As a composer, David Dunn is probably best known for his interdisciplinary work that crosses the boundaries between art and science. This has included the fields of acoustic ecology, bioacoustics, interspecies communication and scientific sonification while creating a body of innovative sound work that has contributed to projects as diverse as sensory enhancement of healthcare environments and intervention strategies for forest and agricultural pests. He has invented microphones to record such phenomena as the sounds of bark beetles in trees, underwater invertebrates in freshwater ponds, and the ultrasonic communication of bats.
In Verdant, Dunn has returned to some of his more traditional musical roots to compose an exploration much closer to home, literally his backyard in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The aural complexity of this urban soundscape is ordinarily masked by layers of ambient city noise but the combination of the Easter Sunday holiday and Covid-19 pandemic shutdown allowed otherwise suppressed sounds to become readily audible. On top of this semi-wild soundscape (recorded at very high resolution), multiple sonic layers have been added that explore and accentuate the unedited ambient recording. Electronic drones and melodies are combined with harmonically rich patterns played by two electric violins. This creates a dense aural fabric interwoven with the prerecorded soundscape as distinct time streams move at different rates but interact with each other through shifting foreground/background dynamics.
On its surface Verdant probably seems, in its extreme embrace of tonality, reminiscent of much late 20th century music (Tenney, Riley, Oliveros, Behrman, Budd, Feldman, etc.) and many popular “ambient” genres. However, beneath this veneer there are possibly some other, less familiar ideas. The intent may have more to do with the idyllic and elegiac affect sought by the English Pastoral composers after the violence of World War I and not merely a Post-modern conceit. While the motivation for Verdant was largely a response to the dark circumstances of 2020, it hopefully speaks to a more optimistic future and the favorable attention to that which we might otherwise take for granted. – D.D.
How many sounds can a piano produce without using the keyboard? Some answers can be found in this recording, where the whole instrument is investigated using different techniques to reveal a world of unexpected richness, textures, and resonances.
But it’s not just that: it’s also a journey in what the concept of “piano” became in the imagination of three composers (and a pianist). Each, in fact, gave shape to an original sonorous universe, and the task of reconnecting the subtle threads between compositional idea and sound realization is entrusted, to varying degrees, to the performer.
Lucia Dlugoszewski’s Exacerbated Subtlety Concert (Why Does A Woman Love a Man?) (1997, rev. 2000) is a piece for “timbre piano”. (Here the transformation of the sonic identity of the instrument goes so far as to be certified by critics with a new name.) Dlugoszewski, one the great creative figures of last century, is severely underrecognized for her groundbreaking achievements. Since there was no score of the work available, pianist Toniutti realized the piece through extensive research on documents and recordings.
Tan Dun’s C-A-G-E, fingering for piano (1994) looks between traditional East and contemporary West. The piano becomes a “relative” of Chinese traditional instruments but also pays homage to one of the 20th century’s most revolutionary Western composers, John Cage, by using the Flemish compositional artifice of associating a pitch to every letter of his name.
In the case of Philip Corner, prominent American composer based in Italy, the piano is an open field were all ways of sound production are welcome, and the keyboard is one among many. The priority is the realization of the compositional idea of each piece, moving within the boundaries of a few written indications, “verbal instructions turning into poetry”, as the author says.
Three different sonorous and musical worlds, three different ways of reshaping the piano, but one common trait: the desire to wonder while listening, to reach “a hearing whose moment in time is always daybreak,” as Lucia Dlugoszewski once wrote.
Italian pianist Agnese Toniutti dedicates herself to the exploration and research on peculiar piano repertoire, sometimes little-known, often revolving around the concept of sound and its role in musical composition. Cage, Scelsi, Cardini are some of her favorites; incursions into the territory of improvisation, performance and extemporary composition, also encouraged by the study of art movements in the Seventies, are constantly increasing in time.
"The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" by Charles Mingus
AMG says "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is one of the greatest achievements in orchestration by any composer in jazz history". Who am I to disagree!?
Rate Your Music listeners rate it is as the top Jazz album of all time. I'm not sure that I would go that far but I would certainly place it in my top ten or twenty.
Fabulous album by Alice Coltrane "Journey In Satchidananda"!
