William Penn ‘Crystal Rainbows’

01 Reflections in a Plastic Vase (6:20)
02 Interlude: Crystal Rainbow (2:18)
03 Moonshine (7:22)
04 Gossamer Looms (6:58)
05 Iridescent Stillness Through Curved Space (6:36)
06 Reprise: Crystal Rainbow (2:32)

Total time 32:00
LP released by Sounds Reasonable, Inc. (SRI) SR 7801, Washington, D.C., 1978

This record is based on an exhibition held at the Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C., home of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s craft and decorative arts program since 1972. The exhibition was titled ‘The Harmonious Craft: American Musical Instruments’, and was on show in 1978 and 79, including ‘unique and esoteric American handcrafted musical instruments’. Composer William Penn (b. 1943) was asked by Sounds Reasonable Associates to compose music based on the instruments on display. Penn graduated from Buffalo University in 1967 where he studied Northern Renaissance music, Theater Music with Maurizio Kagel and serialism with Belgian composer Henri Pousseur. At one point, he played in a band called The Creative Associates including Lukas Foss, George Crumb and Kagel. He turned to more academic music as a composer and producer for Arizona University Recordings, and nowadays writes scores for theater productions. Penn has records out on CRI, Smithsonian, Hebra, Advance, etc. On a side note, in 1974, the Washington, D.C. Sounds Reasonable label released an intriguing 7” single by The Stereofernic Orchidstra, an orchestra of plants triggering electronic sounds from an ARP 2600 synthesizer. The Orchidstra was the brain-child of physics student Norman Lederman with help from Jeff Bagato and Gary Burke. It seems S.R.I. producer Edmund Barnett was quite an adventurous person as a producer.

To compose the tracks on Crystal Rainbows, Penn grasped some of the instruments on display at the exhibition: the Cloud Chamber Bowls built by Skip LaPlante and designed by Harry Partch; the Single String Stainless Steel Cello by Robert Rutman; the Electronic Jawbone by Bob Natalini; the Triple Ocarina by Susan Rawcliffe; the Steel String Guitar by Max Krimmel; the Bicentennial Turkey Tambourine by Jan Brooks Loyd; the Portative Organ by John Brombaugh and George Taylor; the Music By The Inch by Bob Hanson or the Appalachian Dulcimer by Rufus Jacoby. To this Penn added his own rubber piano, jaw harp and ARP 2600 synth. Dominick Labino plays Glass Harmonica on two solo tracks (#2 & 6). All other instruments are played by Penn himself, except:

• Carol J. McCloud: bagpipes
• Magruder Dent III: Steel String Guitar
• Tom McCarthy: Fender bass
• Elizabeth Garrett Bunker, Robert Wieczorowski: voice
• Dominick Labino: glass harmonica
• Jim Harmon: piano (on Reflections)

The music is unlike any other music from self-build instruments I can think of, for William Penn is a trained composer, making full use of counterpoint and other elaborate techniques in composing. Some passages are freely improvised, like the powerful sounds emitted by the Stainless Steel Cello on #4 Gossamer Looms. In this case, the menacing sounds are counterbalanced by Jew’s harp and Sanza Finger piano. #3 Moonshine gets very close to a Jean-Jacques Perrey hit on self-build instruments. While this LP is far from the avantgarde of the time, its charm lies in the exquisite arrangements and originality of instrumentation.

