![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusRusty Santos arrives from New York on November 16th to begin recording and production work on the new Momus album, code-named at various points "The Friendly Album", "This Is Cute Formalism", and "Scaramouche The Shepherd", so I'm struggling to get my broken equipment fixed. Rusty requested a photo of the working environment, and here it is:
Here are some ideas I've been sending Rusty in e-mails.
"I already have in mind some Dogme-like "rules of chastity", like for instance:
* No more than two instrument / human voices can sound at any one time, one melody line and one accompaniment line, a bit like Japanese folk songs with shamisen and voice.
* But a constant turnover of instruments and timbres to relieve the monotony.
So the effect would be like having a big orchestra playing very minimal arrangements. It would sound like just two instruments at a time, but over time you would realise that there was a big pool of instruments there.
The emotional tone colours of the record will be about connectedness, friendliness, wholesomeness, positivity, happiness, collectivity, constructiveness. People think of grief and negativity as "depth" and positive themes as "superficial", and for this reason a happy record is very hard to make. But I think the idiotic happiness (sound of turtle doves cooing!) can be offset by formal things, like for instance:
* Structure of pieces determined by length of sections, and length of sections determined by chance operations (Cage-style).
* Tune the acoustic guitar to an odd tuning that's microtonal.
I'd like to record a lot of vocal phrases, multi-tracked, and lay them down on the HD recorder without anything except a click. That's (sort of) the way I worked with Anne Laplantine, and I liked the results. It's like going out into the dark, building a plank walkway as you go.
I want to make a very pleasant, breezy, but also radically experimental record. Some reference points:
* Ozu films.
* The ethnological museums out at Dahlem (we can go and see them, there's a great ethnomusicology section).
* "Araça Azul" by Caetano Veloso.
* Webern's "Five Pieces for Orchestra" (just for the arrangement style, where a single delicate note comes in from one instrument, and that's it, the instrument isn't heard from again).
* Harry Partch.
* Rinko Kawauchi's photos.
* The colours of Tibet and Jamaica.
And—this may sound silly, but it's clear in my mind as what the record should feel like—you know when someone's scratching your back and you feel totally relaxed and calm and secure, and your mind wanders to pleasant thoughts? Well, that's what I want this record to sound like. We have to find a way to scratch our listeners' backs!"
Here are some ideas I've been sending Rusty in e-mails.
"I already have in mind some Dogme-like "rules of chastity", like for instance:
* No more than two instrument / human voices can sound at any one time, one melody line and one accompaniment line, a bit like Japanese folk songs with shamisen and voice.
* But a constant turnover of instruments and timbres to relieve the monotony.
So the effect would be like having a big orchestra playing very minimal arrangements. It would sound like just two instruments at a time, but over time you would realise that there was a big pool of instruments there.
The emotional tone colours of the record will be about connectedness, friendliness, wholesomeness, positivity, happiness, collectivity, constructiveness. People think of grief and negativity as "depth" and positive themes as "superficial", and for this reason a happy record is very hard to make. But I think the idiotic happiness (sound of turtle doves cooing!) can be offset by formal things, like for instance:
* Structure of pieces determined by length of sections, and length of sections determined by chance operations (Cage-style).
* Tune the acoustic guitar to an odd tuning that's microtonal.
I'd like to record a lot of vocal phrases, multi-tracked, and lay them down on the HD recorder without anything except a click. That's (sort of) the way I worked with Anne Laplantine, and I liked the results. It's like going out into the dark, building a plank walkway as you go.
I want to make a very pleasant, breezy, but also radically experimental record. Some reference points:
* Ozu films.
* The ethnological museums out at Dahlem (we can go and see them, there's a great ethnomusicology section).
* "Araça Azul" by Caetano Veloso.
* Webern's "Five Pieces for Orchestra" (just for the arrangement style, where a single delicate note comes in from one instrument, and that's it, the instrument isn't heard from again).
* Harry Partch.
* Rinko Kawauchi's photos.
* The colours of Tibet and Jamaica.
And—this may sound silly, but it's clear in my mind as what the record should feel like—you know when someone's scratching your back and you feel totally relaxed and calm and secure, and your mind wanders to pleasant thoughts? Well, that's what I want this record to sound like. We have to find a way to scratch our listeners' backs!"
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 08:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 08:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 08:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 03:29 pm (UTC)I've used Propellorhead's Reason on older generation iBooks even, it's a very efficient program in terms of processor use, not to mention work flow. You can even import your Akai sample libraries. Just don't tell anyone you're using it or they'll assume you've decided to start making trance.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 05:46 pm (UTC)More generally, what would you say about the role of technology in your creative process?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 05:52 pm (UTC)Sounds great.
Date: 2005-10-30 08:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 08:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 08:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 09:31 am (UTC)The musical merits of frustration are vastly overstated! good luck with your recordings!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 08:59 am (UTC)That's an interesting poster. What is it for?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 09:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-31 12:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 09:13 am (UTC)I could use an aural backscratch.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 03:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 09:38 am (UTC)Hey, I beat you to the doves back in 2000 with Whispering Foils!
Your list is ambitious, to say the least. I like the of walking the plank/bridging idea. 'Follow your nose' composition is a winner.
Tune the acoustic guitar to an odd tuning that's microtonal.
