Scale of the Day: A Octotonic-1 (2 - 1) mapped to the Square-root-of-2

The A Octotonic-1 (2 - 1) mapped to the Square-root-of-2 Scale. The (2 - 1) adds an extra quarter tone on the second degree.

HurdAudio Rotation: Synthesis - Cross-cultural and Otherwise

Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath: Bremen to Bridgwater. 1971, 1975 - re-issued in 2004. Cuneiform Records: Rune 182/183.

June 20, 1971 set at Lila Eule, Bremen, Germany
Harry Beckett: trumpet
Marc Charig: trumpet
Nick Evans: trombone
Mongezi Feza: trumpet
Malcolm Griffiths: trombone
Chris McGregor: piano
Harry Miller: bass
Louis Moholo-Moholo: drums
Mike Osborne: alto saxophone, clarinet
Dudu Pukwana: alto saxophone
Alan Skidmore: tenor saxophone
Gary Windo: tenor saxophone

February 26, 1975 set at the Bridgwater Arts Centre, Bridgwater, England, U.K.
Keith Bailey: drums
Harry Beckett: trumpet
Marc Charig: trumpet
Elton Dean: alto saxophone
Nick Evans: trombone
Mongezi Feza: trumpet
Malcolm Griffiths: trombone
Chris McGregor: piano
Harry Miller: bass
Mike Osborne: also saxophone, clarinet
Dudu Pukwana: alto saxophone
Alan Skidmore: tenor saxophone

November 11, 1975 set at the Bridgwater Arts Centre, Bridgwater, England, U.K.
Harry Beckett: trumpet
Marc Charig: trumpet
Elton Dean: alto saxophone
Nick Evans: trombone
Mongezi Feza: trumpet
Bruce Grant: baritone saxophone
Radu Malfatti: trombone
Chris McGregor: piano
Harry Miller: bass
Louis Moholo-Moholo: drums
Mike Osborne: alto saxophone, clarinet
Evan Parker: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
Dudu Pukwana: alto saxophone

The documentation of these 1971 and 1975 concerts is a joy to behold. The melodic twists and contours set against this rhythm section and big band sound - not to mention the spirited creative improvisations - is a testament to the musical sparks that fly with cross-cultural synthesis. That such an ensemble with this beautiful energy and sound could be banned from South Africa (the native home of many of these musicians then living in exile) for the "crime" of mixing races is unfathomable. The fact that apartheid was indefensible and stupid has never lacked for supporting argument. Music such as this illustrates the sheer deafness of such an idiotic policy.

Forbes Graham: Another Return. 2007. Self produced CD-R available from the composer.

Forbes Graham: trumpet, laptop computer

This one shrinks the ears and places them within an imagined microscopic soundscape tinged by the resonance of the trumpet's brass plumbing. "You're Here With Us Now" builds toward a threshold of pure distortion and drops into complete silence at the moment that threshold is punctured. The dotted silences add more tension than a mere overdriven signal could ever produce.

Jason Kao Hwang: Edge. 2006. Asian Improv Records: AIR0067.

Jason Kao Hwang: composer, violin
Taylor Ho Bynum: cornet, flugelhorn
Andrew Drury: drums
Ken Filiano: bass

The way this quartet plays together shades these compositions into something striking. Hwang composes music that mixes free jazz and Asian traditions and the outstanding performers in this group animate it into a sound of understated beauty aided by deep musicianship. The pitch inflections of Hwang's violin lines weave gently along side Taylor Ho Bynum's expressive brass tone. A deeper chemistry between performers is rarely achieved.

Scale of the Day: E Flat Octotonic-1

Audio of the E Flat Octotonic-1 Scale as one would find it on any conventionally tuned, equal tempered instrument.

See also:
E Flat Octotonic-1 Scale notated.
E Flat Octotonic-1 Scale interval analysis.

The Dramatic Turn of Nothing You've Heard Before

The Autumn Concert of After Now: Nothing You've Heard Before
November 17, 2007, The Carriage House, Baltimore, MD

Concord by Sally Sarles
Monika Vasey: harp
Lee Hinkle: voice, percussion
Leonid Iogansen: violin

Tosherish by C.R. Kasprzyk
Prerecorded electronics

Cog by Samuel Burt
Unwound by Samuel Burt
Michael Formanek: contrabass
Ann Teresa Kang: piano
Rose Hammer: baritone saxophone

L!st3N by C.R. Kasprzyk
Lee Hinkle: voice
Kristin Bacchiocchi-Stewart: flute
Zachary Herchen: baritone saxophone
Rachel Gawell: cello
Adam Hopkins: contrabass
Catherine Pancake: metals, dry ice
C.R. Kasprzyk: laptop

The second concert from After Now moved into the funky confines of the Carriage House - giving this off kilter group of composers and performers access to a grand piano and a stage - as the music took a turn toward composed dramatic, theatrical gestures.

