I'm bringing up this recording on Rob Forman's Sedimental label for a few reasons.
1) I think this is one of the best releases in this scrappily non-idiomatic idiom -- contemporary improvised music, with and without electronic -- I've yet heard. It is crammed full, but not too full, of gossamer, hypnotic, suspenseful and sumptuous sonorities; identifiable sounds include those of toys, audience restiveness, hinges, guitar feedback, bowed cymbals, and glockenspiel. Over the course of “33º”, "#34", and "I35", the members of the ensemble (see below for further details) reveal themselves to be admirers of the Prevost / Rowe / Tilbury iteration of AMM, but they are the best kind of admirers one could hope to have. These musicians, at least when working together on this project, possess an original, not to mention sophisticated, sense of musical argument. This is perhaps most apparent in the long (25 minutes, plus) central performance, which begins in a kind of pointillistic ferment, only to allow itself to be dominated by what I would call a buzz rather than a drone. Alternately, this performance -- "#34" (Ricky Williams, for those of you counting) -- is an excellent study in why the designation "ambient" should be rehabilitated.
2) I was wondering if anyone else had heard this record and had anything to say about it.
3) One of the unanswered, perhaps even unasked, questions floating around in connection with this kind of music is: "Who is qualified to play it?" I'm sure this is much less of a concern for those making the music than for those striving to track the music's movements with nouns, adjectives and verbs, but it remains an issue nonetheless. Certainly, there is no conservatory training per se for the variety of musicianship exhibited here. In fact, the activity I'm talking about may not even be musicianship. It is certainly not traditional musicianship. (Chorus: "duh!") It is by now a cliché that electronics, especially laptops robustly kitted out with emulators and wave crunchers and loop engines, enable "non-musicians" to create and organize sounds that possess musical validity. This specific facet of the dilemma has been noted with characteristic eloquence by Nate Dorward, an occasional commentator on these pages, in a review of Nikos Veliotis' Radial (Confront):
… the distance between the implicit stance of [Derek] Bailey's kind of improviser - the agent of point-by-point, moment-by-moment renewal and change - and that of the lowercase improvisor, whose actions might often better be described as "adjustment" or "maintenance" Paris Transatlantic Magazine, February, 2004).
In another column altogether, now, I'm going to list for you the names of the "members" of Tonalamotl, as well as some of their other associations…
These Texans -- from San Antonio and Austin -- are not exactly household names, not even in "eai" circles. Many of these musicians have backgrounds in indie-rock. Consider, too, that these recordings, though released in 2002, date from 1997 and 1998. If these pieces are examples of a certain "style", then they are pretty early examples at that. The music also seems to exist pretty far outside of any of the regional contexts -- Berlin, Vienna, Tokyo, the Boston area -- that have become centers for musical activity of this general persuasion. So, is it fair to ask what "business" they have making records like this? I would say it is unfair, but I feel I may be in the minority on that one. As evidence in support of this supposition, I feel I should mention that I have yet to see the musicians affiliated with the Penumbra label out of Wisconsin -- Hal Rammel, Lou Mallozi, Peter Zummo -- and whose work is decidedly electro-acoustic and improvisatory in nature seriously discussed in the expected venues. (J.A. Deane is another one...)
Finally, riding the hydra-headed beast that Alan's AMPS DO NOT EQUAL RESISTANCE post has become, there's this comment by Chris Flemmer:
Are there any American musicians on the Amplify box? Are there any scheduled for the festival in Germany? (All I could find is a small mention of T. Barnes as part of a tiny sideshow). What's happening on the home scene? I'm sorry but I can't see Lescalleet or Kelley as being in the same league as Rowe, Sugimoto, G. Mueller, Stangl, Siewert or Brandlmayr. Does that mean that the only important [American] eai musician is a non-musician (i.e. Mr. Abbey)?
