OK, so amongst the haul of CDs I brought back from NYC was an order of 24 Jeph Jerman titles from Chris at ErstDist. This slightly eccentric purchase seemed to provide amusement to a few people at ErstQuake, so I have given some thought into what I am going to do with such a pile of new music from one artist.
And, inspired by a great conversation trying to explain the concept of British trainspotting anoraks to Chris Letchausen and also the whole NYC restaurant experience, an idea came to me whilst laying in my hotel bed listening to the sound of a Guns and Roses tribute band pounding up through the floor.....
Very much in the spirit of Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me film, I am going to take this pile of Jerman releases, add a few I already owned, and listen to one disc of Jerman every day for the month of October. I will then attempt to write a paragraph or two on the music every day.
The point of this, (apart from the fact I find the whole thing rather amusing) is to see if it is possible to articulate anything new or remotely interesting as the month goes by. I want to ask a few questions about the nature of music writing and listening by enforcing this routine on myself. Can I write 31 posts of interest about the music of one person? (Many would argue that just the one could be difficult..!) Will I be sick of Mr Jerman’s music by the end of it? Will my doctor recommend I stop after three weeks before I do any permanent damage to my health?
I start Saturday. Wish me luck!
One month with Jeph Jerman
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Richard Pinnell
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Richard Pinnell
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This had occurred to me Chris, and have been looking for an email, not found one yet. Would be nice to ask him a little about his music too as I basically know nothing at present. PM me if you have one? Thanksbobuffs wrote:Richard, great idea! Very much looking forward to reading your comments. You should get in touch with Jeph as you write, I think the concept/approach might interest him.
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Richard Pinnell
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Not sure what this is meant to mean really, but if you are suggesting that this idea is as much about me as it is about Jerman's music you are kind of correct, that's half the point.MelMel wrote:Appropriately self-important...
I could really respond to a loaded comment like 'self-important' made in public but I won't. If you don't like this then don't click on the title and don't read anything....
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letchhausen
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letchhausen
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Richard Pinnell
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I bet you can't keep that up for a month Chris!! Nice little ditties though 
OK, Before mentioning the music, a few more thoughts on this little endeavour.
Firstly, I know that purchasing 31 discs by one artist is a pretty daft and probably worthless thing to do. I should explain how this came about. The name Jeph Jerman was mentioned in high regard in various circles, enough to make me want to listen to something from him. I picked up a few MP3 files through soulseek, of which about 50% sounded very impressive, the others less so, but still quite interesting.
After taking a look at the vast size of his catalogue of released works I asked a few people through online forums and the IHM chatroom at soulseek if they could make a few recommendations about which discs were worth hearing. Unusually for such informed people, I couldn’t get any decent recommendations beyond the couple of recordings I already had.
Then around this time two things happened. Firstly I made the decision to fly to New York to see the Erstquake Festival last weekend. This festival was funded by the proceeds from Erstwhile Distribution and I wanted to place a decent order to help ‘do my bit’ to support this great festival. Then secondly ErstDist got into stock a long list of Jerman recordings that were pretty much unknown to me. By purchasing the lot I have given some decent support to ErstQuake, given me a chance to discover this intriguing artist in depth, and hopefully I can help other bemused listeners who want to sort through the monolithic Jerman catalogue.
I just felt the need to explain that first of all. There is method in my madness, albeit a little skewed.
To decide the order the discs will be played in I numbered them randomly 1 to 31 and then asked the inhabitants of the slsk IHM chatroom to throw numbers at me to decide the order of selection. It was either this method or the I Ching, but I couldn’t be bothered with all of that!
OK, Before mentioning the music, a few more thoughts on this little endeavour.
Firstly, I know that purchasing 31 discs by one artist is a pretty daft and probably worthless thing to do. I should explain how this came about. The name Jeph Jerman was mentioned in high regard in various circles, enough to make me want to listen to something from him. I picked up a few MP3 files through soulseek, of which about 50% sounded very impressive, the others less so, but still quite interesting.
