Playlist

Preface

"In short, the composer who has presumed to speak reveals himself in the guise of a speaker who is compelled to compose, with words." Martin Brody "The Age of Milton" Open Space Magazine Special Issue 14 Spring 2012

Texts

Recorded

June 20, 2017

Aku (Bard Chapel Version) - Keith Eisenbrey

Kingston Bridge, ca 1982

Aku exists in several versions, none of them the pristine digital archival copy that might have existed had I had the know-with-all in 1981 to imagine such a thing. The best copy for which I had playback capability was the cassette copy made for me by the listening library folks at the University of Washington. It was this copy that I took with me to Annandale-on-Hudson in 1982 and played for Ben Boretz and my fellow students. Ben thought it could use some space around it so Bruce Huber loaned me the borry of a guitar amp and a second cassette deck, and a couple of hours, so we could play it into the chapel and record the results. By the time I ripped it to digital the recording had deteriorated somewhat, causing a certain amount of wobble.  A long story whose point is simply that Aku, as a personality, seems to actively seek out noise. Perhaps this is why we get along so well.

Exploration of the space-noise continuum. Parts of partials lag behind other parts of partials. Speeds of speaking. The speculative purpose of composition by design is, one hopes, to elicit, out of its designed complexity, unforeheard, undesigned wonders, such as these. Not for the faint of heart. Awesomely cruddy. Puts up a hell of a fight || flicker of light on water || durations hang past rational valuation.

Hey, Mr. Rain (version 1) - The Velvet Underground [from Another View]

Callling down the powers from above, a rain dance in song. Feature: a far more subtle tempo shift than in Heroin.

Banned Rehearsal 247 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [February 1991]

Near Burns, Oregon 1990

Candles burn in the barn fly attracted to flame becomes the wick stories in rhythm sipping around the edge of rhythm's gloss and falling in drunk being drunk. Radio: not atonement theology, but atonement pornography. The radical onslaught. Though even here a compositional tactic: wait till "A" has been forgot then spring "A" on you again and again, playing with the rhythm of forgetting and expectation. Richly sonorous affront on all fronts to professionalism's hegemony. It is important to cease thinking in marketable chunks, sound bites, convenient 12 packs.

June 22, 2017

Heart Attack - Sleater-Kinney [from Call The Doctor]

Almost perfect! Cut the vocal before the last 5 words remind us what song we are hearing and you've got it. Fine Feature: Chorus has a shrill hook nearly unrecognizable as vocal in pedigree.

In Session at the Tintinabulary

June 10, 2017

Banned Telepath 56 170610 Anchorage A - Aaron Keyt

June 18, 2017

Banned Telepath 56 170618 Anchorage B - Aaron Keyt

June 19, 2017

Banned Telepath 56 170619 Seattle - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy

Banned Rehearsal 937 170610-19 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt

Steve's Guitar (one of many)

I tried something a bit different in mixing the telepaths together. Rather than plopping Aaron's contributions down in the middle somewhere I simply looped them over the top of our porch session. All Aaron all the time! I figured they came so far to be here they ought to be given several contexts.

Playlist

Recorded

June 11, 2017
Die Kunst der Fuge, Contrapunctus X - J. S. Bach - Zoltan Kocsis

Sequences establish a rhythm of (usually) stepwise motion, allowing cross-rhythms of modulations and quasi-modulations - as though another music were going by in the background at a different tempo.

I love how the grandness of the denouement is fully established within what is really a quite thin texture. We hear it as grand because, in order to hear its logic, we imagine each note as sustaining at full volume - virtual grandiosity with virtual sustain.

Quartet in E-flat Major, opus 76 #6 - Haydn - Amadeus Quartet

Not sure this is really what's happening, but what I wanted to be happening is a sequence of variations occurring within single iterations of a larger theme and variations - both T and V constructed out of shorter Ts and Vs.

June 14, 2017
Birdwell Blues - Nolan Welsh, Louis Armstrong [from Alan Lowe's Really The Blues]

A tale: police harassment. "You know I been here before." Truth.