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Below: instrument builders

Logos ‘Pneumafoon Project’

1. Concerto For Pneumaphones And Organ (22:40)
   Organ: Johan Huys
   Pneumaphones: Guy De Bièvre, Moniek Darge, Tom Flamant, Inge Kerkhove, Wim Belaen, Rik Deschynck, Hans Vuylsteke
2. Pneumaphone Performance (24:40)
   Pneumaphones: Kattie Couck, Moniek Darge, Tom Flamant, Godfried-Willem Raes

Total time 47:20
LP released by Igloo Records, IGLOO 050, Ghent, Belgium, 1987

Part pneumatic sound sculptures, part large wind orchestra, the Pneumafoon Project (Flemisch for Pneumaphones) was created by Logos, the duo of Belgian Godfried-Willem Raes and Moniek Darge in 1983. It is a collection of up to 24 inflatable cushions in bright colors (yellow, red, orange, green) connected to various sound mechanisms: latex membranes, horn resonators, single or double reeds, flutes, mirlitons, sirens, etc. The main sonic caracteristic of the Pneumaphones is variable pitch, obtained through variable air pressure and specific altering pitch devices (water in plastic tubes or ping-pong ball on spring for instance). The whole project was premiered in 1983 in Essen, and then toured Europe (Brüssels, Eindhoven, Bonn, Stuttgart, Ferrare) and Canada (Toronto’s Music Gallery, 1984). It was reactivated in recent years during several live performances and installations (including Lille, France in 2008 and Manchester, UK in 2009 – see here).

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See also:

• IGLOO 056 Moniek Darge ‘Sacred Places’ >
• IGLOO 007 Leo Küpper ‘Kouros et Korê/Innominé’ >
• Godfried-Willem Raes round up >
• Musicworks #30 ‘Sound Constructions’ >

ECHO: Images Of Sound II

01 Richard Lerman Travelon Gamelon (3:01)
02 Richard Lerman A Footnote From Chernobyl (6:34)
03 Martin Riches Sprung Eight (4:32)
04 Terry Fox Untitled (5:08)
05 Joe Jones Small Orchestra (5:15)
06 Takehisa Kosugi Untitled (13:48)
07 Walter Fähndrich Improvisation (5:05)
08 Yoshi Wada Untitled (3:48)
09 Jean Weinfeld Untitled (1:01)
10 Christina Kubisch Untitled (0:55)
11 Johan Goedhart & Paul Panhuysen Projection (6:28)
12 Horst Rickels Untitled (2:37)
13 Horst Rickels Untitled (3:25)
14 Jim Pomeroy Untitled (4:52)
15 Jim Pomeroy Untitled (0:55)

Total time 70:00
CD released by Het Apolohuis Records, The Netherlands, 1992

This disc documents the proceedings of the ECHO: Images Of Sound festival’s 2nd edition that took place in Het Apolohuis and Activiteitcentrum 2B galleries in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, from May 1st until June 14th, 1987. A Fluxus sound and visual artist, Paul Panhuysen (b.1934) founded Het Apolohuis in 1982, an artist-run gallery focusing on sound art that Panhuysen directed with wife Hélène until its closing in 1997 (see official website). This disc alone is evidence of Panhuysen’s pioneering flair, since artists featured here weren’t widely circulated circa 1987 and became stars only 20 years later wiht CD reissues and retrospective exhibitions the wolrd over. Most tracks, but not all, were recorded during festival performances. Several performances pertain to a kind of poetic, urban gamelan with found objects, often with exquisite results (Joe Jones, Richard Lerman). Most impressive is the Taj Mahal Travellers founding member Takehisa Kosugi track, for amplified violin, ruler and voice. The piece is very intense, making full use of delay and reverb pedals to enhance the physical properties of sounds in a semi-primitive improvisation. Sound installations and sound sculptures were a major trend of the festival, lavishly documented in the booklet with amazing photos (included with d/l link). Whether you are familiar with sound art or not, this disc will take you by surprise, be it for the contributions’ high quality or the fascinating musical soundworld emerging from the compilation.

