Looking forward to the cigar box review. All four CDs in one day? Make sure you use the sticks and leaves while you listen.
One month with Jeph Jerman
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William Hutson
- Posts: 627
- Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 12:10 am
their new duo is out now on Creative Sources.sevenarts wrote:i've released three other of his electronic-based projects: a solo album, a duo with bryan eubanks of GOD
Bryan came to the second and third nights of ErstQuake. Did anybody get a chance to talk to him?
here.
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Richard Pinnell
- Posts: 2629
- Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 6:12 pm
- Location: Oxfordshire, England
- Contact:
Day 3 – Jeph Jerman – Sound in Rooms (Seattle Nov 15 1996, Jan 11, 1997) Anomolous Records CDR
Today was the first stressful day back at work after ten days break so I'm pretty exhausted this evening. I listened the first time through to today’s disc in the car on the way home, an interesting exercise. The car is pretty quiet, but it was still pretty hard to make out what was music and what was road noise. Only listened once more fully through whilst cooking dinner, the popping of a pan full of Cajun prawns adding to overall feel...
And to be honest much of the music on Sound in Rooms (Seattle 1996-1997) isn’t so far away from the rumble of the road and the crackle of a hot frying pan. I begin to wonder how much these recordings are meant to be listened to in isolation on a good stereo system, and how much they are meant to be allowed to become part of your everyday soundscape. Jerman’s website namechecks John Cage in a few places, so perhaps my listening experiences today are closer to his intentions. I really must email him and ask.
This was recorded ten years ago now, possibly originally released as a cassette tape. The cloudy sound quality immediately hits you again when the first of the three tracks begins.
Here again we have Jerman in improvisory mode, utilising assorted objects to create a magnified alien soundscape, this time solo.
The first of the three tracks is over twenty minutes long and features clusters of small crackling sounds that emerge faintly from the ever present tape hiss. The sounds here are all very similar but hard to accurately identify. The result is reminiscent for me of Xenakis’ 1958 masterwork Concret PH, a tape manipulation of the sound of a popping and spitting log fire.
The second track uses a wider range of material, the random jangle glass or pottery knocking together is interrupted one minute in by what sounds like Jerman coughing. The piece moves into expressive muted scraping sounds that remain unidentifiable despite making some very bold gestures compared to the rest of the disc.
The third short track returns to material closer to the first piece, once it settles after beginning with loud abrasive buzzing effects that suggest a bee caught in a jam jar. It captures a wider range of sounds than the opening track but still sounds very unobtrusive, going about its way in a hurried but steady manner, another suggestion of the ant music mentioned yesterday.
I feel that the first and last tracks are the most successful here, possibly because I just prefer the more naturalistic feel of these pieces, but also possibly because Jerman seems to be trying too hard on the second piece to draw interesting sounds into play, taking away some of the feel of a field recording that give much of Jerman’s work I have heard so far its charm.
This is a quite satisfactory recording that sits in the background adding a nice ambience to the room, but does not make any grand musical statements. Whilst I expect to find better examples of Jerman’s music over the next 28 days, this first excerpt from his Sound in Rooms series makes very pleasant listening.
Today was the first stressful day back at work after ten days break so I'm pretty exhausted this evening. I listened the first time through to today’s disc in the car on the way home, an interesting exercise. The car is pretty quiet, but it was still pretty hard to make out what was music and what was road noise. Only listened once more fully through whilst cooking dinner, the popping of a pan full of Cajun prawns adding to overall feel...
And to be honest much of the music on Sound in Rooms (Seattle 1996-1997) isn’t so far away from the rumble of the road and the crackle of a hot frying pan. I begin to wonder how much these recordings are meant to be listened to in isolation on a good stereo system, and how much they are meant to be allowed to become part of your everyday soundscape. Jerman’s website namechecks John Cage in a few places, so perhaps my listening experiences today are closer to his intentions. I really must email him and ask.
This was recorded ten years ago now, possibly originally released as a cassette tape. The cloudy sound quality immediately hits you again when the first of the three tracks begins.
