a variety of questions and comments

[Peter Becker <pbecker3@xxxxxxxxxx>]

re: Stapleton 

Stapleton uses a variety of sources, mostly acoustic. From the banjo,
bazouki, home-made instruments ( see the phenomenal Soliloquy for Lilith) ,
cow bells, and a variety of electronic instruments, Stapleton is quite open
to using whatever it takes to make his music. I dunno if any instrument or
tool is "dumb" or "intelligent". Of course, plunking on a banjo is probably
a quicker and easier method than working on hours of digitalia, but I'm not
one to judge that. Dumb? I can't say. As far as his intelligent references,
he wears his references on his sleeve right out in the open. He certainly
has never hidden his contexts, see NWW tunes " Dada" and "Surrealism" and
many many others. 

re: PBKs comments on Coltrane.

You mention getting a feel for the modern/primitive paradox. I do as well
when listening to Trane ( especially the nosier stuff) but I think that
perhaps we as "intelligent" ( there's that word again ) music listeners
create that paradox. Who knows if Coltrane had any narrative intentions
going into his playing or any mapped out meaning beforehand. I doubt it
based on everything I've heard and what I've read of Coltrane, which has
been limited I admit.
 
re: thinking vs. intuition in music listening

Sometimes when I listen to microsound/experimental/post digital music, I
first listen to the CD and don't even bother with the liner notes. I try to
come back to them -long- after my first few listens. If the music really
touches me intuitively, I'll go back and look at the narrative that the
artist is trying to convey. To me, if I'm not touched intuitively, 12 pages
of laborious pomo art theory won't make the music any better.   I often
wonder just how different my music experience would be if I was blind,
especially when listening to musical styles so steeped in intellectualism.

segue to

new topic- Art Brut

Is there space for Art Brut in microsound? I'm guessing no but am curious.
I think that relative "intelligence" ( or at least the ability to read a
2,000 page digital music making user manual ) would prohibit a Brut take on
making microsound. Am I off base here?
 
  
finally

Tim Kugel mentioned,

 > Is microsound the soundtrack of an apocalyptic time? Or a [another]
return to> science in art? Is it divorced from such meanings for most of us
here? Or not?

It always been the end of the world. The apocalypse is a myth. So microsound
would indeed be one soundtrack of an apocalyptic time, the one we happen to
live in at this moment. I don't think microsound is a -return- to science in
art. That's been here all along as well.

Take care, folks, 
Peter

 
 

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