Samuel Burt's Unwound confronts the composer's anxieties regarding repetition by embracing fixed sequential states. This was particularly clear in the piano part: play keyboard, retrieve a balloon from the interior of the instrument (the piano had been prepared by filling it with inflated balloons), rub balloon, play keyboard, pop balloon and repeat. The percussive element of the pop was often accompanied by the repeated element of catching the sheet music recently displaced by the sudden release of air. Cog maintained its focus on repetition by locking the ensemble into a pulse and was a significantly less dramatic and musically more satisfying work.

Tosherish takes the recent Howard Stern bashing of The Zs as its source material and subjects it to a Steve Reich Come Out or It's Gonna Rain style of loop phasing. This piece was incredibly problematic for several reasons. The phasing quickly took on all the sonic characteristics and rhythmic qualities of Come Out and resembled it in every detail except for source loop and some added electronic manipulations interspersed within the phasing process. This literal Reich homage didn't add anything new other than a sophomoric sense of humor. The looped material references John Cage negatively. Which makes the Reich treatment puzzling given the wide aesthetic distance between Cage and Reich. Then there was the "too clever" quality of the selection of source material itself. When Howard Stern mocks avant garde music, John Cage or The Zs he does it with the same self-satisfied ignorance and proud philistinism that openly celebrates lesbian pornography. It's a shtick that thrives on attention and I question the choice of feeding it by composing a work that essentially draws even more attention to it. I give Kasprzyk credit for attempting to confront public reactions toward modern music head on. The mutual agreement between mass audiences and avant garde composers to ignore one another is rarely punctured.

Sally Sarles' Concord takes the Charles Ives Concord Sonata as its point of reference and takes the transcendentalist underpinnings behind that work in a different direction in a manner that treads lightly away from the Ives mold. The Concord Sonata is practically a sacred text at HurdAudio and I went into this piece with some trepidation. But these short movements are a completely different work and a pleasant one at that.

The final work of the evening, L!st3N, was jam packed with dramatic elements and surprising turns. Structured on a transcription of a recording of a walk through Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood this piece attempted to capture the odd juxtapositions and transitions of an urban sojourn. The conglomeration of unusual techniques; a mouth filled with Pop Rocks candy, dry ice and heated metals as an instrument, electronics, bowing the cello and bass with a pencil, etc. never completely gelled for these ears. The sonic joys of an urban walk were buried under too many elements and aural clutter. There's a good idea lurking within L!st3N waiting to be coaxed out with a little more focus.

Overall, the move to the Carriage House is a positive development for the fledgling After Now series and it is refreshing to hear chamber music that is fearlessly extreme.

HurdAudio Rotation: Two Horn Players Named Peter

Peter Brötzmann/Michael Zerang: Live in Beirut. 2005. Al Maslakh Recordings: 03.

Peter Brötzmann: tenor saxophone, tarogato, B-flat clarinet
Michael Zerang: drum set, darbuka, percussion

As ever the master of sustained intensity, Peter Brötzmann is completely in his element when paired up against the percussive battery of Michael Zerang's fantastic drumming. Zerang's percussion work snaps into sharp focus in "Yalla Kholoud" as he fills out his sound with the darbuka - later transitioning to his full drum kit - before Brötzmann makes a return entrance into the soundscape. There is something intrinsically satisfying about the brute force of playing loud - at least as this duo practices it - that speaks toward a Dyonisian release. Yet this performance also lurches toward more Apollonian moments of lyrical warmth and introspective focus as well.

Peter Apfelbaum & The Hieroglyphics Ensemble: Jodoji Brightness. 1992. Antilles/Polygram Records: 314-512 320-2.

Peter Apfelbaum: tenor saxophone, piano, organ, synthesizer, drums, percussion
Bill Ortiz: trumpet, flugelhorn
Jeff Cressman: trombone, pyramid bell, percussion
James Harvey: trombone
Paul Hanson: alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, bassoon
Tony Jones: tenor saxophone
Peck Allmond: soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, trumpet
Norbert Stachel: soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, bass saxophone, clarinet, flute, piccolo
Will Bernard: guitar
Stan Franks: guitar
Jai Uttal: guitar, harmonium, dotar, percussion
Bo Freeman: bass
Joshua Jones V: drums, timbales, bass drum, congas, bata, vocals
Deszon X. Claiborne: drums, percussion
"Buddha" Robert Huffman: congas, bell tree, gongs, bata, vocals
Rachel Durling: violin
Steven Bernstein: trumpet
Sekou Heath: bata, percussion, vocals

Great big band compositions and arrangements that have aged well (it is now almost 16 years since the recording date) and continues to sound better on its fourth documented spin through the rotation. Even after countless spins and absorbing this music to its core there are countless fresh details in these smart, creative arrangements that keep the ears reaching for this listening experience.