AMG says "Truly, this is a remarkable album, and necessary for anyone interested in the development of modal and experimental jazz. It's also remarkably accessible"
Says some guy on Bandcamp: "Prog-baroque, perhaps? Definitely open-mindedly-adventurous music with a
charming, folksy, medieval-esque, Canterbury flare. I find it a pleasing
& highly entertaining panoply of styles—my faves being the
whimsical melodies & the light-hearted jazzy romps"
Thinking of great husband/wife combinations. In this case, John and Alice Coltrane.
Are there any other couples that you can think of that can match these two for their combined virtuosity?
Worthy of a new "Discussion"!?
Well I think Geri Allen outshone Alice Coltrane, but Wallace Roney was not in John Coltrane's league - so few are (and, of course, Allen and Roney were eventually divorced). Carla Bley and Paul Bley/Michael Mantler/Steve Swallow (especially the former). William Parker and Patricia Nicholson - her contribution is in dance rather than music performance, but Parker himself acknowledges her importance to his music - not to overlook her key role as founder and motivator of Arts for Art and Vision Festival.
Many thanks Plong42. Just been listening to this. An intersting mashup of styles. I could recognise, say, early Genesis, and Renaissance from the 70s. But also the guitar style of, amongst others, Francis Monkman fromm the late 70s/early 80s rock/classical crossover band Sky. Alongside that were folk-rock elements, and a touch of jazz. Worth a listen - click on Plong 42's image two above for hyperlink.
Thinking of great husband/wife combinations. In this case, John and Alice Coltrane.
Are there any other couples that you can think of that can match these two for their combined virtuosity?
Worthy of a new "Discussion"!?
Well I think Geri Allen outshone Alice Coltrane, but Wallace Roney was not in John Coltrane's league - so few are (and, of course, Allen and Roney were eventually divorced). Carla Bley and Paul Bley/Michael Mantler/Steve Swallow (especially the former). William Parker and Patricia Nicholson - her contribution is in dance rather than music performance, but Parker himself acknowledges her importance to his music - not to overlook her key role as founder and motivator of Arts for Art and Vision Festival.
@djh thanks for the intro to "Gusano Mecánico" by Climax.
I don't think I've ever seen such diverging views on an album. If you go to Progarchives, in particular, some people think it is fantastic whilst others think it's awful! Personally, I really enjoyed it, particularly the title track, Cuerpo Electric and Cristales Sonadores.
In any case, as you rightly point out, it deserves 5 out of 5 for the cover!
And on the topic of great album covers, isn't that topic worthy of its own discussion stream!?
Comments
1986 Wind 1989 Charles Hayward / Gigi Masin
- Les Nouvelles Musiques De Chambre Volume 2
2018 Kite 2019 Gigi Masin & Jonny Nash
- Postcards From Nowhere
As a composer, David Dunn is probably best known for his interdisciplinary work that crosses the boundaries between art and science. This has included the fields of acoustic ecology, bioacoustics, interspecies communication and scientific sonification while creating a body of innovative sound work that has contributed to projects as diverse as sensory enhancement of healthcare environments and intervention strategies for forest and agricultural pests. He has invented microphones to record such phenomena as the sounds of bark beetles in trees, underwater invertebrates in freshwater ponds, and the ultrasonic communication of bats.
In Verdant, Dunn has returned to some of his more traditional musical roots to compose an exploration much closer to home, literally his backyard in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The aural complexity of this urban soundscape is ordinarily masked by layers of ambient city noise but the combination of the Easter Sunday holiday and Covid-19 pandemic shutdown allowed otherwise suppressed sounds to become readily audible. On top of this semi-wild soundscape (recorded at very high resolution), multiple sonic layers have been added that explore and accentuate the unedited ambient recording. Electronic drones and melodies are combined with harmonically rich patterns played by two electric violins. This creates a dense aural fabric interwoven with the prerecorded soundscape as distinct time streams move at different rates but interact with each other through shifting foreground/background dynamics.
On its surface Verdant probably seems, in its extreme embrace of tonality, reminiscent of much late 20th century music (Tenney, Riley, Oliveros, Behrman, Budd, Feldman, etc.) and many popular “ambient” genres. However, beneath this veneer there are possibly some other, less familiar ideas. The intent may have more to do with the idyllic and elegiac affect sought by the English Pastoral composers after the violence of World War I and not merely a Post-modern conceit. While the motivation for Verdant was largely a response to the dark circumstances of 2020, it hopefully speaks to a more optimistic future and the favorable attention to that which we might otherwise take for granted. – D.D.
