La vie en bleu
11'36"
2011

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Soundscapes and hydrophonic recordings by Anna Raimondo
Sound mixing: Tony Regnauld and Anna Raimondo
Produced by Kunst Radio

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In between Marseille and Naples, and navigating through the Mediterranean . One is the city in which I was born; the other is the one that has adopted me.
“La vie en bleu” is an intimate immersion into two realities where the main element is still the sea. The sea that cleanses, that purifies, that represents a form of catharsis because you can immerse yourself and forget what’s left outside. In both cities, the sea filtrates reality, and this is also what water does in this radio piece. The intimate perspective becomes an aquatic trip.
Field recordings and hydrophonic recordings in a soundscape composition in which blue is the dominant color. Blue as the sea, blue as the colors of both Naples and Marseille’s football teams…

La Vie En Blue

02_MR-1301_Peter-Brötzmann_Hamid-Drake_Empty-Bottle_04-20-2001

Recordings created on August 3, 2014 at the Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, IL as documentation of the performance work "Spatialization Study: Chapters" by Becky Grajeda. 

Reader-performers: Eva Bialecki, Jenn Cooper, Gabrielle Kan, Brandon Kosters, Milad Mozari, Kurt Peterson, Carola Salvi, and Drew Thomas.  

Recording engineer: Alex Inglizian

Description of Spatialization Study: Chapters
Eight reader-performers stand around the audience, each reading aloud one of two chapters of the Bohumil Hrabal novel "Too Loud a Solitude" (1976), English translation from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim (1990). All reader-performers begin reading together, from the beginning of their chapter, reading until they have completed their chapter.

Recordings used in this track were created in part with a grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. 

Spatialization Study: Chapters

ESS is excited to bring to you our first set from the Creative Audio Archive's Artist Mixtape Series... The first mix comes from Lia Kohl!

From Lia ...

This playlist is organized around unlabelled tapes in the Sun Ra archive. In addition to many rehearsal, performance, and lecture recordings, there are a few tapes in the archive that aren't easily categorizable -- a collection of recordings of a voicemail machine, or a series of short synth improvisations, for example. I have a special love of uncategorizable things, so I gravitated towards these tapes particularly, including selections from the aforementioned two, as well as a tape that seems to be Ra tuning through the radio and occasionally singing along. The voicemail tape is actually recordings of voicemails left for Alton Abraham, Sun Ra's manager and good friend. I love the refrain of his most frequent caller -- "Ham pick up, pick up Ham" -- and the drama that unfolds with so little context. I'm drawn to the synth recordings because Ra seems to be truly experimenting: stopping and starting at places before finding a new pattern. I love to think of this larger-than-life man having a quiet moment in the studio by himself. On side A of the "radio poem" tape, you can hear Ra improvising words over the radio, but on side B (which I've included almost in its entirety), he only occasionally sings along. Instead of feeling like a piece, it just feels like we're listening to the radio together. The only edit I made in that recording is to cut short Hotel California -- even if Sun Ra wants to listen to that, I don't.


I also included some selections from the Malachi Ritscher collection: Mamadou Diabate Ensemble at Eli's Cheesecake World (this place still exists!), Rob Mazurek with an ensemble in 2005, and Milford Graves at the Empty Bottle. I love the aliveness of these recordings: that we can hear Graves running around the space with a whistle and some bells, people whooping as he passes; that the Diabate Ensemble's incredible playing is punctuated by children crying. Music is in space and time and real people are listening, then and now. 


In a similar vein: ESS recently uncovered a tape of Fela Kuti live at the Riviera, which I've included a few cuts of. It's really cool to hear Kuti live, but somehow equally wonderful to hear the unknown recordist offering a light to a friend. Which is to say that these recordings remind me that music is something that happens between people, and this playlist is about celebrating that. 


(each track is bookended by a voicemail)


00:28 - Mamadou Diabate Ensemble live at Eli's Cheesecake World

07:04 - Fela Kuti live at the Riviera

10:23 - Unlabelled tape from the Sun Ra Collection (synth improvisation)

14:13 - EMI Vol.3 (Hal Rammel Collection)

18:24 - Mamadou Diabate Ensemble at Eli's Cheesecake World

27:44 - Milford Graves live at the Empty Bottle (1999)

31:49 - EMI Vol.3 (Hal Rammel Collection)

37:12 - Rob Mazurek Ensemble (2005)

41:26 - EMI Vol.3 (Hal Rammel Collection)

48:06 - Unlabelled tape from the Sun Ra Collection (synth improvisation)

53:13 - Mamadou Diabate Ensemble live at Eli's Cheesecake World

1:01 - Unlabelled tape from the Sun Ra Collection (synth improvisation)

1:05 - Fela Kuti live at the Riviera

1:09 - Rob Mazurek Ensemble (2005)

1:17 - Sun Ra Radio Poems

1:24 - Sun Ra Radio Poems

1:27 - Sun Ra Radio Poems

Lia Kohl / ESS CAA Mixtape Series 001

Becky Grajeda, Kurt Peterson, and Jessica Speer perform live at Experimental Sound Studio's 2015 Outer Ear concert series. 

March 14, 2015.

http://bit.ly/ess_oe


OUTER EAR 2015: Becky Grajeda

Featuring Janelle Monáe, Deep Cotton, St. Beauty, Jidenna, Roman GianArthur, and George 2.0.

Hell You Talmbout

Becky Grajeda is an artist working primarily in sound and performance — often using field recordings for sound collages or texts for text-based performances.

Spatialization Study: Chapters

bgrajeda

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