Here again we have Jerman in improvisory mode, utilising assorted objects to create a magnified alien soundscape, this time solo.
The first of the three tracks is over twenty minutes long and features clusters of small crackling sounds that emerge faintly from the ever present tape hiss. The sounds here are all very similar but hard to accurately identify. The result is reminiscent for me of Xenakis’ 1958 masterwork Concret PH, a tape manipulation of the sound of a popping and spitting log fire.
The second track uses a wider range of material, the random jangle glass or pottery knocking together is interrupted one minute in by what sounds like Jerman coughing. The piece moves into expressive muted scraping sounds that remain unidentifiable despite making some very bold gestures compared to the rest of the disc.
The third short track returns to material closer to the first piece, once it settles after beginning with loud abrasive buzzing effects that suggest a bee caught in a jam jar. It captures a wider range of sounds than the opening track but still sounds very unobtrusive, going about its way in a hurried but steady manner, another suggestion of the ant music mentioned yesterday.
I feel that the first and last tracks are the most successful here, possibly because I just prefer the more naturalistic feel of these pieces, but also possibly because Jerman seems to be trying too hard on the second piece to draw interesting sounds into play, taking away some of the feel of a field recording that give much of Jerman’s work I have heard so far its charm.
This is a quite satisfactory recording that sits in the background adding a nice ambience to the room, but does not make any grand musical statements. Whilst I expect to find better examples of Jerman’s music over the next 28 days, this first excerpt from his Sound in Rooms series makes very pleasant listening.
''...with Doug Theriault, a guy I know precisely nothing about.''
I've been digging into his work also lately, starting w his duo w Eubanks. Related to Eubanks when i first encountered name GOD i thought at first it was related to Kevin Martin's (of Techno Animal, ICE, Experimental Audio Research, Bug, etc ...) early project of the same name that i think on some records featured Eddie Prevost and John Zorn (Prevost was also ofcourse part of Experimental Audio Research w Sonic Boom from Spacemen 3) ...
I've been digging into his work also lately, starting w his duo w Eubanks. Related to Eubanks when i first encountered name GOD i thought at first it was related to Kevin Martin's (of Techno Animal, ICE, Experimental Audio Research, Bug, etc ...) early project of the same name that i think on some records featured Eddie Prevost and John Zorn (Prevost was also ofcourse part of Experimental Audio Research w Sonic Boom from Spacemen 3) ...
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Richard Pinnell
- Posts: 2629
- Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 6:12 pm
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Day 4 – Jeph Jerman / Greg Davis – Cottonwood, Arizona Autumn Records CDR
Today was the first real test of my resolve to keep this thing going. I had an accident with a falling table (don’t ask) this evening and am writing this with a cold towel wrapped round my head trying to keep down a nice big bump that will be of great amusement to people at work tomorrow. Not particularly in mood to write a great deal.