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Musicworks #50

Robert Minden ‘The Boy Who Wanted To Talk To Whales’
01 Overture (4:45)
02 The Canadian (4:30)
03 Whale Song (4:15)
04 Daniel Goode ‘Thrush Polyphony (excerpts)’ (13:20)
05 Michael Burtch ‘Harbour Sounds Ashore’ (3:00)
06 Trevor Wishart ‘The VOX Cycle (excerpts)’ (6:30)
07 Petr Kotik ‘Wilsie Bridge’ (18:47)
08 Ushio Torikai ‘There’ (4:30)

Total time
Cassette+magazine released by Musicworks, Canada, 1991

The Boy Who Wanted To Talk To Whales’ by Canadian composer, story-teller and photographer Robert Minden is a cycle for voices and small ensemble using unusual instruments including: vacuum cleaner hoses, musical saw, cardboard tube drums and waterphones, amongst others. The excerpts given here conveys some unforgettable, magical sounds that make one want to listen to the whole work. During the 1970s, NYC composer Daniel Goode (a member of Gamelan Son of a Lion) transcribed Hermit Thrush songs for piano, clarinet or piccolo. ‘Thrush Polyphony’, with Goode himself on clarinet, Philip Corner on piano and William Hellermann on guitar, is an exquisite rendition of the bird’s songs. It sounds lighter and less metaphysical than Messiaen’s own transcriptions, while retaining some aspects of the original field recordings (pause, echo, simultaneity). Michael Burtch’s Waterfront sound sculpture in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, is build from 3 huge air vents from the ‘Chief Wawatam’, a coal-burning steel ship that traversed the Great Lakes. Below ground level is a sound chamber with hanging steel bars and tubes, whose soft chimings are amplified by the horns outside. The sound sculpture seems to be remarkably integrated with its environment, recalling the sounds of distant freighters machinery while not being intrusive. British electroacoustic composer Trevor Wishart (born 1946) is famous for his Red Bird masterpiece, where voices, bird cries and other found object recordings morph into one another in a sonic tapestry that is nothing short of disturbing. Human voice has always been a pivotal feature for Wishart, like in Songcycle, Voiceprints and VOX Cycle, of which excerpts are presented here, a complex knitting of sound poetry wordless uterrances and computer technique. Petr Kotik is a Czech composer born 1942 who emigrated to New York in 1969. His 1987 Wilsie Bridge is a piece for wind, percussion and synth, all contributing to a highly energetic pulsation constantly on the move, where polyphony is created by the overlapping of instrument parts. Ushio Torikai’s There is a short piece for synth and piano in unusual tunings.

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Structures Sonores Lasry-Baschet ‘Mister Blues’

01 Mister Blues (4:41)
02 Invention à 2 Voix [JS Bach] (1:29)
03 Menuet [JS Bach] (1:43)
04 Toccata Toccarde (1:50)

Total time 9:40
7” single released by Unidisc, EX45145M, France, 1962

A little rarity from the Baschet Brothers, here joigned by the Lasry family (Yvonne, Jacques and Teddy)  to form the classic Structures Sonores Orchestra circa late 1950s-early 1960s. Everyone plays the Structures Sonores except Teddy (aged 15) who is on clarinet on the delicious title track, an evocation of a New Orleans slow blues number. In 1973, Teddy Lasry was a founding member of French progressive rock band Magma. All tracks composed or arranged by Jacques Lasry. Instruments on this single include several Crystals (glass rods with plastic cushions or metallic cones as resonators) and percussion on tracks #1 and 4. Pictures below from the Structures Sonores book, Soundworld, UK, 1999.

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See also:
Doyen/Lasry ‘Poèmes dits par Jacques Doyen’ >
Bernard & François Baschet CD >

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Jon Rose ‘Vivisection’

01 Paganini’s Surgery (2:42)
02 Exit Dance (3:18)
03 Budapest In Flames (2:24)
04 First Cut (3:19)
05 The Believers Part 1 & 2 (6:26)
06 Open Wounds (2:51)
07 Another CD Accident (1:27)
08 Transfusion (3:02)
09 Madonna And Child (7:31)
10 Do The Razor Blade (:38)
11 Amazing Cage (6:32)
12 Panic Button (1:16)
13 Taking A String For A Walk (3:59)
14 Straight Batting-Bowing (3:21)

