Violet Noise: 02
Welcome back to Violet Noise!
“Listening is not the same as hearing and hearing is not the same as listening.” - Pauline Oliveros
Hi everyone. My name is Sam Tornow. Welcome to the second edition of Violet Noise, a bi-weekly newsletter/gathering place for all things experimental music. Violet Noise is dedicated to curation over criticism and putting the artist first. Think of it like the cup of coffee you drink before starting work on Monday (Tuesday this week because of Memorial Day).
Before we dive into it, a bit of house-keeping: You may notice that this newsletter is no longer called “Pink Noise.” Out of respect for Tara Rodgers' already existing Pink Noises: book/website, the newsletter will instead be called "Violet Noise."
Next, thank you all so much for signing up and sharing this newsletter. Truthfully, I expected about 20 people to sign up, and we’re at about ten times that. The experimental music community never fails to inspire.
Lastly, feel free to invite any friends to subscribe. I’m happy to do this for any amount of readers, however, part of the reason I’m doing this is to shine one more light, no matter how small, on the artists who are often snubbed by Spotify and YouTube algorithms.
Okay. Deep breath. Let’s get into it.
The Media Lab
Miscellaneous Moving Pictures
“Do the one where it sounds like the whole studio is going to explode.”
Suzanne Ciani on Letterman?!? Oh yeah. The legendary synth star took to the talk show circuit to demonstrate the POWER of electronic music. Letterman gets his voice modulated, asks her to make it sound like the studio is going to explode and gets a little agitated.
“Today I fed my cat as usual”
The stars aligned and the only two things keeping me sane during quarantine, noise music ensembles, and Animal Crossing, came together recently, in the form of this beautiful, creative performance. Lil’ Jurg Frey, thank you.
“Immediately, I forgot I was doing a pedal demo…”
Pedal company Earthquaker Devices tapped Greg Saunier of Deerhoof to try out Pyramids flanger pedal with his drum set, a few years back, and the results are hilarious and wholesome. Skip around this video for longs of cartoony, pitch-shifted sounds, and see how into it Greg gets. It never fails to put a smile on my face.
Music Podcasts, where all types of listeners join together
https://pitchfork.com/news/holly-herndon-launches-new-podcast-with-mat-dryhurst/
Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst have started a podcast called Interdependence. According to their website, they “will publish conversations with good people at the forefront of music, technology and policy from our studio in Berlin.”
So pop on over to the show’s Patreon if you’re at all interested in listening to people much more intelligent than you or I talk about topics like “COVID solutionism, left imagination and organizing the world's information with the Syllabus.”
“New” Music
“New” doesn’t end on the next #NewMusicFriday
OTOHIME by toriet status
In 2018, during a Giant Claw performance, a group of people stood in front of me near the stage. They were talking, clearly uninterested, and put off by the barrage of noise. As they were getting ready to leave, one person noticed that they’re friend had been standing still, quietly with her eyes closed. After being nudged, she opened her eyes, smiled, and said, “I don’t know what’s going on, but I feel like I’ve been shot out of a cannon through heaven.”
I had a similar sensation listening to toiret status’ latest release, OTOHIME. The Japanese producer takes sounds and mangles them up, as if they’ve been digested and flushed out, and puts them into these overwhelming pieces filled with technicolor tones. It’s both difficult and fun to listen to, and humorous and experimental in concept, something I think we need more of.
FFO: Seth Graham, woopheadclrms, Literally Any Orange Milk Records Release, Plunderphonics, Sound Collage, Toy Stores, The Toilet Section of Home Depot
Public Knowledge: Carrier Bag of Music by Laurel Halo
Laurel Halo has gifted us with this hour-long mix of unreleased music from musician friends of hers as part of Camden Arts Centre, Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Ignota Books new mix series inspired by "The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction" by Ursula K. Le Guin. Some of the artists featured include DJ Python, Steven Warwick, Julia Holter, and Eli Keszler.
FFO: Kelly Moran, Celer, The Dead Texan, Ursula K. Le Guin, Science Fiction, Neo-Classical, Drone, Reading
Playing the Piano for the Isolated by Ryuichi Sakamoto (featuring Hidejiro Honjoh)
This past week, Ryuichi Sakamoto put on his mask and released a gorgeous video/recording titled “Playing the Piano for the Isolated,” which features Hidejiro Honjoh. Sakamoto played pieces from throughout his discography, including tracks like “Andata,” “Minamata - Main Theme,” and “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.” Honjoh also plays several tracks on his own, and the two improvise together. Crack open the wine and get ready for a nice, quiet cry.
FFO: Anything Sakamoto Has Ever Done, Alva Noto, Feeling Less Alone While Simultaneously Feel More Alone Than Ever, “Piano Study” Playlists That Contain a Surprising Amount of Hidden Gems
Music For 18 Musicians (Steve Reich) By Erik Hall
Erik Hall is a Michigan-based producer/composer, who took it upon himself to “recreate” Steve Reich’s minimalist classic Music for 18 Musicians by himself, using only the equipment he had available to him. Nevermind the impressive fact that Hall played each pulsating part solo and then mixed them, this version of 18 Musicians offers a new perspective on the sound. The hi-fi notes smudge together due to recording limitations and the instrumentation is clever.
FFO: Steve Reich (duh), Phillip Glass, La Monte Young, Being Pleasantly Surprised by the Quality of a Local One-Man-Show, Lo-Fi Minimalism to Study/Relax To, Abusing Adderall for Good Grades, Jogging
Volume 00 by Disworld
Are you one of those people who drool over the sound of midi-instruments? Same. Volume 00 is based on anonymous MIDI files Disworld found on an external hard drive years ago. It’s muscular, cheesy, danceable, and a little “vapory."