Before I do though, I found this by Greg Davis whilst googling to find more information on this disc;
“my parents have a cabin in christopher creek az which is slightly east of payson. i normally go to visit them for the holidays and at other random times. on this trip down, i decided to give jeph jerman a call (a person whose music i enjoy immensely). jeph lives in cottonwood az which is up and over the mogollon rim just about 2-3 hours northwest of payson. so on the morning of december 23rd, i went hiking with my father and he helped me collect some nice sounding natural objects such as: manzanita leaves, pine cones and needles, reddish rocks, burrs, and some driftwood branches. then i made the trip and met up with jeph, after his hard day of nut mixing. his quaint and quiet house is situated off a gravelly road among a small cluster of 2 or 3 houses. he cooked up some grilled cheeses for us and i had my first ever cup of genmai cha tea. we chatted for a bit about music and things as i admired his vast and inspiring collection of natural objects carefully scattered about various tables and areas around his house. jeph stoked up a really nice sounding fire in his old wood burning stove, which you can hear playing with us in the background. we recorded these 4 pieces using selections from jeph's collection of natural objects. i had the idea that we should turn up the gain really high on the microphones and play really quietly. this led to some really nice quiet and sparse playing but it also made the recording a bit hissy, which i dont mind so much now after a few listens. track 3 is indebted to 'inlets' by john cage where the performers are instructed to tip conch shells filled with water to make unpredictable gurgles and bubbles. this was cage's idea of "contingency' improvisation. we filled up some of jeph's conch shells with water and gave it a try ourselves. after we finished recording, we listened back to a little bit of it and jeph showed me a few art/sound books by hugh davies, steve peters and akio suzuki. i said farewell and headed back through the pitch black darkness to christopher creek, encountering a half-dozen or so elk along the way. i returned to my parent's cabin with refreshed ears ready to hear the world again after having been deadened by too much city life. “
I have pasted this here for a reason, (and not just to save me having to write so much). Initially when listening to this CD a bit earlier for the first time, I was struck by how close the first couple of tracks sounded to some of the more minimal laptop improvisation I have heard over recent years. The information on the rather beautiful CD packaging is somewhat sparse, and not knowing a great deal about Greg Davis I wondered if perhaps it was in indeed a laptop I was listening to. I then googled a little bit to find a short note describing Davis’ work which stated that laptop was one of the instruments he played. Pleased as punch at my acute listening skills being able to identify this, I carried on googling only to find the above written about this recording. Now I feel pretty stupid.
Davis’ notes above really warm me to Jerman as a person even though we have as yet not even swapped a solitary email. The genmai tea, the Cage references, the Hugh Davies recording all endear me to this man, and again, this CD today is better than the three I have heard so far.
Recorded two days before Christmas in 2003 this is the most recent recording I’ve played thus far. Despite Davis’ initial dissatisfaction with the hiss on the tape, the first thing that struck me was how quiet it was in comparison to the first three recordings. Its still there, but not so oppressively obvious as some of the previous discs. The overall sound here is really rather quiet, the tinkling and clicking of small shells, twigs etc is unobtrusive on the ear, and is spaced apart here and there with long gaps of tape hiss smothered silence.
Jerman and Davis focus each piece on a certain selection of sounds, so that each track remains very simple, with the shape and texture of the music taking on an almost electronic feel. By restricting the sound palette within each piece the listener is less inclined to wonder where each noise originates and the interplay between the two musicians becomes more apparent. This is where this disc really works for me. It is the most fully formed and least random recording yet. Although it is still impossible to tell the two musicians apart, the communication between the two is obvious here and the music is all the better for this.
The third track, described by Davis above as a tip of the hat to Cage has a sound quite separate from the other three pieces. Indeed it obviously sounds like air being blown into water, with the odd metallic rustle lower in the mix but it isn’t such a great leap of the imagination to imagine these sounds coming from a laptop.
Interestingly, last night after finishing with Jerman for the day I played the recent Mueller/Schoenecker disc on Longbox, and I found myself listening closely to try and make out the different sounds involved, how they were created and who was playing what. This reminds me of when I was about 15 and spent a few months playing Tetris on a Nintendo Gameboy incessantly. I found myself immediately after a long session seeing the world as a series of oddly shaped blocks as I went about my day. Too much of any one thing becomes addictive I guess.
Now the towel is dripping cold water down the back of my neck so that’s enough for today!
Today was the first real test of my resolve to keep this thing going. I had an accident with a falling table (don’t ask) this evening and am writing this with a cold towel wrapped round my head trying to keep down a nice big bump that will be of great amusement to people at work tomorrow. Not particularly in mood to write a great deal.
