Released July 15, 2015
and just in at his Bandcamp page:
Back in 2005 when Bernard Parmegiani came in the South of France because
one of his major work was spatialized in a festival, I spent some time
with him doing an interview for Radio Grenouille and enjoyed learning a
lot from our discussions.
Being a huge fan of his compositions, and especially of his magnificent
"De Natura Sonorum", I decided to start working on an opus dealing with
"Dynamic of the resonance and its incidences": a microphonic exploration
of a single sound body made to resonate by means of different types of
percussion. A friend percussionist allowed me to spend some time in his
studio recording his various instruments and thus I was able to play
with Timpani, Tubular Bells, Marimba, Wind Chimes, Castanets, Bass
Drums, Gong, Gamelans, Balafon, and some other Hand Drums + my own
amplified wood tablet.
After a few days creating a soundbank which would serve as the basis for
an album, I started processing, playing with frequencies, pitch,
juxtaposing, toying up with tessitures, resonances, paying the utmost
attention to details, ambitus and creating dynamics. Processing through
Max-MSP patches or GRM Tools mostly relying on the transformation
technique of Fourier's harmonic analysis and spectral resynthesis,
splitting a soundwave into its component frequencies and phases,
manipulating those and then mashing them all back together again. Those
electroacoustic behaviors are obviously dealing with minutiae and
extreme attention to sound, its interactions and incidences, but still
work on sound events creating tension, drama, building up images, a
story rather than an acousmatic sound-to-sound approach."
On Top" is the second Philippe Petit & Friends LP,
it was originally thought to become the third part in a trilogy
oribinated by Strings Of Consciousness. When the SOC collective broke up
Philippe kept inviting his friends, musicians and singers, The ones he
felt were "On Top". On the first track Philippe, Eugene S. Robinson and
Hervé Vincenti give us a tense and at times tender narrative, It plays
out like like an old radio drama except it's urgent and you feel somehow
locked in.
On top of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacàn comes
last on the album, it lives up to it's title, The holy city of
Teotihuacan ('the place where the gods were created') it is close to
Mexico City and was Built between the 1st and 7th centuries A.D. In
the track time seems to slow to a crawl, it feels like a "peak " moment,
all clear and beautiful but like any peak it get's uncomfortable at
times. While not without its harsh moments, ultimately this is a
gorgeous, intimate and emotive album.
"A Descent Into The Maelstrom" is the story of a man's
struggle with the sea of sound. Creating a tale that leads listeners to
the edge of a steep cliff so that they can hear the swirling waves of
synth begin to form into a whirlpool where everything is sucked into its
core. An improv using a vintage Buchla Easel thru the Avantone Pro
CLA-200 Studio Reference Amplifier, and here and there treated with some
GRM Comb Filter Tool… Minimal set up to keep that wonderful instrument
as pure and vintage as possible and believe me the studio was on fire
since its sound/grain is so warm… I had in mind that Don Buchla
named it in reference to painter’s easel. A painter uses the easel to
support the canvas on which he creates his paintings. The easel is the
perfect support to hold the canvas on which I want to create my sound
paintings. Also in hommage to Buchla's original desire not to have
any keyboard I didn’t touch it to avoid playing conventional scales and
hopefully trip you up...
Inspired by Damon Knight’s novel « Why Do Birds » in
which the entire human race has to put itself in a giant box before our
world gets destroyed in 12 years which is why I am trying to communicate
with the Invaders using Buchla's boborygmus-gurglings...
I'd like
to dedicate to Morton Subotnick for his constant inspiration thru his
unequalled early works ("Silver Apples of the moon" + "The Wild Bull" +
"Touch" + "Sidewinder" + "4 Butterflies" + "Until Spring" that I keep
listening again and again in awe), to Todd Barton for being such a gent
and to my regretted friend Richard Lainhart who was the very first to
turn me on the Buchla when we played together many moons ago...