After taking a look at the vast size of his catalogue of released works I asked a few people through online forums and the IHM chatroom at soulseek if they could make a few recommendations about which discs were worth hearing. Unusually for such informed people, I couldn’t get any decent recommendations beyond the couple of recordings I already had.
Then around this time two things happened. Firstly I made the decision to fly to New York to see the Erstquake Festival last weekend. This festival was funded by the proceeds from Erstwhile Distribution and I wanted to place a decent order to help ‘do my bit’ to support this great festival. Then secondly ErstDist got into stock a long list of Jerman recordings that were pretty much unknown to me. By purchasing the lot I have given some decent support to ErstQuake, given me a chance to discover this intriguing artist in depth, and hopefully I can help other bemused listeners who want to sort through the monolithic Jerman catalogue.
I just felt the need to explain that first of all. There is method in my madness, albeit a little skewed.
To decide the order the discs will be played in I numbered them randomly 1 to 31 and then asked the inhabitants of the slsk IHM chatroom to throw numbers at me to decide the order of selection. It was either this method or the I Ching, but I couldn’t be bothered with all of that!
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Richard Pinnell
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Day 1 Jeph Jerman – Soundhouse Anomalous Records CDR
And so the music. Or is it music?
From the little I know of Jerman and through reading his online notes over the past few days it seems possible that you can divide his releases into two. There are the discs that are recordings of his performances, solo and in collaboration where he uses usually naturally found objects to create a soundworld of his making. He also though has many releases that contain field recordings of natural or everyday sounds that he captures and places into the metaphorical ‘frame’ of a CD release to present them in a new light.
This CDR, Soundhouse, seems to fall into the latter category. It contains eight recordings of various objects or occurrences from around Jerman’s Arizona house. One thing I am learning fast about his work is that the CD and track titles can mostly be taken very literally. Soundhouse is indeed sounds from around the house, and tracks like Metal Bedframe in Shed is a recording of exactly that.
The first thing that hits you with this disc, like many Jerman discs is the rough, lo-fi feel to the recording. On pressing play the first track jumps in with no fade, the hum of a recording microphone very evident. It seems clear that Jerman is presenting these pieces as a document of interesting sound, rather than making any attempt to shape them into any recognised ‘music’ format.
The tracks vary from recordings through the window of Jerman going about his daily chores, cutting wood etc, to the closely miked sound of a saucepan of soup steadily boiling. Most of them seem to be purely a case of Jerman placing a mic in a certain position and making a rough recording. The only track that suggests a little more human input is the aforementioned Metal Bedframe in Shed, where the frame appears to be stuck, dragged or somehow ‘played’ to create the banging and metallic sounds on the recording.
So what do I get from these recordings? Firstly they are all very interesting to listen to, especially with the given track titles providing reason to try and figure out how the sound has been made. The other interesting aspect for me is to hear how the sounds become compositional elements in a naturally forming ‘music’. Often the sounds seem metallic, or machine made, and I regularly made the link between the noises included here and the sounds used by EAI musicians, ‘Cooking Amplified’ for instance sounds somewhere between Otomo’s scraping turntable arm and Wastell’s amplified textures.
The last track on Soundhouse is for me the real gem though. ‘Soundhouse Sunset’ is a rough recording made presumably in the evening, possibly from the porch of Jerman’s home. Everything sounds slow, people walk around silently, footsteps drop into the bed of distant birdsong and passing cars to create a gentle mood. Dogs bark, insects hum and everything sounds at peace until the track like all of the others abruptly stops. I really like this piece. Interestingly it is one of the easier tracks to fathom how the sounds are made. Perhaps I am more at home with familiar sounds?
When I mentioned in the slsk chatroom that this album would be the first I listened to, Alex (aka Phaetonn) who is something of a Jeph Jerman officianado announced that his favourite Jerman recording could be found on this album. I asked him not to name it to see if I could make a guess. I really think it has to be Soundhouse Sunset, but we shall see!