The easy response is to say that there are many, many talented individuals out there working in a number of related sonic fields, that they are deserving of some level of attention, but that, ultimately, the responsibility for discovery falls to the individual listener. When you're informed by a record reviewer or label profiler that you may have to "work" towards an appreciation of this music, what often goes unsaid is the sheer amount of labor involved not just in analysis and interpretation, but in gaining access to the music at all, whether it is burned to limited edition CD-R's or performed in dank basements in dilapidated buildings. The trickier answer is to come back to the idea that our critical picture of this music is still developing and is very incomplete. We need to be quite careful not to rush the process. If we do, we run the risk of ending up with a faulty representation of what, after all, happened -- and insists on happening.
Posted by joe on March 31, 2004 3:32 PMmore background on those musicians: Andy Beta (assuming it's the same guy) is a pretty prominent writer for a wide range of publications, and Rick Reed is very good friends with Keith Rowe (as evidenced by the AMM title of their show recorded in Houston: "Before driving to the chapel we took coffee with Rick and Jennifer Reed"). they've played together at least a few times (I was pretty shocked to see Keith wearing a t-shirt with the Texas Longhorns logo on it recently, a present from Rick).
Posted by: Jon Abbey at March 31, 2004 6:29 PMKeith Rowe the Big XII fan is like something that would happen well into r.e.m. close to my alarm going off.
Posted by: Michael Schaumann at March 31, 2004 7:06 PM[insert Aggie joke here]
Posted by: Joe Milazzo at March 31, 2004 7:10 PM[0-16]
Posted by: Michael Schaumann at March 31, 2004 7:15 PMRowe clearly has no taste. The only thing worse would've been an OU ballcap.
Gig 'em, baby.
Posted by: al at March 31, 2004 8:22 PMLooks like you've stumped all of them Joe! I'd like to hear more about the music personally. This is turning into People magazine with its idol worship. I am apologetic. Missle toes has a forked tongue. Please, carry on.
Honestly, I'd like to hear more about the music though. The instrumentation and source sounds interesting.
Posted by: missle toes at March 31, 2004 8:31 PMno, I've heard it, it didn't make much of an impression, I only played it once.
have you heard any Abrasion Ensemble or any of Reed's other work, Joe? Abrasion Ensemble's "Music For The Same 500 People" is the best release I've heard from this scene, and not just because of the awesome title.
Posted by: Jon Abbey at March 31, 2004 8:37 PMnot sure if the record listed below ever actually came out, Rick sent me an advance of it maybe a year ago:
http://www.blrrecords.com/mt049.php
Posted by: Jon Abbey at March 31, 2004 8:56 PMJoe, more posts like this, seriously. I'm tempted to answer one of your questions above with, "I'm most certainly qualified to play this music." Take what you will from that. As alluded to in the "Resistance" discussion, and in my opinion, this area of music is decidedly cliquish with respect to the different "scenes". Either I'm blind or I haven't read of/heard any new blood sitting in on a collaboration with someone like Rowe or Nakamura or Sachiko, etc in the last couple of years that isn't already directly involved in that circle. It seems to be pretty incestuous, but perhaps for good reason. Certain groups of musicians clearly seem to know one another in terms of sound, even if they don't always deliver (for me). That's why I get excited over comments like yours about a new record (I've been itching anyway to hear more from the Sedimental crew since being introduced to Ielasi's PLANS from a few months back).
To add to your observation of the time it takes to *really* get to know some of the music and the respective work of the musicians involved... are there any examples of "timelessness" in the new music you've come to know of the past 5 or so years?
Posted by: al at March 31, 2004 11:03 PM"I haven't read of/heard any new blood sitting in on a collaboration with someone like Rowe or Nakamura or Sachiko, etc in the last couple of years that isn't already directly involved in that circle."
this is somewhat true for Sachiko, but Toshi and Keith play with people you haven't heard of all the time, mostly not released, but some of Toshi's are documented on the Meeting at Off Site series. Toshi loves playing in odd combos, he really enjoyed playing with David Watson on bagpipes last year in NYC, even if the audience generally hated it.
