Topic: Recordings of silence.

[Mandryka]

Ligeti’s early bagatelles for David Tudor seem to contain more silence than pitches - eveidently Cage influenced

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/6Dx2PIWZ0x4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/6Dx2PIWZ0x4</a>

[Mandryka]

http://www.james-saunders.com/g-douglas-barrett-a-few-silence/

Discussion of Douglas Barrett’s text score by James Saunders.

[Mandryka]

https://www.squidco.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=18829

Francisco Lopez’s Paris Hiss has two tracks on my copy, with wonderful titles. Les paroles m’ont laissé indifférent, and Je ne voulait pas m’endormir avant de savoir comment l’histoire finirait.

Lopez writes in the sleeve

PARIS HISS was born when I realised and connected three different facts. (1) For many years I’d been working with a treatment procedure that relies on successive generations of sound processing and recording; (2) I’ve done most of this work with analogue cassette tapes; (3) One of my main interests and source of aesthetical [sic] inspiration is the exploration of the broad brand universe. Three years ago I came up with the idea of using magnetic broad band noise of cassettes (tape hiss) for a sound work which would have blank tapes as the sole sound generators. I use a standard double tape deck and two standard normal position (normal bias - 120us EQ) cassette tapes dubbing one of them on to the other successively for hundreds of generations (real time and no NR) Tape hiss commonly considered as an obnoxious property of analogue tapes, is thus enhanced and appreciated here as a delightful virtue. I did a selection and further mix of the recordings for the two pieces of PARIS HISS , since this work expresses my anti-Lucier view: the point is not the process but the results. I did what I did not because I’m interested in the procedure (which is a question of recipes), but because I like tape hiss! (which is a question of taste.) PARIS HISS is a tribute to the cassette and all the people of the Experimental Network that have managed to use this technical tool in a creative way.

I wonder if he is being fair to Alvin Lucier there.

I must say I think it’s absolutely wonderful both aesthetically, sensually,  and conceptually. But, as Francisco would say, that’s a question of taste.

[steve ridgway]

I must say I think it’s absolutely wonderful both aesthetically, sensually,  and conceptually. But, as Francisco would say, that’s a question of taste.

It’s a great idea although with a hundred copies he must have spent a lot of time finding bits without any voices from the spirit world.

[Hans Holbein]

Two releases of interest:

"Sounds of Silence"

https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/va-sounds-of-silence-lp/ALGA.046LP.html
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Sounds-Of-Silence-The-Most-Intriguing-Silences-In-Recording-History/master/1022486


STUMM433

http://mute.com/mute/stumm433-pre-order-now

[Mandryka]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynKGCh9JDe0&ab_channel=FifthHouseEnsemble

In LaMont Young’s Composition 1960 #6, performers play no music. Rather they act as the audience, attending to the other people in the hall.  Here's the score

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Very important topics/concept, Mandryka. As you indicated several times, I think lutist Toyohiko Sato is “playing” silence and rests.
Plus I like Satie’s Preludes de Fils des Etoiles, Vexations, etc. I think the notes are part of the silence in these works. I like the slow and cool performance by Cristina Ariagno, but I’m sure other players are fine too.

[Mandryka]

The score of Cage’s Electronic Music for Piano asks for consideration of the imperfections in the silence where the music is performed (I’m enjoying Lexer and Tilbury now.)

[Que]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynKGCh9JDe0&ab_channel=FifthHouseEnsemble

In LaMont Young’s Composition 1960 #6, performers play no music. Rather they act as the audience, attending to the other people in the hall.  Here's the score

It is art, performance art to be precise, but not music IMO.