Playlist

Preface

"One Boa constrictor, at the Zoological Gardens, swallows the other.

The cunning serpent in the park

One day was feeling rather hollow,

So took his brother for a lark,

Or, just as likely, for a swallow."

from The Comic Almanack, 1st Series 1835-1843

Texts

Recorded

July 12, 2026

R.S. - Steve Layton [from Red Sky]

what is cast into the cauldron
is subsumed
what wafts out from the cauldron
is addressed
with ritualized drumming 

bound to its medium

Sonata in D Major, Kk. 333 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

brief first segment
more extensive after the hinge

Nocturne in A-flat Major (#3) - John Field - Benjamin Frith

searching out the stance
from which the opening figures
can be most effectively reopened

Album d'un voyageur, S. 156/R. 8, Book I, "Impressions et Poesies": III. Les Cloches de G(eneve) - Franz Liszt - Ashley Wass

generous with time
the magic settles gently
enfolded within its embrace
we breathe in deeply
we enter its world
exit through sweet sleep

Ouverture-Manfred, Op. 115 - Robert Schumann - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz

among the more potent of symphonic three-chord bursts
this magic barges right in
leaves what's left of you
hanging by a thread
on that final unmistakable chord

3 Piano Pieces, EG105 - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø

1
let's be a harp
we can shimmer in motion 

2
let's best our passions
in simplicity and humility 

3
let's play swords and bucklers

2 Poèmes, Op. 71: II. En Rêvant, Avec Une Grande Douceur - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

intervals of transposition
and complex melodic intervals

Tight Like This - Louis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

the piano player is fun to listen to
heads in a more Art Tatum direction

July 13, 2026

I Won't Say I Will (Incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]

the written melody
has a clear shape across its entire stanzascape
which gives the singer
a firm base
from which to range 

this set of takes
has several tries at the end

Moonlight Bay - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology]

on britcom tv

Let Me Sing and I'm Happy - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin All By Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]

if my song can start you cryin'
then I'm happy

Hefner and Disney - T. Bone Burnett [from Proof Through The Night]

another of those sneering tales he tells

The Little Green Lane (Lovatt) - King's Singers [from My Spirit Sang All Day]

this melody lilts of the 1890s sentimental

Lou-Easy-An-I-A [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends Volume 3]

the state song?

Sex and Rebellion - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

confidence is a power play posture

Mother and Father - Madonna [from American Life]

using distinct vocal
to create a dialog
across lines and stanzas

I Will Always Love You (Live) - Dolly Parton

anthem of devotion

Cadenza Sans - Steve Layton [form The Composer Plays Revisited]

sans concerto
it would seem

The Teacher - Paul Simon [from In The Blue Light]

a portrait song or cosmogony

Melodic Landscape (Soundscroll 1, Part 3) - S. Eric Scribner [from Soundscrolls: Lost Landshapes]

billows of hills float on the horizon

July 14, 2026

On Green Dolphin Street - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time / The Lost Session from the Black Forest]

chords of sevenths or greater
increase the likelihood of common tones
in any direction

Sitting Still - REM [from Murmur]

melody is adequate to the chord changes
note by note
syllable by syllable
the elision between two stanza types
is thus made plain

Security of the First World - Public Enemy [from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back]

just the beat folks
nothin' else to hear here
move along

Are You Still Up/Sweet Dreams/Whoops Now - Janet Jackson [from Janet]

the album is interspersed with short segments of sound
that seem to purport to be slices of a life
to be fantasized about 

the giggly good life

Beyoncé Interlude/Gift from Virgo - Beyoncé [from Dangerously In Love]

this song has a sensually smooth sound skin

Rubies - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]

singalong
fire circle
at the summer beach

I Can't Help Falling In Love With You - Peterman [recorded live at Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 6, 2013]

during this song
two burly fellows were so enthusiastic
in the good feeling
as to give each other
a big burly fellows embrace
right there on the floor of Victory Lounge 

I was amused

For Robin - Slothrust [from The Pact]

an epistle
telling the recipient
the story of the recipient
as one might address a memory

You Never Left (Demo) - Dead Bars [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have to be Cool]

a scrawl on a wall

Rio - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]

as seen by night life
among the moneyed and swank

Happy Nowadays - Buzzcocks [from Nancy's Mix]

in order to cleanse the room
of past energies
gets into all the corners

Something2 Dance 2 - N.W.A. [from Straight Outta Compton]

here they comes to save the day! 

instructions for those at home

Une nymphe jolie (1587) - The Baltimore Consort [from La Rocque'n'Roll]

the world of nymphs and sylphs and fauns and unicorns
is a safe seeming sensual pleasure land
for use
in the ritual of seduction 

strong well writ tune

Soundscape - Darrell [from Jack Straw Cultural Center, Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]

Satan Junior's lullaby
loves waves
a fleet of bush tits flitted by

Frenetic Interlude #2-various - Sacajawea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]

found on the table

666 - Chaotic Noise Marching Corps [from Smashed as Smash Putt]

parade clown band
drummer's tattoo
rudiments to the front lines!

Sapwood [from WCRMS Participants 2018]

slow flow soil chemistry
process depiction
audible graph
intermedial mapping

Diabelli Recomposed (continued) - Various [streamed May 11, 2023]

17
Satie had a crack at it or two 

18
peep show sound track 

19
as a troupe of puppet clowns
Petrushka's taunt's progeny 

20
an oracle and its yesman-ma'am-man yes'm
share a waltz 

21
hang on we're picking up something
in a dialect of Morse 

22
now in warm silks and mood lighting 

23
here's Buster and Fatty 

tossing plates of food
from kitchen to dining room 

24
gets lost in prettyland

Do You Feel It - ? and The Mysterians [from The Best of ? and The Mysterians]

rockin' instrumental track
proto Stooges

Supplement - Elaine Barkin, J. K. Randall, Mathew Rosenblum, Marjorie Tichenor, Daniel Warner [from Inter/Play]

July 13, 1983
I'll need to check
but it wouldn't surprise me
if I hadn't met Elaine
that Summer
on the same trip East
but no
that was in the Summer before
in '82 

here the emerging poem
in word language
by being sounds among sounds 

an interesting way
to think about the setting of text to music 

its sounds
on a level footing
as sounds
to all those other 

given time and humans
a music will arise
and it will not be static
until societal norms
force it
into acceptable channels 

is a stone a female rock?
are we all still here?
wherever here might be 

a hungry beast
devours the poem thus far
the end of the thus far poem
previously rumored
was overstated
not unscathed
but not nil neither

Freedom - Marley Marl [from In Control Volume 1]

who owns what
what owns whom
rhyme drummer

Hungarian Dance #1 - Johannes Brahms - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]

and we come full circle
to Johannes and whatzisname Joachim

Colors: Bright Yellow - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]

in which the space is clearly audible

Bye Bye - Mariah Carey [from E=MC2]

the woman who wears grief more cheerily than you

Happiness - Chastity Belt [from No Regerts]

world weary teen mask

The Custody Battle - Steve Kennedy, Lisa Puteska [from Untitled Album]

a constant and intense pressure
only gets worse

Sleepless Cycle - Megan Ihnen [from Sleep Songs - Wordless Lullabies from The Sleepless, volume 2]

in gradually unlimiting space
along an activated pitch scheme

July 15, 2026

Ask Me Now (take 2) - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings]

each singular gesture
distinctly made
no blur between them

Head Injury - Soundgarden [from Ultramega OK]

novelty numbers were a staple of the scene

Renjeng Su - China (Taiwan) [from The World Sings Goodnight]

swaddle song

Donald Rumsfeld - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]

textures of layered surface noise
distant drums and dry wind

Starstruck (feat. Space Cowboy & Flo Rida) - Lady Gaga [from The Fame]

using voice to activate effects

Blue Girl - Shelby Earl [from Swift Arrows]

a battle with a rival self

2f2f2f(2f) - Triptet [from Slowly, Away]

there is business to transact at the reception desk
we are taken up in its clockwork arms
particularly noted and logged
we are now a part of its process
the motor spins
we are suspended in the suspension room
watch kept far above