Peter Brötzmann Octet: The Complete Machine Gun Sessions. 1968. Re-mastered and re-issued in 2007 with additional materials. Atavistic: ALP262CD.

Peter Brötzmann: tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone
Even Johansson: drums
Peter Kowald: bass
William Breuker: tenor saxophone
Fred Van Hove: piano
Evan Parker: tenor saxophone
Vuschi Niebergall: bass
Han Bennink: drums
Gerd Dudek: tenor saxophone (one track only)

This 1968 European free jazz classic of legendary stature is remastered and restored to its intoxicating and brutal, rough edged beauty. This is a completely necessary expression of pure release and relentless barrage. Peter Brötzmann has built a sound and an improvising career from exploring the extremes found on this disc and the abrasiveness of it has a strong hold on my attention. This is the clear antidote to the inevitable "smooth jazz" overdose the holiday retail experience inflicts upon the alert mind this time of year. Turn this one up and savor it over a few shots of whiskey when the sticky sweetness of eggnog tidings and mindless fa-la-la-la-las becomes overbearing.

Scale of the Day: C Octotonic-1 (2 - 1)

The intervallic content of the C Octotonic-1 (2 - 1) Scale. The (2 - 1) lowered second degree adds a ripple to the alternating sequence of major/minor thirds. That ripple is felt as a 400-cent major third between the D-flat and F-natural (as well as the 200-cent interval between the B-natural and the D-flat) within a scale otherwise dominated by 300-cent minor thirds between every other scale degree.

HurdAudio Rotation: The Euro-centric Edition

Ludwig van Beethoven: The Symphonies [disc 1]. Recorded in 1994. The International Music Company: 205297-305.

Performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony No. 1 in C Major (op.21)
Barry Wordsworth: conductor

Symphony No. 2 in D Major (op.36)
James Lockhart: conductor

Insanely familiar and incredibly refreshing all at once. The flashbacks to undergraduate music history courses have subsided to the point where I can put fresh ears on the most "glue-like" of the war horses. Beethoven at his most politely classical at four movements each. And the third movement is the shortest, and lightest in contrast to the other three movements in each of these symphonies. To my ears, these movements stand on their own and sound less integrated with these works as a whole compared to his later symphonies. And that third movement from the first symphony may be the original "short ride in a fast machine."

Donkey Monkey: Ouature. 2007. Umlaut Records: UMCD 0005.

Yuko Oshima: drums, voice, sampler
Eve Risser: piano, voice, turntables

There's a playful energy to this music that will have you bouncing off the walls and uttering "Donkey Monkey, Donkey Monkey" over and over again with gleeful abandon. And that's just in the first twenty seconds of this rockin' experimental boogie jam fun-fest. Eve Risser flashes some impressive piano chops that veers through an omnivorous pool of contrasting styles as Yuko Oshima propels things along with her energetic drumming. There's also a wonderful take on Carla Bley's "Wrong Key Donkey" in this set. These ears could go for a lot more of this.

Chicago Tentet: American Landscapes 1. 2007. Okkadisk: OD12067.

Peter Brötzmann: composition, clarinet, tarogato, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, cover art
Mats Gustafsson: baritone saxophone, slide saxophone
Ken Vadnermark: clarinet, baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone
Joe McPhee: trumpet, alto saxophone
Hannes Bauer: trombone
Per-ake Holmlander: tuba
Fred Lonberg-Holm: cello
Kent Kessler: bass
Paal Nilssen-Love: drums
Michael Zerang: drums

Time is the canvas, and the music on this disc - like the watercolor painting that shares the 'American Landscapes' name on the cover - is painted by the ferocious and captivating sensibilities of German saxophonist/painter Peter Brötzmann. His willingness to shade toward towering dissonance and deep layers of noisy excess gives rise to textures of captivating beauty and raw emotional energy that speaks directly toward the aggressive and often angry side of the human condition. The single movement work of American Landscapes 1 draws its own watercolor sheen from this large ensemble of sympathetic improvisers to produce a sound that veers wildly between extremes of densities in the service of a large scale sonic image. An image that reflects the complexities, anxieties and beauty of contemporary life within the "American Landscape."