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Piece Description
Vinyl was composed in 1993. It's a piece of musique concrete constructed using sounds generated by phonograph records. The sounds were processed using various editing techniques and a Buchla 200 series analog synthesizer. It was composed at the Experimental Music Studios at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and was commissioned by Scott Wyatt in celebration of the studio's 35th anniversary. This piece was done almost entirely with analog equipment, syncing up reel-to-reels by hand, analog signal processing, hand splices, tape loops, etc. It's been featured at the Bourges Electroacoustic Music festival, and it's been presented on programs thoughout Europe and the United States. It was a very early work of mine, heavily influenced by Cage, Varese, and (most notably) Frank Zappa.
5 Comments
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Review of VinylI quite like this piece, actually. Perhaps it doesn't belong on radio, but who cares? It's interesting, it's outside the box and I found it very enjoyable. Especially the "tidal" feeling that permeates the piece overall. I must respectfully disagree with a previous reviewer who characterized this piece as sounding like a first attempt at using ProTools or CoolEdit. While you may not enjoy this piece, you certainly have to tip your hat to the amount of work that went into it. My only complaint is the length. As a stand alone audio piece it held my interest for about 2 minutes. Perhaps as an installation, it would be able to be played at it's full length, but as it is, my ears got tired at around 2:05 |
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Review of Vinyl
When I first started listening to this piece, my first thought was "wow!" The gradually accelerating static sound in the beginning was really engaging.
Unfortunately, the cool static-y beginning didn't turn into anything that really held my interest. (I'd thought at first it was going to turn into "rain" or "gravel," and I was wondering what that would have to do with vinyl.) After that, though, it was rather predictible and eventually I just got tired of it. I do like this producer's more recent work. This is a piece from 1993, which I'm sure explains the indulgence. This piece word work on an art show, perhaps, with some analysis or discussion following it. |
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Deborah Astley
Posted on June 10, 2005 at 11:55 AM | Permalink
Review of Vinyl
I was fascinated and absorbed by this piece for the first two minutes. I got goosebumps from the record static - its "almost there" quality really made me sit forward and listen in anticipation. Fire crackled and hailstones plummeted to earth. Having said this, though, I'm not sure where it would fit into a programming schedule. And I kind of felt like my son had come to me and said, "Mom, listen to what I did with your Beatles records." Innovative use of vinyl.