4 min read

Posted to Medium Oct 20, 2021

During the summer of 2021, I was asked to make a sound installation for a pop-up store concept (Where Monsters Dream) in downtown Los Angeles. All it took was an enigmatic theme and instantly I was off with too many ideas. Long time coming.

For the past few years I have been enamored with minimalist piano, specifically extended piano. late 2011, I began a suite of pieces called novo vetustum (which loosely translate to ‘New Old’) , 4 pieces recorded solely on my thrashed baby grand in our living room. I knocked, scraped, applied magnets, wound wire and string, used vibrators- all sort of things to see what sort of sounds I could get out of it that didn’t involve playing it like it was meant to to be played. Over the next 7 years, I tweaked, expanded, erased, and neglected these pieces, meaning to refine them and release them. But they slept.

Then in 2018, I was inspired to record intus sunt, 8 one minute piano pieces centered around number stations. These I eventually released. And yet I was still interested in finishing novo vestusum, but didn’t know how. These are now part of the sound installation, and I hope to finally release them soon, after all these years.

That said, when ‘Where Monsters Dream’ was suggested, I rapidly started writing and recording yet a new set of pieces, and realized that all three albums have the same thread- minimal piano, spoken word, and recycled sound.

somnia est

These 7 tracks are meant to wander in and out of earshot as people walk around the space. They are their own little mental wanderings, designed to feel like the mental space between awake and falling asleep, or waking yet not fully awake. All of them hearken to the beasts within, (there are no others) still like sleeping giants, bubbling like earthquakes and volcanoes.

LISTEN

inter spiritus (middle spirit)
I believe Henry Cowell to be one of the most influential and ground-breaking composers of modern classical music. His experimentations with extended piano, tone clusters and such, led to some stunning works and inspired John Cage to boot.

I found recordings of Henry Cowell describing a set of his piano pieces, and edited out all of his words- leaving a stream of inhalations, breaths and echos. I set these recordings against piano rhythm loops made on my baby grand- knocking, pedals, and other mechanics.

dracones cor (dragons heart)
Loneliness can feel endless, like a hundred years in a day. In January 2020, as part of a live radio performance on Ub Radio (2)with Nux Vomica, I collected and performed found sounds of Chinese New Year street firecrackers, Gugin recordings and water. This recording seemed a perfect backdrop to the repetitive and longing melody played on the Una Corda plugin. Live performance using samples on Samplr App on iPad.

subridens mendacium (smiling lie)
This is an attempt at up-cycling garbage. After sifting through a range of ‘end of warranty’ phone spam, random Mandarin offers, and offers from banks to lend 250k , this one stood out as so well done, I couldn’t pass it up (Thank you, Zo!). In the end it felt like the perfect foil to the repeated melody played on the Una Corda plugin.

lacrimis sequi (tears follow)
Six chords in repetition, growing with layers, hearkens to Gavin Bryers “Jesus Blood”, coupled with a reading of Guy De Maupassants discourse on the uselessness of Latin. The reading is treated to feel more other worldly, perhaps read by a creature from the Seely court.

essentia rerum (the essence of things)
The personification of spirit and energy that is essential to the Shinto philosophy rings true in this time warp experiment. If the intention of a spirit is to slow you down, like talking you off of a wall, then this is an attempt to recreate that process. Slowing down takes focus, and shifting from focus happens, but in the end the pull of pace can bring you in. The spoken text, ‘Imado Gitsune ‘ written by playright Osanai Kaoru, is a (as far as I can figure out) story about a fox spirit (Kitsune Yokai) from the birthplace (Imado, outside of of Tokyo) of the Maneki Neko ‘waving cat’. With Ito Fashion and Fox and Moon Tea, It all somehow make sense.

convocatio (summoning)
Of all the times we’ve read about summoning demons, I like to think of the demon trying to summon us. A pentacle, candles, the whole thing but in reverse. That seems more likely. This piece is using the Una Corda plugin in a different way- all piano mechanics, chair squeaks etc but no piano playing. Coupled with a latin ode from Horace(23BCE) where ‘carpe diem’ originated.

territorium (territory)
The earth belongs to birds. And every time I spend time in Hawaii I am enthralled with their persistent morning territory marking. The daily posturing must serve them, or it wouldn’t persist. This is countered by a short telling of the Raven and the Fox Aesop fable, spoken in russian. Additional percussion loop of a large wood Yokai head performed by ITO while setting up shop. Finishing off with the other-worldy mating scream of a fox echoed by a few raven. Waterfall piano using the Una Corda.

I hope you are able to spend some time with these new pieces, as well as novo vetustum and intus sunt. I would love to hear anyones thoughts about them.