frank rosaly - centering and displacement
now available on LP (comes with CD) on UTECH RECORDS.
about the record:
Centering
and Displacement is a sound poem composed in the winter-summer of 2008 in
Chicago, Illinois. The source material was improvised at a Harold Arts
residency in 2007, recorded and engineered by Todd Carter. Art by Zachary Rossman. Limited to 300 copies. Black vinyl. LP includes CD version of the album.
click here to read a review by the inarguable
click here to read a review by musique machine
click here to read a review by HSS
click here to read a review by the inarguable
click here to read a review by musique machine
click here to read a review by HSS
click here to read a review in allaboutjazz.com
To manipulate a recording of the improvised process is to directly dilute spontaneous conception, and thank god for that.
To manipulate a recording of the improvised process is to directly dilute spontaneous conception, and thank god for that.
The
score dictates a body of improvised source material to be collected, segmented
and organized by a simple chance operation using a deck of cards. These
segments were then orchestrated into a sound program (logic7) and arranged by
order of the strict, composed form. At times, the score also regulates
post-recorded effects to manipulate segments of the original material. Once the
material was edited as suggested, the material was divided into 6 separate
channels (3 stereo tracks). Each pair of channels was then transferred to a CD,
each of which is be played on 3 CD players simultaneously, creating a simple 6
channel sound installation.
In
2011, the dense 6 channel score was revised and reduced to two channels (1
stereo track), which is now the final version of the work.
~
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| here's a recent review from the wire |
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exerting the process:
I decided years ago that music is music, no matter how it is conceived.
Whatever process is utilized to create it is should not concern me. The only
factors I should consider are the contents (ideas), the time in which it was
made (context), and the Sound. I most enjoy the idiosyncratic voice of
the artist rather than the musician. The artist disregards fashion, plays
honestly, and performs with an immediacy that can be felt. Sometimes the artist
is a master of their instrument or process. Sometimes they simply follow
through with an idea on an instrument they can hardly play.
I view myself neither as an artist or musician, but as a student and listener of music. Perhaps I’m kidding myself. I've been playing music for 30 years. At some point, it would seem reasonable to consider myself an expert on some aspect of music, right? Had I spent 8-10 years in medical school, people would call me doctor. I’d call myself a doctor. People would trust their lives to my knowledge and experience. Perhaps that is the greatest joy of pursuing the subjective arts. How I conceive my work is mine to own. I ask questions and choose how I process the answers. I choose to remain a student.
This process is bit like reading Studs Turkel’s work. Ultimately, what I play becomes the moral of the story. I generally consider all music i play to be improvised, and therefore of my own making. What you get from listening to it is for you - based on what you have heard, lived and experienced. Moreover, the function of art in society (in the classic sense) can’t be ignored, as the music reflects direct relationships with people of this time, in this place, the world falling apart all around us. The music function and has meaning – even though it’s merely coming from this student. Perhaps lives are not at stake, save my own.
I chose this, or maybe it chose me.
fr
an exerpt of centering and displacement will be available on the wire magazine's next issue's free compilation, below the radar 10.
