The album reaches Ethiopia

[imomus]

And you may ask yourself, well... how did I get here?

Let's see, I was in Tripoli with a taxi driver, then in Elizabethan England with the bantam boys -- they were some sort of black electrobethan eunuch dandies, I guess -- and then, wondering where to go next, I remembered an African singer my friend, the composer Roddy Schrock, mentioned on his blog a couple of months back, Alemu Aga. I listened to Alemu Aga at the time, some sound samples of his album in Buda Musique's Ethiopiques series, and was struck by the grave sensuality of his poet's voice and the resonant, buzzy, yet soothing sound of his beguena. So the next thing became a trip to Ethiopia to channel the Aga.

I started by sampling my fuzzy-stringed acoustic guitar, which sounds quite like a beguena, and improvising a complex yet intuitive sequence into EZVision. I also wanted to create a rhythmic backing a bit like the one you can hear in this sample of some Addis Ababa azmari street musicians. Well, my electronics didn't really capture the intimacy of Alemu Aga or the dry snappy zest of the azmaris; what emerged was something not a million miles from Talking Heads circa 1980.

The lyrics took a while. A structureless song like this needs a chantlike vocal. At first (influenced by Alemu Aga's title 'Death of the Lefthanded Man', the Epic of Gilgamesh, and, musically, 'Tomorrow Never Knows') it was a song about death with psychedelic-ethnic vocal inflections. But that felt too sombre and portentous. So then it became a first-person retelling of the plot of a great film I saw recently, Hyenas, a transplantation to Senegal of Durrenmatt's play 'The Visit'. But I didn't like the silly African accent I was adopting as I tried to play the character. Finally, it became a song about divining for water, sung in Orominya, one of the languages of Ethiopia. I added a lot of sounds and made a lot of 'tape' manipulations. That's where it is now. Here's the mp3... in fact, this time there are two:

The Water Song (Nick mix)

Sorry, this track is no longer available. Please buy the CD when it comes out!



The mix I ended up with incorporates a piece by Roddy Schrock (we met in Tokyo last year, spent new year together in Berlin, and Roddy's now based in Holland, making music for contemporary dance amongst other things), inspired by Alemu Aga. I liked the much more radical nature of Roddy's composition. It added an avant garde edge to my piece. The 'Nick' mix just uses Roddy's piece as a background texture, the 'Provisional Roddy' mix foregrounds it. But Roddy is working on his own mix: 'At some point,' he writes, 'I would find it interesting if I re-remixed them again, sort of moved them back towards the experimental side of the spectrum.' When Roddy makes that mix, I'll link to it and take down the Provisional Roddy mix I'm posting here. Anyway, all comments and donations (one dollar suggested) are welcome, as usual!

I have to say I'm not sure if this track is just a curiosity or if it will end up on the album. That depends where things go, thematically and musically, from here. By the way, the mp3 posting will have to end when I sign a contract with Cherry Red for the CD release of this album, which is likely to happen soon. I want there to be something still undiscovered, some remaining mystery, when the record comes out.

The Water Song

Orominya
Woha chigralla
Woha yellem
Woha koom

Mook gasgazza
Na amboha
Aneed gatata gra na ky

Dehnaderu
Ayasfeligegnim
Koom sigarra
Ayasfeligegnim koom

Leslassa ishi
Katata aneed
Woha yellem
Aydellem

Tenastalign
Denaderu
Chigr alla
Chigr yellem

Comments

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

I usually see these new entries from my PC at my job, where I can't really listen to audio files. Through a remote SSH session to my shell server/file server at home, I'll download the latest song, then click back to my local web browser, make my $1 donation and proceed to imagine what the song will sound like, based on Nick's explanation and the comments which follow.

I was not familiar with Momus before stumbling across this livejournal, and truth be told it's the wide berth of his interest that has held my attention. It would seem that the recent audio work is struggling to attain the same variety of texture that is on evidence in his writing and photography. There is a violation of traditional Western songwriting "values" in that the songs seem intended to convey ideas themselves rather than strict linear narratives (even though some of the lyrics feature linear narratives) or overwhelming emotions (even though perceived emotional affectation is a seemingly inescapble consequence of aural stimulation). Thus the Bowie influence peeks through. This experimentation is a selling point for me, as the overlap of Momus' experiences (and education) with mine isn't precisely symmetrical.

I didn't know Momus the hip 4AD recording artist; I didn't know Momus the provisional Japanese pop star; I didn't know Momus the whatever he was before. But I like whatever it is Momus is becomming now. I purchased Oskar Tennis Champion through Amazon and adored it. I've been following the evolution of these new songs on the web and they just keep getting better. To me, Klaxon was fantastic; a taste of the same texture that made Bowie's Yassassin a standout track (and yet, Momus is not a Bowie imitator -- perhaps that's one of his major sins, to critics). It's certainly been worth a dollar every week or two to encourage him to continue exploring.

Is it empty orientalism? Is Momus floundering from conceit to conceit, swizzling his dick in every "exotic" culture that grabs his eye -- and through that process belittling the styles and artforms he adapts to his own purposes? (Oh, those noble savages -- if only they knew what he's done.) Is there no substance under the surface here? Is it all merely the desparate attempt of a middle-aged man to reclaim (claim?) some measure of Otherness for himself against the event horizon of terminal information overload?

Personally, I don't give a shit.

Can't wait to hear the new song, Nick.

[(Anonymous)]

Very well put--I didn't discover Momus until his post-"Stars Forever" period, so I was surprised (and quite pleased) by all that came before--and I'm still pleased by all that's come after. "Klaxon" might very well be my favorite song of the year--and this is the one he considers a throwaway!

Listen, everyone--how often are we invited into an artist's studio to see how a work of art grows from sweaty inspiration to marble-cool completion? Don't you understand what a great privilege that is, the very opposite of pretentious secrecy? I've been buying music for decades, always far on the other side of the divide, accepting any offal thrown to me from behind all those obfuscating curtains of celebrity and prestige. If there's any problem with Momus, it's that he has too many muses peering over his shoulders and too many of us here crowded into his atelier while he's simply trying to get some work done.

I can't begin to describe the joy I feel in the midst of my beige-colored days to find that new song just posted or that unpredictable observation--or even the nasty bilge from a hater. If that's sad or even pathetic of me and my narrow life, so be it, but at least Momus is a platinum glow in the beige clouds and he's made at least one person (and I'd guess many others) just a little happier.

Oh--and if I may be so bold, maybe a sort of African shofar solo might liven the mix a bit (such as the way the violin or erhu or whatever was used in "Klaxon").

(Roddy, I've glanced at your journal and want to read more--I've only recently discovered Alvin Curran and want to read and hear more!)