More gebrauchspataphysik: 6 more sonorous reviews of unwritten books. This set features interplay between the small but exquisitely-formed Hohner Guitaret and the stately Hohner Pianet T. The (relatively) narrow compass of the Guitaret can be dealt with in two ways. One is using live digital transposition (a pedal such as Digitech's DT), another is by pairing it with internally plucking of the reeds a Pianet T. The DT approach is most useful when playing single notes - the high F and low G, and the pedal can also used for gliss bend and grace notes (and was used in both the last set of book reviews, and throughout this one as well). As regards the Pianet approach, I started off by trying to use the latter method, but realistically it is much harder to do that it seemed at first thought, and also sounded better played via the keyboard. The perceived shortcomings of the Pianet T in having no sustain were overcome by a piano-style floor pedal operating the bypass on a busted old spring reverb. The Pianet is a species of anti-piano - instead of hammers hitting strings, rods or bars,it has tiny rubber fingers inside pulling on the reeds, and as such remains a pretty good match soundwise. And Pianets are lovely to play in a way that Rhodes and Wurlies just aren't (to me). The fingers beckon forth sound from the instrument. rather than prying the sounds loose or belabouring them with a cudgel. When preparing the album on Bandcamp, the page title read "Editing The Geography of Thought". What a lofty ambition! Once again, sound collage orchestrations per Cage (1937) "Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating. The sound of a truck at 50 m.p.h. Static between the stations. Rain. We want to capture and control these sounds, to use them, not as sound effects, but as musical instruments." The album is binaural for 65 crosstalk speakers. I can make you a headphones version if you need one.
credits
released 15 September 2013 Ivodne Galatea: Hohner Guitaret, Hohner Pianet-T, Arturia CS80V Aural Rokehan and co-production by Cameron Byrd. Thanks to Michael Peters for the encouragement Also a never-ending gratitude to the people who wander the world with microphones at freesound.org, mentioned in each piece where used