Posted by: Jon Abbey at March 31, 2004 11:32 PMThat sounds a little more risky ....
good
n
Posted by: Akchote Noel at April 1, 2004 12:02 AMmaybe theoretically, but in reality, it was brutal, and not in a good way.
Posted by: Jon Abbey at April 1, 2004 12:09 AMwas it ?
n
This site, the webmaster of which I've been in contact with a bit due to the almost simultaneous launch of londonimprov ten weeks ago seems to have connections with Rick Reed/Sedition, although I don't know enough about any of that scene to tell how much:
http://www.experimentalmusicintexas.org/
(another site launched at the same time was http://www.dt-bs.com/ covering the apparently much maligned (on here) Paris scene).
I've just got to the end of the amps discussion, but anything I might have had to say has gone out of the window by now, except, Noel, bagpipes still drone ;)
Posted by: Nat at April 1, 2004 4:54 AMI was outside, taking tickets, and from there the Watson/Nakamura/Akiyama thing was just more surreal. Does Watson play out much? I know a friend of mine took a class with him at MassArt (one of those schools), and I don't see his name on bills too much anymore.
Posted by: Nirav at April 1, 2004 4:54 AMnirav
i've seen the unlikely trio of günter müller with lee ranalado and david watson some years ago here in zurich...it wasn't really good. believe me, i am a FAN of harsher things like drumm et al. but i'm really not sure as if there's something behind watsons playing except for playing the same boring sound all the time... he seems like a nice guy, though.
Posted by: tomas at April 1, 2004 5:02 AMNoel, bagpipes still drone
YEP !!!!
i m sure ....
n
Posted by: Akchote Noel at April 1, 2004 5:45 AMOOPS
i was ON for BAGPIPES mainly (password)
i did not any options on artistic results
( as far as Improv is more of a fact )
n
DRONES
i don t know if people heard of that but i got this one directly through Chadbourne
it seems like in their early Duo times with Zorn
Zorn used to go to Jam session and from somewhere in the back set up his sax and start to ( circular breathing ) slowly then louder
DRONE disturbing long drone tones until people on the bandstand start to look around what was WRONG in the Room ....or in the music etc ....
( i do not make any further conclusion or link to nowadays from that one )
n
Jon -- have browsed past but not heard the Abrasion Ensemble CD; it is on my list of discs to acquire, as is Reed's solo guitar effort.
Al -- "are there any examples of 'timelessness' in the new music you've come to know of the past 5 or so years?"
Speaking personally, and entirely extemporaneously, I would single out both THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN, DO, THE HANDS OF CARAVAGGIO, and LIDINGO on Erstwhile, Muller's EIGHT LANDSCAPES, Steve Roden's RESONANT CITIES (not strictly improv), the second Nmperign album, the Butcher / Dorner / Charles CONTEST OF PLEASURES (not electronic), Evan Parker's DRAWN INWARD (still need to hear MEMORY / VISION), and, believe it or not, Reynols' BLANK TAPES. I still also have a great deal of affection for BURNING CLOUD and the first Lines release on Random Acoustics, but they date from 1993 and 1997, respectively, and don;t really count as far as this discussion goes. I would also liked to have included records by Oval (OVALPROCESS, specifically) and Matmos, but they too seem to fall a bit outside the parameters we've set. Which all, perhaps, argues still more so in favor of re-appraising why "improvisation" seems to matter so much when it comes to this kind of music. But I won't ride that hobby-horse right now.
I guess to me one of the imporatn things this Tonalamotl release represents -- and I'm turning it a bit into a banner under which to sally forth, I realize that... -- is that the notions (of production, or performance) that are crucial to this music have been around long enough and have been disseminated far and wide enough to reach musicians you may have never heard, and may never hear of at all. Art and philosophy have a strange relationship, and it remains to be seen whether the "theory" behind so much of this music has been either more influential or will last longer than the sounds themselves. I seem to recall Italo Calvino arguing against literature that aspired to the level of philosophical argument, claiming that the best philosophical literature was actually the literature that we can see, only a certain time later, as having anticipated particular philosophical developments. (This may have been a slam at Continental Existentialism or Clavino beating the drum for writers like Borges, or both.) FWIW, I hear more precedence for the "ideas" on this Tonalamotl release than I hear precedence for the individual "sounds". Though it is very difficult to separate the two; the sounds really embody the ideas anyway.