Movement/gesture is of the utmost importance. I want to
be a "sound-craftsman" who touches the machine all over, disrupting
frequencies, pitch, timbre or modulation... Transporting everything in
an elastic space-time where their harmonies and varied colors would
join-overlap carrying the listener as if I had inflated a balloon and
let it fly away suddenly... No looping, no pedals, NO PRESETS, NO
hecking Ableton Live synchronizing/clocking everything... Don Buchla invented the perfect instrument to be creative and express some craziness, the rest is heresy…
;-)
This electroacoustic behavior is spontaneous: one take-no overdubs. Dynamics, ambitus… Tension-relaxation, immersed in a dream where nothing would be where it is expected.
"Voices In My Head: God Told Me To" is a reference to Larry Cohen’s cult movie dealing with unpredictable assaillants randomly killing people claiming that God told’em to… Those voices in my head could be uttered into your ears thanx to the SOMA Pipe: a voice / breath / mouth-controlled dynamic FX processor and synthesizer. This magical instrument turns your voice into a powerful FX / beat / lead / soundscape synthesizer and it offers unprecedented levels of vocal processing. Indeed allow me to emphasize that what you are listening to came out of my mouth ONLY and id done with no overdubs, one take improvisations.
MUTANT speech synthesis !
P.S: allow me one tip advising to go until the end listening to the beautiful 3minutes of resonance and the very last sentence giving sense to the whole...
Our world is permeated with the odour of E.M.R. « Singing » in my Pipe and also using field-recordings from The ETHER which is a wide-band receiver invented by SOMA Laboratories that makes it possible to perceive the electromagnetic landscape around you. It was indeed frightening to walk around my appt. recording and realizing how trapped-zapped in Electro Magnetic Radiation I was… Back in the 60s the band Gonn opened its Garage Punk anthem « Black Out Of Gretely » saying that « The world is permeated with the odour of Kerosen ». Nowadays our world is still permeated with the odour of Kerosen + electromagnetic waves, an invisible pollution emanating from anything that is plugged in: TV’s, lamps, techie gadgets, microwaves, toaster, cell phones; wireless internet; radio; lap tops… etc… Those EMR cause troubles for Human Beings and so would this piece of music, hopefully chilling...
"Feeling privileged to be able to play my GRP A4 as it is such a marvelous instrument and too few copies have been designed. It is opening new doors of travelling and consequently I envisioned some music to make stars dance... Let's start invading the constellation-discoteca..."
Instrumentarium :
Amplified-Prepaired Cymbalom, Synthi AKS, Buchla Easel K Meta Expanded
Turntablisms, Cymbals/Percs, Field-Rec., Sculpted Glass Bottles
Balloons, GRM Tools/Electronics
“Cymbalomentums” is the contraction of the words "cymbalom" and
"momentum", a play on words which mirrors the playground approach, but
which also refers to the concept of time. Blending today’s
electroacoustic atmospheres with the unique sound emerging from the
buried days of the cymbalom… “Cymbalomentums” is exploring the rich
sounds of the ancient instrument that, from the middle ages, has spread
and been transformed throughout Europe. Philippe Petit tried to also
become part of that historical process since he has “transcymbalised”
the instrument using piezo to amplify, preparing it by sliding various
stripes, clothespins or other objects on / between the strings + the use
of cotton or kleenex on the resonant structure or on some sticks and
rubber to develop unexpected percussive sounds. The idea was to favor an
acoustic research, played by a human being, spontaneously, impulsively,
in a very bodily way.
The cymbalom, thanks to this acoustic DIY, has eventually become a
playground to which Philippe decided to marry two legendary Modular
Synth: Buchla Easel K vs. Synthi A, thus the atmosphere may be very
retro-futuristic or drift to post-classical harmonies… There lies in the
middle the cymbalom acting as the link between these temporal and
musical opposites, the project has finally come full circle.
