Radical Glass Music #2

01 Frédéric Nogray ‘Nekli – #01′ (18:09)
02 Zach Wallace ‘Glass Armonica – #2′ (19:05)
03 Michel Redolfi & Thomas Bloch ‘Ptyx’ (9:46)
04 Angus Maclaurin ‘Drunken Nightmare’ (11:30)
05 Annea Lockwood ‘Mini Mobile’ (2:13)

Total time 60:43
See also Radical Glass Music #1.

• Frédéric Nogray ‘Nelki #01′ (18:09)
  A track from Nogray’s 2008 ‘Nelki’ CD on Prêle Records. This is music made entirely on crystal singing bowls, played with a wooden stick I assume. Nogray makes full use of the glasses purity of tone in this extremely restrained track. He could almost be using a sine wave oscillator for that matter. Another striking aspect is the floating quality of glass sounds: they are not grounded, they float. I think the Vermeer painting above has something of these pure colors and  suspended time.

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• Zach Wallace ‘Glass Armonica – #2′ (19:05)
  Wallace is a member of Sun Circle duo with Greg Davis. This track comes from a glass armonica CD released by Root Strata in 2009. Wallace apparently build his own version of the glass harmonica whose sound is quite unique, with properties close to a hurdy-gurdy, say – expect more grating sounds than your average Mozart. Some info here and here.

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• Michel Redolfi & Thomas Bloch ‘Ptyx’ (9:46)
  From a live recording in a Lille swimming pool, France, 2004. Bloch plays Cristal Baschet and glass harmonica, while Redolfi takes care of sound treatment and spatial effects. As this comes from a YouTube video, the stereo effects are unfortunately lost. See this article for more info.

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• Angus Maclaurin ‘Drunken Nightmare’ (11:30)
  The ‘Glass Music’ CD by US composer Maclaurin was recorded on tuned glasses, with occasional sampler and vocals and released on the Bubblecore label, 2000.  Maclaurin is interested by the poetry and mystery of glass sounds, building short, atmospheric tracks with unusual density for glass music. He’s also using rerecording, sound treatments and effects in a rather un-dogmatic way for glass music standards that is.

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• Annea Lockwood ‘Mini Mobile’ (2:13)
  An excerpt from Lockwood’s landmark ‘Glass World’ LP released on Tangent Records, 1970. The LP is a collection of very short tracks from ephemeral glass sound sculptures including glass rods, sheets or bottles.

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