FFO: James Ferraro, YMO, Carly Rae Jepsen, MIDI, The Rugrats Theme Song, Playstation 1 RPGs, Arizona Green Tea T-Shirts, Lego Island (1997)
alone online by chris†††
Isn’t this the guy who made those meme albums, No Lives Matter, Fraiserwave, and Social Justice Whatever? Yeah, it is. Are those two rats about to make out on the cover? Yeah, they are. Wait, is this a “serious” neo-classical album? Yeah, you’ve got that right.
FFO: Meme Vivaldi, Phillip Glass, Media-Inspired Feverdreams, YouTube Poop
how i’m feeling now by Charli XCX
So much has already been written about this album. So much has been said by Charli during the transparent writing and record process. Now, I’ll offer my critique, which is quite similar to everything I’ve been saying about her work since she appeared in the “Fancy” music video:
It’s Charli, baby.
FFO: Unnecessary
Vertical Jamming by Phew
FFO: Oval, Jan Jelinek, Early Industrial, Sound Art, CDs Glitching out, Low-Frequency Oscillation, Birdsong at 3:45 in the Morning, Using Drum Machines Unconventionally
Monophonie by Phillip Sollmann
FFO: Efdemin, Tomoko Sauvage, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Acoustic Techno, Tibetan Singing Bowls, Gamelan Music, The Phrase “Tapestry of Sound”
tʌntrə VII by NeoTantra
FFO: Ulla Straus, JAB, CV, Ana Roxxane, Searching Through the ‘New Age’ Tag on NTS Radio, Bookstores, Guided Meditation YouTube Videos
Fatigue by Animal Hospital
FFO: Earth, Bill Orcutt, Six Organs of Admittance, Roy Montgomery, Sticking Your Hands Into Dirt, Crying During a Noise Album, Adimantly Believing That Guitar Music Isn’t “Dead” It’s Just Different
towards a plane by more eaze
FFO: Phil Niblock, Ellen Fullman, Ellen Arkbro, Ellen DeGeneres, Listening to Sunn 0)) on Low Volume, Unironically Clapping After the Orchestra Finishes Tuning, Just Chilling Out, Man
“Old” Music
There’s Always More
La Musique Electronique du Niger by Mamman Sani (2013)
Mamman Sani Abdullaye is an avant-garde pioneer in Niger. Sani received the re-issue treatment with this one and for good reason. On La Musique, he showcases his expertise for breathing life into simple rhythms and melodies. His melodies drive forward, while his drones lay low, filling out the sound. The songs never settle for too long, but don’t force the listener along uncomfortably. A true masterpiece of West African experimentalism.
Ooze Vector by Broshuda (2016)
Admittedly, I have little to say about this one, and I mean that in the best way possible. It’s goopy FM synthesis in all it’s glory. Give it a listen.
Stairs Descending Into Heaven by 99jakes (2017)
This one’s for all you ravers, gamers, gec stans, and Machinegirl fanart submitters, On Stairs Descending Into Heaven, 99jakes takes every piece of media adored by teenagers in the ‘90s and ’00s and smashes them together overtop a pulverizing 909 for 35 blissful minutes. 909 Worldwide, Hardcore Will Never Die. Hail Soulja Boy, Chumbawamba, and Melee.
Revolutionary Peking Opera ver 1.28 by Ground Zero (1996)
*ahem* Okay, so, in the ‘80s, Alfred Harth and Heiner Goebbels dropped an album based on their interpretation of a Chinese opera from the 60s. THEN, nearly 40 years later, Ground Zero, one of the first groups to use turntables in the sound collage scene, comes along and heavily samples that recording, layers in some additional music, chops it up, adds noise and there you have it: Revolutionary Peking Opera ver 1.28 by Ground Zero.
If you can settle into the initial head-spinning abrasiveness of the first five minutes, you’re in for one of the greatest sound collage albums of all time and don’t just take my word for it. Take the word of all the 1,000+ Rate Your Music nerds who gave it 4+ stars, including me.
Gear and Gizmos
Moog Subharmonicon
Moog has finally released a commercial version of its Subharmonicon desktop semi-modular synthesizer. This little box of chaos is all about polyrhythms and subharmonics, which don’t naturally occur in nature OR small synths like this, making for one strange, dizzying box, especially when paired with other synths in the Mother-32 ecosystem. Moog announced the launch with a video featuring Suzanne Ciani and multidisciplinary visual artist Scott Kiernan, “who invite you to reimagine conventional ideas of music, sound, and expression through a delicate balance of mystery and order…” Whatever that means.
Merzbrew
Did you know?
PC Music founder and time-traveling stable boy A.G. Cook is the son of a famous architect? Sir Peter Cook is one of the founders of Archigram, an avant-garde (pfff, of course) form of architecture. Here’s an easily digestible article that describes the style and his accomplishments from the site Arch Daily.
https://www.archdaily.com/440979/happy-birthday-sir-peter-cook
Music Journalism
Finally, here’s a selection of somewhat recent music journalism from fantastic writers.
Meaghan Garvey documents the recording process of Charli XCX’s bananas new album, how i’m feeling now, for Vulture.
Ryan H. Walsh tackles the topic of musical deepfakes and the future of AI in music for Stereogum.
Grayson Haver Currin profiled the absolute hell out of Moby for NPR and letd the world know that the vegan star is as complex, cringe-worthy, and troubled as ever.