You Can't Win With a Losing Hand - Eddie Floyd [from Written in their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]

solid guitar work

Little Sally Tease - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of The Kingsmen]

shaming circumspection
alternate fade-out ending

Bullet The Blue Sky - U2 [from Rattle and Hum]

lifted on platforms of theatrical portent
ick

The Juniper Tree - Andrew Toovey - EOS, Charles Peebles, Marcia Bellamy, Richard Morris, Jacqueline Horner, Nick Hariades

Marcia Bellamy was a classmate of mine at the UW.
Neal had kept in touch with her
and that is why I have this recording 

it opens with a lengthy violin solo
then dives into nightmare puppetland 

character signified in voice 

each statement
set as a new poempage
each scenestatement
carefully crafted
to punch on stage
without overt or overbearing cross-reference among scenes 

sounds have traditional significance
musical manners also have traditional significance

whosoever cooked up this tale
is twisted somewhere 
taboo horror
incest and cannibalism
traditional response: revulsion 

we fade into the legendmist
to black
followed by
the curse taking hold
that is
Scene 4 

the inquest scene
a traditional method of societal closure
to ease us 

from revulsion
into complacence 

dramaturgical problem
it's hard to follow cannibalism
with anything more horrible
though
perhaps
resolution of revulsion is worse

Reality - David Bowie [from Reality]

playing his part occupying his voice even through the full frontal arrangement

Low Clarinet Symposium [from Low Clarinet Symposium]

Sim-Symposium
with cymbals and drums
honkfest
a rage against machine
an applause pause
regroup 

not without its charms
its clear commitment
sticking with it
without over thought 

some folks
has just gots to get together
and shred
evacuate the system
purge maximally
it's a bit like watching a fire hose
at full throttle

the drums
are the low clarinet lion trainer
keeps them to their traditional roles

Tonight - Acapulco Lips [from Acapulco Lips]

is time to ParTEEE!
so kick off your shoes and dance

Chasing a Straight - Kara Hesse [from Soujourner]

another cardplay metaphor
life at the love table

A Noiseless Noise - PJ Harvey [from I Inside The Old Year Dying]

stanzaic freedom
short lines
care paid
to phonemes
and their rhymes

July 16, 2026

Stimmung 1968 (continued) - Karlheinz Stockhausen

jumping in midway
we are in a suddenly more varied sound world
but only because we recall
the opening pitch focus
but here
it is the focus
on each presented pitch
rather than
just the one pitch one focus of the open
(per my immediate recollection) 

articulatory aberrations
in the form of spoken words
in various languages 

this piece and many other of Stockhausen's oeuvre
are such products of their theatrical moments in history
that the idea of a revival performance
abrates 

the chorus resonators
pick up sounds
from the spoken bits
and melt them back
into new words 

technique for listening
latch on to any clue
as to what might be going on
and stick with it 

until
the music tells you
something different 

this piece transpires
in the space
where language sound
resonant sound
and word sounds
jump states freely

Adagio - Samuel Barber - The Canadian Brass [from More Greatest Hits]

I presume that brass players learn to optimize mouth shape for tone
(part of what distinguishes practiced players from novitiates)

GamElang - Elaine Barkin - Sue Carole DeVale, Michael Bakan, Elaine Barkin, Wanda Bryant, Lindsay Clare, Alice Hunt, Jay Keister, Grace M, David Martinelli [from Open Space 12]

events with shapes stand at the entry
inside
the discussion is held
in terms of events with shapes 

I'm reminded of her hubcap masks
this is like those 

difference between
needing specificness
and needing specifications

Ain't No Way - Aretha Franklin [from So Damn Happy]

sung so it sounds like she means it
right then

Hunger, The Journey of Tamsen Donner (beginning) - Tom Baker - Maria Mannisto, Jesse Canterbury, Greg Campbell, Brian Cobb, Tom Baker

a poem in the voice of a handwriting (impersonal)
(or rather
not projecting expression
beyond the bare words) 

and hymnody
scraping the mountains plain
(a nocturne)

Black Magic I - Antique Scream [from Two Bad Dudes]

two bad dudes
couple of wild and crazy
posture clowns 

were these the guys that had a shtick
where the drummer would solo
and the other guy would go to the bar
and buy
and return with
a beer?
this is a long enough drum solo

Sinners and Angels - SeaStar [from Sinners and Angels]

badboytemptation trope
transgression always tempts

Romulus Hunt (continued) - Carly Simon - Nashville Opera, Dean Williamson

over-produced beyond any believable stage
the words are too large for their import
these folks are confused
in their self absorption
triumphal downfall
belt it out
or be buried

Kraanerg (beginning) - Iannis Xenakis - Callithumpian Consort, Stephen Drury

this music dismantles hulks
cuts large into small
slag heap resonance 

ferrous items sorted out
several camera angles
on each station

Shakin' All Over - Girl Trouble [from Hit It Or Quit It]

the engineer says
we have plenty of tape
but in the context of a three minute pop song only
and then they fade

Elderly Woman Behind the Counter - Pearl Jam [from Rearviewmirror]

any line has a tight footprint
mostly within a tight registral area

Midnight Blue - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]

reminiscence of a song
sentiment mnemonical

July 17, 2026

Hollow Earth Radio - Seattle Phonographers Union [from Seattle Phonographers Union]

fireworks
reports
ripping pants
and spinners
crowds
roar
traffic horns
inventing
an unforeseen space
out of collected events
collectively
or
a trajectory through unforeseen spaces

Snarkiselk - B'Shnorkestra [from Go To Orange]

passing through a sequence of tempo grooves
street fair crowds

Switch and Bait - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]

footstomping hoedown freestyle

Study in D-flat Major - Jeremiah Lawson - Jeremiah Lawson

Jeremiah seems
as best I can tell
to revel in using the craziest possible guitarist means
to produce plain spoken music

In Session at The Tintinabulary

July 12, 2026

Zerah - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 158 Zerah 260712 [260712]

July 13, 2026

Banned Rehearsal 1155 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1155 260713

Postscripts

Drops

Music of Aaron Keyt - Part 3

This third collection of the music of my long-time collaborator Aaron Keyt is composed of two sets of short pieces: Hedgehogs (2014) and Music for Wallace (2016). The recordings were made at my home in 2020/2021.

recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream.

Playlist

Preface

8 

Rose Thinking

If the world is round would a lion fall off.

