AE_thingy: more points

[anechoic <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I implied earlier that Autechre was using a Kyma system...I could be wrong
about that but approx a year ago someone on the either the idm or
microsound list said that they had first hand info (I guess that was the
first red flag) that the AE guys were using a fully loaded Kyma system in
their studio...it's possible that since then they have joined the
"powerbook + max/msp" crew...I do know someone who is possibly releasing a
CD of Max/MSP patches by AE...anyway, maybe I should have just said DSP
instead of Kyma...so find and replace Kyma with DSP in my earlier emails...
but it was interesting to read all the gear trainspotting in response to my
email which is a good indicator that this genre of music cannot operate
culturally without reference to the tools used to create it...trying to do
so would be like a web designer trying to view a Flash enabled web page
without ever thinking about how Flash was used to create the content they
were viewing...again, the tool has become the message...
I think applying Oliveros' 60's hippy third ear mode of (deep) listening to
digital music is like being near-sighted and trying to look at artwork
without wearing glasses...contrary to what she terms "Deep Listening" real
deep listening today means being culturally able to read a soundwork fully
by being aware of the process that went into making it...digital music
calls into action an entirely different perceptual apparatus...without that
you're just superficially listening to "cool sounds" ie you're missing out
on the abstractions, pointers and cues inherent in digital media by not
having a historical/technological context with which to frame the
work...microscopic music needs a "microscope" to read it properly...this
microscopic mode (via new perceptual apparatus) of listening is vastly
different than what Oliveros alludes to...it's a "fast brain" mode of
listening which is needed to succesfully navigate the information
rich/overloaded/quick cut/simulacre/realityTV mediascape we're immersed
in...deep listening ala Oliveros is an attempt to separate the signifier
from the signified (or listening from categorizing) and is an anachronistic
mode of listening that doesn't work with electronica...electronica operates
on fast production and consumption cycles and "speed listening" is how one
tends to ingest it: as sound-bites, needle drops and
wallpaper...soundtracks, commericials, on tv, layered, beat-matched and
mixed into dancefloors, during the daily commute, in a store while
shopping, while at work, while online, etc..today we absorb information via
viral transmission not via soft focus new-age listening...

in closing here are some quotes from an AE interview in the July/August
issue of URB Mag
http://www.autechre.nu/cgi-bin/newspro/news.cgi?newsid994248823,12473,

"Stockhausen?he was basically going, 'Fuck off, everyone.' The same way
Erik Satie was,
the same way loads of fucking top composers have been. It's dissident as
fuck, but that's
what creates the future. It's the dissident element - it has to exist," he
says, gaining
focused momentum. "No fucking structure's worth anything without it."

"Fried avant-rock bluesman Captain Beefheart is also a favorite:
"Beefheart's fucking techno,"
he says, almost to himself, assembling another spliff. "He's ridiculously
good. He's
fuckin' really good, he fuckin' is."

now that's deep listening  ;)
KIM