Before I do though, I found this by Greg Davis whilst googling to find more information on this disc;
“my parents have a cabin in christopher creek az which is slightly east of payson. i normally go to visit them for the holidays and at other random times. on this trip down, i decided to give jeph jerman a call (a person whose music i enjoy immensely). jeph lives in cottonwood az which is up and over the mogollon rim just about 2-3 hours northwest of payson. so on the morning of december 23rd, i went hiking with my father and he helped me collect some nice sounding natural objects such as: manzanita leaves, pine cones and needles, reddish rocks, burrs, and some driftwood branches. then i made the trip and met up with jeph, after his hard day of nut mixing. his quaint and quiet house is situated off a gravelly road among a small cluster of 2 or 3 houses. he cooked up some grilled cheeses for us and i had my first ever cup of genmai cha tea. we chatted for a bit about music and things as i admired his vast and inspiring collection of natural objects carefully scattered about various tables and areas around his house. jeph stoked up a really nice sounding fire in his old wood burning stove, which you can hear playing with us in the background. we recorded these 4 pieces using selections from jeph's collection of natural objects. i had the idea that we should turn up the gain really high on the microphones and play really quietly. this led to some really nice quiet and sparse playing but it also made the recording a bit hissy, which i dont mind so much now after a few listens. track 3 is indebted to 'inlets' by john cage where the performers are instructed to tip conch shells filled with water to make unpredictable gurgles and bubbles. this was cage's idea of "contingency' improvisation. we filled up some of jeph's conch shells with water and gave it a try ourselves. after we finished recording, we listened back to a little bit of it and jeph showed me a few art/sound books by hugh davies, steve peters and akio suzuki. i said farewell and headed back through the pitch black darkness to christopher creek, encountering a half-dozen or so elk along the way. i returned to my parent's cabin with refreshed ears ready to hear the world again after having been deadened by too much city life. “
I have pasted this here for a reason, (and not just to save me having to write so much). Initially when listening to this CD a bit earlier for the first time, I was struck by how close the first couple of tracks sounded to some of the more minimal laptop improvisation I have heard over recent years. The information on the rather beautiful CD packaging is somewhat sparse, and not knowing a great deal about Greg Davis I wondered if perhaps it was in indeed a laptop I was listening to. I then googled a little bit to find a short note describing Davis’ work which stated that laptop was one of the instruments he played. Pleased as punch at my acute listening skills being able to identify this, I carried on googling only to find the above written about this recording. Now I feel pretty stupid.
Davis’ notes above really warm me to Jerman as a person even though we have as yet not even swapped a solitary email. The genmai tea, the Cage references, the Hugh Davies recording all endear me to this man, and again, this CD today is better than the three I have heard so far.
Recorded two days before Christmas in 2003 this is the most recent recording I’ve played thus far. Despite Davis’ initial dissatisfaction with the hiss on the tape, the first thing that struck me was how quiet it was in comparison to the first three recordings. Its still there, but not so oppressively obvious as some of the previous discs. The overall sound here is really rather quiet, the tinkling and clicking of small shells, twigs etc is unobtrusive on the ear, and is spaced apart here and there with long gaps of tape hiss smothered silence.
Jerman and Davis focus each piece on a certain selection of sounds, so that each track remains very simple, with the shape and texture of the music taking on an almost electronic feel. By restricting the sound palette within each piece the listener is less inclined to wonder where each noise originates and the interplay between the two musicians becomes more apparent. This is where this disc really works for me. It is the most fully formed and least random recording yet. Although it is still impossible to tell the two musicians apart, the communication between the two is obvious here and the music is all the better for this.
The third track, described by Davis above as a tip of the hat to Cage has a sound quite separate from the other three pieces. Indeed it obviously sounds like air being blown into water, with the odd metallic rustle lower in the mix but it isn’t such a great leap of the imagination to imagine these sounds coming from a laptop.
Interestingly, last night after finishing with Jerman for the day I played the recent Mueller/Schoenecker disc on Longbox, and I found myself listening closely to try and make out the different sounds involved, how they were created and who was playing what. This reminds me of when I was about 15 and spent a few months playing Tetris on a Nintendo Gameboy incessantly. I found myself immediately after a long session seeing the world as a series of oddly shaped blocks as I went about my day. Too much of any one thing becomes addictive I guess.
Now the towel is dripping cold water down the back of my neck so that’s enough for today!