Gertrude Stein, from The World is Round

Texts

Recorded

July 4, 2026

Ferris Wheel - Canals of Venice [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

we approach listening
with what we hope
are open ears
and good faith curiosity

Hard to Forgive - Brandi Carlile [from By The Way, I Forgive You]

one strategy
might be
to study the modes of expression
that persist
across musics of many times 

tropes atop tropes

Hot Shots - Steve Layton & Sound-In [from The Many Voices In Our Heads]

for example
music such as Ms. Carlile's
is couched in terms of personal feelings
writ large
with broad swaths
of bold colors
in order
to punch through
the wall of alienation
produced
by being in a crowd
while
this music
is an attentive chatter box conversation
requiring a more intimate ear 

it would be inaudible
to
a Ms. Carlile-expecting ear

Sonata in B-flat Major, Kk. 332 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

this Scarlatti doesn't express much
beyond amusement
at its own intricacies
its self-absorbed
mirroring world

Nocturne in C minor (#2) - John Field - Benjamin Frith

now this music
is doing expressing
and the mode it chooses
is to mimic a song being sung
by a singer
and to identify
with that singer
so mimicked
to imagine
what they must be expressing
in order to sing
so thusly mimicked

Ouverture des Francs-juges, S. 471 (After H. Berlioz) - Franz Liszt - Feng Bian

this music
is a stage being set
or rather
these musics
are stages being set
one after the other
all the activity
is fun to watch 

Albumblätter: Canon, Op. 124 #20 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

this music seeks peace with itself

6 Idylles: V. Alegretto Tranquil, Op. 24 #5 - Agathe Backer Grøndahl - Sara Aimée Smiseth

this music seeks a pleasure in dream
clever common tone tactic
at the key change
both unexpected and obvious at once

Lyric Pieces, Book VI, Op. 57 - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø

this music seeks to impart a tale
so that
you care 

ballad-like
broad pantomime 

I was also thinking
that these pieces
are each
more or less
the length of a Scarlatti Sonata
but
that they are differently sized than Scarlatti Sonatas
because
they shape themselves differently
these seem larger

what stands like stone
what yields gently

2 Poémes: Fantasie, Op. 71 #1 - Alexander Scriabin Dmitri Alexeev

enchanted

July 5, 2026

Muggles - Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

an issue seems to raise itself
with some musics
such as Beethoven or Armstrong
or... (the list sails on)...
as to whether
or how
one might hear it
without the taint
of its imputed historical importance

I Won't Say I Will (Incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]

after all
at any music's originary moment
history
as a concept
was absent
except
perhaps
as background noise
of less presence
than what was for breakfast

Twist and Shout - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology]

or of the latest sales figures 

were record sales
reported at the wholesale level
or at retail?
I find it difficult to imagine
a system in place
in the 50s or 60s
for reporting retail figures
on a weekly basis
from the many hundreds of points of sale

The Song Is Ended - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin All By Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]

but the melody lingers on

When The Night Falls - T. Bone Burnett [from Proof Through The Night]

Mr. Burnett has a way
that he sings everything

Beauty Is But a Painted Hell (Rubra) - King's Singers [from My Spirit Sang All Day]

a rather misanthropic wisdom word

New Weather IV: Hedgehog - Edward T. Cone - Mimmi Fulmer, Jeffrey Farrington

the piano part
is the stage
the voice stands upon

Singer Twin - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

aimed to be clear
under the guitar noise
but
not to carry
past your privy ears

X-Static Processes - Madonna [from American Life]

a prayer
a confession
a plea

Soundform II - S. Eric Scribner [from Soundforms/Multiples]

neither its waveform
nor its sonogram
nor its envelope 

the forms
that sound forms
are mental images
that arise
bodiless 
in the ear

July 6, 2026

Bundle of Joy - The Swearengens [from Waiting on the Sunrise]

mom will always love me
bad boy though I boast to be

Doctor Spock - Brenda Ray [from Original Songs/1950s Music]

blaming hippies' purported errors
on the author
but thanks for opposing the war

Apperception - Tom Baker Quartet [from Begin Again]

grounded in regularity of proceedings
though itself irregular

What Kind Of Fool Am I? - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time / The Lost Session from the Black Forest]

the trio circles around the new tempo
then jumps in 

Catapult - REM [from Murmur]

all statements descend in the end

Interview with Prove It All Night - Bruce Springsteen [from Neal Kosály-Meyer's A Springsteen Miscellany]

the band accumulates
name by name
then turns a song
into a stamina strut

When You're Smiling - [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends 2]

doing Louis Armstrong vocal style
comfort music

Dangerously In Love 2 - Beyoncé [from Dangerously In Love]

a plastic multiplicity of avatars

July 7, 2026

Prelude - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]

a song can be like a journal entry
and require neither greatness nor commercial utility
to be a valid song

This Is (How I Know) - The Hunting Club [from Holiday Beach]

signs of imminent happily ever after 

some songs
can be a completed statement
all parts fully formed

Presidio - Strung Out [from Black Out The Sky]

this song wants
to be sure
we know
how long
all the parts of it
will be
no surprises in store
discoveries unlikely

Shellshag - Jack Robinson [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have To Be Cool]

filter on the voice
a dissociation
a personal space bubble

Contemplation - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]

what's template about contemplation? 

here
we seem to be contemplating
a form
or a space
an outside
or an inside
each contemplator
is provided
a supportive time
in which to respond

I Believe - The Buzzcocks [from Nancy's Mix]

basic rock and roll orchestration
no oddities
and they takes some pains
to speak clearly
which is helpful
since they are verbally clever

slides into the pun from an angle

Quiet On The Set - N.W.A. [from Straight Outta Compton]

hip hop orchestration
is more varied
in what it allows to be included
but
the underlying concept
of rock&roll orchestration
is in its blood

Canada - Rachel Warrington [from The World Sings Goodnight]

as though from the lonely past
with frog chorus

Try Some, Buy Some - David Bowie [from Reality]

which is why
even when it goes all symphonic
as it does here
the effect
is radically different
than either Baroque-derived
or Berlioz-derived
orchestration models
it isn't
just
the instruments used
it's
in how the sounds
are conceptualized 

Back (Interlude)/Curtains - Janet Jackson [from Discipline]

sci fi fantasy smooth
retreat
return refreshed

Answer Boldly - Lori Goldston [from Film Scores]

I wonder if these were used in films
or whether they are a more conceptual project
either or both is plausible

Blank Page - Christina Aguilera [from Lotus]

down in the lower range
her voice has a similar ping to Brandi Carlile's

Diabelli Recomposed (Variations 11-16) - Various [streamed on May 11, 2023]

11
we're waiting for it here
glimpses
until the abrupt end 

12
in a cramped tonality 

13
the house pests
plot 

14
an old and lovely song
lies unsung
amid the trunks
in the attic 

15
kittens play this one 

16
the room is still
predawn gray 

{NB no guarantee that I'm keeping proper track of the variations as they go by}

Try Being Lonely - Dolly Parton [from Just Because I'm a Woman]

embodiment of the state of bereavement
as a public service

June Sunday - Richard Cann, J. K. Randall, David Tenney, Matthew Young [from Inter/Play]

out of doors
with songbirds
and soft strings
and cardboard brass tube
labially generated vibration sounds
we sing back at the birds
communication by behavior
dance with the forest
not in it
nor on it 

we'll be the talk of squirrelkind for decades 

we have established camp
civilization 101 

sounds are shared
birdkind may go about birdkind's business unperturbed 

the camp settles for the night
the night watch stamps about in the cold
the birds review their scripts 

mutters on small speakers
in the out of doors 

these sounds are discretely located
no complications arise
from the reverberance of walls 

the purpose of this music
is to listen 

rude reeds splat from the skies 

each sound
has distance
and direction 

they elicit
a fully round space
though horizontally thin 

apples
on an apple tree
say apples apples apples apples 

do not be alarmed
should I stand in a field
and shout
hey!
it is only to hear
what it sounds like 

communication with the forest
by behavior
that feels foresty 

yea though we walk through the valley of the shadow of steady beats
we will fear no malign intent 

a relaxation into
quotidianhood
but briefly 

a mere intake of breath
beyond the gates
of the ritual proper
the last moments
of a cassette tape
before it runs out
to the leader
has a tell-tale
pulsed
thumping
that sneaks in
behind the sounds
that were recorded

Simon Says - Marley Marl [from In Control Vol. 1]

question
as to whether the use of another's recorded sound
as part of your sound
is fair:
does the broadcast of a sound
imply permission
to reuse at will
whether the broadcast
is by record sales or radio waves 

to whom
does it
anymore
belong?