How many sounds can a piano produce without using the keyboard? Some answers can be found in this recording, where the whole instrument is investigated using different techniques to reveal a world of unexpected richness, textures, and resonances.
But it’s not just that: it’s also a journey in what the concept of “piano” became in the imagination of three composers (and a pianist). Each, in fact, gave shape to an original sonorous universe, and the task of reconnecting the subtle threads between compositional idea and sound realization is entrusted, to varying degrees, to the performer.
Lucia Dlugoszewski’s Exacerbated Subtlety Concert (Why Does A Woman Love a Man?) (1997, rev. 2000) is a piece for “timbre piano”. (Here the transformation of the sonic identity of the instrument goes so far as to be certified by critics with a new name.) Dlugoszewski, one the great creative figures of last century, is severely underrecognized for her groundbreaking achievements. Since there was no score of the work available, pianist Toniutti realized the piece through extensive research on documents and recordings.
Tan Dun’s C-A-G-E, fingering for piano (1994) looks between traditional East and contemporary West. The piano becomes a “relative” of Chinese traditional instruments but also pays homage to one of the 20th century’s most revolutionary Western composers, John Cage, by using the Flemish compositional artifice of associating a pitch to every letter of his name.
In the case of Philip Corner, prominent American composer based in Italy, the piano is an open field were all ways of sound production are welcome, and the keyboard is one among many. The priority is the realization of the compositional idea of each piece, moving within the boundaries of a few written indications, “verbal instructions turning into poetry”, as the author says.
Three different sonorous and musical worlds, three different ways of reshaping the piano, but one common trait: the desire to wonder while listening, to reach “a hearing whose moment in time is always daybreak,” as Lucia Dlugoszewski once wrote.
Italian pianist Agnese Toniutti dedicates herself to the exploration and research on peculiar piano repertoire, sometimes little-known, often revolving around the concept of sound and its role in musical composition. Cage, Scelsi, Cardini are some of her favorites; incursions into the territory of improvisation, performance and extemporary composition, also encouraged by the study of art movements in the Seventies, are constantly increasing in time.
AMG says "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is one of the greatest achievements in orchestration by any composer in jazz history". Who am I to disagree!?
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-black-saint-and-the-sinner-lady-mw0000192238
Rate Your Music listeners rate it is as the top Jazz album of all time. I'm not sure that I would go that far but I would certainly place it in my top ten or twenty.
AMG says "Truly, this is a remarkable album, and necessary for anyone interested in the development of modal and experimental jazz. It's also remarkably accessible"
https://www.allmusic.com/album/journey-in-satchidananda-mw0000204160
Are there any other couples that you can think of that can match these two for their combined virtuosity?
Worthy of a new "Discussion"!?
Genesis
1972 Foxtrot 1973 Selling England By The Pound
1974 The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway 1976 A Trick Of The Tail
1986 Invisible Touch
@Confused - seeing your post I had to play this, my first introduction to Genesis way back virtually five decades ago
Many thanks Plong42. Just been listening to this. An intersting mashup of styles. I could recognise, say, early Genesis, and Renaissance from the 70s. But also the guitar style of, amongst others, Francis Monkman fromm the late 70s/early 80s rock/classical crossover band Sky. Alongside that were folk-rock elements, and a touch of jazz. Worth a listen - click on Plong 42's image two above for hyperlink.
Gentlemen Without Weapons
1988 Transmissions
1979 Entertainment! 1980 Solid Gold
Ps - I reminded how much I enjoyed Dave Allen's bass playing here & with Shriekback
1978 L 1979 Freeze Frame
1981 Ismism 1985 The History Mix Volume 1
Last week Bandcamp buy, very good
Grand Theft Canoe
1993 Bolivia + Argentina = Paraguay
2011 Muse Hack 2014 Guy Harries & Yumi Hara Cawkwell
Sonic Rituals
Emusic
2006 Black Tar Prophecies Vol's 1, 2, & 3 2011 Deep Politics
2013 Black Tar Prophecies Vol's 4, 5 & 6 2017 Chalice Hymnal
I don't think I've ever seen such diverging views on an album. If you go to Progarchives, in particular, some people think it is fantastic whilst others think it's awful! Personally, I really enjoyed it, particularly the title track, Cuerpo Electric and Cristales Sonadores.
In any case, as you rightly point out, it deserves 5 out of 5 for the cover!
And on the topic of great album covers, isn't that topic worthy of its own discussion stream!?