Finally, a word for the great tradition of "avant-garde" music made by Texans. Though the topography of the state often conspires against the growth of real "scenes" -- its 3 to 3.5 hours from Dallas to Austin, 4 hours from Houston to Dallas, 1 hour even from Dallas to Fort Worth, 12 hours from the east side of the state to El Paso -- Texas remains a home to a lot of weirdness. Remember that Blind Lemon Jefferson, Alex Moore, Willie Nelson, Ornette Coleman, Conlon Nancarrow, the Red Krayola, The Butthole Surfers, Pauline Oliveros, Sly Stone, and Lyle Lovett are all Texans. I hope that means you can all forgive us the occasional Edie Brickell and Vanilla Ice...
Posted by: Joe at April 1, 2004 7:10 AMI aspire to be a Texan some day.
Posted by: Nirav at April 1, 2004 7:30 AMNirav -- your patriotism will not go unrewarded.
Posted by: Joe Milazzo at April 1, 2004 7:38 AMi suppose i'm a texan. i don't improvise, but the improv scene here in houston is young and quite vibrant. on the subject of rowe and nakamura collaborating... last time they were in town they held a 2-day workshop with about 11 musicians, some of whom were quite young (i think sandy ewan was the youngest, she might have been 19 by then) and closed out with a performance. it certainly wasn't as strong as the duet performance, but it was a fine show.
and rick reed is certainly a fairly accomplished musician, though it's true he has stayed pretty much under the radar for all these years. the abrasion ensemble stuff and his 'experimental and improvised music from texas' lp on center of the ass run are really nice stuff. i think he's sort of peripheral to the tonalamotl crew, though. his current work is moving away from guitar drones and into electronic (laptop) music, something which apparently amuses him greatly (since he began his career as an electronic musician).
his most recent release is probably the frequency curtain disc, which was released somewhere that i can't remember offhand. and i've also heard (and enjoyed) that cd jon linked to, though mine is also a cdr so i don't know if it was ever released.
i really enjoy the tonalamotl cd, though it took me a couple listens to figure that out.
oh man, i'm rambling...
m
Posted by: mark at April 1, 2004 8:03 AMthis is a nice surprise to stumble upon. one, that someone has taken such an interest in this completely misunderstood music that was created nearly eight years ago, and has sought to figure out a trajectory through very murky waters. two, that i would be called a prominent music writer. both are quite complimentary.
i am baffled by Jon's scene-labeling expertise though. in what way was Tonalamotl part of a scene, Jon? or for that matter, Rick Reed's Abrasion Ensemble? that above-named disc was originally titled "Music for the same 50 People," which was ambitious then, to say the least. having taken part in the AE for nearly two years (Chris and myself appear on the disc), i recall shows with Jgrznich and Mnortham, Righteous Babe recording artists Drums & Tuba, Stars of the Lid, a member of NNCK, and Interscope recording artists ...And you will know us by the Trail of Dead. was this the same scene? Tonalamotl played shows with Trail of Dead, California HC groups, Paul Newman, American Analog Set, and At the Drive-In. Ryan Sawyer not only drummed on the first ATDI and Fiery Furnaces records, but played with Eisenbeil, Mat Maneri, and scores of other NYC jazzbos. so what scene were we part of?