Une jeune fillette (1616) - The Baltimore Consort [from La Rocque'n'Roll]

lute so gentle in the arts of elaboration

Falling Out of Love - Aretha Franklin [from So Damn Happy]

the sad montage of intimate collapse

CCJIK-Sean - Sacajawea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]

this would be quite the alarming sound
for an EV to make
all of a sudden
on the street

Time Waits for No Man - No Man's String Band [from Let The Truth Be Told]

fatalism
defiance
stubborn
independence

Guernica - Bret Hart [from Dubble Thud]

add this
to that
the march
adds grim joiners
continuous
a mass
and potential mob 

a mass of bodies
is an inherent threat
a mob
is an amoeboid army

Wordless Lullaby - Megan Ihnen [from Sleep Songs - Wordless Lullabies from The Sleepless, volume 2]

a descending line cycles
while a voice twines it round

July 8, 2026

Just Like a Rose - ? and The Mysterians [from ? and The Mysterians]

spacious home base establishment
each stanza
through a new window

The Star Spangled Banner - U2 [from Rattle and Hum]

so that
The Edge
can do
his Jimi

Vocalise, Op. 34 #14 - Serge Rachmaninov - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]

imitating a singer of infinite lung
being very beautiful

Epona - Frieze of Life [from Nuclear Frog Pond]

a strand of modernism
pushes
at the broad acceptance
of what counts as music
for good or ill
it demands
first
that we accept it
as music
and
should we reject it
as such
we
would be shamed

For The Record - Mariah Carey [from E=MC2]

every aspect controlled from the booth

Roosevelt - Peterman [from Red Vinyl]

infra-generational life information transference

Milam Hospital - Choke The Pope [from Who Cares]

report from rehab
which is pretty much high school
per said report

The Ghetto - The Staples Singers [from Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]

a sermon

Monk's Point (Take 1) - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings]

poking touch

Just a Closer Walk With Thee - The Canadian Brass [from More Greatest Hits]

done up in a New Orleans tuxedo 

Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Nirvana [from Unplugged in New York]

turning the kids on about Lead Belly

Track 18 - Eckstein Middle School Students [from Mach 6]

a beginning band doing pretty well

Money Honey - Lady Gaga [from The Fame]

love in the lingo of commerce

Track 6 - Pouch [recorded live at Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 6, 2013]

drum beat pushes the top of the guitar beat

Track 7 [from Unknown Christmas Album]

something about this album
a whiff of publishing industry advertising professionals
making professional industry standard music 

here we have
some pretty classy stuff
for your pretty classy choirs

Romulus Hunt (beginning) - Carly Simon - Nashville Opera, Dean Williamson

{the conductor Dean Williamson and I
met when we were in high school
we played piano duets together
and I played percussion
in the pit orchestra
of the first piece of musical theater
he ever conducted} 

apparently
there's an imaginary friend involved

due to the vagaries
of how music is heard around here
I've heard this opera
in bits and pieces
in disorder
absurding plot points 

conflict of parenting styles
in canon no less 

composed
as a sequence of operatic moments 

a love spell is cast
by the imaginary friend
and we are in a sultry cabaret
in somebody's head 

full voice
at all times
this is opera
after all

The Climb - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of The Kingsmen]

dance craze classic
short listed
for the land of 1000 dances
up there
with the hokey pokey

White Lightning - Girl Trouble [from Hit It Or Quit It]

the social purpose
of dude-presenting dance music
is to convince dudes
to dance
so that
they attract
those
with whom
to propagate the species 

("play on!")

Desert March - Gyula Csapó - Gusztav Fenyö [from Open Space 7]

unadorned
flattened
across a plain
of few intervals
tightly wound registers
and sonority 

this march
is forced
and foreboding
the ground is hard
the whole way 

the image
of relentless forte

O Come, O Come, Emanuel - Whitney Houston [from One Wish: The Holiday Album]

steering just this side of salacious

Balladei - Christopher Bailey - Shiau-uen Ding 

it is important
that we be severe
for the world of electronica being entered
is harsh
and the light glares
no room in which to breathe 

funhouse jump scares 

the pace never slackens
a concerto in a cage

Track 5 - Old Man Williamson [recorded live at Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 6, 2013]

a cover
under cover
of a noisy bar

The Road I'm On - Lost In Space [from Live at The Player's Lounge]

another long road trip
along the empty interstate
destination hours off yet
keep awake by jamming

July 9, 2026

A Child's Question, July - PJ Harvey [from I Inside The Old Year Dying]

this track is danceable
but doesn't demand
that the body dance
is shaped in standard-enough stanzaic song form
but would sound odd
sung on a porch
with banjos

Stimmung (1968) (beginning) - Karlheinz Stockhausen

of interest
that I can clearly hear the correlation
of each sung vowel
to the set of partials blossoming above it (from it?)
and
can even
almost
convince myself
that the vowel
is
that set of partials
but
a nag remains
that the vowel
as a part of language
is a different
kind of thing
entire
phonemes
belong
to the world of words
their sounds
as music
are not phonemes
because
music
is the remainder of
song minus language 

this music
vibrates
between language-sound
and not-language-sound 

I never asked myself
what the central pitch of this is
{B-flat, I think,
thought it's been through some several mechanical devices}

Izpovod - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares 2]

stately
in straight backed chairs

Gap 1st Batch - J. K. Randall - J. K. Randall [from Open Space 7]

how timely!
I have
in the last few weeks
started to learn to play these pieces

I remember the first time I heard this
it completely floored me
it occupies
an out there
that was so much further out there
than I had imagined
thentofore 

the pieces
that he marks
"play a bunch of times"
(there are two of them)
divide themselves
into two parts
the time intervals
between the two parts
as they repeat
are distinct
a functional articulation 

how to listen:
an alternate pedagogy

Don't Push Me (feat. Lloyd Banks) - 50 Cent [from Get Rich or Die Tryin']

to be in charge
by means of threat posture

Genius Loci - Frank Brickle - William Anderson, Oren Fader [streamed December 4, 2024]

applause
to acknowledge
and welcome
and to thank
and approve

This Is Me Now - Shelby Earl [from Swift Arrows]

folks change
so deal

Nothing - Whitney Ballen [from You're a Shooting Star - I'm a Sinking Ship]

this track kills 

Study in D (#5) - Jeremiah Lawson

an unerringly hymnodic sense of musical shaping

I Am Sitting In A Room - Alvin Lucier

so am I 

I am sitting
in a different room
listening to you
saying
you are sitting in a room
different from the room
I am in now 

the demonstration
conflates
room
with room
plus
the infidelity
of the recording process

the room
being articulated by speech 

it occurs to me
that the room
being articulated by speech
being played back
into this
my different room
is itself
articulating the room
I am sitting in now
different room
does not imply
separate room
his room
is
in
my room
and
inside
is not
separate
just
distinct  

the effect
on my image
of Mr. Lucier
is that
he is getting further and further away 

I wonder
if they had to adjust the gain
to keep it from feeding back? 

shrunked
beyond eyesight 

or
as it accumulates
we are hearing the room
articulated
by the room
being articulated
by the room
being articulated
by...
speech 

it's mostly the room
articulating itself by then

all that's left
of the sitter
is the chatter
of glasses
in a cupboard
in the next room
long since vanished
glasses
cupboards
kitchens
suburbs
and surburbs
one and all 

Brick Is Red - Pixies [from Surfer Rosa]

one for the guitar player

Sorrow Is Not Melancholy - Deborah Drattell - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz]

