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new to stock as of
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1970s-electronic
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early-electronic
electro-acoustic
sound-research
psych-prog
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| | | creel pone (denmark) #creelp fuzzy cd svend christiansen / fuzzy “urvarte - noir - blau (electronic music)” compact disc recordable - svend christiansen - urvaerk
- svend christiansen - noir
- fuzzy - blau 1
- fuzzy - blau 2
| there’s not much in the way of documentation on the early danish electronic-music scene other than the else-marie pade and gunner-möller pedersen discs on dacapo... both fantastic sets full of wonder, but mired in a certain air of government-funded academia (i.e. men/women in lab-coats working in sterile studios; having to demonstrate their yield/progress in regular/weekly iterations to secure further funding... being afraid to take it finally and fully out...)
this item should prove that something truly odd was in fact bubbling in the waters in and around aarhus in the late 60s... for one; the b-side of the lp reproduced here is by a gentleman named fuzzy. not jens-wilhelm fuzzy or rune ragnar fuzzy, just fuzzy. second; the svend christiansen pieces that make up the first half of the release are bizarre and just-plain great blats of distant analogue synth, copious usage/manipulation of tape echo, and concrète sound... reminiscent of bent lorentzen’s “the bottomless pit” (also a dane; i’ll bet you dirt for dollars that they knew each other...) the first piece consists mainly of the sounds of a clock’s second-hand manipulated in myriad ways (ala hugh davies’ “dripsody”) - the second a raw burst of modular-synth blat twisted and turned out over 12 minutes....
...and then we get to fuzzy - his piece here is a real head-scratcher that, when not infuriating the listener with musical quotes (is that the farfisa intro to “light my fire” ???) bathes us in a sea of françois-bayle-lineage “acoustic resonators” (i.e. “excited” metal and wooden objects) before slipping into a mess of trickle-down psych/prog moves...(echoplexed drums, chirpy melodies on par with dissevelt/baltan’s “song of the second moond”, etc...) from there it breaks down even further into a nice set of muted, scraping drones littered with foggy bells and flute, giving way to the second section; all gurgling water, raucous synth, then a noisy, dissonant odd-meter sequence climbs into a very “triumphant” sounding drone of pitch-manipulated piano and strings.
needless to say given the catalogue thusfar but this is yet another previously obscure bit of outsider early electronic music made audible by mr. p.c. - no less essential than what’s come before or what’s yet to come... |
| | creel pone press release... |
| this creel pone edition includes:
1 x crystal-clear resealable polypropylene cd sleeve with a red / gold foil stamp affixed to the exterior
1 x double-sided six-color inkjet-printed hand-cut card-stock insert
1 x one-color inkjet-printed compact disc recordable in a high-density round-bottom cd sleeve
svend christiansen: urvaerk - noir
fuzzy: blau
publications from department of musical acoustics institute of musicology ~ university of aarhus
published in collaboration with department of acoustics the state academy of music at aarhus
the electronic music facilities in aarhus consist of a first generation studio, a third generation digital, 'system, and an advanced digital synthesizer, all of which are operated by the department of musical acoustics, institute of musicology, university of 1 aarhus. there is also a recording studio with some first generation facilities at det jydske musikkonservatorium (the state academy 'of musi'c at aarhus).
the first generation studios have been in use since about 1970, and many seminars and courses on electronic music have been held here. in addition, a large number of electronic compositions produced by danish composers, from which some of the i more outstanding have been selected for this record. the equipment of the studios is the traditional kind: full and dual track 1/4/1, 7112/15 ips tape 1 decks, an 8 track 1/1 tape deck, mixing console, i i reverberation unit, filters, tone generators, pulse generators, noise generators, ring modulators, microphone equipment etc.
the third generation system is a non real-time i' system running on a ti960a minicomputer system for a/d- and d/ a-conversion and for remote access to the university's cdc 6400 system to do the i' actual proce'ssing. this system was constructed ii not only forproducing electronic music but espei cially for performing research into musical acoustics.
the digital synthesizer is a real time system consisting of a three manual touch sensitive keyboard, the ti 960a system, a multi-channel digital sound generator unit, and an analogue amplifier and loudspeaker system. the synthesizer has been under development for two and a half years, and will be finished during the summer of 1975.
svend christiansen (1954-)
is studying musicology at the university of aarhus and music theory and composition at the academy of music. the two compositions, urvaerk and noir, were produced in the first generation studio at the university.
urvaerk (feb.-mar. 1974) is a piece of musique concrete using the tick-tock of an ordinary alarm clock as its only sound source. this sound holds a number of musical possibilities: 1) a single tick can be 'cut out of the tape and~ manipulated in different ways to yield various pulse-sounds. 2) the. tick-tock itself contains different rhythmic possibilities. 3) played back at a very low tape speed, each tick sounds like an explosion. 4) played back at a very high speed the tick-tocks merge into tones. all these aspects~of the sound are explored and used in the composition, which in a series of episodes exhibits a gradual development of the sound.
in the beginning of the piece, the sound is almost totally distorted, and many different aspects of the sound are heard. there are also some •big bangs• intensifying and leading to the subsequent episodes, each of which shows us the sound in a specific guise. in the second episode we hear the sound as tones almost, worked up as a kind of theme with accompaniment. the third shows the tick-tock 'quasi in natura. finally, the development focus on a single tick, looking at it from different angles. the return of the bangs from the first episode mark the beginning of an enormous crescendo, culminating in a nightmarish explosion, after which you are happy be awakened by the ringing of the alarm clock.
noir (july-nov. 1974) is a tape composition made up of synthetic sound material. the piece has a very organic structure in which sound streams grow gradually out of each other and develop in different directions. one stream, however, a kind of pedal point running through the whole of the composition has the function of a structural backbone. each stream is at different stages of its development related to one or more of the other streams. thus everything is interwoven in a way which cannot be described, but must be heard.
fuzzy (1939-)
love all music ~ hate all muzak
among the composers who have really meant something to me are:
per nørgård: my teacher, whose faith in me has been a great support.
jan bark: who taught me to experience sound.
ligety: who is so inspiring to listen to.
terry riley: because i love c major.
lutoslavsky: who makes me hope that it is possible to keep my soul young.
finn høffding: because he has proven it.
stockhausen: because he was so much and yet meant so little to me.
in addition to my family, i like good food, my job as a teacher at the academy of music, and the bus ride from the airport to aarhus.
about the word >>blau<<
for me, the german word >>blau<< designates a mental state which i have often experienced the day after a long night of pub crawling. my nerves are edgy, my mental antennae super-sensitive, and my relation to the rest of the world distant. i am most fit for sitting quite still, reflecting and let!ing events pass before my mind's eye. in short immersed in myself - blau: motionless, yet moving.
about the production of >>blau<<
blau was produced early in the summer of 1974, partly in my own studio, partly in the first generation studio in collaboration with claus byrith. apart from more traditional instruments such as flute, clarinet, organ, and piano, i, used steel dishes, toy instruments, woodsticks, andtincans. the sounds were normally manipulated in various ways jfiltered, transposed etc.), but sometimes used in their original form.
furthermore, i think that if humanity doesn't soon get itself together, this spaceship of ours is going to fall apart, and when i take a look at myself i fe~ar that it probably will. |
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