Music of Oceania – The Abelam of Papua Niugini

01 Drum Calls For The Slit Drums (1:05)
02 Drum Signal (1:20)
03 Men’s Song (1:59)
04 Antiphony To The Ancestral Spirits (2:52)
05 Nocturnal Song I (4:00)
06 Nocturnal Song II (3:43)
07 Introductory Song To A Speech (:53)
08 Concluding Song I (2:03)
09 Concluding Song II (2:07)
10 Ocarinas And Bamboo Flutes (1:24)
11 Antiphony For Initiation (2:41)
12 Men’s Song For Initiation Rite (4:16)
13 Dance Song Preceding The Yam Festival (1:28)
14 Men’s Song for Yam Festival I (2:55)
15 Men’s Song for Yam Festival II (2:14)
16 Men’s Song For The Ancestral Spirit (1:57)
17 Men’s Song At A Death Ritual (1:59)
18 Songs At A Wake I (2:20)
19 Songs At A Wake II (2:00)

Total time 43:10
LP released by Musicaphon, Disco-Center, Kassel, West Germany, 1980

Nothing can prepare you to New Guinea’s ethnic music. The fact it is not much circulated doesn’t help either. Before I go any further, I shall notice these recordings are either initiation, ceremonial or sacred events, and shouldn’t be considered merely as music, or worse, entertainment. Nevertheless, I will discuss their sonic properties only. The Abelam are a tribe from North of the Sepik River and south of the Prince Alexander Mountains, in North-Eastern Papua New Guinea. The recordings were made by Brigitta Hauser-Schaublin in 1978-83, with a few tracks recorded by Professor Dr. Gerd Koch in 1966, both German ethnomusicologists working on Swiss funding. Here’s how the liner notes describe the record: ‘Side A [tr.#1-10] consists of drum signals, songs and instrumental music connected with the erection and inauguration of a ceremonial house. Side B has excerpts from songs (some with instrumental accompaniment) performed at yam festivals and rites of passage’ [liner notes, introduction to The Recordings chapter]. The Abelam’s music combine microtonal, minimal percussion on hourglass and slit drums, and choir chant, often in antiphony style, that is, alternating male and female voices. Typically, the drums will perform long accelerandos, leading the singers in parallel glissandos.

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Philip Perkins ‘Drive Time’

01 Rainy Third Street (:42)
02 At Home And Away (3:35)
03 Noise Organ / Xmas Party / Ella (3:32)
04 Mechanical Piano Parade (3:06)
05 On The Park (2:51)
06 At The Machine / Eastchester Parade / The Onion (5:19)
07 Radio Dream (London) (4:02)
08 Street Conversation / Hardanger (2:56)
09 Squeak Opening / Grieg Park (3:02)
10 Shanty (3:25)
11 Bearing / Guitar Hero (4:45)
12 Hotel TV (LA) (1:28)
13 Jig (2:27)
14 Lions (:53)
15 Fire (3:45)

Total time 45:40
LP released by Fun Music, San Francisco, 1985

Philip Perkins was born in 1951 in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. During the first half of the 1970s he made numerous experimental films in Eugene, Oregon before relocating to San Francisco in 1977. Starting 1979, he focused on sound engineering and music, yet still making videos for local bands The Residents, Tuxedomoon or MX-80, for instance. Like two other Perkins audio works of the time (The Rosetta Stone and Hall of Flowers), ‘Drive Time’ was conceived as an alternative radio program, an interest Perkins further developed in later radio projects featuring live musicians and electronics, like ‘South Florida Remote’, ‘San Francisco Remote’ (both 1988), and ‘Berkeley Remote’ (1989). For more information on these, read Philip Perkins 1989 interview with H23 magazine No 1, Spring 1989 here. ‘Drive Time’ is a collection of audio vignettes encompassing recordings of various human leisure and outdoor activities (conversations, Christmas party, funfair,  mechanical piano, outdoor orchestral music, muzak, geese, gulls, rain, etc), interweaved with keyboard and guitar music, in addition to what Perkins calls ’simple musique concrete tricks’. The final mix, an elaborate audio survey of contemporary human activities, shows Perkins’ mastering of studio techniques, clever arrangements and melodic skills. ‘Eastchester Parade’ recalls Tony Schwartz’s own fondness for street parades, while on ‘Mechanical Piano Parade’ the piano conjures up a frolicking Buster Keaton surrounded by joyous geese. Imagine The Residents toying with field recordings for one of their concept albums (minus the buffoonery), except Philip Perkins’ melodies are far more refined and his arrangements more complex. The brilliant sound crafting recalls fellow San Franciscans Rhythm And Noise (Naut Humon, Nik Fault, Rex Probe) and the peerless technique of ‘Chasms Accord’ (1985). But Perkins doesn’t focus on electronic, and keyboards are just an element in a well balanced mix of acoustic instruments, synth loops and location recordings. Quite an achievement, actually.