Fafner is depressed
head
turned
within
a lonely cave
in the subbasement
of a mid 20th Century
Russian
slow movement 
for strings
playing
king of the hill
with Barber's Adagio
or nearly
any interminable Gorecki
I've heard

My 1st Song - Jay-Z [from The Black Album]

rhymes
the ing
of thing
and sing
on a high
bell-like
TING! 

name check acknowledgments

Chapel Performance Space (February 29, 2008) - Seattle Phonographers Union [from Seattle Phonographers Union]

recorded with microphone in a room
or directly from the board? 

is this
what was played
or what was heard? 

that's a cat purring
over in that channel 

all the sounds
are in other rooms
we have searched them out for you

Ringing Vale - Princess [from Selling Sulphur]

legend
shout out
extended leitmotif

Alright - Red Ribbon [from Dark Party]

in a mood of alienation and oppression

In Session at The Tintinabulary

July 6, 2026

Lemnos - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 157 Lemnos 260705 [260706]

Banned Rehearsal 1154 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1154 260706

July 8-9, 2026

Variations - Aaron Keyt

Aaron composed this set of variations in 2013 and I have had it on my piano desk to learn several times since then, but it kept being back-burnered for other projects. I had finally had enough and worked at it until I could play it well enough to record I plan to include it on an upcoming album in the next month or so

Postscripts

Drops

Music of Aaron Keyt - Part 3

This third collection of the music of my long-time collaborator Aaron Keyt is composed of two sets of short pieces: Hedgehogs (2014) and Music for Wallace (2016). The recordings were made at my home in 2020/2021.

recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream

Playlist

Preface

"Tyranny is so generally established in the rest of the world that the prospect of an asylum in America for those who love liberty gives general joy, and our cause is esteemed the cause of all mankind. Slaves naturally become base as well as wretched. We are fighting for the dignity and happiness of human nature. Glorious it is for the Americans to be called by Providence to this post of honour. Cursed and detested will everyone be that deserts or betrays it."

Benjamin Franklin (ca. 1776/1777), quoted  in The First American, The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, by H. W. Brands

Texts

Recorded

June 27, 2026

New Weather: III Bran - Edward T. Cone - Mimmi Fulmer, Jeffrey Farrington, John Whitfield, Cyrus Stevens, Jayn Rosenfeld

The basis shifts at each new moment

Hypercool - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

slangiad

You Are My Joy - Aretha Franklin [from So Damn Happy]

wedding ready song
sheet music available in the gift shop

Incredible - Madonna [from Hard Candy]

acting out a wish ritual
the words are part of the dance rhythm machine

Traces-Tapestry-Pinkfour - Andrew Young [from Inkplaces]

a machine nears
internal processes
on timers

Gig Sup - Steve Layton [from Próxima Estación]

mechanical bounce game

Bare Branches (Soundscroll I (part 2) - S. Eric Scribner [from Soundscrolls: Lost Landshapes]

percussion piano and flute
sweep colors across a surface

June 28, 2026

Sonata in B-flat Major, Kk. 331 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

fills its space
like water flowing into pools
top to bottom 

after the hinge
the tide floods inland

L'idée fixe, S. 395 (Andante amoroso d’après une mélodie de Hector Berlioz) [After H. Berlioz] - Franz Liszt - Feng Bian

transcription
is transformation
is translation
is discovery

Album for the Young, Part 2, Op. 68, 19-36 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

a romance is a story
with a before a during and an after 

these pieces
are each
a little romance
in one
or a few
ponds 

or
one could concoct
a connecting narrative
returning characters and all 

power moves
for strong young arms 

these triadic harmonies
are not chords
they are voicings
in motion or in stillness

Lyric Pieces, Book IV, Op. 47 - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø

their lack of pretense
they don't sweat greatness
tying clever knots
fond of variously decorated stepwise descending lines

June 30, 2026

Études de concert, Op. 57 #1 - Agathe Backer Grøndahl - Sara Aimée Smiseth

focus on a single narrow figuration field
rarely straying much below middle C
even after the possibility is opened
such straying moments
function as articulation points

Sonata, Op. 68 (#9) - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

ambiguous motions
priesthood of practiced skill
refined taste
transgressive pleasure
stirred desire 

this is a big piece
that reads as tiny and self-contained

Weather Bird - Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

sunny street
village life
downtown in fine duds

I Won't Say I Will (Incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]

there are several reasons one might be interested in these false starts and rejected takes
among them
a glimpse behind the curtains
at the actual sound world
in which these songs were made
the reality around
thems
as is
doing the making

Till There Was You - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology]

presume George is playing guitar
so John must be relegated to shaker
or was he sitting it out

It Always Belongs to Me / It's Up to the Band / Rainbow of Girls / Shaking the Blues Away - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin, All by Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]

possessions as point of American pride
this track is presented
as a selection of individual items
no effort is made
to finesse
they join without arrangement 

a rainbow of girls
no fraternization

Shut Out The Light - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]

doing the story teller thing he does
holds it together through two verses and chorus
the arrangement doesn't inflate suddenly
into a stadium balloon
keeps it in the moment
solid

Nazi Driver - Soundgarden [from Ultramega OK]

grooving on paranoia
panic
committing to the bit

Moonlight and Roses [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends Volume 3]

civic pride soundtrack
suddenly the sunny street
to strut along

These Days - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

vocal line is constructed around its words
like a decorated psalm tone
Hildegard von Bingenish

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Whitney Houston [from One Wish: The Holiday Album]

cadenza at the end of each line
hitches up its tonal trousers
for a new key
more brightly lit
more tinsel

The Fame - Lady Gaga [from The Fame]

within the set of my collection
of the names of recordings
there is a quantity of albums
whose names are the same
as the name of a song
contained within that album 

the relationship
of eponymy 

the gaudier the come on
the less likely the payoff

Forest of Thorns - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

a poetic image
is a way to be 

the blues is a clown type 

all the world's a cosplay convention 

this is my new favorite YMSK track

Atalanta - Steve Layton [from Virtual Composition]

wizard of hands
conjures wisp after wisp
of ghastly creepies
they adhere like sychophants
nuzzle like limpets

SoundScroll VII, part two: Drones - S. Eric Scribner - S. Eric Scribner, The Hexaphonic Five [from SoundScrolls V - IX (Live)]

once upon a time
a drone was a peaceful musical focusing device
or
was it suspect from the start 

power of immobility
to force compliance

What Kind of Fool Am I? (alternate take) - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time / The Lost Session from the Black Forest]

taking a stroll
through the kinds of music
this tune might like to dress themselves in 

intense pianism

Perfect Circle - REM [from Murmur]

file systems are fictions
is heuristic the right word?

God Part II - U2 [from Rattle and Hum]

standing on his porch
with his snarls and his shotguns 

my yard is my parish
keep off the grass

La papillon et la fleur - King's Singers [from Chansons d'amour]

what's wrong with making a little valentine out of music
its extravagance

Track 17 - Eckstein Middle School Ensemble [from Mach 6]

jazz band
elite
entry level
coolness training

The Meaning (Interlude)/Discipline - Janet Jackson [from Discipline]

sweet nothings in the ear
begs for punishment 

not my kink
swipe whichever way swipers swipe
to dismiss

Coast to Coast - Waxahatchee [from Cerulean Salt]

albums are public journal entries
newsletters posted on the voidboard

A No No - Mariah Carey [from Caution]

I guess that's a no then

Interlude - (uncredited) [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have To Be Cool]

a live moment
in a bar environment

Children of the Night - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]

in their fancy clothes
on glossy paper
negotiating a commercial economy
filling the space
saturating the market

Burning Up (12" version) - Madonna [from Madonna]

how many inches
are the other versions? 

her come on
is that
she says
we're resisting
like cowards 

how many inches
of that 12
is padding?

