DON HASSLER & JASON BUTCHER

A BRIEF ENCOUNTER: DON HASSLER

Don Hassler is a musician working with electronic instruments and media.  He is very well versed in electronics and the arts,  and is very willing to share his knowledge and expertise.  This generosity is a marked departure from a scene often defined by secrecy and self-promotion.  In Dan,  one couldn't ask for a more open introduction to music sometimes termed "difficult". Find out more about his activities and recordings at http://www.donhassler.com  and  http://hasslerbutcher.blogspot.com/


TSS:  You have your hand in many pies.  Which do you most identify with and why?  Musician,  artist,       technician?      


DH:  I've mostly have just said I love electronic music. To whatever extent I might be able to participate at a given time would determine my role out there. Just depending on what opportunities are available to me. I do like assisting others the best, though.


TSS:  You seem to have a marked preference for the EMS Synthi Mk I.  What continues to draw you to this instrument,  and how would you compare it to say,  your Buchla 200e?
DH:  I became fanatically interested at age 8, in 1968. But, it was prohibitively expensive, and it took more than ten years for me to finally get an instrument. I long knew I wanted either a Synthi or a 2600. On paper, the 2600 made more sense, but the Synthi just seemed cooler. Over the years, I've been exposed to a bunch of others. The Synthi still remains my favorite due to my familiarity and its depth of unexpected behavior. I'd say most any modular could offer just as much and more capability. It seems the 200e though shares a similar degree of eccentric quirks though. That seems to be the thing I'm attracted to.


TSS:  How would you describe your collaborations with Jason Butcher?  Why collaborate?
DH:   Assisting and learning! To make something new!


TSS:  I quite like your use of self-playing patches.  Does the abandonment of some control provide an essential sense of discovery to draw from?
DH:  I hardly ever approached electronic music using the typical musical practices. The idea of sitting down in front of a keyboard and playing a tune makes very little sense to me. As a consequence, my usual routine with anything I've used was to set it up to run on its own. It only very recently occurred to me that I could get away with calling the results finished work. And that came about after I decided it was okay to steal and misappropriate terms for titles. In going through all this, it became clearer to me what might constitute usable listening material to others. I assumed there would be maybe two or three others out there, and the main focus would be on specifically what was happening. The idea then would be to simplify, and use the recording as an opportunity to present a specific machine's character, independent of my continued messing around. The work then is really just about the material itself.


TSS:  What kind of formal concerns do you strive for in your music?  Do you find yourself balancing Classical ideas of order with utter randomness?
DH:  I'm aware of a lot of formal elements out there in music and art, I have a degree of understanding of some of them. I never attempt to introduce anything prior to creating a work though. I only work with the material as such. It's afterward I might spot things that could be construed as say, an ending, or rhythm. So for instance, if I'm only using a Synthi, and at that, not interfering with it while I'm recording, the device itself will determine the structure. The Synthi has only very basic generators which create simple patterns. But it at least allows those generators to completely interfere with themselves and each other by way of feedback and cross modulation. The result is a natural range of varying predictability. I don't think it's randomness I'm after, only rough and predictable. There are periodic events, though due to the instability caused by the relative complexity, there is variation. I attempt to strive for a similar sort of organic behavior on the 200e, or even on the computer. I think in all of what I am attempting is a harsh ambiance, which setting these machines up the way I do tends to produce. 

A DRIFT

A TASTE OF BEEFHEART

AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

THE DREAMER HAS AWAKENED: Don Van Vliet (1941-2010)