Total time 48:40
LP released by Aufruhr Records #67013, Germany, 1987

Jon Rose: violin, 19-string cello, amplified bow, cello, door apparatus, multi violin/string frame construction, 2-string pedalboard, trapezoidal viola, cello/violin combination instrument, megaphone 1/2 size violin
Laetitia Royackers: guitar (#7)
Alvin Curran: piano, electronics (#11)
Elke Schipper: voice (#14)
John Jacobs: mixing (#14)

‘Vivisection’ showcases Australian violinist Jon Rose’s skills for instrument building and unique creativity with stringed instruments. This LP alone includes such oddities as: 2-string pedalboard, 5-string trapezoidal viola, 8-string double neck violin, 19-string violoncello, megaphone 1/2 size violin, amplified bow, walking string, ‘Der Hund’ Geiger (a violin on legs you play like walking a dog), ‘Madonna and Child’ (a cello with a violin on its chest). The array of instruments is vast and reminds Pierre Bastien’s ‘Mecanium’ LP (ADN, 1988), the latter including many violins and cellos, either automatas or manually activated. So ‘Vivisection’ is a mix of Raw Art impetus and instrument building creativity, to which Jon Rose adds an incredible attention to sound crafting and sonic details in the form of: extraneous noises, musique concrète parts, close miking zooms, special tunings, etc. The LP’s baffling sound quality (German pressing, see what I mean?) encourages attentive listening, as if with electroacoustic music. Note Lucky posted some Jon Rose’s Fringes Benefit rare cassettes from the early 1980s.

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Musicworks #30 ‘Sound Constructions’

01 Gordon Monahan ‘Introduces The Issue’ (:05)
02 Logos Duo ‘Pneumafoon’ (2:13)
03 Moniek Darge ‘Timeframes’ (1:56)
04 Godfried-Willem Raes+John Oswald ‘Cracklebox’ (1:23)
05 Paul Panhuysen+Johan Goedhart ‘Snareninstallaties’ (6:22)
06 Leif Brush ‘Music from Trees, Icefloes and Other Natural Phenomena’ (7:00)
07 Richard Raymond ‘Introducing the Aeolian Harp’ (:33)
08 Richard Raymond, Leif Brush, John Oughton, Thaddeus Holownia ‘Aeolian Harps + Windribbon mix’ (18:47)

Total time 38:10
Cassette+journal published 1985, Toronto, Canada

As usual for this Canadian series of journal+cassette, Musicworks #30 is focusing on specific aspects of sound art, namely instrument builders and music interacting with the environment, according to the teachings of R. Murray Schafer. The issue, appropriately titled Sound Constructions, was curated by Gordon Monahan and engineered by John Oswald in his own Mystery Tape Laboratory. Included in the articles and tape are composers already featured on this blog (Leif Brush, Moniek Darge and Godfried-Willem Raes), so that I feel pretty much at home with this release. On a personal note, I’d gladly put myself under the tutelage of Murray Schafer rather than John Cage’s. The story of Musicworks was detailed in a previous post on Musicworks #29.

Musicworks #30’s b side is dominated by a massive aeolian harps mash up with a few ‘windribbon’ inputs courtesy of Leif Brush. Enchanting, out of this world sounds flowing endlessly around the speakers. Contributors to this mammoth droning piece include Richard Raymond and Thaddeus Holownia. The latter collaborated with Gordon Monahan building the extraordinary Long Aeolian Piano (see here) first installed on the Holownia farm in New Brunswick, 1984 where Holownia lived with wife Gay Hansen, Biology teacher at the Mount Allison University, Sackville, N.B. Long Aeolian Piano was recorded on the B side of the self released ‘Speaker Swinging’ LP, 1987. Leif Brush is featured on this tape with an overview of his self built, solar- or wind-powered instruments with interspersed comments by the composer. Wonderful musique concrete sounds thanks to close miking and careful electronic treatments.