Bess, You Is My Woman Now - Canadian Brass [from More Greatest Hits]

spans of leaps
and their places
within the chord patterns

Elenan Timaru / Romania [from The World Sings Goodnight]

a pre-recorded lullaby
is a cheat
an ersatz comfort

July 1, 2026

21 Questions (feat. Nate Dogg) - 50 Cent [from Get Rich or Die Tryin']

another trope of suspicion
do you love me
or just the money 

in the midst of a love bomb

Somebody's Everything - Dolly Parton [from Backwoods Barbie]

extreme possessory
not just
to be owned
but
to abide
no other possessions

Track 5 - Red Ribbon [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

sound file:
the states of locations
in a matrix
indexed by name

Cats Across The Way - Canals of Venice [from Fall On November]

a pathetic romance
doomed from the start

Diabelli Recomposed, variations 6-10 - various (from a stream on May 11, 2023]

6
as though by Schubert 

7
as though a waltz of the 1890s 

8
as though by a shivering Scriabin
then
as though with pinchy little fingers 

9
now some francophile has got hold of it 

10
and now
in arachnid tinkertoys

I'm Confessin' (That I Love You) - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings]

makes that piano
do his playing
tickles it under its chin
to thank it

I'm Coming Home - T. Bone Burnett [from Truth Decay]

straight ahead
country plea song
complete with biblical imagery

Where's The Loser - Girl Trouble [from Hit It Or Quit It]

manly tale
of manly legend
with break
for a bass guitar solo

All Apologies - Nirvana [from Unplugged in New York]

all the lines lead to the prayer
at the edge

Allure - Jay-Z [from The Black Album]

a paean
to living the good life (moneyed)

Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) - Beyoncé [from I am ... Sasha Fierce]

a sign of a pledge
social mnemonic

Flat Screen - Dead Bars [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

always a pleasure

Medicine Man - Denise Glover [from Gaps In The Stories]

gospel message woven in
broadly ecumenical

The Quiet Way You Move Me - Megan Ihnen [from Sleep Songs - Wordless Lullabies from The Sleepless, volume 2]

each line a new inflection of tonality
wordless
but not without composition
by vowel placement

Don't Hold It Against Me - ? and The Mysterians [from The Best of ? and The Mysterians]

the devil made me do it
by way of an apology

Ain't Goin' Home-HonkeyDoodle Town - Scurvy Bastards [from Piranthology]

drinked hisself under the table
yet again 

let's go pull tractors

Generals and Majors - XTC [from Nancy's Mix]

begging for spotlights

Bezrodna Nevezda - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares 2]

vocal production affects our sense of intonation and interval
a disciplined choir

Une jeune fillette (c. 1616) - The Baltimore Consort [from La Rocque'n'Roll]

of what does a song consist
that can be passed along
shared at potlatch
or other social occasion 

ornate lutering

Soundscape - Dan [from Jack Straw Cultural Center, Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]

growling dogs
peaceful frogs 

heavy machinery
violent footfall

Piece of Your Mind - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]

love among the household appliances

Rising - Blazzed [from Blazzed]

battle gear
on the move
warboys on their rigs

I See It - The Staples Singers [from Written In Their Soul: The Stax Records Demos]

the repetition
is a coercive invitation to join

Shake a Tail Feather - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of The Kingsmen]

another member
of the dance craze craze

Atlas Eclipticalis with Winter Music 831211 6:30 PM (end) - John Cage - The New Performance Group, John Cage

the pointillistic isolation of events
from each other
asks of us
how silence responds
to each such pointillistically isolated event 

does it remain stone faced
and constant
or does it curve in event space? 

single impulse
single event
no spillover 

there's a sound
that sounds new musicy 

a random imaged texture
within narrow bounds of density 

earmind
betrays our desire
for purity
from ego

I'm Amazed - Pixies [from Surfer Rosa]

rumors spread of sickening deeds

Liebeslied - Fritz Kreisler - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]

music for polite entertainment
suitable for ladies and gentlemen
of refined tastes

Colors: Khaki - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]

odd miniatures
grotesques

Burgess Shale Trip - Sam - Sacajawea Elementary Student [from Digital Dreams]

rolling through the factory floor
and around the corner

Valentine's Day - David Bowie [from The Next Day]

melody
as a rhyme of notes
within their stanzas

The Mermaid Set - SeaStar [from Sinners and Angels] 

happy-go-lucky tales
of femmes fatal and vital

July 2, 2026

August - PJ Harvey [from I Inside The Old Year Dying]

the same sound might be described
as a discordant noise
or as a particular texture of pitch feel 

the voice
then
explores by means of singing
touching its parts

Spiral II - Karlheinz Stockhausen

a mathematical construct
and a metaphor
and some wiggly electronic sounds
meet
in the backrooms
of a radio cabaret
after hours
sampling
what was left in the glasses 

why yes
this is Sgt. Pepper's Stockhausen 

a shot rings out
or a sharp slap
and a second 

having a laugh
with the resident rodents 

do I not hear Stockhausen's piece if
 I fail to distinguish
either construct
or metaphor
in it?
and
if it wasn't his piece
what was it?

Fly/Yoohoo - J. K. Randall, Matthew Rosenblum, Marjorie Tichenor, Daniel Warner [from Inter/Play]

this comes in
as though they had already been at it
for some time 

four musicians
place their sounds
on the head of a pin 

fasten your seat belts
it can get crowded 

but they hang on 

the world outside the pin's head
has silenced 

Inter/Play was a series of cassette tapes
distributed by J. K. Randall
(and then with Ben Boretz)
of the session recordings of the 80s
each cassette
had two sides
and for years
they were arranged in my head
and in my cassette cabinet
as in the order thus distributed
but
that order 

does not match the order
in which the recordings were recorded 

now
they are arranged
in a computer folder
alphabetically
and in my database
they are arranged
chronologically
by the date of their doing 

in my head
they're humble jumble
in their idea space

Wild Leaves - Patti Smith [from Dream of Life]

this tune homes in on its invariant end tone
eyes locked

Transcendental Modulations - George Perle  - American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein]

this has become quite the fun puppet show
with great sets
and puppets of flowing silk 

the plot blows tragical

Karl Rove: Announcing the War for Enraq - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]

the blind mice are enraged

Love Bade Me Welcome - Kia Sams - Prospect Choir

blend of mixed voices
each a human

Of All The Limbs to Cling To - Mikey and Matty [from Harbor Island]

covering a disaster
in pretty words
and jangly strums and strikes

Catchy Tune - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]

takes the stage
and proceeds to monolog something fierce

Remember - Tom Baker Quartet [from Begin Again]

floating on the harbor ripples

Symphony 8 - Roger Sessions - American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein]

this music
is enwebbing you
in dreams
of past pleasures
past shames

Black Street In The Hour of Chaos - Public Enemy [from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back]

delayed rhyme line
reference by primary source
fair use

...where murmurs die... - Bernard Rands - American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein]

a music of wisps
and broad colorful gestures
long lines
of art deco reclining figures 

this music has nowhere to go
which is realized
at length 

it thrives in fetid swamps

Deep Purple - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]

a melody that folds through itself
then a fine dance 

a whole production number
costume changes and everything

Missa Tirnaviensis - Stanislav Surin - Trnavsky Komorny Orchester, Milan Krupcik

ceremonial and solemn
but not bloated
frugal 

I've actually sung the Gloria
(and met Mr. Surin!)
as part of the University Temple Chancel Choir
I think I even have a picture 

he has an interesting ear for rhythm

In Session at The Tintinabulary

June 28, 2026

Iddo - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 156 Iddo 260628 [260628]