The SYNTHI AKS is among the most sought-after instruments, mythical and
typically associated with the British avant-garde from the 70s from the
BBC Radiophonic Workshop/Delia Derbyshire to Pink Floyd, Brian Eno...
But also to European composers like Pierre Henry, Bernard Parmegiani,
André Stordeur, Thomas Lehn...An instrument with a unique sound
which under abrasive surfaces can show its kindness, if one wants to
look deep inside with desire.I had in mind some Italian
Gothic-Gialli movies and their spell was cast on me thus please join me
"Nel occhio del sortilegio !"...
"Countless life forms are in residence inside each of us the Planet Human… Let’s listen..."
- "In May I was asked to perform and the organiser offered to make a video
showing big cities emptied of all soul where only trade streets and
deserted roads remain… I welcomed the idea since I terribly appreciated
this quiet period, without pollution, where the « Human virus » remained
locked up and the planet became more breathable. Here it is for you
BUCHLA-only…"
As you had noticed our platform remained silent for a few months as we
needed to change its architecture so as to make it able to host more ambitious
ideas… ITATIOM being a new alley which I’ll be happy to push much further
meeting more Inventors Talking About Their Instruments Or Modules such as Serge,
Hordijk, 1979, EMS… For now we offer a great start dealing with Buchla whose
philosophy/ideas we documented throughout the article/interview with Joel Davel
and Eric Fox from Buchla USA.
Furthermore, as a companion PROUD to offer a collection of works made using
Buchla-only which took one year of my life to complete. An unprecedented
effort documenting the use of one of the most innovative « musical vessel » ever
designed, whose extent of the sound spectrum does not seem to belong to this
world and the logic lies apart from everything that may have existed before its
creation in 1963.
About 9 hours of music which I chose to cut into two parts.
"An exercise in Groove I did for our Modular Station radio and the very
first time my Buchla System 200 was communicating with the Pulsar 23
from SOMA... Crocodile to Banana jacks may bite... BE WARNED !"
The term deep sea creature refers to organisms that live below the
photic zone of the ocean. First chapter « Deep-sea Creatures » retraced
those species swimming in abyssal zones…
This sequel is aiming at picturing their exchanges, unfathomable dialogues in rime or not?!
Sub photic ungroove luminescence within the darker underwater zones.
- "This live recording was improvised playing my Buchla Easel K,
sometimes thru the Fuzz FX of the Eventide H9 Pedal, or a Moogerfooger
Ring Modulator...
Analogue synthesizer chips, components and circuits typically leave
their mark on the signals that run through them which is why I tried to
keep the instrument as natural as possible since its sound is close to
perfection. Besides I like its immediacy: plug, patch & play...
Random, non-linearity, flexibility, physical accessibility of parameters
and the kinds of interface and workflow that modular systems allow are
what interest me, gesture/movement being of the highest importtance. A
modular analogue system also typically has no recallable memories so is
by definition useless for much stage use. The means of control, for
example via potentiometers, knobs and joysticks, are often neither
particularly linear in implementation, nor appropriately scaled and are
famously difficult to set in exactly the same positions more than once.
Playing becomes highly visceral, personal and poetic !
Everytime some new surprises... Enjoy !"
(Music to create space rather than occupying Space)
ante-rasa, September 25, 2020
The idea behind those compositions was to stay minimal, using only one
source, none other than the glorious Synthi A manufactured by EMS in the
70. Vintage, raw, pure, breathing… Synthillating in the dark !
On this new work Philippe Petit intended to create a contemporary
soundtrack for Hieronymus Bosch’s "The Garden of Earthly Delights"
triptych : Bosch’s most complex and enigmatic creation whose overall
theme is the fate of humanity.