The Logos Duo (Moniek Darge and Godfried-Willem Raes) present their Pneumafoon sound sculptures, pictured on the front cover above, self build instruments powered by inflatable cushions. The 6 pages interview with Logos is included in the donwload file. Raes and John Oswald present Cracklebox, a pocket-sized analog synth designed by Michel Waisvisz, both composers toying around and commenting on the device’s possibilities. Generally speaking, there’s a lot of fun going on the A side, an usual feature in avantgarde music. Dutch sound artist Paul Panhuysen (b.1934) is famous for his long string installations, a variety of which is presented here by sound excerpts. In 1981, Panhuysen founded Het Apollohuis in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, arguably the first venue for sound art in Europe, which closed its doors in 2000.

Donwload from here or here.

Previously on Continuo’s:
- Musicworks #26 >
- Musicworks #28 >
- Musicworks #29 >
- Musicworks #37 >
- Moniek Darge >
- Godfried-Willem Raes >
- Leif Brush >

Didier Blanchard & Georges Bloch ‘Le son d’un château d’eau de Le Corbusier’

Didier Blanchard:
01 Composition n°20 – Un  corps sonore (34:44)

Georges Bloch: ‘Fragments Corbuséens Palmés’
02 Vocalise (1:57)
03 Antécédant-conséquent (0:48)
04 Hystérie 1 (2:42)
05 Valse ? (4:45)
06 Interaction 1 (10:23)
07 Hystérie 2 (8:17)
08 Interaction 2 (6:24)
09 Totale (2:09)
10 Tango (2:15)
11 Ganz zum ûberfluss (1:47)

Total time 76:10
CD privately released by ‘Groupe des 5′, France, 1996

Le Corbusier’s relation to music is tangible, if infrequent. He took care of his cousin Louis Soutter, a former professional violinist, inpatient in a Swiss psychiatric hospital for 20 years until his death in 1942. In 1958, he build the Monastery of Sainte Marie de La Tourette complete with a large acoustic conch on the church roof to transmit liturgical chants, “a sonorous machine producing a new style of electronic broadcast”, he said. The same year, assisted by Iannis Xenakis, he famously designed the Philips Pavillon in Brussels, using Edgard Varèse’s Poème Electronique as musical score.

Le Corbusier (1887-1965) build the water tower pictured above in Podensac, near Bordeaux, in 1918, aged 21, when he was still called “Charles Edouard Jeanneret”, his real name. It is said to be his first professional release and of course makes extensive use of concrete (what else?). Back in 1986, it was in a state of dereliction when an association called ‘Groupe des 5′ decided to save the building from collapsing. Part of their plan was to use the disused water tower for cultural events, including these specially comissionned electroacoustic compositions in 1995, whose title translates ‘The sound of a Le Corbusier water tower’. Didier Blanchard (b.1967) is an acoustics engineer interested by architecture’s relation to music. He sat up a microphone inside the water tower to record all the latter’s vibrations. The signal is then fed to a computer for further electronic processing and feedback monitoring, and then send to a large metallic plate whose vibrations produces the music (see picture above). The vibrations are of course re-injected in the process via the microphone. Any sound inside or outside the building (visitors’ voices, steps on the stairs, cars, rain, wind) can activate the resonances. The recording on this CD probably can’t do justice to the sound installation itself, but the feedback sounds are really gorgeous, if a bit monochromatic, close to Harry Bertoia’s steel sculptures recordings, for instance.

‘Fragments Corbuséens Palmés’ is an electroacoustic suite composed by IRCAM associate Georges Bloch (b.1956) for resonating steel plate, voice and readings from Le Corbusier. Mezzo-soprano Sylvie Deguy is slowly climbing the water tower’s stairs while vocalizing and hitting the stairs railing with a stick. The work is a dialog between controlled feedback and singer, making full use of the water tower’s acoustic properties.

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