My experience with this first album has been a very pleasant one. As it plays now for the third time in rotation it still sounds nice and I am looking forward to hearing more. (There is indeed a Soundhouse II amongst the remaining 30 albums) I would like to begin to think more about Jerman’s reasons for making these recordings, but plenty of time yet I guess.
This will probably be the longest post in the series, firstly because I haven’t become bored with the idea yet, but also because I am still on holiday from work following ErstQuake. If anyone else has heard Soundhouse, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
And so the music. Or is it music?
From the little I know of Jerman and through reading his online notes over the past few days it seems possible that you can divide his releases into two. There are the discs that are recordings of his performances, solo and in collaboration where he uses usually naturally found objects to create a soundworld of his making. He also though has many releases that contain field recordings of natural or everyday sounds that he captures and places into the metaphorical ‘frame’ of a CD release to present them in a new light.
This CDR, Soundhouse, seems to fall into the latter category. It contains eight recordings of various objects or occurrences from around Jerman’s Arizona house. One thing I am learning fast about his work is that the CD and track titles can mostly be taken very literally. Soundhouse is indeed sounds from around the house, and tracks like Metal Bedframe in Shed is a recording of exactly that.
The first thing that hits you with this disc, like many Jerman discs is the rough, lo-fi feel to the recording. On pressing play the first track jumps in with no fade, the hum of a recording microphone very evident. It seems clear that Jerman is presenting these pieces as a document of interesting sound, rather than making any attempt to shape them into any recognised ‘music’ format.
The tracks vary from recordings through the window of Jerman going about his daily chores, cutting wood etc, to the closely miked sound of a saucepan of soup steadily boiling. Most of them seem to be purely a case of Jerman placing a mic in a certain position and making a rough recording. The only track that suggests a little more human input is the aforementioned Metal Bedframe in Shed, where the frame appears to be stuck, dragged or somehow ‘played’ to create the banging and metallic sounds on the recording.
So what do I get from these recordings? Firstly they are all very interesting to listen to, especially with the given track titles providing reason to try and figure out how the sound has been made. The other interesting aspect for me is to hear how the sounds become compositional elements in a naturally forming ‘music’. Often the sounds seem metallic, or machine made, and I regularly made the link between the noises included here and the sounds used by EAI musicians, ‘Cooking Amplified’ for instance sounds somewhere between Otomo’s scraping turntable arm and Wastell’s amplified textures.
The last track on Soundhouse is for me the real gem though. ‘Soundhouse Sunset’ is a rough recording made presumably in the evening, possibly from the porch of Jerman’s home. Everything sounds slow, people walk around silently, footsteps drop into the bed of distant birdsong and passing cars to create a gentle mood. Dogs bark, insects hum and everything sounds at peace until the track like all of the others abruptly stops. I really like this piece. Interestingly it is one of the easier tracks to fathom how the sounds are made. Perhaps I am more at home with familiar sounds?
When I mentioned in the slsk chatroom that this album would be the first I listened to, Alex (aka Phaetonn) who is something of a Jeph Jerman officianado announced that his favourite Jerman recording could be found on this album. I asked him not to name it to see if I could make a guess. I really think it has to be Soundhouse Sunset, but we shall see!
My experience with this first album has been a very pleasant one. As it plays now for the third time in rotation it still sounds nice and I am looking forward to hearing more. (There is indeed a Soundhouse II amongst the remaining 30 albums) I would like to begin to think more about Jerman’s reasons for making these recordings, but plenty of time yet I guess.
This will probably be the longest post in the series, firstly because I haven’t become bored with the idea yet, but also because I am still on holiday from work following ErstQuake. If anyone else has heard Soundhouse, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
the soundhouse discs are probably my least favorite jerman releases. the track (i can't recall the title either) that phaetonn loves is tasty, but the rest of the tracks didn't seem that interesting to my ears. i guess i prefer his more "directed" field recordings.Richard Pinnell wrote:Day 1 Jeph Jerman – Soundhouse Anomalous Records CDR
this is a good thing that you do richard! i look forward to reading the rest of your reviews.