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Richard Pinnell
- Posts: 2629
- Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 6:12 pm
- Location: Oxfordshire, England
- Contact:
Wasn't he in another group as well? Can't quite think of their name now, something short, maybe an acronym of three letters?....hmmmlukaz wrote:'' early project of the same name that i think on some records featured Eddie Prevost and John Zorn (Prevost was also ofcourse part of Experimental Audio Research w Sonic Boom from Spacemen 3) ...
glad to see that the 'leaves' series discs are getting out there.
and thanks for the good words
i wish they were easier to make and easier to distribute.
jeph and i are going to be recording some new material around christmas time. its becoming an annual get together. im really looking forward to it. im also working on processing/editing/layering some older recordings we've made for a future release on the australian room40 label.
not to diminish your jerman listening / writing project because its a good thing and i think more people should be listening to jeph's work and supporting him, but i would think that jeph would probably say that there is really nothing to say about his music. just that its very important to be present with the sounds (all sounds) and listen. it seems that you are grappling with these questions already. is this supposed to be background music / foreground music? are the ambient sounds adding or subtracting to the recordings? is the fidelity part of the recording or does it distract from it? how were the sounds made? etc etc. i would say that all of these questions arent too important. it is important to listen and you are already doing that on a ritualized daily basis. personally, id like to hear more about how jeph's recordings are altering / affecting your general listening and your ideas about music/sound/listening. peace, greg
[quote="Richard Pinnell"]Day 4 – Jeph Jerman / Greg Davis – Cottonwood, Arizona Autumn Records CDR
and thanks for the good words
i wish they were easier to make and easier to distribute.
jeph and i are going to be recording some new material around christmas time. its becoming an annual get together. im really looking forward to it. im also working on processing/editing/layering some older recordings we've made for a future release on the australian room40 label.
not to diminish your jerman listening / writing project because its a good thing and i think more people should be listening to jeph's work and supporting him, but i would think that jeph would probably say that there is really nothing to say about his music. just that its very important to be present with the sounds (all sounds) and listen. it seems that you are grappling with these questions already. is this supposed to be background music / foreground music? are the ambient sounds adding or subtracting to the recordings? is the fidelity part of the recording or does it distract from it? how were the sounds made? etc etc. i would say that all of these questions arent too important. it is important to listen and you are already doing that on a ritualized daily basis. personally, id like to hear more about how jeph's recordings are altering / affecting your general listening and your ideas about music/sound/listening. peace, greg
[quote="Richard Pinnell"]Day 4 – Jeph Jerman / Greg Davis – Cottonwood, Arizona Autumn Records CDR
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Richard Pinnell
- Posts: 2629
- Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 6:12 pm
- Location: Oxfordshire, England
- Contact:
Hey Greg, thanks for this.gtd wrote: not to diminish your jerman listening / writing project because its a good thing and i think more people should be listening to jeph's work and supporting him, but i would think that jeph would probably say that there is really nothing to say about his music. just that its very important to be present with the sounds (all sounds) and listen. it seems that you are grappling with these questions already. is this supposed to be background music / foreground music? are the ambient sounds adding or subtracting to the recordings? is the fidelity part of the recording or does it distract from it? how were the sounds made? etc etc. i would say that all of these questions arent too important. it is important to listen and you are already doing that on a ritualized daily basis. personally, id like to hear more about how jeph's recordings are altering / affecting your general listening and your ideas about music/sound/listening. peace, greg
]
I am indeed beginning to come to those conclusions, even this early on. Its pretty tough to find words about music like this at the best of times, trying to write 31 times about it is really hard and as you say probably ultimately pointless.
However, if this helps half a dozen people find Jeph's (and your own) work that did not know it before then it probably is worth the effort.
Also, this experience is as much a personal battle for me as it is an extended evaluation of Jeph's music. I'm just interested to see where this goes!
Thanks for the nice music, Memorial Day still to come yet!
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user_41
Richard,
please do keep the thoughts coming. I've just recently heard my first disc by Jerman (Lithiary, on Fargone) and am really enjoying reading your thoughts on these discs.