Don Redman

Trouble Why Pick On Me - Don Redman, Red Allen [from Alan Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

Unexpected wonders: that voice, those perfectly executed parallel trills thrown in just for fun, showy tonguing, a tightly organized arrangement.

Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind On Jesus) - Roosevelt Graves and Brother [from Goodbye Babylon]

Keeping it lively, everything is slap. Slap guitar slap vocal.

I'm Through With Love - Sarah Vaughan [from Interlude - Early Recordings 1944-1947]

Nothing wrong with this performance (it's flawless) but it fails to convince me, it never lifts off.

Walking My Lord Up Calvary Hill - Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper [from Goodbye Babylon]

The Passion according to just folks.

A Woman Alone With The Blues - Peggy Lee [from Black Coffee]

Sung as a single thought, a through-composed line. Tubular bells!

Now Is The Hour - Leo Diamond [a Rescued Record]

Rather bizarre, but it sounds like he was quite an interesting guy - trying to make the harmonica acceptable for the hi-fi crowd. The 45 that found me had suffered considerably, with much of the fi scuffed off the top.

Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat - Bob Dylan [from Blonde on Blonde]

Kind of a mean-spirited blues when it comes right down to it.

Everybody Loves Me Baby - Don McLean [from American Pie]

In spite of his apparent attempt at humorous self-laceration, this still comes across as narrow and airless.

Young Americans - David Bowie [from Changes One]

Thick and taut, a line pulled past where it ought to break but that just won't.

In Session at the Tintinabulary

June 12, 2017
Gradus 313 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

June 15, 2017
Etudes - Keith Eisenbrey

These are five little pieces from 2000 that started life as clarinet duets: "Coiled", "Fragment", "Dance" "Air", and "Misterioso". I arranged them later as piano fingering puzzles. I was in the early stages of working with mod-17 pitch sets, essentially asking myself the question "What would regular music sound like if the modular interval were 17 instead of 12?" So, yes, this is what I think regular music is like.

Jerseyville Illinois - Your Mother Should Know [Karen Eisenbrey, drums; Neal Kosály-Meyer, vocal and piano]

In anticipation of a hoped-for pro-studio recording project I recorded three demo takes.

Playlist

Live

June 9, 2017
Zach Tries To Not Ruin His Masters Recital
Brechemin Auditorium, School of Music, University of Washington, Seattle
Zachary Buker, tenor
with Ingrid Verhulsdonk, piano; Yoojeong Cho, soprano; Daniel Frizzell, lute; Denna Good-Mojab, soprano; Sarrah Flynn, flute; Alessandra Barrett, viola; Isabella Kodama, cello; Tyler Kim, violin; Judith Kim, violin, (and the comic relief crew)

In Alto Mare; Stornellatrice; Nevicata - Ottorino Respighi
Fussreise; Verborgenheit; Der Tambour - Hugo Wolf
Lamento; Testament; La vie Anterieure - Henri Duparc
Odi l'aura - Beethoven
Ich und du- Peter Cornelius
Come Again, Sweet Love Doth Now Invite; If My Complaints Could Passions Move; Can She Excuse My Wrongs? - John Dowland
Wilt Thou Be Gone, Love - Stephen Foster
Torna a Surriento - Ernesto De Curtis
l'Ultima Conzone - Francesco Paolo Tosti
Musica Proibita - Stanislao Gastaldon

We were afraid that a late bus would make us late guests, but we made it just minutes before the start. After an opening Marxist shtick (Harpo, that is, in a broadly Buffo vein, [or Victor B, or Professor PS]) to sweep whatever dustcurdles of pretense might lurk in that storied space, Zach proceeded to inhabit each song utterly. Having rid the event of seriousness, the actual performances stood out in stunning relief. As wonderful as the performances were (and they were) it is this aspect of the evening I keep coming back to - a brilliant idea about how to allow each song to stand proud in its own glory, without drenching it first in concert seriousness.