I was taken completely by surprise by the announcement of Captain Beefheart's passing on December 17th 2010 from complications relating to multiple sclerosis.  For nearly three decades he'd been close to invisible to music fans,  while he carried on a career as a serious and well-regarded painter,  often tackling environmental themes in an expressionistic manner (much like his music).  Releases like TROUT MASK REPLICA (1969) and LICK MY DECALS OFF,  BABY (1970) set the standard for kinetically precise,  yet skewed rhythms,  angular bass and guitar interplay,  mystifyingly composed  "free" playing,  and  obtuse poetics.  He and his Magic Band were truly magicians when it came to creating experimental pop that morphed their blues and free jazz influences into unique hybrids that begged the question "how did they do that?".  Even a later release like the somewhat more accessible CLEAR SPOT (1973) seemed the real deal,  containing beautifully hummable commercial moments ("Too Much Time") alongside heartfelt avant-garde gestures ("Big-Eyed Beans From Venus").  This was an album that bravely combined both surrealism and soul in a satisfying way.  I've always cherished his performance at My Father's Place in Roslyn,  New York (Nov. 18th,  1978),  not just for the music,  but for the chance to meet the Captain up close and personal.  Beyond his legendary weirdness and supposed egomania,  here was an affable,  charming,  and funny guy,  someone I now miss even more.

DISCARDED SKETCH

OSCILLATIONS: OLD PUNCH CARD by Sam Prekop

I must admit that I didn't know what to expect from this release,  as I generally think of Sam Prekop only as the voice of The Sea and Cake,  whose sumptuous grooves and smooth singing are totally absent here.  After discovering that this is an all instrumental,  all electronic (with 25 seconds of acoustic guitar) album,  the title OLD PUNCH CARD had me thinking of EML's sadly anachronistic and under-appreciated semi-programmable Synkey 2001 (1974-1984),  whose claim to fame was its programming system utilizing punch cards.  Whatever devices (modular,  I believe) were used for this recording,  the overall feel is of vintage analogue knob twiddling and even tape splicing,  not of a sound-world based on presets,  however mangled (thanks anyway,  Onehotrix Point Never).  It's  certainly more akin to early electronic music rather than contemporary electronica,  whose structures and sounds often seem codified beyond the initial experimentation and chance that birthed electronic music. The nine diverse tracks that comprise OLD PUNCH CARD generate movement through change and chance alignments,  sometimes jarring,  at other times comforting like a nursery rhyme ("The Silhouettes").  This is not to imply any sort of nostalgia,  but to suggest the slippery nature of this project, an ambiguity that is at the heart of the best art,  musical or otherwise.  This may be one of the year's best.  Give it a listen.

OSCILLATIONS: CARAVAGGIO 1610 OST

In my haste to plummet through days,  it recently dawned on me that we are quickly exiting 2010,  a year that marks,  amongst other things,  the 400th anniversary of the death of painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.  His was a life troubled by 16th century social,  sexual,  religious,  and artistic standards,  with an artistic temperament and temper to match his discomforts.  The soundtrack that accompanies the late Derek Jarman's film (2005) is aptly subtitled "Sound Sketches for Michele of the Shadows",  and that's exactly what these pieces of music are.  There is a atmospheric randomness to both movie and soundtrack,  so neither may be mistaken for narratives of any sort,  but that is exactly the point of these ambiguous bits of flamenco guitar,  rain,  choir,  cicadas,  bowed psaltry,  chains,  swallows,  electronic sound,  etc.  Simon Fisher Turner has assembled an impressive group of musicians who delicately flirt with field recordings that map both physical and emotional locations.  The film and soundtrack seem like meditations on love, loss,  and the creative act,  a series of forms slowly emerging from a chiaroscuro that hides more than it reveals.  Then.... darkness.

ELEMENTAL COLLAPSE (again)

ALL IS DREAM

OSCILLATIONS: "The Dark is Rising" by Mercury Rev

This was the first single from Mercury Rev's ALL IS DREAM (2001),  a release that found them abandoning the forced wedness of earlier releases like BOCES (1993),  and concentrating on sounds and songwriting,  a journey that began with the excellent DESERTERS SONGS.  From their upstate New York studio,  Mercury Rev created a rural surrealism that communicates the sense of wonder,  displacement,  and plainspoken poetry that small towns like Woodstock seem capable of summoning,  especially when the night's "silence" gives way to nature's myriad conversations.  ALL IS DREAM starts affectingly enough with the orchestral bombast of "The Dark is Rising",  perhaps the albums strongest song and statement of purpose:                                    
                                                                       I dreamed of you on my farm
                                                                   I dreamed of you in my arms
                                                              But dreams are always wrong
                                                         I never dreamed I'd hurt you
                                                     I never dreamed I'd lose you
                                                In my dreams I'm always strong

The track's power lies in its contrasts,  a vocal whine reminiscent of Neil Young quietly trading words with a full orchestra,  and the singer's ambivalence towards dreams countered with the truth of his acceptance of loss and eventual darkness.  In the end, it's a song of love and terror and hope.