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letchhausen
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Well, I can't keep it up for 31 days since those are the only two Jeph Jerman discs that I have. Oh, curse me for not having anymore around the house. I'm totally busy trying to sort through the discs I bought at Erstquake which will take a while, Hatta did the math for me for how much time it will take but I've put it out of my mind to make it seem not crazy....lalalalalala......Richard Pinnell wrote:I bet you can't keep that up for a month Chris!! Nice little ditties though
Perhaps it's time for me to get ahold of my old buddy Chris Wolf so that I have some J.J. material for a few more haiku's and ditties....
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Jared McKinley
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Richard, you are a good man. I appreciate your sharing your experiences here and giving us some insight here.
I have been exchanging emails with Mr. Jerman and am going to try to book him sometime in the future for a show here in Tucson.
I don't have the $$$ to do what you did recently, but am considering such an action, since that is how I normally follow threads of music. Treasure troving I call it.
I have been exchanging emails with Mr. Jerman and am going to try to book him sometime in the future for a show here in Tucson.
I don't have the $$$ to do what you did recently, but am considering such an action, since that is how I normally follow threads of music. Treasure troving I call it.
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Richard Pinnell
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Day 2 – Jeph Jerman / Doug Theriault – 112 02’W 34 50’ 15”N (Outer Limits 3) CDR
Before commenting on today’s disc, I have to report that I got Alex’s favourite Jerman track very wrong yesterday. His favourite is Two Amplified Long Strings from the Soundhouse CDR. I did wonder about this, but I really thought there was no competition for Soundhouse Sunset!
OK, so today’s disc comes from the other category of Jerman’s music, improvised performance rather than field recordings. 112 02’W 34 50’ 15”N is the catchy title of one of a series of duets recorded with Doug Theriault, a guy I know precisely nothing about.
Jerman is credited as playing a long list of natural objects, stones, water, pine cones etc, with which he uses contact mics to capture the tiny sounds made by rubbing, dropping, tapping, rustling them together. Theriault is listed as playing guitars, but also contact mic, wood and water.
The first three of the four tracks were recorded in January 2003 in an unnamed canyon in Arizona. Although the recording quality is again not so great, the canyon appears to be somewhat desolate, as beyond the mic hiss there is a deathly silence when the duo are not making music. In fact were it not for the occasional drone of an aeroplane passing over head you could be forgiven for forgetting that this music has been performed outside at all, but when that ‘plane does pass over, the recording takes on a different resonance, and the mental image of two guys sat in the deserts of Arizona jumps back into your head.
The music is made up of tiny sounds amplified, scratches, clicking, the occasional swirl of water. It is busy music yet very intimate, and peppered with brief silences. The scrap of paper attached to the inlay card compares the music to a recording Jerman made of ants running across a contact mic, and that’s about how this feels.
It does also sound very musical though. Theriault’s guitar is rarely recognisable, only on odd occasions do you sense the sound of a string being addressed, yet somehow it all sounds under control, Jerman able to select his sounds easily, the randomness of using found objects less evident here.
The fourth track is the result of two taped pieces, one by Jerman, one by Theriault combined together in a studio in Seattle. The Therialult track is overlaid onto a Jerman piece after they were recorded separately. The notes do not suggest if Theriault was able to listen to Jerman’s contribution before adding his own, but the two sets of sounds do seem to come together nicely, suggesting that this was the case.
The slightly improved sound quality from the studio mastering bringing the sounds forward a little more, out of the background hiss. It has a feel of Musique Concrete, scrabbling, busy sounds from unknown sources, with only the occasional stab of a guitar instantly recognisable.
