Technology Journal week 12 submission

Forum

Vinny Baghat

Performed piece he wrote last summer. Originally intended for a Jazz singer to accompany but the intended singer declined saying it wasn’t her style. Never the less it was an enjoyable piece. It began on a very experimental edge with a looping sample and live piano, but then progressed into a more ‘standard’ drum and bass style track. Excluding the live piano part, the piece was written entirely using Reason. The Piano part was based around the ‘gypsy’ scale.

Patrick McCartney

Proposed a musical project for any interested to be performed at the Mawson Lakes Planetarium. The idea is for people to choose one of 9 themes relating to a principle in ‘Astrophysics;’ Creation, Evolution, Reproduction, Non-Duality etc. and then either individually or in groups compose some music based around the chosen concept.

There will be a monthly workshop at the planetarium for people to come together and work on and talk about what they have been doing for there piece. Each theme will require a poster to be made based on the theme and the process around composing the piece which will then be compiled into a cd cover to attach to c.d. copies of the recordings; which will then in turn be sold with the money going towards the charitable trust fund Patrick has established called “hope for a new generation.”

He hopes for it to be a “process of self discovery*1” and Yoga and meditation are also a possibility to help encourage positive and productive outcomes from the process. I think it is a great idea and would love to be involved but will have to make sure I have the time to commit to such a project.

Tyrell Blackburn

Played some music by the New York based Electronic composer Ryoji Iked off his album “Data-Plex.” The music was very well crafted; using ‘clicks’ and ‘bleeps’ as a main source of musical content. I found it quite enjoyable, particularly when some ambient style loops were introduced, yet at times I felt it didn’t progress or change enough.



Workshop with David Harris

Nobukazu Takemura “Assembler Mix.”
The Aesthetic of this piece resembled that of musique concrete but with a more modern approach. I thought the beat introduced tied it together nicely

Gut Bucket "Snarling wrath of Angry Gods."

Using Assymetrical rhythm, this piece sits outstide of your typical heavy rock sound. The Barratone Sax steals the show in the end.

J.S. Bach 6 Part Ricecar from "Musical Offering."

Originally an improvised piece based upon a tune that the prussian king presented to him believing it would be to difficult for Bach to improvise a piece around. Bach proved him greatly wrong. Although I felt this piece deserved to be played on a grand piano and not a harpsichord, it was still enjoyable.

Toby Twining "Kyrie."

The layering of vocal harmonies within this piece was nothing short of incredible. It was also cool to hear harmonic singing used in this context as I have only heard it done solo before listening to this piece.

Arnold Dreyblatt "Lapse."

This piece was based on the overtone series. This gave the feeling of the piece sitting outside normal harmonic conventions yet still having a tinge of dissonant to consanant release to it. The array of instruments and the way they were played was quite unique and enjoyable too.

Yotomo Yoshihide Featuring John Zohrn "Hardcore Chinease Opera."

A mix of abstract 'noises' to create a highly rhythmic sonic result built up a great tension untill the only final release was that of the silence at the end. Used Block technique

Igor Stravinsky Symphonies of wind instruments

Also used Block technique. David Harris defined this as "A series of ideas that are extended upon and varied and then revisited. So it's like a musical narrative thats alive!*2" It was a quite enjoyable piece. I enjoyed the classical style instruments playing something outside normal classical style. I find the aesthetic to be quite thoughtfull.

Audio Arts
"Drum and Space" Basic mic'ing techniques for a drum kit and the way to approach them within different recording spaces. The reading was quite informative, particuarly the "mixing with your mind." articles.

Creative Computing
The Tape techniques discussed within this class were quite usefull. Some I am quite familliar with but there were some and just different approaches to ones that I am familliar with that have expanded my understanding. They should prove expecially usefull for the creative computing musique concrete assignment.

References
*1 Patric, McCartney. "Planetarium project. Music Tech Forum." Lecture presented at Univeristy of Adelaide, 1 June 2006.

*2 David, Harris. "Music Technology workshop." Lecture presented at University of Adelaide, 1 June 2006.

Picture Reference (in order of appearance.)

#1 Boomkat. "Boomkat Editorial" c.d. catalogue Ryoji Ikeda. 2006 http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=19845 (1 June 2006).

#2 Jim, Newberry. "Thrill Jockey artist page." Nobukazu Takemura . 2006. http://www.thrilljockey.com/press/index.html?id=10033 (1 June 2006).

#3 Amazon.com "Amazon catalogue." Gutbucket. 2006. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001WJNTG/ref=ase_sixapart-20/104-8590153-6268737?s=music&v=glance&n=5174&tagActionCode=sixapart-20 (1 June 2006).

#4 David. J. Grossman. "J.S. Bach," Arangements for electric bass. 2004. http://www.jsbach.net/bass/composer.html (1 june 2006).

#5 CGI. "Primarily A cappella." Toby Twinning. 2006. http://www.singers.com/choral/tobytwining.html (1 June 2006).

#6 Tom, Roberts. "Dusted review.'' Arnold Dreyblatt. 31 March 2002. http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/106 (1 June 2006).

#7 Yoshiyuki, Suziki. "Improvised Music from Japan." Otomo Yoshihide. 2006. http://www.japanimprov.com/yotomo/ (1 June 2006).

#8 Matt, Boynick. "Classical Music Pages." Igor Stravinsky. 2006 http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/stravinsky_4.jpg (1 June 2006).