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See also:
Philip Perkins ‘Virgo Ramayana’ >
Philip Perkins ‘Neighborhood With A Sky’ >
FUN music official website

Federico Barabino y Don Campau ‘Zamba’

01 Dejando ser (7:45)
02 Zamba (13:25)
03 Liberando al sonido interno (7:46)

Total time 28:55
CD-r released on Lonely Whistle Music, USA, 2006

Federico Barabino: guitar, environmental sounds
Don Campau: chimes, percussion, tibetan bowl, handmade rainstick, triangle, ocean drum, flywheel, harmonica, moog

For this release, home-taping legend Don Campau [see bio here] teams up with Argentinian guitar genius Federico Barabino [see bio here] in a mail collaboration where classical guitar and field recordings reign supreme. Environmental sounds like water dripping, rain, storm, motorbike, birds and various outdoor activities form the spine of ‘Zamba’, to which various acoustic instruments are discretely added to form a homogeneous blend that definitely owes something to Sound Ecology, i.e. active listening to environmental sounds, let nature make the music, etc (cf Murray Schafer). Not being thrown at you like in pop music, the sounds tend to fill up the available acoustic space of your living room in an unintrusive way. As a consequence, how much you’ll enjoy ‘Zamba’ depends on the way you’ll listen to it. I’d suggest consider it a morning raga – and indeed, there are ragas meant to bring the rain. Guitar playing is luminous and serene, with a tremendous sound quality that enhances the sharpness of Barabino’s technique. Cover is a digital print on lovely handmade paper, courtesy of Don Campau’s own Lonely Whistle Music’s exquisite taste. Thanks to Don for allowing this one to appear on Continuo’s.

Federico Barabino’s blog.
Don Campau dot com.

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Lionel Marchetti ‘Musique.laclasse.com’

38 tracks (including twelve 10-seconds silent tracks)
To play on shuffle mode.

Total time 66mn
Free CD published by pedagogical network Erasme and Rhône area, France, 2007

Lionel Marchetti is a French electroacoustic music composer (b1967) who started releasing discs in 1993 under the influence of Michel Chion. Since then he released highly original discs like ‘Portrait d’un glacier’(2001), ‘Noord Five Atlantica’ (2006) and my favorite ‘Train de Nuit’ (2002). The Musique.laclasse.com CD is the result of numerous workshops he conducted in schools with children from 12 to 16 years old. The composer helps the kids record source material then process it themselves with effects and montage. This CD is a selection of some of these musique concrète tracks and is meant to be played on shuffle mode with the silent tracks popping up here and there. Some of Marchetti’s own technique springs up here and there but with a fresh and naive take on musique concrète. The Musique.laclasse.com is also a cute website with updated soundfiles.

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Westerns – Diesel Hydraulics on the Western Region in 1974

37 tracks
Recorded in 1974 by Nigel Fletcher & Rob Woodward

Total time 56:30
LP released by Argo Records/Decca, UK, 1975

A classic if ever there was one, this extremely focused LP contains field recordings of a specific type of British diesel locomotives, namely the Class 52 [+], in use from 1961 to 1977. It was recorded by Nigel Fletcher & Rob Woodward who at the time were members of a UK pop/rock band called Lieutenant Pidgeon – formerly Stavely Makepeace – with several chart hits during the 1970s (see official website and Wikipedia). It seems a portion of the British population is worshiping their locomotives like nothing else and the Class 52 Westerns were arguably  the most popular among trainspotters. While personally having no interest in engines of any kind, I was moved nonetheless by the unusual fondness and devotion to diesel engines found in this record. The duo uses 2 different strategies to their proceedings. The microphone is either set up along the track and the train passes at full speed or slowly climbing a hill with engine at full throttle ; on the other hand, some tracks are recorded in the station, with various locomotives maneuvering, speaker announcements, conversations. Some of the latter category include studio montage as well. I can’t claim the tracks are varied – for obsessive field recordists repetition is key to enjoyment – but once you get acquainted with the sound of the massive diesel engines, you notice the nuances, you spot a familiar loco, you appreciate the power. The back cover comes with complete track description (included as a text file with the d/l link) and includes some matter of fact lines like: ‘The eastbound milk train hoots as the driver sees my torch on a moonless night!’ (tr.#17, side A).  Industrial music for industrial people, anyone?

