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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
To any meditative Magian rover, this serene Pacific, once beheld, must ever after be the sea of his adoption. It rolls the midmost waters of the world, the Indian ocean and Atlantic being but its arms. The same waves wash the moles of the new-built Californian towns, but yesterday planted by the recentest race of men, and lave the faded but still gorgeous skirts of Asiatic lands, older than Abraham; while all between float milky-ways of coral isles, and low-lying endless Archipelagoes, and impenetrable Japans. Thus this mysterious, divine Pacific zones the world's whole bulk about; makes all coasts one bay to it; seems the tide-beating heart of the earth."
Herman Melville, from Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.
Texts
Recorded
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Banned Playalong Playedalong 4 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [November 18, 1988]
on an ice sheet swept by gales
listing meats to eat
I sing of the manly breakfast
taken out of doors
dressed in syrup
from Vermont
corn flakes
raisin bran
and froot loops
and cheerios swimming in milk
cereals with a prize on the
bottom
Whitmanesque inventories
and the just too close voice
of Proust
on assuagement of suffering
not a positive joy
partake
of the five-tiered wedding cake
closeted
with the
little person inside me
I sing the toaster electric
the building of a thingness
from the stuff of itself
Urthing
Urersatz
I was confused
gave me quite a start
language can pull interpsychic states
out of common experience
such as
a bare modifier
such as
"weird"
being
an adequate expression
of the sentence
"That is weird."
though subject and predicate
are silently understood
seamless intersubjective
Nanwei Chin Su - Japan - [from The World Sings Goodnight]
it doesn't harm each of these tracks on their own
but over time
the uniformity of sound-engineering
imparts a weird sense of
deadness to the enterprise
I'll Dip - Aretha Franklin [from A Rose is Still a Rose]
the variety of vocal productions
that pass across her sung line
is
a jaw drop
Little Drummer Boy (feat. Bobbi Kristina Brown) - Whitney Houston [from One Wish: The Holiday Album]
brings his little drummer friends over
and they're gonna go all
taiko
the little taiko tyke
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Zither Film Mix Reversed - Keith Eisenbrey [November 30, 2008]
the last of the preliminary mix tracks
of which there were six
three regular
and three reversed
all six
were then to
be combined
to make the final item in the series
since the three
regular mixes
all begin with a dense texture
and finish with a
thin
and the reversed mixes
begin thin and end densely
the
resulting conglomerated track
will begin and end dense
and thin
out toward the middle
like the shape of saddle
if anything now
can be music
then
the usefulness of the term
may be nigh vacuity
perhaps
we want new terms
for the various species of objects under
consideration
one might regard the desire
to include anything at all
as music
as a desire
to valorize those anythings at all
with an
epithet
a badge
rather than
a desire to understand
them
we often assert that a music
is
or is like
such things
as poems
pictures
dramas
dances
et cetera
is it as commonplace
for those other modes
to be asserted to be
or to be like
those
its fellow modes?
what then do we mean?
going in the dense to thin direction
the first moment
of no sound
is an immediately attended event
whereas
in the other
direction
the last such moment of silence
is always provisional
and retrospected
Leave Me Behind - Acapulco Lips [from Acapulco Lips]
alas
another victim of the loudness wars
though here it's mostly
the instruments who hog the mix
convinced it's all about them
Anvik - Aaron Keyt - Keith Eisenbrey [December 19, 2025]
this music
is a delicate explanation
by several voices
Nature Lives in Motion - S. Eric Scribner [from Adjacencies]
Aaron
above
manipulated notes
to make note things
out
of sounds
Steve
here
manipulates sounds
to make sound
things
out of sounds
timbre can be distinguished
but can't be laid out
except upon a
merely plausible spectrum
their various distinguished categories
form only loose and permeable
alliances
and yet
note-like things appear
this music
is a walk
in a large garden
Madrigals, Book IX: Alle danze, alle gioie - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
this song is dancing on a stage
Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott, BuxWV 200 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Stimone Stella
wisdom floats down upon us
a blessing from heaven
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg, BWV 149 - Johann Sebastian Bach Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Ton Koopman
episodes differentiated by tonal/polyphonic procedure
phrases crafted to
assist in the comprehension of the text's rhetorical rhythm
complete a sentence
complete a phrase
what has been bubbling along
behind what one attends
reveals
itself
in spillover continuations
an extensive chorale to finish
with brass flourish
Sonata in C major, Kk. 308 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
at a gracious tempo
even in heavy fabrics
long pauses
Symphonie Fantastique, S470 - Hector Berlioz, arranged by Franz Liszt - Leslie Howard
this is quite fun as a solo piano piece
Liszt
in great excitement
tells us
the symphony
that
Berlioz wrote
waltz emerging
from a tectonic rumble
technicolor widescreen beheading
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Kinderszenen: Träumerei, Op. 15 #7 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
lifted from next to nothing
nestling back
4 Pieces: Nuances, Op. 56 #3 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti
a melody
in counterpoint
to
an invariantly figured
accompaniment
West End Blues - Louis Armstrong [from Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz]
this music
faces out
into the room it fills
does it also
pull the listener
into itself?