I've recently ordered all of his discs in the Leaves series, so I'll be able to listen to Cottonwood, Arizona fairly soon.
please do keep the thoughts coming. I've just recently heard my first disc by Jerman (Lithiary, on Fargone) and am really enjoying reading your thoughts on these discs.
I've recently ordered all of his discs in the Leaves series, so I'll be able to listen to Cottonwood, Arizona fairly soon.
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user_183
Sorry to hear about the bump, Richard! Was that a shaketable falling?Richard Pinnell wrote: This reminds me of when I was about 15 and spent a few months playing Tetris on a Nintendo Gameboy incessantly. I found myself immediately after a long session seeing the world as a series of oddly shaped blocks as I went about my day. Too much of any one thing becomes addictive I guess.
An aside: "How and when people see pieces from the computer game Tetris in their sleep tells of the role dreaming plays in learning."
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articl ... 9EC588EF21" onclick= "window.open(this.href);return false;
Addictive, maybe, but paying attention with that level of precision also appears draw the experience into mind enough to keep it around. There is probably a lesson here about listening.
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letchhausen
- Posts: 327
- Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:45 pm
Richard,
I'm happy to read of your fortitude and enjoy this project very much. Obviously I come to these boards for discourse on the various issues surrounding the sounds and dig what your doing. Your laptop anecdote was hi-liarous! I've got an order into Erst for some more stuff since I greatly enjoyed Harvester Ants and Instability Studies, which I wrote about before. Perhaps when I get my order I will add some more abstract poetic counterpoint to this thread.....okay perhaps I should say inane haiku nonsense.....
I'm happy to read of your fortitude and enjoy this project very much. Obviously I come to these boards for discourse on the various issues surrounding the sounds and dig what your doing. Your laptop anecdote was hi-liarous! I've got an order into Erst for some more stuff since I greatly enjoyed Harvester Ants and Instability Studies, which I wrote about before. Perhaps when I get my order I will add some more abstract poetic counterpoint to this thread.....okay perhaps I should say inane haiku nonsense.....
definitely enjoying your writing as well richard so keep it up! as far as needlessly asking questions...i enjoy thinking about these things as well. whether it was the intention of the artist or not for so much thought to be given i think it's a fun exercise and much can be drawn from asking questions in life.
i had no idea jerman had so many recordings really ha. i'll have to spend the day at work researching his stuffs...
keep it up!
connor
i had no idea jerman had so many recordings really ha. i'll have to spend the day at work researching his stuffs...
keep it up!
connor
shedding . http://www.shedding.org" onclick= "window.open(this.href);return false;
i'm enjoying reading this. Close listenings to particular albums like Jeph's aren't done enough in this sort of music. Cool!
But to relate it to Spurlock's McD's experiment... Jeph Jerman recordings once a day for a month will probably increase your hearing sensitivity, make you speak more quietly, and enrich your listening life for at least one hour every day. In an extreme reaction, they may inspire you to make your own music out of twigs and pine cones, or buy additional Jerman recordings next month. Even the Hands To tapes are very enjoyable! He's a unique guy.
But to relate it to Spurlock's McD's experiment... Jeph Jerman recordings once a day for a month will probably increase your hearing sensitivity, make you speak more quietly, and enrich your listening life for at least one hour every day. In an extreme reaction, they may inspire you to make your own music out of twigs and pine cones, or buy additional Jerman recordings next month. Even the Hands To tapes are very enjoyable! He's a unique guy.
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Richard Pinnell
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- Contact:
Day 5 – Jeph Jerman – Wet Beaver Creek, Oak Creek Anomolous CDR
Thanks to all of the kind comments above, pleased to hear my torrent of drivel is going down well in some quarters!
I’m afraid tonight’s entry will be short though as its half past ten at night I have only just got in from an evening trip to London that took longer than expected. Blame Alastair for gassing too much in the pub
To be honest though, I think I would be struggling to write a great deal about tonight’s disc anyway. Made up of three tracks, the first recorded seven months after the second and third, Wet Beaver Creek, Oak Creek is as you may be coming to expect now, recordings of water trickling its way along a couple of creeks.