Jerman’s musical history is as a percussionist, and that is clear from this work. I really like the way he uses the sounds of nature as his palette for creating music, but does not seem to feel the need to try every possible sound out with every possible object.
The fourth track here works by far the best for me, Theriault’s discrete and very brief guitar interjections really work well with Jerman’s tiny sounds. In places I am reminded of the free improv of people like John Stevens and John Russell in the early nineties whose music was often described as insect-like, I would not begin to pretend that this music reaches a similar level of improvisational conversation, but here the catalogue of sounds has a wider range than the work of those musicians and the textures achieved are very nice on the ear.
So two discs down and two very different recordings. So far it has been no problem finding things to say about Jeph Jerman’s music and I am eager to hear more.
I am interested to learn more about Doug Theriault also if anyone can help?
Before commenting on today’s disc, I have to report that I got Alex’s favourite Jerman track very wrong yesterday. His favourite is Two Amplified Long Strings from the Soundhouse CDR. I did wonder about this, but I really thought there was no competition for Soundhouse Sunset!
OK, so today’s disc comes from the other category of Jerman’s music, improvised performance rather than field recordings. 112 02’W 34 50’ 15”N is the catchy title of one of a series of duets recorded with Doug Theriault, a guy I know precisely nothing about.
Jerman is credited as playing a long list of natural objects, stones, water, pine cones etc, with which he uses contact mics to capture the tiny sounds made by rubbing, dropping, tapping, rustling them together. Theriault is listed as playing guitars, but also contact mic, wood and water.
The first three of the four tracks were recorded in January 2003 in an unnamed canyon in Arizona. Although the recording quality is again not so great, the canyon appears to be somewhat desolate, as beyond the mic hiss there is a deathly silence when the duo are not making music. In fact were it not for the occasional drone of an aeroplane passing over head you could be forgiven for forgetting that this music has been performed outside at all, but when that ‘plane does pass over, the recording takes on a different resonance, and the mental image of two guys sat in the deserts of Arizona jumps back into your head.
The music is made up of tiny sounds amplified, scratches, clicking, the occasional swirl of water. It is busy music yet very intimate, and peppered with brief silences. The scrap of paper attached to the inlay card compares the music to a recording Jerman made of ants running across a contact mic, and that’s about how this feels.
It does also sound very musical though. Theriault’s guitar is rarely recognisable, only on odd occasions do you sense the sound of a string being addressed, yet somehow it all sounds under control, Jerman able to select his sounds easily, the randomness of using found objects less evident here.
The fourth track is the result of two taped pieces, one by Jerman, one by Theriault combined together in a studio in Seattle. The Therialult track is overlaid onto a Jerman piece after they were recorded separately. The notes do not suggest if Theriault was able to listen to Jerman’s contribution before adding his own, but the two sets of sounds do seem to come together nicely, suggesting that this was the case.
The slightly improved sound quality from the studio mastering bringing the sounds forward a little more, out of the background hiss. It has a feel of Musique Concrete, scrabbling, busy sounds from unknown sources, with only the occasional stab of a guitar instantly recognisable.
Jerman’s musical history is as a percussionist, and that is clear from this work. I really like the way he uses the sounds of nature as his palette for creating music, but does not seem to feel the need to try every possible sound out with every possible object.
The fourth track here works by far the best for me, Theriault’s discrete and very brief guitar interjections really work well with Jerman’s tiny sounds. In places I am reminded of the free improv of people like John Stevens and John Russell in the early nineties whose music was often described as insect-like, I would not begin to pretend that this music reaches a similar level of improvisational conversation, but here the catalogue of sounds has a wider range than the work of those musicians and the textures achieved are very nice on the ear.
So two discs down and two very different recordings. So far it has been no problem finding things to say about Jeph Jerman’s music and I am eager to hear more.
I am interested to learn more about Doug Theriault also if anyone can help?
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letchhausen
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Well I'm in the dark too but here's my local info:Richard Pinnell wrote: ...with Doug Theriault, a guy I know precisely nothing about.