it pulls us toward
but not into
its workings
Last Night - Buddy Holly and The Crickets [from The 'Chirping' Crickets]
this music
is an act
it sings
as though it were personal
to the singer
Money - The Beatles [from With The Beatles]
this music
is an attitude strut
A Hazy Shade of Winter - Simon & Garfunkel [from Bookends]
this music
pretends to sophistication
of a literary hue
Eclipse - Pink Floyd [from the Dark Side of The Moon]
this
to that
of grandeur
She's The One - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at The Roxy]
this music
rides on its own glory
or is nothing
rollercoaster
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
assembled from my 1983 recordings
this music is a face
it presents itself
without explanation
we observe them happening
optimally
there are not layers
been you and it
it is
after all
at your ear
life in my 1983 head
confounding
of up and down
as a valid
metaphor of pitch
Paths That Cross - Patti Smith [from Dream of Life]
some poets latch on
to the rhythms and flow of demotic music
All About Nothing - Fastbacks [from Zucker]
a band
to be a band
would be bent
to a single focused
brand
of sound
to stand
out
on the shelf
a body of novelty acts
I Don't Do Floors - James King [from Bed By The Window]
marital bickering hoe down dance
Everybody - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Summer Songs/Winter Mix]
this is what happens
when I am left without a piano
Symphony in F Major, Op. 93 (#8) - Ludwig van Beethoven - Skagit Symphony
first movement broadly struggles a bit
some of those wind players
may have found refreshment
at
intermission
ever over-eager brass
get their moment
all the little clock parts
rush to their places
here's the part
the horn player
practiced the most
Golden Goddess II - Antique Scream [from Two Bad Dudes]
Sweetwater Catalogue hype true believers
bicep bros
Punch Back - Steve Layton [from Próxima Estación]
this groove continues to drill
until the plug is pulled from the wall
Intermezzo 3 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey 3: 1982-1983]
thin voices
of narrow registral adjacency
a voice
of center-of-sonority polyphony
of two levels
of
apprehension
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
voice of experience
Crying - Roy Orbison [from For The Lonely]
frown clown
Selections 2 - Lake Washington Singers [June 14, 1963]
another
presumably
incompletely labeled tape
this gentleman singing
is not the Lake Washington Singers
that I
remember
Don't Tease Me - ? and The Mysterians [from The Best of ? and The Mysterians]
the quasi-calliope sound of the B3
You Light Up My Life - Carole King [from Fantasy]
broad relatability
aspirationally acceptable
Nervous Breakdown - Black Flag [from The First Four Years]
punk clown
pretend to be an angry brit
from the streets
Euro Session - Janus Circus [from Bard Sampler 82-83]
street fair
contraption music
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Banned Playalong Playedalong 5 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt
sounds have a size
within the space
they are made in:
its
presence
a played-back sound
includes that presence
which
then
has a presence
within the room
into which it is played
back
filling tapes with sound
as a goal
is too easy
to be worth
the time
it is filled
so what?
a tape from the past
is played back
and we play along with
it
an asymmetrical relation:
everything on the tape from the past
is
heard in the present tense
of the players-along
but
is
impervious to
deaf to
what the players-along
play
asymmetry
(social)
is a frustration
like improvising with a
telephone pole
it pays no heed
Strange Repeating Bird - S. Eric Scribner [from Pianosphere]
cyclic infusions
minimalist stylistic repetitions
a methodology to
fill expanses of time
Viva le High - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]
relatively modest use of dynamic contrast between segments
Desire - Frieze of Life [from Nuclear Frog Pond]
differentiated motion types
one quickly nervous
the other
sustained and gooey
taking a solo
in such a composition
requires no explanation
it is an invariant part of the culture
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
an ode
to the texture
of a curve swept skin
signal level
crab canon
all the tingles
within the swept curve skin
a note
is an irreproducible location
here
in the middle
where coming and going meet
a moment
headed in both directions
at once
across the
representational divide
of course
it might be a silence
signal-wise
headed tailward
it lingers
lifting
out of the softest cleft
this curve's texture
at each moment of curvature
The Mystery - Spinning Whips [from Sentimental Groover]
a story implied
within the acting out of the song
nice combined vocals
in widely separated registers:
across a
gender-gap of voices
Maple Leaf 181027A - Keith Eisenbrey [October 27, 2018]
a downpour in the driveway
Windows Down - Tom Baker Quartet [from Begin Again]
this is an awesome nice drive
Too Tight Blues #2 - Blind Blake [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
light fingered guitar dance
migrates tongueward
Some Other Time - Bill Evans [from Everybody Digs Bill Evans]
prospective nostalgia
dreamy
G---- Eyes - The Jimi Hendrix Experience [from Electric Ladyland]
fancy guitar playing
Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing - Stevie Wonder [from Innervisions]
the sophistication of it
is palpably intentional
Six Intermezzi (2004 Remix) - Keith Eisenbrey - Jill Borner, Keith Eisenbrey
very dramatic engine roar-by
on the heap deep jam rut
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Don't Believe The Hype - Public Enemy [from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back]
music to words
broadside graphic
to broadside text
music and words
a broadside design
designed loud
to
punch
is it
as a design among designs
violent?