The first track is taken from Wet Beaver Creek and is the only piece recorded here in stereo. The tape hiss is less apparent again with this recording, but the sound that fills the room from the second you press play is the rush of water downstream, recorded closely so that every little ripple and gurgle is captured. There is no ‘human’ involvement in the sound, this is a disc of pure unprocessed field recordings.
Interestingly though, I find myself listening deep into the sound despite its persistent unchanging nature. The sound is actually made up of thousands of little flicks and clicks as the water tumbles over itself on its unstoppable way. It is reminiscent of Jerman’s improvisatory playing with shells and stones etc, just a little faster and relentless.
I am finding that the most enjoyable way to listen to this music is to forget the original context of the recording, forget that this is a recording of water and consider it as a collection of abstract sounds rushing past.
I first listened to this recording on the way home from London on the train. The ambient sound that made its way past my headphones was considerable, and it was quite hard to make out the recording. The sound of the train rushing over the tracks and the distant murmur of people talking worked very well with this disc, though when a rather overweight gentleman sat beside me and shouted obscenities into his mobile phone for the last half an hour I will admit to turning the player off in resignation.
I then put it on again for the short car journey home from the station and it sounded wonderful to the extent that I sat in the car outside the house for a few moments listening once I was home, but sat still the effect was not the same.
The second track is very similar to the first, if anything the water rushes a little faster and the mono recording creates a more abstract feel to the sound, resulting in a more percussive effect. The last track however is a recording made by attaching a contact mic to a twig in the creek. It isn’t really clear whether the mic is submerged under water or not (I’m not sure if it would still work if it was?) but the recording here is shorn of the rush of water that filled the first two tracks and instead we have a constant flow of bubbling rhythms, reminding me in a somewhat oblique way of gamelan music or the clay percussion used in some African music. At the same time though it is very clear that once the microphone has been set in place there is no human hand at work here, these are entirely natural sounds captured on tape.
Wet Beaver Creek is on the surface a very straightforward field recording. It doesn’t go anywhere, and doesn’t develop as a piece of music in any way. It is a presentation of a set of sounds to listen to as you choose. If you approach it with this in mind and allow your mind to wander a little beyond any literal interpretation it becomes very interesting.
Seems I managed to write a reasonable amount anyway. I’m amazed how easy this has been so far.
Oh and if anyone is interested I have a dent in my forehead that hurts, but nothing serious!
Thanks to all of the kind comments above, pleased to hear my torrent of drivel is going down well in some quarters!
I’m afraid tonight’s entry will be short though as its half past ten at night I have only just got in from an evening trip to London that took longer than expected. Blame Alastair for gassing too much in the pub
To be honest though, I think I would be struggling to write a great deal about tonight’s disc anyway. Made up of three tracks, the first recorded seven months after the second and third, Wet Beaver Creek, Oak Creek is as you may be coming to expect now, recordings of water trickling its way along a couple of creeks.
The first track is taken from Wet Beaver Creek and is the only piece recorded here in stereo. The tape hiss is less apparent again with this recording, but the sound that fills the room from the second you press play is the rush of water downstream, recorded closely so that every little ripple and gurgle is captured. There is no ‘human’ involvement in the sound, this is a disc of pure unprocessed field recordings.
Interestingly though, I find myself listening deep into the sound despite its persistent unchanging nature. The sound is actually made up of thousands of little flicks and clicks as the water tumbles over itself on its unstoppable way. It is reminiscent of Jerman’s improvisatory playing with shells and stones etc, just a little faster and relentless.
I am finding that the most enjoyable way to listen to this music is to forget the original context of the recording, forget that this is a recording of water and consider it as a collection of abstract sounds rushing past.
I first listened to this recording on the way home from London on the train. The ambient sound that made its way past my headphones was considerable, and it was quite hard to make out the recording. The sound of the train rushing over the tracks and the distant murmur of people talking worked very well with this disc, though when a rather overweight gentleman sat beside me and shouted obscenities into his mobile phone for the last half an hour I will admit to turning the player off in resignation.
