WELCOME BACK ZB

SEMBLANCE TWO

CONFOUNDED BY NOISE

OSCILLATIONS - PARANORMALE AKTIVITAT by Zwischenwelt

I must say that my initial impression of this release was indifference,  but after repeated listenings PARANORMALE ACTIVITAT strikes me as both highly listenable and spookily seductive. Its basic premise is the quasi-relationship between protoplasm and electricity.  This contrivance is no surprise given Zwischenwelt's connection to producer and musician Gerald Donald (Drexcija,  Dopplereffekt,  etc.) and the pseudo-scientific conceits he's produced in the past.  His Kraftwerk fixation is also evident here in the music's simple sequences and spacious sound,  but these tracks have more atmospheric moments than his primary influence. This really is the sound of electricity,  an invisible force whose immateriality still has the force to effect us.  Titles like "Telekinesis",  "Materialization",  and "Clairvoyant"  act as catch-phrases,  much like in Kraftwerk's recorded output.  Vocals,  when they appear,  are emotionless,  and inhabit a place somewhere between singing and speaking.  The group includes DJ & producer Susana Correia,  Penelope Martin,  and vocalist Beta Evers,  although this could easily be a  Dopplereffekt release.  "Zwischenwelt" is translated from the german as "between world",  and it's just that quality of being transmitted from the ether that makes this CD compelling.

WORK IN PROGRESS

I'm presently working on a small  acrylic painting on wood panel that was initially inspired by a stone hand I would periodically pass while walking near the Stazione Termini in Rome.  That hand is part of the Aurelian Walls which surround and presumably protected Romans from barbarian attack (let's not forget the many sackings of Rome by various peoples).  At first, the painting was done in grisaille as an underpainting,  with shades of gray as a preliminary modelling source.  Later painting sessions will bring color to this poetic image.

NEW MODULE: Eardrill PENDULUM/RATCHET

 With great delight I received the latest addition to my financial downfall,  the Pendulum/Ratchet,  designed and produced by Chris Muir/Eardrill.  This Buchla format module produces a vast array of pulses that can really add to the rhythmic flavor of my work with the 200e,  especially when attached to the 291e,  the Triple Morphing Filter.  As something of a 200e neophyte,  I was quite surprised when the /Ratchet produced what sounded like a very cool sequence of pitches without the use of my 250e,  the Arbitrary Function Generator aka the Buchla Sequencer.  Given the learning curve of all Buchla and Buchla-inspired modules,  I'm really looking foward to plenty of sonic surprises here. 

OPTIK: THE BRAINIAC

Here is a remarkably ridiculous and comically surreal entry into the Mexican horror film genre.  In this atmospheric and charmingly clumsy 1961 movie,  producer Abel Salazar and director Chano Urveta have expanded the vampiric need for blood to include brain matter,  as their 300 year old Baron goes on a brain-sucking rampage after a papier mache comet brings him to modern Mexico.  The Baron had previously promised his vengeful return while being burned at the stake by the Inquisition for various crimes against Nature and the Catholic Church,  and in doing so attached his reappearance to a comet's scheduled return hundreds of years later.  That comet is first seen as an out of focus photograph that is little more than a cartoon.  This is the english language version of EL BARON DEL TERROR,  which surely brings even more laughs to what is already quite a chuckle.  Levity abounds as the Baron is transformed into a hideously hairy big-beaked monstrosity who must eat brains to maintain his regal composure and good looks.  In one of the funnier scenes,  he excuses himself during some socializing so he can get to his delectable culinary mainstay (hidden in a large wooden chest) before what seems to be a case of sweaty nausea overcomes him. The real treat here is the transformed Baron's long forked tongue,  with which he extracts the brains from his victims.  Revenge (in B&W) has never tasted so sweet.

A TASTE OF ether^ra

A JOYOUSLY RAMSHACKLE EVENT: The ISB at Stony Brook University (1968)

I recently discovered this souvenir from a very special and intimate event,  a concert by the Incredible String Band at the Stony Brook University Gymnasium on Long Island.  I had previously seen the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Soft Machine there,  but was unprepared for this loosely communal music-making experience.  The ISB members were readily available to the  Stony Brook audience,  and the above autograph from Robin Williamson is part of a treasured memory.

OSCILLATIONS: WEE TAM & BIG HUGE by The Incredible String Band

These two releases from 1968 (a double LP in the UK) may not have much in the way of electronics,  but they do epitomize an eclectic and nearly hallucinagenic ethic that could be referred to as "Acid Folk" over forty years before that phrase was coined.  To call WEE TAM and BIG HUGE seminal would hardly do them justice as music born into the bliss of myriad cultural/spiritual traditions.  These are wildly exploratory songs that haven't dated one bit.  Unlike their earlier releases,  these collections have a wonderfully spacious production (again by Joe Boyd) that emphasizes the peripatetic nature of the song structures and the resultant surrealism,  poetry,  and magic.  This magic is courtesy a gathering of spiritual influences that provide each song with an inherent pantheism through which the material world is lovingly examined.  Whether it's from a pantheon of Gods or the Nature that surrounds us,  the songs' poetry continuously refreshes itself as it moves from place to place. Both Robin Williamson and Mike Heron each created songs and settings that slowly creep into our consciousness,  with Robin generally writing the sweeping epics ("Maya",  "Job's Tears",  "Ducks on a Pond") and Mike the more immediate tunes ("Cousin Caterpiller",  "Puppies",  Greatest Friend").  This is not to dismiss Mike's most intriguingly eccentric moments like "Douglas Traherne Harding", as it's successfully sandwiched between Williamson's  pagan hymn to Pre-Christian England,  "The Iron Stone" and  BIG HUGE closer,  "The Circle is Unbroken",  all standout tracks.  The ensemble (which included Rose Simpson and Licorice McKechnie) playing throughout the album incorporated fewer overdubs than previous albums which further opened up the band's recorded sound,  and made for a clarity and intimacy never heard on a ISB release up to this point.  All instruments,  exotic and otherwise sound great,  while retaining the band's charming raggedness.  Both albums' inclusive nature can be summed up in this line from "Douglas Traherne Harding":

                         One light,  the light that is one though the lamps be many
                                        
                                        
                          

MY NEW BUCHLA 201e-24

A 24-panel powered cabinet arrived yesterday and should prove to be an invaluable addition to my sonic arsenal once it is filled.  While the idea of having that many modules available for use may seem intimidating or even dizzying at first,  its potential is definitely appreciated.  The only module connected at the time of this photo is a Buchla 285e Frequency Shifter.  Nice.

The upper pic is an additional view,  this time after the cabinet had been filled with Buchla modules and blanks awaiting new modules from Buchla or other designer/engineers.  Those oscillation,  modulation,  and triggering sources are,  from top to bottom,  left to right:

    285e,  281e, 292e,  250e,  222e control module,  291e,  256e,  206e,  261e,  266e,  259e,  297, 222e