Other thoughts: How wonderful to hear such a voice in an intimate space! His comrades in song were wonderful (though Karen thought his bombshell partner for the Foster was going to give me a heart attack - I survived, feeling no pain). What wonderful characterizations! And impeccable comic timing to boot. Another random image: during the Wolf, oddly, I kept picturing him as the Jack Haley Tin Woodsman - something about the pitch of the voice, and the shape of the face.

All that and there were random prizes (though no puppies) scattered liberally throughout. We ended up with three lovely little saké cups held together with masking tape. When we got home (thanks for the ride, Melissa and Adena!) I deftly crumpled the tape into a loose mass, presented it to Obb the cat for sniffing, let it fall to the floor, moved it twice with my finger. It kept the cats occupied all night.


Recorded

June 3, 2017
Banned Rehearsal 63 - Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 1986]



Our third live show: Brechemin Auditorium, University of Washington, January 9, 1986. The first part consisted of pretty much what we had done at our second show in the same space the previous July, but rebranded now as Three Compositions No Breaks. The second part was a set of Sudden Songs:

Bickleton Burger [Keyt]
Hey Hey Hey [Eisenbrey]
The Picture On My Wall [Kosály-Meyer]
I Wanna Girl from Venice California [Eisenbrey]
Instrumental [group]
Electric Garbage [Kosály-Meyer]
Tacoman [Eisenbrey]
Quiet Song [Kosály-Meyer]
Ain' No Easy Woman [Eisenbrey]
Wild Thing [a cover]
and a bonus bit after the audience had cleared out:
Aaronsbundler March [Keyt]

Brechemin 1986

We are weaving through the room accumulating the noise of our devices, filtered through the noise of our devices. Clunky and Clumsy. Seamless we are not. We layer thick, and not with clear lacquers but with ill mixed craft paint and dustcrud. We incant to the muses. First part: We know what we are doing but not what what we are doing will make. Second part: We know what we are trying to make our doing do, but not how to do the doing that does that that we are trying to make our doing do. In the midbit between the parts one can hear Neal and I, separately to different audience groups, holding forth on what we are doing. Spreading the gospel. This episode is, neatly, a concretion of the kind of argument Banned Rehearsal is.

We do DIY with a vengeance. After listening to it all over again after these many years all I could think to myself was "What were we thinking!?" And yet, how grand it is. In many ways I am in awe of our youthful recklessness.

June 7, 2017
losing an eye - Infamous Menagerie

A murky slime-infested dive five rooms back of the swamp. But in a really good way.

Banned Rehearsal 422 DAT - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 1996]

Attentionfarbenmelodie

June 8, 2017
Banned Rehearsal 610 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Isabel K-M, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer


We discuss the failure of the engineer (me) to record the first part of the session. A mix of extreme delicacy and extreme blattiness. Depth of field.

In Session at the Tintinabulary

June 5, 2017
Banned Rehearsal 936 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Playlist

Recorded

May 28, 2017

We're Almost Down To The Shore - Jimmie Strothers [from Goodbye Babylon]

tune your banjo
to the thrum of the head

tune your voice
to the beeline precision of the string

that is to say, if you want to sing in tune, this is the gold standard

Flo Flo - Sam Donahue [from Alan Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

what have we with which to speak?
music is our ticket to public consciousness

When I'm In My Tea - Jo Jo Adams [from Alan Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

among ourselves our own late night comic songs reasserting the creative imperitive

Dinah Washington

I'm A Fool to Want You - Dinah Washington [from Alan Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

gives PL a run for her money as sexiest voice ever

It Ain't Necessarily So - Peggy Lee [from Black Coffee]

the words themselves wouldn't strike one immediately as torch song material, delivery is everything.