June 30, 2026

Detritus 14 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · Detritus 14 260629 [260630]

Postscripts

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 33: Sabbatical Improvisations (part 4) 2014

In 2013 I had reached an inflection point in my big project, Études d'exécution imminent, and took a sabbatical (indifferently observed) from composing written-down music. I filled the time with various forms of improvisation, both "in-the-moment" composing, and sometimes puttering about with multi-tracking and other digitally applied effects. Here is the fourth bunch of them.

recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream

Playlist

Preface

{NB check out those framing noses!} George Cruikshank (presumed) from The Comic Almanack, 1st Series, 1835-1843

Texts

Live

June 20, 2026

Mark Hilliard Wilson, guitar, with Peter Nelson-King, voice
Prospect Congregational United Church of Christ, Seattle

Mark played a selection of pieces old and new that he announced from the stage, so I will not attempt to list the program 

musics shaped by the interactions
between the hands
and a fretboard
and an arrangement of strings 

the polyphonic voices
associate themselves
with particular congruencies
of finger and string
and location
within the finger figures 

the practiced sound of the instrument
is almost impossibly lovely
and it features a pleasant and grounding set
of extraneous sounds
(fingers on wires)
keeps it real 

this was a most pleasant afternoon recital

June 25, 2026

Neil Welch, Scott Robinson
Wayward Music Series, curated by Haley Freelund
The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

Neil Welch

pitch is an identifier of sound groups
we use it
to say
this sound
and that sound 

a piece that arises
from thoughts
concerning underground mushroom forces
eruptions from below
where most of them lives 

last piece
with the big bass sax
sounds must be coaxed
from its underbelly
with some piano tones
and hanging rattles 

endings are gently massaged

Scott Robinson

brief high cries
descent into lower registers
these breaths
became pitch events
leading ear
through its space
the thoughts are clear
blatant Hungarian quasi-clarinet
(taragato)
finding two cornets in one
must be a device
that switches
from straight bell
to a built-in mute 

and three different saxophones
including an obsolete C Melody Sax
and bass with range to die for

Together

and together
Neil on soprano
and Scott on bass

Recorded

June 21, 2026

Uprising - Steve Layton [from Bedtime Stories]

we count in location
we recount in relocation
inexorable alternation 

the potion brews
molecules bond
and rebond
it drains off
but count remains

Sonata in C Major, Kk. 330 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

another on fortepiano 

used less as a contrast device
than as a means of articulating the shapes of phrases

Two Hungarian Recruiting Dances, S241 - Franz Liszt - Leslie Howard

elegant affairs
for the officer class 

early early Liszt
so still in an essentially Galant style
with the merest hint
of dark Schubertian shades 

the pretranscendant Liszt

Album for the Young, Part 1, Op. 68, 1-18 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

touch
as contrast among
and common aspect among

the common touch
(heh heh)

and contrast within
a sequence of articulated groups of phrases
distinguished by their varieties of touch
a primer in how to do so
by the master his own self
for beginners 

sparing of the power moves
available to a more fully grown hand
the pedaling required
is not Scriabin fancy 

Wilder Reiter
touches accents 

as the pieces progress
their gradual expansion of scale
instructs prolonged concentration

Lyric Pieces, Book II, Op. 38 - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø

amusement
Ken Benshoof admired these pieces
I think he was fond
of how focused they are
they don't move on
to new material
that isn't nearly
not new
the only real complaint
I might have
is that they don't break new ground
as a music
they are content and settled
all debts paid in full 

but they sure are pleasant to hear
status quo unchallenged

6 Idylles: I. Allegretto leggiero, Op. 24 #1 - Agathe Backer Grøndahl - Sara Aimée Smiseth

this one wanders close to moody shades
and lingers

2 Preludes, Op. 67 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

murkier portions settle
in a low mist 

moves smoothly
upon many swiftly vibrating legs

June 22, 2026

Save It, Pretty Mama - Louis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

decorative
gussied up
stanza forms

I Won't Say I Will (incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]

this album
includes a bunch of outtakes

She Loves You - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology]

I have a consistent inability
to pick up the downbeat in this song
until I'm several measures in

Blue Skies - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin All By Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]

Broadway trope
hey there folks
suddenly I'm in love

Johnny Bye-Bye - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]

song report
addressing the immediate past of song
a sketch demo

My tocher's the jewel (Ruubra) - King's Singers [from My Spirit Sang All Day]

lots of Scottish snapping

Alabama Jubilee [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends Vol. 3]

sunny day
trouble free vibe
with banjo scrubbing

Queen Gasoline - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

warning
against a risky person
to engage with 

contrasting dynamics
stanza by stanza

Haul Away Joe (live in 2000) - Scurvy Bastards [from Piranthology]

talk like a pirate night
at the local pub

Snohomish Mash-Up Piece #3 - S. Eric Scribner [from Odds and Ends]

a music full of sounds in relation

The Writing On The Wall - Lost In Space [from Live at The Player's Lounge]

performing selves
on a common stage 

song
(broad sense)
as a party game
keep it lively

Ace - Rawn Jawn [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have To Be Cool]

the vocal microphone
has an unfortunate ringiness to it

It's All Right With Me (incomplete) - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time / The Lost Session from the Black Forest]

at some point
there's no reason for a record company
to not release
all of the sound they've recorded
even edited for clarity
and to protect the innocent
here's Bill thinking a thing through

Hula Hoop - T. Bone Burnett [from Proof Through The Night]

verbal imitation
of the Sun Records echo effect

Untitled Hidden Track - REM [from Green]

this song
tells us what it is for
like labels on vitamins

U.S.A. (Ogalala Sioux Indian) - Jerry Gartett [from The World Sings Goodnight]

premise:
all peoples sing infants to sleep
possible
perhaps even plausible
yet unconfirmed
ill-defined term "peoples"

Intervention - Madonna [from American Life]

hard edges to the tracks this is made of
they are not in the room at all
not making sound?
you are erased from existing

I Will Forever Hate Roses - Dolly Parton [from Backwoods Barbie]

romantic disappointment
is a curse
upon a memory 

bump the key up a fret!

Black Jesus + Amen Fashion - Lady Gaga [from Born This Way]

at the heart of what fashion sells
is a command to conform

Black Cloud - Whitney Ballen [from You're a Shooting Star - I'm A Sinking Ship]

anxious sensitivity
to vibes
emanations
the creepies
all the congregation of them
another bivalent dynamic
stanza to stanza

Lie Flat - Megan Ihnen [from Sleep Songs - Worldless Lullabies from The Sleepless, volume 2]

a poem
in lines of pitches

Marie Antoinette - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]

post war coolness
nouveau suave
or urban social aspiration
politely sophisticated
nouveau Galant
shaken not stirred

Respectable Street - XTC [from Nancy's Mix]

in the original Nancy's Mix
the compilator skipped the introductory bit
that sounds like a dictaphone recording

My Baby's Gone - Girl Trouble [from Hit It Or Quit It]

writing a song
to a microphone
and related equipment
the sound
is
the score
they read
I guess
she's gone away

C.R.E.A.M. (a capella) - Wu-Tang Clan [from Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)]

rhyme as accent

The Closer I Get To You (with Beyoncé) - Luther Vandross [from Dangerously In Love]

a delicate negotiation

June 23, 2026

My Prolix Verses Fade - Christian Asplund [from Viola]

the edge of sound making
scrutinized
the business end
of scraping strings with strings
an activity
of making sound
this music
seems to eschew
the tool
of unity by common referential framework
or generation

Did Your Mama? - Holly Palmer [from I Confess]

bivalent dynamic stanza differentiation
seems to be a situational conceit of nurse to patient?