NEW ADDITION: the Buchla 200e

Here's another complicated device added to an already over-burdened studio,  and I'm loving it.  This Buchla instrument includes the following modules:  1) the Arbitrary Function Generator,  which is essentially a 16-stage sequencer offering incredible programming possibilities,  2) the Complex Waveform Generator,  a principal oscillator and a modulation oscillator,  3) the Quad Function Generator,  an envelope generator of sorts,  4) the Quad Dynamics Manager,  which helps route signals and control voltages,  and finally,  5)  the Triple Morphing Filter,  which will eventually become self-explanatory as I sink deeper into this sea of possibilities.  Many thanks to ether^ra,  Jason Butcher,  and especially Don Hassler for their invaluable assistance in dealing with my initial confusion.  Videos to follow.

OPTIK: I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN

As a five year old in 1957,  I felt little of the confused liberating force of teenhood (that was to come in the late Sixties for me),  but did see the result of its growing pains in the form of media representations of this newly important demographic.  Before girls,  rock 'n roll,  and even noise,  Hollywood monsters captured my imagination,  especially those glimpsed in the pages of magazines like FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND.  I would sometimes use money meant for the collection plate in church to purchase these illicit magazines (ah,  the Catholic guilt!).  One bit of B-movie schlock that really grabbed me turned out to be called I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN (1957),  a silly,  but strangely seductive bit of black and white teen exploitation.  It now seems like a twisted vision of a teen's severe body-image problem, or puberty run amuck (oh,  that was I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF),  or perhaps an exaggerated call to cut parental ties (in this case using an alligator pit).  Whit Bissel plays Dr. Frankenstein,  an Englishman without any sign of accent or scruples,  who'll let nothing get in his way of creating the perfect being from mangled auto wreck teen parts and ganglia. Unfortunately, the monster (played by heartthrob Gary Conway) had little use for adult supervision or Bissel's  curious fiance (ably played by Phyllis Coates of  TV's Superman fame),  another victim of our doctor's favorite disposal system,  the alligator pit.  Its shoddy plot, hilarious dialogue,  and  bargain basement makeup only made this movie more laudable in my eyes,  a misshapen masterpiece about a universal truth,  that of growing up pimpled,  insecure,  and wildly different,  at least in our own minds.

A VISITATION

OSCILLATIONS: THE VOICE OF AMERICA by Cabaret Voltaire

Cabaret Voltaire was certainly one of my first encounters with electronic music,  and as such has continued to be an influence,  especially when in comes to CV's early releases.  THE VOICE OF AMERICA (1980),  the group's second LP,  seemed to me a real kick in the eye and ear with its dada-inspired cover collage and swells of throbbing paranoia provided courtesy the trio of Richard H. Kirk,  Stephen Mallinder,  and Christopher R. Watson.  Instruments included traditional guitar and bass,  but those were supplemented by tape manipulations,  percolating electronic percussion,  found voices,  and even a clarinet.  All were fair game for processing,  resulting in a kind of pop primitivism that furthered the noise quotient and the resultant sense of unease.  This was Sheffield grit that reflected in its grains the political and the personal on a world stage.  The title track is a manifesto about otherness and control,  while "Obsession" gave voice to the damage of desire (in the form of capitalism),  with its primitive rhythm machine,  smears of guitar,  and chanting vocal.  "Kneel to the Boss"  again tackled the issue of control in its various forms.  My favorite track has always been "This is Entertainment",  a deadpan vocal caught up in an eventual miasma of electronic percussion,  making Cabaret Voltaire's position on the media and the entertainment industry crystal clear.  It was a catchy,  repetitive track that stuck in my brain like a top 40 hit that never was.  The sickly feeling that is prevalent throughout the album is really the voice of America itself and its cultural and military imperialism,  now the New Rome with its center impossibly stretched.  Scary stuff indeed!