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Philip Perkins ‘Neighborhood With A Sky’

01 Bird Variations #1 (2:15)
02 Bird Variations #2 (2:23)
03 Bird Variations #3 (2:58)
04 Bird Variations #4 (3:50)
05 The Black And White Cat (3:05)
06 Este’s Request (4:33)
07 The Fountain (8:38)
08 Equinox Weather (2:48)
09 Rico In The Birdhouse (5:41)
10 Retreat (5:30)

Total time 41:39
LP released on FUN Music, Albany, CA, 1982

A rare example of American musique concrète, ‘Neighborhood With A Sky’ was Philip Perkins’s first LP release on his own Fun Music label, after several cassettes including ‘Apartment Life’ (1980) and ‘Tapeworks 1975-80′ (1981) and a 7” titled ‘Tool’s Paint’ in 1981.The label was founded by Scott Fraser, David Ocker, ‘Blue’ Gene Tyranny and Perkins in 1979. For more info on Philip Perkins, see previous post. The LP is a collection of magnificent musique concrète miniatures based on massively processed location recordings. The effects (pitch modification, speed change, reverb, phasing) are so generously applied it is sometimes hard to identify the sound source. The latter includes a purring cat, water, clock mechanism, birds, construction noises (or street cleaners?), . . . Some synth and electronic effects are added here and there, merely enhancing the poetic and magical sound effects of some tracks. The music is very focused but un-dogmatic. Other examples of US musique conrète composers I can think of include John Wiggins and Richard Lerman, but not much more.

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Tony Schwartz round up

1. Music In Marble Halls (6:08)
   [from You're Stepping On My Shadow LP, 1962]
2. Sounds Outside My House (5:45)
   [from Sounds of My City LP, 1956]
3. Columbus Day Parade (5:08)
   [from The Library of Congress archives, 1963]
4. The Small Recorder (3:13)
   [from The Library of Congress archives]
5. Moondog (Fog on the Hudson) (1:20)
   [from New York 19 LP, 1954]
6. Nancy Grows Up (2:16)
   [from Tony Schwartz Records the Sounds of Children LP, 1970]
7. Factory Whistle Carols (1:35)
   [from Milions Of Musicians, 1954, incl. in the SoundViews cassette]
8. Sounds from New York (15:08)
   [from The Library of Congress archives]
9. Sound Picture of New York (4:31)
   [from The Library of Congress archives, 1956]
10. Children’s Ring Game (4:30)
    [from Nueva York LP, 1955]
11. Nancy’s Voice (6:35)
    [from the Adventures In Sound show, 1970]
12. How We Remember (5:09)
    [from The Library of Congress archives]
13. Favorite Sounds (4:22)
    [from The Library of Congress archives]
14. Major in Germany (2:40)
    [from The Library of Congress archives, 1958]

Total time 68:00
Source: Library of Congress, WFMU, WNYC, Gibble Gabble

In 1952, Tony Schwartz (born in Manhattan, 1923-died 2008) was recording New York children and untrained street musicians when, just down the place where he lived on 57th Street, he fell on a blind musician he recorded playing his unique percussion instrument on a background of street noises (see tr.#5 above). This was the first time someone would record Moondog. Schwartz was collecting everyday sounds from his neighbourhood since 1945 and producing a weekly program on WNYC called Around New York (1945-1976). First he had used a Webster WEBCOR wire recorder from 1945 to 1947, when he was finally able to get a battery-operated Magnemite tape recorder, allowing to record anything on the way to work or back from a late diner. Back at his home-studio he would select the best excerpts from the day’s harvest, label them and store them for future re-use, building one of the largest sound library in the US (incidentally, French composer Pierre Henry uses exactly the same technique).