I then put it on again for the short car journey home from the station and it sounded wonderful to the extent that I sat in the car outside the house for a few moments listening once I was home, but sat still the effect was not the same.
The second track is very similar to the first, if anything the water rushes a little faster and the mono recording creates a more abstract feel to the sound, resulting in a more percussive effect. The last track however is a recording made by attaching a contact mic to a twig in the creek. It isn’t really clear whether the mic is submerged under water or not (I’m not sure if it would still work if it was?) but the recording here is shorn of the rush of water that filled the first two tracks and instead we have a constant flow of bubbling rhythms, reminding me in a somewhat oblique way of gamelan music or the clay percussion used in some African music. At the same time though it is very clear that once the microphone has been set in place there is no human hand at work here, these are entirely natural sounds captured on tape.
Wet Beaver Creek is on the surface a very straightforward field recording. It doesn’t go anywhere, and doesn’t develop as a piece of music in any way. It is a presentation of a set of sounds to listen to as you choose. If you approach it with this in mind and allow your mind to wander a little beyond any literal interpretation it becomes very interesting.
Seems I managed to write a reasonable amount anyway. I’m amazed how easy this has been so far.
Oh and if anyone is interested I have a dent in my forehead that hurts, but nothing serious!
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letchhausen
- Posts: 327
- Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2008 11:45 pm
Pip wrote:Richard Pinnell wrote:Blame Alastair for gassing too much in the pub
Yeah, yeah.
I can report that the dint in Richard's head is quite frightening. If he keels over halfway through this Jerman month then someone might need to finish off the experiment as a tribute to him. Letch, I'm lookin' at you.
Yikes! Richard, get well soon! I can imagine that having to work my way through this to be much like the "sifting and sorting" sequence in Thomas Bernhards "Correction" where the protaganist sits in his dead friends garret and in an excrutiatingly long segment of putting papers in order, hears a knock on the door and drops the sorted papers all over the floor!
Richard seemed of strong constitution in New York and I'm sure that as long as water doesn't collect beneath his skull under that bump and get infected and the resulting postule explodes outward killing him instantly then I'm sure he'll be fine. In that event I would be 'sniff' honored to carry on from this wayward son. To say my piece if he is gone and lain his weary head to rest. Then we'll cry some more.
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user_183
Please involve a handful of contact mics in that medically improbable situation -- Jeph would've wanted it that way.letchhausen wrote:I'm sure that as long as water doesn't collect beneath his skull under that bump and get infected and the resulting postule explodes outward killing him instantly then I'm sure he'll be fine.
richard,
FYI i can safely say that it is ok to put contact mics underwater as ive done it myself many times. and actually hydrophones are just nicer contact mics that are sealed up and weighted.
contact mics under water capture some amazing sounds. especially when placed in rapids or flowing water.
also, one slight correction. the cdrs you have listed as anomalous cdrs are not released by anomalous released. they are in fact just released by jeph. anomalous records did release a few jeph jerman cds and an lp and the animist orchestra cd. but unfortunately they went out of business a year or so ago. so now jeph just sells most of his music from his website and makes cdrs on demand.
-gd
[quote="Richard Pinnell"]Day 5 – Jeph Jerman – Wet Beaver Creek, Oak Creek Anomolous CDR
FYI i can safely say that it is ok to put contact mics underwater as ive done it myself many times. and actually hydrophones are just nicer contact mics that are sealed up and weighted.
contact mics under water capture some amazing sounds. especially when placed in rapids or flowing water.
also, one slight correction. the cdrs you have listed as anomalous cdrs are not released by anomalous released. they are in fact just released by jeph. anomalous records did release a few jeph jerman cds and an lp and the animist orchestra cd. but unfortunately they went out of business a year or so ago. so now jeph just sells most of his music from his website and makes cdrs on demand.
-gd
[quote="Richard Pinnell"]Day 5 – Jeph Jerman – Wet Beaver Creek, Oak Creek Anomolous CDR