Little Sister - Elvis Presley [collected for Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

in our history with recorded music rock and roll is simply among the first that capitalized on the hugely increased horsepower available from amplification 

May 29, 2017

I Want You - Bob Dylan [from Blonde on Blonde]

never had a problem with the 'fact' that he doesn't sing in tune - always figured he hit every note he aimed at - gestural intonation

Crossroads - Don McLean [from American Pie]

a patina of heartfelt worldweary depth - one assumes (probably in error) that there is sense to be made of it

Diamond Dogs - David Bowie [from Changes One]

pushes the studio effects on the vocals to the point of being kind of a mess
far from my favorite DB

AKU - midi with reverb - Keith Eisenbrey

the notion of tempo relies on pulse
the notion of expanse relies on itself

my fling with larger than life
certainly brash certainly complete

I'm Gonna Move Right In - The Velvet Underground [from Another View]

game for guitars jamming in turns

Banned Rehearsal 246 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [February 1991]

orchestral violin frenetic flute kalimba far away [are counterpoints a form of criticism?]

N once posited of BR that we don't know what we're doing, that is, we are doing don't knowing, knowing in doing don't knowing, knowingly we do don't knowing

[mic'd a certain way, sul ponticello makes a pretty good imitation of old-time radio static :: what stations can we pick up on the sul pont?]

If anyone cares, this recording was made on a mid 70's Sanyo cassette tape player (still works). The mics were two Realistik PZMs taped to the wall (they still work too) no school like the old school

AARON says BURRd

I'm Not Waiting - Sleater-Kinney [from Call The Doctor]

love the angles at which the verse and chorus and bridge snag each other

May 30,2017
Banned Rehearsal 609 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Isabel K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 2001]

barnacles and shore birds crab hiphopbeatbox on the radio waves :: we find our way out of Kammersymphonieland :: that is a gull or several

4 Midi Pieces - Elaine Barkin [from Open Space 21]

coy little pitch bends
playing the part, in a stage drama, of music
a diversely situated spirit
a gnarly timefeel

Figure Study 7 - Keith Eisenbrey

between waiting for possibilities to evaporate and leaving space for others to attack, caught in a strobeflash frozen into time

Pietracatella  - Denise Glover [from Pathways]

love how the tempo discovers itself established

May 31, 2017
Der Kunst der Fuge Contrapunctus X - J. S. Bach - Lionel Rogg

a platformer in more dimensions than are strictly possible

String Quartet in D minor, opus 76 #2 Hob.III:76- Haydn - Amadeus Quartet

to be sub-titled 'the overtly contrapuntal'

No Foolin' Around

June 1, 2017
High Fever - Freddie Kreppard, Cookie's Ginger Snaps [from Alan Lowe's Really The Blues]

synchronized tonguing

Bandit Cole Younger- Edward L. Crain [from Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music]

cautionary tale
voice from the grave
news clip op ed
how fare the outlaw
in this outland?

O Lord I'm Your Child - Elder Otis Jones [from Goodbye Babylon]

preaching as a collaborative endeavor whipping up to singing

Benny's Bugle - Lester Young [from Alan Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

more o' that fine tonguing together

Ecuador - Stan Kenton [from Alan Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

ladies and gentlemen, we now give you dynamic deep focus

Deliverance Will Come - Johnson Family Singers [from Goodbye Babylon]

tight homophony square as square is square pulled back at ends of verse
no solo voice (one voice out of many)

Gee Baby (Ain't I Good to You) - Peggy Lee [from Black Coffee]

vibe and bass solos are killer

Midnight Ride - Paul Revere and The Raiders

self promotion and novelty song all at once, and a seed for Bill & Ted

Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again - Bob Dylan [from Blonde on Blonde]

hyper singsong delivery opens up compositional space [see above gestural intonation]

Empty Chairs - Don McLean [from American Pie]

Rick Wright

another one that would have been better off without the strings & other claptrap, but not much better

Rebel Rebel - David Bowie [from Changes One]

different readings of the same character, actorly

Sheep - Pink Floyd [from a collection of great dance songs]

lots of room for light show and Rick on the keys. (Karen liked the picture of Gilmour so much I thought I'd give her some more eye candy.)

In Session at The Tintinabulary

May 29, 2017

Gradus 312 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

hillside contours
that one is off like an alien space saucer into disappearance
the waited silence resonance of the holy
last scent of sunset before evening reeks into night