Sunday, June 11, 2006
Return To The Four Chambers, About The Painful Leg Injuries' Podcast Series 11
I began to hear those strange ghostly echoes, in the subway chambers and on the NYC streets. When I did the Series 3 version, Underground Chambers, I wanted to make something that had that ghostly technology damage sound that Philip Jeck's work has. My theory was this, using the idea that I got from Alvin Lucier's Chambers, where sound is sculpted by the environment, added to the idea of technology damage, from Jeck's work, I came up with an approach. I would record street musicians, I'd let the cell phone's bad mic and now in the new series, the memo recorder's bad mic, interpret the sound of the environment we are in, and the sometimes beautiful and sometime horrible sounds of the public musicians into the source material of these collages.So, I made tons of field recordings of various public musicians using my memo recorder. Including, in full seriousness, your typical sax and horn players, two different guys playing a chinese lute, flutes, a string quartet, a blues band, guitarists, accordians, violins, a guy in a loincloth who sings and plays violin, and someone playing an extremely well known pop song on a muscial saw.
The first episode, Central Park, May 6th 2006, Pet Adoption Fair (For Crindy), was all sourced on that day at that location. The sources include the loincloth violin guy, chinese lute, steel drums, horn players, and the string quartet.
Episode Two, It Takes Six Strings To Laugh Again is dedicated to all those brave souls who pull out a guitar and sing in the face of public scrutiny. Episode Three could be my most devestating podcast yet, one sample looped in various pitches and phases, of a man playing a chinese lute, That Frightening Moment When The Sleeping Giant Wakes Up. The fourth is dedicated to all those heartbroken souls playing horns, who become the tragic backdrop to every subway ride, The Bill Byrne Elevenbilliontet. Those of you who read this blog, know my love of jazz and this is my fantasy of being a jazz band leader, with a G5. The fifth episode is another monster made of a sample of a very famous pop song (I'll let you guys figure out what song it is) being played on a musical saw, Above Us Only Sky. Finally the sixth episode is a lovely and fun sample of two men playing an accordian and violin. I've called this one Me As An Old Man In Palermo Sipping On Espresso Watching the Children Play.
My intention is not to exploit these musicains but to call attention to them. They are the soundtrack to many hours of our lives. It's a profoundly New York feeling they give the millions of commuters. I take their gift to the public home with me and collage it into the greater context. The important thing to me is that they are out there and sharing, in much more direct ways than weekly podcasts. Hope you enjoy the music thanks for listening.