He started releasing records as early as 1953 for the Mars company, but soon found a home on Folkways Records, whose founder Moses ‘Moe’ Ash would be bold enough to put out his crazy ‘ambient sounds’ records. His first Folkways LP was ‘1,2,3 and a Zing, Zing, Zing’, released in 1953 and including sounds recorded the previous year near his West Midtown area. Tony Schwartz said he suffered from agoraphobia, that’s why he never wandered far from his base, which is all the more remarkable considering the variety of sounds his records are made of. From his West 57th Street apartment, he recorded Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte or Yma Sumac, as well as many politicians and famous people. In the early 1960s, Schwartz co-founded the Doyle Dane Bernbach advertising company (DDB) with which he did commercials for national advertisers like Coke, McDonald’s, etc, as well as politicians.

The 14 tracks above were collected on the web in various formats, their sound quality varying from mediocre hi-fi to acceptable lo-fi – once you realise the importance of Tony Schwartz, you disregard eventual sound flaws. Most are mono recordings, either from LPs or broadcast archives. All Schwartz trademarks are included (except taxi drivers): children, immigrants, men-at-work, Jewish communities, animals, street peddlers, elders, blind people (Schwartz suffered temporary blindness for 6 months in his young age). More often than not in his sound work, Schwartz is working as an advertiser, trying to sell us the prettiest neighbourhood in the greatest city in the world. If truth be told, his sound collages are sometimes mere aural postcards from an imaginary city where men work hard, children play endlessly, women stay at home, colored people bring out their sooo-charming music. But this shall not detract us from the tape splicing genius Tony Schwartz was, as important as Pierre Schaeffer (who never used tapes) or Orson Welles and John Houseman’s Mercury Theater, and a pioneer paving the way for Arsenije Jovanović or Willem de Ridder.

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Tony Schwartz discography (tbc):
On Mars label:
1953 – Moondog In The Streets Of New-York

On Folkways:
1953 – 1, 2, 3 and a Zing Zing Zing
1954 – French Folk Songs – Henriette and Emile Zmirou
1954 – Millions of Musicians
1954 – New York 19
1955 – Nueva York: A Tape Documentary of Puerto Rican New Yorkers
1955 – Exchange, Friendship Around the World Thru Tape Exchange
1956 – Sounds of My City
1957 – Music in the Streets
1958 – An Actual Story in Sound of a Dog’s Life
1958 – Sound Effects, Vol. 1: City Sounds
1958 – The World in My Mail Box
1962 – You’re Stepping on My Shadow
1962 – American History in Ballad and Song, Vol.2
1970 – The Sounds of Children

On Columbia:
date? – The New York Taxi Driver (late 1960s)
date? – That’s My Opinion and it’s Very True

Eberhard Schoener ‘Bali Agúng’

01 Tjandra (5:34)
02 Rawana (3:04)
03 Nadi (10:32)
04 Surija (3:43)
05 Ramayana (3:15)
06 Ketjak (2:18)
07 Agúng Raka–Dalang (5:40)
08 Gong–Gede (5:44)

Total time 39:30
LP released on Celestial Harmonies, 1980

A multifaceted German composer, Eberhard Schoener (born Stuttgart, 1938) studied classical music (violin and conducting) before broadening his scope through extensive Far East travels and electronic music. He even provided incidental music for Derrick in 1988. Bali Agúng was a German TV program about German musicians in Bali meeting a Gamelan orchestra, the latter later touring in Germany. This was the 3rd edition of the original 1975 Harvest LP reissued by Celestial Harmonies, a US label ran by German expat Eckart Rahn who moved to the US to distribute Popol Vuh and Henry Wolff & Nancy Hennings LPs from German catalogues. The music on Bali Agúng blends ambient synth, space rock, Raymond Scott-like early electronics, Gamelan orchestra and Ketjak singers. It doesn’t seem German and Indonesian musicians actually collaborated but the location recordings are used to good effect, counter-balancing the occasional synthesizer tracks. The result sounds original to this day. Eberhard Schoener’s project is quite different from Wendy Carlos’s own ‘Beauty In The Beast’ 1986 LP where she expertly programmed synthesizers to perform Gamelan rhythms. The electronics on Bali Agúng never tries to imitate Indonesian music, but they are used as a counterpoint. The last track, Gong-Gede, mixes Gamelan metallophones with fierce drum-kit solos and spacey electronics, coalescing together via studio montage technique. The LP is an impressive and unforgettable experience, not mere cross-over, but Westerners-meet-Balinese music experiments. [see official website]

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