Freaks Only - Red Ribbon [from Dark Party]

I'm an idi-idiot

Top Of The Mountain - The Staple Singers [from Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]

from gospel
the dialog between lead singer and backups
also the counsel and witness

Killer Joe - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of The Kingsmen]

broadly cartooned figure
of late adolescent culture

Piano Player - J. K. Randall, Matthew Rosenblum, Marjorie Tichenor, Daniel Warner [from Inter/Play]

peering through cloudy glass
lengthy segments
with pauses
quite pronounced
between them
then
sneaking in
their edges
as though
the soundful segments
were negotiating a path
through a forest
of pause segments
as though they they had been pre-arranged 

this is the room
of moving slowly
Crumar and sax
like gulls 

what
in the music
stands for
the player's sharing a communication event
where do we hear it happening? 

in the shaping
of each sound
to each sound
with trust among them 

why should such a  conversation
need
to be a music
even if it is? 

Crumar chuckles low in the belly

Trenke, Todarke - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares 2]

antiphonal

Lake of Fire - Nirvana [from Unplugged in New York]

rural backwoods vocal delivery

Soundscape - Val [from Jack Straw Cultural Center: Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]

sounds as a thing
to be kept
saved for later

Other Side of the Morning - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]

symptoms in a list

O Sapo - Camarones Orquestra Guitarrística [from O Curioso Caso da Música Invisível]

a real
hair twirler
hip swaggerer

René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War - Paul Simon [from In The Blue Light]

memory poem

Remember - Tom Baker Quartet [from Begin Again]

this place grows on you
seeps right in

It's Not Easy - ? and The Mysterians [from The Best of ? and The Mysterians]

the old trope
of the everuntrustworthy female

Atlas Eclipticalis with Winter Music 831211 630 PM (continued) - The New Performance Group, John Cage]

punching buttons at prescribed times
which button
isn't crucial
that it be pushed
is
but only exactly
at the prescribed times 

these sounds represent objects
not nodes within a statement
or shared communication event
none of that! 

though
surreptition abounds
play on! 

shhh
they're listening
back to the buttons

Vamos (Surfer Rosa) - Pixies [from Surfer Rosa]

tightly wound
threat posture
guitar solo time

New Weather: II: Blemish - Edward T. Cone - Mimmi Fulmer, Jeffrey Farrington,John Whitfield, Cyrus Stevens, Jayn Rosenfeld

the care
with which pitch
lays out its cards

Colors: Green Grass - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]

a score is a stimulus
a prompt

Boom Synth - Michael - Sacajawea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]

not unplayful

Pretty Wicked Things - Dawn Richard [from Goldenheart]

sci fi fantasy witch queen vibe
dance song
end to end consistency

All My Friends Use Reverb - Lisa Puteska, Steve Kennedy [from Untitled Album]

abuse of machine regularity
looping can change linearly
but not transform or generate

Diabelli Recomposed (continued) - Various [from Diabelli Recomposed streamed by Claudia Bigos]

2
this one daubs paint upon it

3
exclaims over the exquisite detailing on the stitches

4
a lecture upon it is given
at quickened pantomime pace
such as before talkies

5
this one came apart in the box

Goldstaub (continued) - Karlheinz Stockhausen

these sounds inflict themselves upon each other 

human
hooman
hoomann
who mann
one moon
hoo! 
man

awakened in the middle
a lesson to anyone
what might be passing by
or
to no one
or
to someone
but not to you 

big bass blat 

ensemble exits
tingling their bells
into the lobby
or the distance 

we chanced upon
some hippies
in a wood

As The Night Goes By - Patti Smith [from Dream of Life]

fine grained sensibility
giddy love

June 24, 2026

Une jeune fillette (1576) - The Baltimore Consort [from La Rocque'n'Roll]

we picture costumes and sets around this music 

a line of melody
and a delivery
that belongs to our image of the past

Infraction Against The Homeland - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]

constructed from disparate source materials

Thanks 4 Nothin' - Mariah Carey [from E=MC2]

a dance spotlight
spots moments
of the spinning situation

First Song - Hope Wechkin [from Leaning Toward The Fiddler]

poem declaimed
by means of song
or prose
so declaimed

Sexy Vampire - Black Dresses [from Hell Is Real]

fantasies of youth

I Inside The Old Year Dying - PJ Harvey [from I Inside The Old Year Dying]

a line from a sonnet
sung in a paralleled interval

Ferdinand The Imposter - The Band [from Music from Big Pink]

character sketch
fellow at the bar
I can catch a few words
now and then

Night of The Living Baseheads - Public Enemy [from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back]

busy with episodes of intrusion

Liebesfreud - Fritz Kreisler - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]

musicians and their markets 

this sounds
like a silent movie accompaniment

Fall Dog Bombs The Moon - David Bowie [from Reality]

the conceit here
is that each stanza
adds to the story
oracularly

Under The Big Top - Rachel Harrington [from City of Refuge]

aerial act metaphor
devotion of partners

Land, Love, and Liberty - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from High Roads and Hard Shoulders]

testament and challenge
quite the strummer and picker on that guitar of his

Crystalline Thunderstorms - Triptet [from Slowly, Away]

evocative
illustrative
with tech specs aplenty 

intercrystalline probes
into the weirdness
of crystal math
it is
out
precisely
there

Seven Psalms - Paul Simon [from Seven Psalms]

this segment eases into its tonality
from out of its prior tonality 

the greater song takes it into itself
now a new time is there
to catch us up 

new movement
the Lord is my engineer 

some interesting sounds now and then
deeply human
doesn't try to overwhelm
with gewgaws
a comfort sermon

Think -Aretha Franklin [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

plea for recognition

Dopeman (Remix) - N.W.A. [from Straight Outta Compton]

rules of the game
veering toward self parody

Lord, If I Got My Ticket - Robert Shaw Festival Singers [from Amazing Grace]

pretty fancy arrangement there

In The Blue of Evening - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]

have the voices
that sung these songs
in shows
passed
beyond memory?
drowned
by a legion
of lounge pianists
in tuxes?

Look Unto The Sun - Achil - Prospect Choir, Kia Sams [from Prospect Congregational Centennial 1908-2008]

tightly made

Unicorny - Bad Cop, Bad Cop [from Wings of Techno]

when loops congrue
our world shrinks to a pinpoint

Old Fire - Kara Hesse [from Sojourner]

weary old love
lost sadness

Emax II the Max - Pete Comley [from The Paintronic Project - Paintronics Vol 5 - Glowing Orb Of Even More Paintronic Electronics]

throbbing closer
throbbing higher
a pitch
of uncertain solidity
respiration wheezes
crud bubbles from below
potion master
checking readouts
and adjusting settings
levitating
a standing wave

June 26, 2026

Nocturne in E-flat Major (#1) - John Field - Benjamin Frith

thinking vocally in one hand
and lutishly in the other
great care taken toward each

Infant Joy - William Blake - Allen Ginsberg [from Holy Soul Jelly Roll]

using music
as a stand-in
for Blake's illustrations

Duck Alert - Marley Marl [from In Control Volume 1]

goofing off
amid the tracks
of sounds
collected
by sound collectors

In Session at The Tintinabulary

June 21, 2026

Fair Haven - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 155 Fair Haven 260621 [260621]

Postscripts

Drops

Music by Barkin and Others

another collection of musics that have found their way into my fingers over the years
music by Elaine Barkin, Anne Gorrick, Neal Kosály-Meyer, Carson Farley, Doug Palmer, Kam Morrill, Leanna Keith, Richard Johnson, and Emily Doolittle

Keith Eisenbrey, piano and clavichord
Neal Kosály-Meyer, voice

recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream