seems obliterated in him; for the only thing about him that at all answers to his nose is that identical spout-hole; and being so clogged with two elements, it could not be expected to have the power of smelling. But owing to the mystery of the spout - whether it be water or whether it be vapor - no absolute certainty can as yet be arrived at on this head. Sure it is, nevertheless, that the Sperm Whale has no proper olfactories. but what does he want of them? No roses, no violets, no Cologne-water in the sea."
Herman Melville, from Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.
Texts
Recorded
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| Walla Walla, WA |
Full Album Stream - Princess [from Selling Sulphur]
so
this album
which I purchased as computer files
came with
a 20+ minute track
called Full Album Stream*
a method of enforcing
the notion
that one needs to hear the whole at once
to be properly
informed
of its worthiness
this music front
is angry sounding
though the backing singers
sing with less show of rage
B A C H motive
as an introductory riff
off the shelf
the character of the lead vocal
is kept somewhat in the back of the
sound
a guitar band
with someone shouting from behind them
*conjunction
of the notion of an album
(an object)
and a
stream
(a flow of signal)
both are methods of ordering listening
an old one
and a new
it sounds like the shouty fellow
is trying to tell a story
there
are those backing singers again
like hooded priests
of some woo
woo cult
hey!
a bookends structure
like Simon & Garfunkel's!
even
goes sort of symphonic
for the finish
Barn Wall - Keith Eisenbrey [May 5, 2018]
at my brother's property
out in the woods above Greenbank
on
Whidbey Island
waiting for him with my folks
to help with a
project involving a barn wall
the sound of an arriving vehicle
stuff is banged about with excellent
clankiness
an airplane splutters overhead
waiting for big brother
an engine is started
we are coordinating our task
we are subsumed
within the engine sound
occasional power tool scream
pounding
nails
the engine noise
has two clear pitch areas
a low and a high
our task has been completed
Track 3 - Star Anna - [from Love Shades, streamed February 14, 2023]
shout outs and tuning
and one of those songs
or several
a
mix of singings
Madrigals, Book VIII: Gira il nemico, insidioso Amore - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
a tempo game
for the fun of it
Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren, BuxWV 215 - Dieterich Buxtehude, Simone Stella
swallows swoop around it
as it moves stately on
Premier livre de clavecin: Cinquieme Ordre (la) : Les Ondes. Rondeau. Gracieusement, sans lenteur - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
juggling tune parts
music as pleasure garden
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| Walla Walla, WA |
Darzu ist erschiene der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Ton Koopman
everybody digs jolly music
with brass
everywhen you listen
a fresh delight
recitative
functions like inter-cards in silent films
pericope
clarification
response
instruction
internalization
celebration
prayer
Sonata in G Major, Kk. 289 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
lovely use of touch differentiation
staccato
legato
Prelude in E-flat Major, Op. 28 #14 (alternate version) - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
like hearing the animated skeleton
of the non-alternate version
Album für die Jugend, "Frühlingsgesang " Op. 68 #15 - Robert Schumann - Éric Le Sage
upon each rereading
a fresh fantasia
Prelude in F-sharp Major, Op. 37 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
one cannot live
at that pitch of excitement
for long
Empty Bed Blues Part 2 - Bessie Smith [from Empty Bed Blues]
time after each line
to let it sink in
part of the ritual
Practice Makes Perfect (take 4) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day, the Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
double entendres
euphemisms
modes of language
used
to
speak
of a subject
containing taboos
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| Walla Walla, WA |
Sonatas and Interludes: Sonata X - John Cage - Boris Berman
repetitions of figuration segments
ratios of durations of musics
by either clock time
or count of beats
or measures
encounter a problem
in our experience of them
as they go by
the content
affects our experience
of duration
rendering it
unmeasurable
irrationalizable
The Disguise - Ornette Colman [from Something Else!!!]
economy of the solo times granted
Drown In My Own Tears - Stevie Wonder [from Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius]
if he doesn't
in all his wiggly long held notes first
(drown
that
is)
Set Aside - ? and the Mysterians [from The Best of ? and the Mysterians]
an instrumental dance number
guitar and piano trade solos
The Great Gig in the Sky - Pink Floyd [from The Dark Side of The Moon]
it occurs to me
just now
that I'm channeling some of these
keyboard figurations
in parts of my Slow Blues
My Love Is Forever - Prince [from For You]
clear of blemish
and without feedback or distortion
appropriate
for any lively company
corporation friendly
all surfaces
chosen
for gleam
Intermezzo 6 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded February 26, 2010]
circling back
into its own forming
a constant variation upon
itself
I'll Stand Up For You - X [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's A Miscellaneous Miscellany]
re-write
of Friendship from Anything Goes
but
considerably less comic
and less well tailored for that matter
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| Walla Walla, WA |
bull pit tough talk
Hoodoo Voodoo - Billy Brag & Wilco [from Mermaid Avenue]
Beatlesish riff to ride nonsense rhymes on
Song of Solomon 3:1-4 (050510A) - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, May 10, 20025]
here I mess up the 5/8 bits
by worrying too much
about whether we
were together
per the score
Tranciting - Tea Cozies [from Tea Cozies]
pickup lines
and responsive attitudes
an eternal flirtation
Mitchell 131114B - Keith Eisenbrey [November 14, 2013]
the original take
layered with the same
but time-reversed
temporal cruciform
Alki - Steve Layton [from Trouble In Mind]
waves
on a quiet shore
of the electric ocean
glurps from the
depths
burping bivalves
Subvector Colloquy - Tom Baker, Keith Eisenbrey, Leanna Keith, Jim Knodle [July 13, 2023]
how easily we slide
into a common space
we are a magic being
visiting realms
moving into each other
passing sounds about
like so many words
we make me smile
it was the door
now everybody play duets
in all directions
finding the key
in a vast
dim
space
full of
surprises
we make a symphony
by listening
to ourselves
making it
always end with a question
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| Walla Walla, WA |
a groove
is a way to shake ones body
route to the ecstatic
Bidin' My Time - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]
time
I'm
rhyme
crime
Sometime Ago - The Art Farmer Quartet, with Jim Hall [from Interaction]
bright prospects
on a sunny day
drummer is doing some great things
with those brushes back there
Easy Street - Thelonious Monk [from Underground]
energies spill off the ends of official melody
Chim Chim Cheree - Louis Armstrong [from Disney Songs the Satchmo Way]
not a bloke
but a cat
ideolocalization
The Sands of Time and Changes - Morgana King [from New Beginnings]
ploddy arrangement
keyboard fills in for the drummer
plunking out
the pulse
Wings of Love - Carole King [from Welcome Home]
giddy hyperbole
Boomerang - T Bone Burnett [from Truth Decay]
short story sitch
song microfiction
with chorus
Serenade - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded May 31, 2011]
out for a carefree stroll
a sudden troubling thought
interlude to
study the situation
worries in the night
a hopeless plea
a
dance
and continued studies
step out quietly
in
ever
nearer canon
till they join
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| Walla Walla, WA |
Come As You Are - Nirvana [from Unplugged in New York]
each accented word
hoisted bodily
diaphragm punch
Banned Rehearsal 508 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 19, 1998]
bad tempered bottom fish
restless aquarium
prickly energy
a
clang of arrival
some of the noises
have settled down
we go
acoustic
but bones will blat
we take it apart
in various
corners
saxes
will also blat
no chamber symphony this time
we work at stuff
that doesn't gel
doldrum room
we
entertain ourselves as best we can
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| Walla Walla, WA |
what is the tolerance of simultaneity?
is our scale flexible?
milliseconds
in some cases
and hours/years
in
others?
is it a function of perception
memory
or perception
of
memory?
this music proceeds
with multiple agendi
each a distinct complex
of time shapes
once I have processed a new thing
its precise placement on the timeline
is conjectural
stable periodic ritmas
are regimental
assisting the perception
of when events occur
within a sequence
but
what if
events occur
in fuzzy sequence?
in parallel
or oblique
sequences
at various con-/per-ception distances from each other?
does the complexity
of the incoming signal
or
our
conception/perception
of that complexity
alter
or fuzz
our psychological ability
to keep all events
in received
sequence?
received where?
at the eardrum?
at awareness?
do different species of sound complexes
arise to awareness
at different rates?
or
is our internal mixer
less than
perfectly able to track multiple periodicities
or multiple species of
a-periodicities?
given:
a span is required
for the apprehension of a sound
as
a sound
this can be explained
pre-psychologically
by the
physical nature
of what a sound is
i.e. a wave
(presumption
here
is that in order to apprehend sound
it must be stimulated
by the eardrum
and psychological apparatus
we could
I
suppose
apprehend a sound a-sensually)
given:
there is a time lag
between the excitement of the eardrum
and the apprehension of the sound occasioned by that excitement}
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| Walla Walla, WA |
life story
from two points of view
Wake - Aaron Keyt [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, September 4, 2008]
we are brought in
through a vast aviary
anointed
prepared to
enter the temple proper
a story told in spaces
An Instrumental About Weed - Acapulca Lips [form Acapulca Lips]
a dance about headbanging
nonstop
Banned Rehearsal 958 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 7, 2018]
game din texture on
game din texture off
standing for game pieces
in place
the sheep have wandered in
we shake our rattles
and squawk to the rocks and clouds
the toys
are having a puppet tiff
as they will
poking around the stuff piled up around the edges
ocarinas provide the
ethereal visitations
better than AI could
a breath
among
plinks and plunks
tips and tops
a right cheerful time they had at it too
the toys cleaned up
we have become as sheep
we maa and baa
Totem 23 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Totem VI]
a wind that wanders
a wind that appears
and a clown
ray guns
blasting
inundated or un-inundated
the motors descend from above
Dustin' The Keys - Burton & Blythe [from That Devilin' Tune]
the playing itself
the dance of fingers on keys
was the point of
the entertainment
the tunes
were beside the point
works for me
Chinese Love Poems: The Fisherman - Peggy Lee [from Sea Shells]
this album is distinctly kinky
distinctly
herd boys
and spinning maidens
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| Walla Walla, WA |
his voice tempo
amid all this fiddly business
keeps its cool never
gets off
Fakin' It - Simon & Garfunkel [from Bookends]
proof of concept
for a solo project
goes all Beatles to fade
I Need Somebody - The Stooges [from Raw Power]
like thrill eating
or chest thumping
proving mettle
you man
enough
to be in this nasty company?
ritually raunchy
Track 1.7 - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at The Roxy, July 7, 1978]
slops his mouth around the syllables
haven't heard anything like a title
yet
that I could make out
the audience is shouting at the folks on stage
Intermezzo 6 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, June 6, 2009]
at a relatively brisk tempo
quarter = 30 or so
moves the story
right along
Largo al factotum - Canadian Brass [from More Greatest Hits]
of course
it was never meant to be much more than frippery
Beaumarchais strikes again
Cold Mountain Songs: Piano Interlude - Robert Morris - Margaret Kampmeier [from Open Space 30]
composition of touch
I'm So Confused - Jonathan Richman [from I'm So Confused]
a soliloquy of introduction
fade on a phantasmagoric jumble of lines
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| Walla Walla, WA |
Song of Solomon 3:1-4 (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey
a feature of music for voice and piano
is that the two speak their
pitches differently
rendering precise temporal alignment
of
polymetric textures
largely
irrelevant
Armadillo - Goat [from Special Agent]
safe cracking
in tense darkness
feline house thief scene
cinematicism
in our culture
displacing operaticism?
not retiring
like film cues
but
going for the feel
of
cinematic scenes
from various film genres
Mitchell 131114C - Keith Eisenbrey
now with reverb effect added
to bevel its edges
Retrospect - Inda Glover [from Ur OK I Guess]
indy songs
are often more a genre of poetry with music
than a
music as such?
like hip hop
this one deals with devotion differentials
within a romanticle
Subvector Colloquy (edit B) - Tom Baker, Keith Eisenbrey, Leanna Keith, Jim Knodle [July 13, 2023]
with a modest amount of compression
to bring some of the quieter sounds
forward enough
not to get lost
going some distance
toward
correcting my suboptimal mic placement
together we take a music object into our hands
and bend it playfully
into voluptuous forms
self-animated
true cryptids
we turn on imperceptible dimes
music not to accompany anything
but
to be what it is
a-scenic
The Tale of the Kansas City Terminal Door
this crew is awesome
and they bring out some of my best
pleased as
punch I am
I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground - Bascom Lamar Lunsford [from Anthology of American Folk Music]
children's nonsense poem
complete with horror element
Bags of Blues - Ray Charles, Milt Jackson [from Soul Brothers - Soul Meeting]
chemistry as can't be bought
toccata simpatica
I find I don't write in straight lines
in pen
blue ink pen
ink blue pen
blue pen ink
pen ink blue
ink pen blue
pen
blue ink
index items
to catch all permutations
Ray's touch on the keys
actual performed fade
show-off move
A Tremor's In the Branches - Johannes Brahms - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, Joanne Deacon [May 16, 1963]
might be one of the Liebeslieder Waltzes
probably
quite a workout for the pianist
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| Maryhill Stonehenge Memorial |
George at the top of his game
a true blues
with guitar talk
back
a bit of cleverness
with the dropped line of poetry at the end
so
meaningful
I Can't Explain - David Bowie [from Pin Ups]
transformation by regrooving
not so much superior to the original
as made over
other
Space Dance - Sun Ra, Walt Dickerson [from Visions]
a tiny space
hyperpong
hell
hyperdyperpong
plays so quickly
the traces of their play
forms an animation
of a musicryptoid
music
as a mode of understanding
(White Man) In Hammersmith -The Clash [collected from Nancy's Mix]
sloppy tracking
is all the rage
albums
remastered from the
album masters
not the song masters singing
into a Darthish Vader vocal filter
for a manufactured characterization
enforcing uniqueness of voice
uniformly
Serenade - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live in the Kertula Ranch House, Avon, Montana, July 17, 1988]
so
apropos of Intimacy, a Polemic
{J.K. Randall}
what
if I play my song
for who happens to be within hearing range
in a
ranch house
in Avon, Montana
playing such
upon a pump organ
all the while
pumping furiously
what then?
the bellows pedals groan in satisfaction
yip like sled dogs
intermusical dishes rattle
kitchen call
scooter
c'mere
such a comfortable chair
to settle back in
now the canon closes in
tight
tighter
tightest
focused
singular
arrived
Aragonaise from Carmen - Empire Brass [from Class Brass On The Edge]
opera favorites signify classy pop
In Session at The Tintinabulary
August 24, 2025
Gaulos - Keith Eisenbrey
August 25, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 1132 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Haley K, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer
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.
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