Nown that's asking for trouble!... good luck.... I anticipate problems with this when half way through the recording you decide you want to be a pop musician again. Trouble is microtonality can rub up against a tonal voice the wrong way.... so ...watch out!
you feel totally relaxed and calm and secure, and your mind wanders to pleasant thoughts
Do you have pleasant thoughts, then?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 10:50 am (UTC)Exactly! You know the way these things go, Kev; we diverge only to converge from a slightly different angle. Ultimately we end up staying in exactly the same place, which is still better than slipping into appalling cliches.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 11:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 04:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 04:43 pm (UTC)He could have a G string and then a G+20cents string, for example.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 05:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 05:19 pm (UTC)Call it a "feature".
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-31 07:40 pm (UTC)austerity
Date: 2005-10-30 01:05 pm (UTC)Re: austerity
Date: 2005-10-30 01:07 pm (UTC)Re: austerity
Date: 2005-10-30 01:19 pm (UTC)* using dub bringing out your playfulness, enjoying the sheer exuberance of the rhythms.
Matthew Herbert
Date: 2005-10-30 01:18 pm (UTC)oh
Date: 2005-10-30 03:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 01:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 01:49 pm (UTC)I hope you're not doing this with an ironic intent, because this is a really interesting concept. My guess is you still want to remain in the pop domain with its dilemma of being taken seriously, but if you can make this happy record into a piece of art it will be a true achievement.
I also like the idea of a restrained set of instruments, only hinting the vast array behind the curtain. This is really interesting to me.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 02:32 pm (UTC)Should read with its dilemma of NOT being taken seriously.
I suppose what I'm really hoping for is a modern, happy "unknown pleasures"...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 03:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 03:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 04:03 pm (UTC)I wanted to ask you a question, since you seem to know something about Adorno. In my schools teachers and professors never mentioned him, but I've read that high schools in Germany actually make him mendatory reading. For me he's quite difficutl to read, especially because there's a lot of music terminology that I don't understand. From what I've read, I see that he criticizes pop culture, and pop music for many reasons, including the fact that pop music dwells in it's own absence, how are minds are captivated by the repitition of short scores of music, rather than forcing us to concentrate on the challenging development of a two - five hour symphony or concerto, and dwelling on the subtleties and develpments in such long works of music that require our full concentration and perhaps imagination. On the other hand, Adorno sais that when we listen to Pop Music it is often just in the background, while we are actually doing something else, and he sees this as intrinsically wrong.
I'd like to hear -- since you seem to know more about Teddy than I do, and it seems to me from what you've written in this journal that you endorse his philosophies (at least to some degree -- correct me if I'm wrong) -- how do you reconcile yourself with the parts of his philosophy that criticize pop music, and maybe give a summary of his philosophy from your perspective?
I have to admit that my education in music is microscopic, so please excuse if my writing is off or funny -- but then at least it's funny.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 04:53 pm (UTC)I think of Adorno as an aesthetic conservative and a political radical, and let his music criticism drop into the background (apart from some still-salient stuff about the evils of "the culture industry"). But no-one can touch him for paradox, for style, for his take on Nietzsche and the Enlightenment...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 05:07 pm (UTC)Good luck with your recording. I can't wait to listen to it.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 05:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 04:25 pm (UTC)I'm reminded of The Residents' "Commercial Album". The album consists of 40 one minute songs.
Found this bit of "theory" on a web site:
Point one: Pop music is mostly a repetition of two types of musical
and lyrical phrases, the verse and the chorus.
Point two: These elements usually repeat three times in a three minute pop song
Point three: Eliminate the excess and a pop song is only one minute long.
Point four: One minute is also the length of most commercials, and therefore their corresponding jingles.
Point five: Jingles are the folk music of America.
Conclusion: THE RESIDENTS' COMMERCIAL ALBUM
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 04:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 04:38 pm (UTC)This album you are beginning to work on now sounds like an excellent idea and I hope that it works out as well as you'd like.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 04:40 pm (UTC)And don't forget "The Happy Album". I remember you calling it that briefly. I remember because it's still my favorite of the names you've used.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 07:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-30 07:42 pm (UTC)i like um...your pink pillow.
mischa
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-31 03:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-31 07:46 am (UTC)You've probably heard of Eno's oblique strategies too?A more abstract set of limitations. Kinda closer to i-ching. Can be found online somewhere.I made cards and carry them around for use in challenging social situations (art openings or bars)
Meeting at Off Site
Date: 2005-10-31 09:29 am (UTC)i'd say not too far-fetched, since there are millions of songs we all love which are just guitar & vocals, and if thats (subtly) extended in a computer-y/cut-up kind of way, with an orchestral array of sounds, i think it will sound so rich.
ISAN do lovely things sometimes with just one simple keyboard melody and a drum-machine, and this minimal-improv sort of stuff(i think you've mentioned you've got this cd: http://www.japanimprov.com/imjlabel/515/index.html ) can do some amazing things with few instruments. if the first 40 secs of the track 1 on here was looped and tweaked into a song it would be so catchy!!! I know it is a trio, but you get the idea...
Giacinto Scelsi
Date: 2005-10-31 05:44 pm (UTC)momus | sophrosyne
Date: 2005-11-01 03:50 pm (UTC)Hello, i found your site via wired today and read that quote from a post a few days ago. I had come to the same conclusion with my own music a few years ago, especially in reference to using minor keys which lead to darker sounds and "depth." I decided, as a challenge to myself, to start recording in major keys without losing the depth and character and i think it has lead to some very interesting things. It's interesting to read your notes on your pre-creative process. I tend to do a similar thing, working with a concept or some set of constructive limitations, rather than a melody, as a starting point.
If you're interested you can check out some of my stuff at www.sophrosyne.net
I listened to a few clips of your stuff on the B&N site... it reminds me of the Legendary Pink Dots. What are the chances?
jason van pelt
j-ink.com/blog/