Listening Room Only

17 Nov 2000 Bluecoat Neptune

 

THE ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC END…

‘Electro’, electronic = an adjective invented in 1902, so we’ll soon be able to celebrate its centenary. It originally related to electrons. The word’s main present-day application is to the control of a device by the conduction, (there is ‘Butch’ Morris again), of electrons in a vacuum, a gas, or a semi-conductor. This seems to have emerged in the late 1920s, and to have been originally used in the context of musical instruments and the music made by them. Its wider employment followed on the development of computers after World War II. (See: The Oxford Book of 20th Century Words 1999.)

 

I remember hearing, in the 1960s on the American Forces Radio and Television Service’s Far East Network, a barbershop group of male voices that started its regular spot with the opening lines:

‘We are the joy boys of ra-di-o,

We send e-lec-trons to and fro-o-o’!

 

For my purposes, ‘definition’ is easier: it either says ‘electronics’ on the release data or ‘computer’ or something closely related or I’ve seen the kit that was used…

‘Acoustic’ is used to distinguish traditional instruments from electronic sound generators. The Sandon room next door has an acoustic piano – looking just like any other grand piano…   

You can understand ‘End’ in any number of ways and I think I’ll leave it like that…!

End of intro remarks!

Trax

Label                                       Title                                                    Time

Track No./ Title                                                                                            

Additional info

Rec date, location

 

MM&T [It] CD01                    Hall of Mirrors

2. Double Negative                                                                               05:49

Walter Prati, Evan Parker

9002--, Milan [It]

 

elc CD [G] 12007                    That Other Worldly Feeling

4. True Bugs                                                                                         02:08

John Jasnoch (el. gs & electro)

Helmut Lemke’s label

950816 (by Charlie Collins), Sheffield (?)

 

Touch CD TO:35                     Solar Wind

5. Tlaloc                                                                                               04:05

Lawrence Casserley, Evan Parker

9701(mid), STEIM/ Amsterdam

 

Leo CD LR 239/240                Synergetics- Phonomanie III                            

7. #16                                                                                                  08:35

George Lewis (tb, computer; playing with himself!)

Evan Parker is principal artist of this double release

930918,19 Ulrichsberg (AUS)

 

Resonance 8.1 LMC Sampler CD

16. Enzyme Friction                                                                              03:44

Richard Sanderson, Mark Sanders

?

                                                                                                                                   

Hat ART CD 6015                   Rodan

19. -                                                                                                     01:08

Sato Michihiro on Tsugaru Shamisen w. Nicholas Collins and Christian Marclay (turntables)

880411-16 NYC USA

 

Hatology CD 514                     As Serious As Your Life

7. The Man I Love (G. Gershwin)                                                         06:47

Joe McPhee, alone

960527, Turnbull, CT USA

 

Bead CD 03                             Chathuna

4. Inversion                                                                                          05:39

Philipp Wachsmann, alone

961011 or 12, Oerlinghausen [G]

 

Ninthworld CD 010                  Sweethearts in a Drugstore

7. El niño                                                                                              02:33

Pat Thomas and five others

960503, Copenhagen

 

Scatter CD 04                          Giganti Reptilico Destructo

7. –

Alex Ward, ‘Switch’ w. others                                                            01:24

?

 

QRM CD 010                          Oh My Bag

1. -                                                                                                       02:54

Stock, Hausen & Walkman

(incl. Matt Wand)

97----, UK

 

Explico CD 10                         Temps Dureé

12. (tb, electro)                                                                                    06:01

13. (co, electro)                                                                                    05:47

Thomas Lehn, Gunter Christmann

981022. 23 Hannover [G]

 

 

Avan CD 014                                       Voyager                                              

6. Duo 6                                                                                               02:34

George Lewis’s interactive computer program, Voyager)

w. Roscoe Mitchell

930206, Berkeley CA USA

 

Grob CD 102                                       Konk Pack

5. Odile Meets Kipper                                                                          04:45

Tim Hodgkinson, Thomas Lehn, Roger Turner

990405, Tilburg [NL]

 

ReR CD AMMCD                               AMMMusic 1966

6. (part of) After Rapidly Circling the Plaza                                           (07:02)

Quintet w. Cornelius Cardew, Keith Rowe, Lawrence Sheaff all using as part of their instrumentation, a transistor radio [and I call that ‘electro’!]

66----, London (prob.)

 

UMS, DOT!1

[This morning, 001117, a search of my Archive produced the following extract from a letter written 8 years 9 months and 10 days earlier (920207) from Roger Turner in which he was speaking of the ‘groups’ that he plays with. ‘The Recedents with Lol Coxhill and Mike Cooper & myself – electro-acoustic - right across the board – it can be very entertaining and extreme. More chancy musically – dependent on more variables working (equipment especially!), but a great, dangerous/ band’. So I searched elsewhere in my Archive and found ‘Barbecue Strut’, the Nato 907 12” LP release by this group. It was recorded in 1986, some five to six years before Roger Turner wrote to me. See what you think of his memory/ description of the group in terms of today’s music…]

1 Up My Sleeve, Depending On Time!2       

2 Actually, I started with a track from this material…