Following his interest in library music and soundtracks our « Musical
Travel-Agent » has been conjuring up a thought-provoking and intriguing
universe relying on the use of real instruments such as cymbalom,
pianos, guitar and percussion that he plays like a kid discovering a new
toy, improvising and attaching great importance to gesture and
stressing dynamics. His choices aren’t consensual, not cozying up
potential listeners, a punky approach even if throughout the past years
he has been following courses of composition + electroacoustic music at
the conservatory, specializing in modular synthesis and creating the
first platform devoted to promoting the genre:
www.modulisme.info
Pushing further his research in bringing together the Human and its
Machine into a tapestry of sound which creates a deep sound assemblage
of exotic musiques concrète which guarantees to grow on you with
repeated listens, slowly revealing its detailed richness…
KÖHN is Jürgen De Blonde who is not using Modular Synthesis per se although his music has always relied on synthesis…
We have known each other for more than 20 years and I had the great
pleasure to release some of his music on my defunct BiP_HOp label, back
in the early 2000s, when I was considering him to be one of the most
interesting electronicist in Europe alongside Fennesz and Frank
Bretschneider… Jürgen has released on KRAAK, Western Vinyl, Deep
Distance, Sonic Meditations and brings an original approach to sound
experimenting with soundscapes, electronica, and collaborations with
musicians from different backgrounds.
Still active today he is at the forefront of the experimental scene in
Belgium and was among the lucky few to be allowed to work on the
mythical EMS Synthi 100 Synthesizer @ I.P.E.M. (Institute for
Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music) and we feel lucky to share such
works.
Comments
After a few days creating a soundbank which would serve as the basis for an album, I started processing, playing with frequencies, pitch, juxtaposing, toying up with tessitures, resonances, paying the utmost attention to details, ambitus and creating dynamics. Processing through Max-MSP patches or GRM Tools mostly relying on the transformation technique of Fourier's harmonic analysis and spectral resynthesis, splitting a soundwave into its component frequencies and phases, manipulating those and then mashing them all back together again. Those electroacoustic behaviors are obviously dealing with minutiae and extreme attention to sound, its interactions and incidences, but still work on sound events creating tension, drama, building up images, a story rather than an acousmatic sound-to-sound approach."
Philippe Petit - Live in New York
Live in Shapeshifter Lab - New York - August 2016www.philippepetit.info
Released January 18, 2017
Released July 14, 2017 and with no information about who or what Fil Spectrum is. . .Fil Spectrum & Philippe Petit
On top of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacàn comes last on the album, it lives up to it's title, The holy city of Teotihuacan ('the place where the gods were created') it is close to Mexico City and was Built between the 1st and 7th centuries A.D.
In the track time seems to slow to a crawl, it feels like a "peak " moment, all clear and beautiful but like any peak it get's uncomfortable at times. While not without its harsh moments, ultimately this is a gorgeous, intimate and emotive album.
An improv using a vintage Buchla Easel thru the Avantone Pro CLA-200 Studio Reference Amplifier, and here and there treated with some GRM Comb Filter Tool… Minimal set up to keep that wonderful instrument as pure and vintage as possible and believe me the studio was on fire since its sound/grain is so warm…
I had in mind that Don Buchla named it in reference to painter’s easel. A painter uses the easel to support the canvas on which he creates his paintings. The easel is the perfect support to hold the canvas on which I want to create my sound paintings.
Also in hommage to Buchla's original desire not to have any keyboard I didn’t touch it to avoid playing conventional scales and hopefully trip you up...
- www.philippepetit.info
I'd like to dedicate to Morton Subotnick for his constant inspiration thru his unequalled early works ("Silver Apples of the moon" + "The Wild Bull" + "Touch" + "Sidewinder" + "4 Butterflies" + "Until Spring" that I keep listening again and again in awe), to Todd Barton for being such a gent and to my regretted friend Richard Lainhart who was the very first to turn me on the Buchla when we played together many moons ago...