yes.
appropriate?
quite likely.
Nite Flights - David Bowie [from Black Tie White Noise]
his text-lines
in carefully laid out rhythm upon the meter
The Eyes of Amelia - Tingstad & Rumbel [from American Acoustic]
pretty guitar
being pretty guitar
with
warm glow
framed glossy
landscape photograph
lighting
Hello Jim - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Summer Songs/Winter Mix]
this one
I pretty much left alone
from its original
I may
have done some compression or equalization
not much
Down and Out in London - Peter Fedofsky [from Situations]
this music is comfortable
in its raw charm
can't be shed of it
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
from the bottom of the gutter
R.B.G. - Bad Luck [from Four]
this music prints on sheets
this music is the machine
that prints
on sheets
this music
is the sounds
of the machine
printing on sheets
both sides
flip flap whap
squeeze
lift clear
late generation impressionism
coded communication
a catalogue
of machines
for printing on sheets
in action
with
their sounds
Intermezzo 4 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey 3: 1982-1983]
changing the types of dyads used
changes the color
or mode
of the arising internal polyphony
its tonality
is
differently shaped in pitchspace
how pre-composition manifests downstream
or
just
how
upstream composition
affects downstream composition
demonstrating for myself
Wayward Girl Blues - Lottie Kimbrough [from That Devlin' Tune]
the guitar player talks with the singer
verbally and with his hands
the singer responds to each
individually
Give Him the Ooh-La-La - Blossom Dearie [from Give Him the Ooh-La-La]
advice for digging gold
Napoleon and an army of debutantes
change
the history of France
On Broadway - The Drifters [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
the combo is recorded as though on risers
individually risen
individually lit
in groovy pastels
Chest Fever - The Band [from Music from Big Pink]
different from a chest freezer
a song for making the music
these folks make together
when they do
make that music
together
a shared culture within an artifact
Desert Hush - Morgana King [from New Beginnings]
a strange connection
from this wordless bit
to Pink Floyd of the
same era
Lawyers in Love - Jackson Browne [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
the weary strivers
at their weary striver bars
sorry lounges
big dramatic synth-led modulation
Banned Rehearsal 160 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [December 2, 1988]
the sudden malfunction of the rolling pin
is Karen baking?
a music erupts
to silence the Beatles
Aaron and I yowl and whang at guitar strings
Boo Cookie contest
Karen must have been baking cookies
a rousing rendition
of the Buddha Cookie Chorus
Uncle Walt
by the roadside
breathless
endless lines
roll on
across the prairies
it is amazing
how much
a list of Whitman's poems
sound like
a Whitman poem
a tale of ticking talking
The Beatles are back
with the clockwork
Highway '61 Revisited - PJ Harvey[from Rid of Me]
most of this arrangement is presented
as though played on the stage
except the bit at the beginning
which bit transforms the whole
into
an only-as-recorded product
Track 9 - Richard Rorex & Reid Merriman [from Mood for Richelle]
well crafted guitar sounds
for well crafted guitar lovers
Pavane for a Dead Princess - Brave Combo [from Box of Ghosts]
this dead princess
really rocks out
to her tender pavane
SpottieOttieDopaliscious - Outkast [from Aquemini]
slinky close dance
comment on a culture
from within that culture
Day is Dying In the West - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [January 12-18, 2015]
a solid hymn
does not need to be sung
to professional standards
to be maximally effective
In Session at The Tintinabulary
January 11, 2026
St. Ann's - Keith Eisenbrey
January 12, 2026
Banned Rehearsal 1141 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Postscripts
Drops
Music of Kosály-Meyer, Verrall, Palmer, Baker, Oldham, Osborn, and Cobb
This album is a selection of music by various Seattle-area composers, composed between the 1940s and 2010 or so.
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