I am interested to learn more about Doug Theriault also if anyone can help?
From the Seattle Improvised Music web site (he played last year but I missed it):
Doug Theriault, a guitarist based in Portland, Oregon, works in improvisational live peformance. He has presented his work all over the United States with a wide variety of musicians and in many festivals. All of his projects concern the use of Music Improvisation, in its many forms and contexts. His work is informed by Hugh Davies, Derek Bailey, Michel Waisvisz, and Masayuki Takayanagi. He is mostly concerned with playing in ad-hoc improvisational contexts, including collaborations with national and international artists Fred Lonberg-Holm, Saadet Turkuz, Gino Robair, Davey Williams, LaDonna Smith, Ed Chang, Jeph Jerman, Wally Shoup, Jack Wright, Toshi Makihara, Tim Perkis, Sean Meehan, Matthew Sperry, Minus, Mark Hosler (Negativland), Eric Ostrowski (noggin), Climax Golden Twins, Aiko Shimada, Jason Dumars, and the Sun Ra Orchestra, to name a few. Doug's ongoing music projects are Office Products (with David Chandler), Dual (with Ed Chang), and ongoing collaborations with other musicians and artists.
Sounds interesting. I'll have to keep an eye open around here since he's in Portland. Perhaps he'll play at the Improv festival next year. I just found out that Ernesto Rodrigues from CS is gonna be playing then......
Nice work with the review, Richard....this is addicting to read, knowing that its coming everyday.......
nice writeups, richard. i don't have that particular doug/jeph duo (but now i want it!) but i do like their work together a lot. i have the "no titles" CDR, and i also released another of their duo discs a while back, not sure if those two are among the ones you have.
more about doug, he mostly plays a custom-refitted electric guitar equipped with motion sensors and other electronics, usually hooked up to a computer and other electronic gear. i guess he probably wasn't using that kind of setup on this recording, since it was done outside. i've released three other of his electronic-based projects: a solo album, a duo with bryan eubanks of GOD, and a trio w/ brian moran & ed chang.
of the other things i've heard by him, his regular duo with ed chang, called DUAL, is really noisy and fast-paced.
more about doug, he mostly plays a custom-refitted electric guitar equipped with motion sensors and other electronics, usually hooked up to a computer and other electronic gear. i guess he probably wasn't using that kind of setup on this recording, since it was done outside. i've released three other of his electronic-based projects: a solo album, a duo with bryan eubanks of GOD, and a trio w/ brian moran & ed chang.
of the other things i've heard by him, his regular duo with ed chang, called DUAL, is really noisy and fast-paced.
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Richard Pinnell
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Thanks for that Chris, Ed. Seems an interesting guy judging by the range of his collaborations, from Sun Ra to Bailey to Meehan.
Red, Water is probably the disc you released Ed? It will be included in the 31, replacing one of the MP3 recordings I was going to use, but only if it gets here on time. Its on order from a distributor I've never used before called Manifold, so we shall see.
Red, Water is probably the disc you released Ed? It will be included in the 31, replacing one of the MP3 recordings I was going to use, but only if it gets here on time. Its on order from a distributor I've never used before called Manifold, so we shall see.
yea, doug is pretty versatile, seems like he can blend into any collab if he wants to.Richard Pinnell wrote:Thanks for that Chris, Ed. Seems an interesting guy judging by the range of his collaborations, from Sun Ra to Bailey to Meehan.
Red, Water is probably the disc you released Ed? It will be included in the 31, replacing one of the MP3 recordings I was going to use, but only if it gets here on time. Its on order from a distributor I've never used before called Manifold, so we shall see.
red, water is the one. i'm amazed anyone still has copies of that, i haven't had any for nearly a year. cool. the other one i mentioned, "no titles," is a very different collab for these two, much faster-paced and more recognizable guitar sounds, it sounds more like traditional "improv"