TR151 - Katz Mulk - Muscle Memory

Ambient electronic; tranquil. Artwork by Wendy Clough

The Grammar of Forgiveness

Wall Street Worries is a cinematic orchestral exploration of high-stakes capitalism, trading psychology, and the emotional undercurrent of financial warfare. Projecting emotions from haunting compositions, this suite traverses marimba-infused ambition, melancholic piano reflections, and grand orchestral climaxes. Each track is a chapter in the volatile symphony of market timing, missed signals, and the echo of every decision made too late—or too soon. From intimate piano notes to soaring brass declarations, the album embodies the mental tension behind chasing profits in a world ruled by volatility and value.

Track 2 Equity & Silence

INFO => self-titledmag.com/2018/05/11/ne247-meyers-negative-artist-mix/

NE247: Meyers - 'Negative Artist' Mix

a quick test of the nlc dp filter (headphones recommended):

a bunch of chopped up noodles from a doepfer system stuck inside a squid salmple, the mix of which is randomly addressed, reduced, and crushed, then sent to the dpf, and plays alongside a main sine noodle from an a-143-9. the diode half of the dpf has a high-ish q setting (which is kinda tame compared to other filters) and a low cut off, and later is modulated by a low rate of digital noise from the a-117 and a sine lfo from a second a-143-9. the transistor side (which has no input and is internally fed by the diode side via photo-couplers) has a maxed out q  and an even lower cut off, and its cv2 is randomly assigned the 2 oscillators section from the a-117 808 source via a switch, which gives it that wild feedback sound. the output of the dpf is monitored from the sum output, and a tiny bit of reverb is added in ableton.

this filter is very  touchy, and depending on how its built, can have a very narrow range on control (as mine does,) and the transistor ladder only really gets fired up if the diode ladder is hot enough (mine uses MCT9001 photo-couplers,) so you can get all these really interesting 'edge of breakup' sounds, to use the dirt-pedal/guitar amp parlance of the day...and its quite nice if you can dial it in, but it does takes some patience.

it also gets *real* bonkers when you start swapping the q path and monitoring different outputs...but i haven't really figured out how to bend any of that to my will yet...

Untitled XV

Track from:
Simon Whetham "Forced to Repeat Myself" CD

“When performing with a limited set of resources, through choices in materials to work with and the constraints of being nomadic, there can be a tendency to repeat actions and scenes that 'work', even when improvising and having to respond to each new situation in a unique way.”

One characteristic aspect of the touring experience that is not discussed often enough is the dilemma of repetition. Not repetition as a mechanism of the work itself, but as a tedious consequence of being obligated to perform night after night in quick succession. Generating a completely unique performance for each stop, even with the assistance of improvisation,  is a laborious undertaking that consumes too much time and sanity, while adhering to a rigid set of rules leaves one open to both burnout and diminishing returns. Is there a way to split the difference so that both performer and audience are always engaged to the highest standard?

“I set these constraints on myself. The need to produce something (at least a little) different in each event of a tour was fierce, especially when traveling with other musicians.”

Explicitly within the title itself of his latest CD, Forced To Repeat Myself, UK sound artist and composer Simon Whetham tackles these questions with both a sly wit and sincere inquisitiveness. The tracks, all collected from recordings documenting a 2018 tour, utilize analogous source material and means of execution.  Whetham paid particular attention to the contour and character of each venue when deciding how to best put the pieces together, offering a customization that subverts pure deja vu for a sharp observance of the unfamiliar.

“In each situation objects and materials unique to the space were incorporated into the performance setup and structure, generating sounds or resonating with them. And yet I could hear similar scenes, movements, even spaces. This repetition determined the dynamic of the composition, working with it and against it.”

By the very nature of their disseminating sparseness, the tracks of Forced To Repeat Myself demand from the listener an attentiveness fixed on nuance and variation. The amplified cracks and static of ethereal currents and anonymous electronics infer the works of others who’ve made it their mission to attune our attention toward sounds outside our natural perception, including Christina Kubisch’s electrical walks, Toshimaru Nakamura’s no-input mixer excursions, and Jason Zeh’s experiments with blank tapes and the mechanizations of his cassette players. Whetham’s shaping of the album’s source material to highlight certain exclusivities of each live performance emphasizes how the inherent dynamics of time and chance guide his self-imposed constraints into pathbreaking spectrums. 

“The title references a phrase many of us will have heard in our formative years, ’Why do you force me to repeat myself?’ I have no answer to this question. I never forced anyone to do anything. But with this work, I did.”

One inherent paradox of Forced To Repeat Myself is that each listen naturally manifests a distinct, individual experience. The way sounds are received and processed in one instance to the next each forget their own entryway into transcribing meaning from this abstraction. And Whetham is keenly aware of this as the sounds of Forced To Repeat Myself find consistent, unique ways to perpetuate themselves, ensuring any repetition to be delicately understated.

Forced to Repeat Myself

Forced to repeat Myself

Simon Whetham "08-11"

Raft of Trash is a generative music project exploring the sounds of systems using the natural rhythms of environmental dialogue in the world-building game SimCity 3000. It is a collaboration between sound artists/musicians Andrew PM Hunt (aka Dialect) and JC Leisure, and designer Thom Isom.  

Like the group’s early EPs, their debut album Likeness on the Edge of Town showcases the breadth of possibilities emerging from their unique process. Whilst playing SimCity 3000, the in-built sound effects of the game are converted and repurposed into MIDI data which is then fed to Hunt and Leisure's synths and samplers in real time. The resulting soundscape, imprinted with the dynamics of a simulated environment, is then augmented with live guitar, spoken word and field recordings to create an uncanny collage of wild synthesis, experimental narrative and bending, viscous guitar.  

Inspired by Fluxus artist Alison Knowles, the spoken word passages sprinkled across the record act as part travel journal, part system theory field guide as “someone guiding you through the simulated desert landscape, and through some kind of inner journey”. Exploring for instance the connections between the irregularities we discover in our functioning bodies and the impact of environmental influences or describing the fullness of the reality of stopping at a truck stop, these passages are an illuminating exploration of the complexity of living systems and real-life situations. Subtle musical references to Americana and sounds sourced from the desert around Joshua Tree contribute to a journey-like mood throughout the record. 

Musically, the record remains in largely abstract territory. Synths sprawl, crawl and fly above a sonic bed of creaks, ripples and bleeps; nothing is at it seems. This ambiguous relationship between the organic and the synthetic further highlights the themes explored by the group.  

Releasing in full on November 20 2020, as a limited edition poster and as digital files. 

Purchase on Bandcamp: https://raftoftrash.bandcamp.com/album/likeness-on-the-edge-of-town

Quiet Evenings - Fault (excerpt)

Adversary