Movement/gesture is of the utmost importance. I want to be a "sound-craftsman" who touches the machine all over, disrupting frequencies, pitch, timbre or modulation... Transporting everything in an elastic space-time where their harmonies and varied colors would join-overlap carrying the listener as if I had inflated a balloon and let it fly away suddenly... No looping, no pedals, NO PRESETS, NO hecking Ableton Live synchronizing/clocking everything...
Don Buchla invented the perfect instrument to be creative and express some craziness, the rest is heresy…
;-)
This electroacoustic behavior is spontaneous: one take-no overdubs.
Dynamics, ambitus… Tension-relaxation, immersed in a dream where nothing would be where it is expected.
Indeed allow me to emphasize that what you are listening to came out of my mouth ONLY and id done with no overdubs, one take improvisations.
MUTANT speech synthesis !
P.S: allow me one tip advising to go until the end listening to the beautiful 3minutes of resonance and the very last sentence giving sense to the whole...
« Singing » in my Pipe and also using field-recordings from The ETHER which is a wide-band receiver invented by SOMA Laboratories that makes it possible to perceive the electromagnetic landscape around you. It was indeed frightening to walk around my appt. recording and realizing how trapped-zapped in Electro Magnetic Radiation I was…
Back in the 60s the band Gonn opened its Garage Punk anthem « Black Out Of Gretely » saying that « The world is permeated with the odour of Kerosen ». Nowadays our world is still permeated with the odour of Kerosen + electromagnetic waves, an invisible pollution emanating from anything that is plugged in: TV’s, lamps, techie gadgets, microwaves, toaster, cell phones; wireless internet; radio; lap tops… etc… Those EMR cause troubles for Human Beings and so would this piece of music, hopefully chilling...
It is opening new doors of travelling and consequently I envisioned some music to make stars dance...
Let's start invading the constellation-discoteca..."
Amplified-Prepaired Cymbalom, Synthi AKS, Buchla Easel K Meta Expanded
Turntablisms, Cymbals/Percs, Field-Rec., Sculpted Glass Bottles
Balloons, GRM Tools/Electronics
The cymbalom, thanks to this acoustic DIY, has eventually become a playground to which Philippe decided to marry two legendary Modular Synth: Buchla Easel K vs. Synthi A, thus the atmosphere may be very retro-futuristic or drift to post-classical harmonies… There lies in the middle the cymbalom acting as the link between these temporal and musical opposites, the project has finally come full circle.
This sequel is aiming at picturing their exchanges, unfathomable dialogues in rime or not?!
Sub photic ungroove luminescence within the darker underwater zones.
Following his interest in library music and soundtracks our « Musical Travel-Agent » has been conjuring up a thought-provoking and intriguing universe relying on the use of real instruments such as cymbalom, pianos, guitar and percussion that he plays like a kid discovering a new toy, improvising and attaching great importance to gesture and stressing dynamics. His choices aren’t consensual, not cozying up potential listeners, a punky approach even if throughout the past years he has been following courses of composition + electroacoustic music at the conservatory, specializing in modular synthesis and creating the first platform devoted to promoting the genre:
www.modulisme.info
Pushing further his research in bringing together the Human and its Machine into a tapestry of sound which creates a deep sound assemblage of exotic musiques concrète which guarantees to grow on you with repeated listens, slowly revealing its detailed richness…
We have known each other for more than 20 years and I had the great pleasure to release some of his music on my defunct BiP_HOp label, back in the early 2000s, when I was considering him to be one of the most interesting electronicist in Europe alongside Fennesz and Frank Bretschneider… Jürgen has released on KRAAK, Western Vinyl, Deep Distance, Sonic Meditations and brings an original approach to sound experimenting with soundscapes, electronica, and collaborations with musicians from different backgrounds.
Still active today he is at the forefront of the experimental scene in Belgium and was among the lucky few to be allowed to work on the mythical EMS Synthi 100 Synthesizer @ I.P.E.M. (Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music) and we feel lucky to share such works.