For the record, none. (Also for the record, Rick Reed was never in Tonalamotl. he recorded one show, and can be heard talking about ZZ Top at the end of the cd.) it was, and remains, just music. that anything got documented was accidental more than anything else. we did drive up to see an AMM performance (along with every Austin hipster), but our approach was far more rooted in rock and HC punk (and the scant jazz records we heard), which we fallaciously mistook as being improvised and tried to emulate. the concepts of Euro-improv, electroacoustic, and whatnot was foreign to us, and had little bearing on what Tonalamotl did.
anyway, i hope this sheds some shard of light on what Tonalamotl was/is. dedicated seekers could try to find the Bobby J record or the track that appeared on the "Music for the Psyche-Eye" comp that one of the JOMF guys released.
thanks for listening close and writing, Joe.
and yes, we were very much infatuated with Texans like Willie, Ornette, Blind Lemon, Conlon, Red Krayola, Scratch Acid, Butthole Surfers, Big Drag, ZZ Top, etc.
Posted by: beta at May 9, 2004 10:42 AMYow is God.
Posted by: Michael Schaumann at May 9, 2004 1:01 PM"anyway, i hope this sheds some shard of light on what Tonalamotl was/is. dedicated seekers could try to find the Bobby J record or the track that appeared on the "Music for the Psyche-Eye" comp that one of the JOMF guys released."
i dunno about finding much on bobby j these days, but that psyche-eye compilation is still apparently available from perhaps transparent. i put in an order, and will have to wait and see if it comes through...
m
Posted by: Mark at May 9, 2004 5:01 PMhi...just found this topic searching about a site i set up, experimentalmusicintexas.org (it's down at the moment because of a godd@#$ hacker) but this is a very cool site...er, what is it?
i like it, lots of great comments but i can't quite figure out the gyst...oh...and i've got tons of stories about most of the texas musicians listed above, their my own group of friends (accept that i just moved to the uk...miss'em!)
that's it..glad to have found this...most refreshing site i've found in a lonnnnng while ;)
b.
Posted by: bill thompson at August 3, 2004 2:19 PMHi Bill,
Thanks for dropping by & please do so often. I’d love to hear your tales of Tejas musicians & I’m sure Joe & others would also.
As far as a gist here, there really isn’t a definitive one at the moment, especially in the Blog bog, which is basically a “throw-shit-up-and-see-what-sticks” forum. Loose ties to ‘improv’ music & the personal philosophies/preferences toward sound are about the only parameters, if any, if I recollect correctly (it's been a few moons since we had a bullpen conclave). Again, welcome & thanks for making your presence known.
hi derek,
i will check in more...i do like how fresh and open this site is. and our site (www.experimentalmusicintexas.org) is back up finally, so that's nice. the scene in austin texas is HEALTHY! i'm starting to finally get some shows/installations here in scotland, but it's still nothing like austin. i would honestly say that the experimental scene there would rival most cities, including london and new york. the problem (and i think rick reed would agree) is that texas is soooo big and isolated because austin is so far away from either coasts, that we'd have these great shows and although feel great about it, there was also this feeling of, well...wish 'someone' else knew how good this was...i think that's where that title, music for the same 50 people came from...but i think it's the same for every city...you do your show and the same 50 people come (and thank god for them!) i do have to say that the audiences we've had in austin were fantastic. i miss 'em, and reed, and the houston guys (sandy ewen and her crew that came over), the new music coop, the gates ensemble...there's just alot going on there right now...we were at the stage where we were trying to tie the cities (houston, dallas, fort worth, and austin) together and do collaborations...i think it's still a struggle, but there is some success etc..anyway, that's plenty for this post...but if anyone wants any 'funny' stories, i got 'em...those texas kids are damn funny! talk to you soon,
b.
ps...i know that rick's got cd's/lp's coming out on elevator bath records and spectral house records soon, in case anyone's interested...also, his rothko chapel record's a good one if you see it out..
www.billthompson.org
Posted by: bill thompson at January 25, 2005 10:14 AMAfter TONALAMOTL, SAM SANFORD was also in Guns 'n' Roses cover band PARADISE CITIZENS in Portland in 1999 and 2000, and is now in SOUND TEAM as well as HEADACHE and BITS.
Posted by: sam at March 5, 2006 11:08 PM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................