Howard Wershil -- Variations and Varietals

There is tragedy occurring in Ukraine.  So many causes need our attention and monetary donations throughout the world, with Ukraine being a grave situation at this moment in time.  

Should you choose to purchase this piece, know that I will be donating a portion of the proceeds to one or more well-vetted organizations assisting the citizens of Ukraine in areas of health, food, shelter, and emigration. 

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Years ago, I was a fan of Harlan Ellison’s science fiction writing.  In one of his short story anthologies, for each story, save one, there were useful and enlightening introductory notes, drawing the reader into the unique fascination of each story.  For the exception, however, referred to in various notes for the other stories in the anthology, the notation was simply, as I recall, “I have nothing to say about this.”  Part of me feels that, for this most recent composition of mine, I should offer the same.  But I’m afraid you’re simply out of luck, as I give in to the part of me that needs to share.

It's really quite strange, you know, this return to composing after 18 years of relative inactivity.  Strange, and astonishing.  When I began this project, I came to my workshop with clear intents.   But as I began to browse through my many available software instruments, and improvise with each of them, I found a sound compelling enough to persuade me to ignore my original intents.  Lost baggage, perhaps?  Found treasure?  Who knows?

At this point, I consider the piece a sketch.  A sketch can become something richer, more colorful, more defined, with added depth and nuance.  A sketch can simply remain a sketch, and garner its own dignity and honor in its essential form.  For now, let’s consider the piece a work in progress, perhaps to be completed later, with richer materials, and brighter sonorities; or to be declared complete at a later date, or perhaps abandoned, as I move on to newer and stronger challenges.  

For now, It Is What It Is.  I profess no ability to predict its future.

What is this music expressing?  A sense of the ongoing struggle of humanity to evolve?  To survive?  To excel?  Is the piece an anthem for our turbulent times, or a mere study in the effect of reiteration?  As composers, we hear as we compose as we perform as we compose as we hear as we perform as we compose… ad infinitum, simultaneously and sequentially, in varying lengths and random orders.  But what the composer hears is not what the listener hears.  What is the listener hearing?

What are you hearing?
 
Why “A Candle (For Ukraine)”?  Title selection can occur at any point of the compositional process, beginning to end.  In this case, I chose the final title, after considering several iterations of various titles, over half-way through the process, as I was listening to what I was composing, and using the feedback of what I heard to both compose and to title.  Some of us… some of you… do have a strong sense that we live in extraordinarily tenuous times.  Perhaps I was tuning in to a kind of zeitgeist, letting it work its art of persuasion on my abilities to title a composition.  Perhaps, as some of you, I am simply reacting to the texture of the fabric of our times.

As mentioned earlier, I will be donating a portion of proceeds from this to organizations assisting humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.  But you certainly don’t need to purchase a piece of music to support the causes and situations you believe in.  Obviously.  Perhaps I’m simply hoping to have written music that elicits a response.  

In that spirit, I welcome your feedback.  Have a Listen.  Share a Thought.  Express your point of view as part of a family, a community, a country, a planet, where we can foster the best from each other, if only we elect to do so.  

And please… continue to persevere, whatever your talents or interests.  

For yourself.
For things that matter.
For all of us.


Howard Wershil		September 2022

A Candle (For Ukraine)

Wetiko is not for easy listening, this is hard listening. Ideally this should be listened to at maximum volume with plenty of bass. A powerful sound system for a large venue would be best. Sounds used - about 80% guitar, 10% esraj (Indian string instrument) and 10% string samples

Wetiko

Second track from limited cassette release 'Vilar i dina spår', released July 2017.
Re-released on vinyl May 2018. 
MOLOTON003 & MOLOTON008
@sonjatofik
@moonilena

Vilar i dina spår

Buy LP

Sonja Tofik & Mar-llena - Lumi

Robert Martin - Divine Light
Upper Astral - Crystal Cave (Back To Atlantis)
David Storrs - Channel For The Light
Celestial Odysseys - Galactic Odyssey
Steven Cooper - Transcendence
David Naegele - Dawning Of The New Age​

NTS Show 43

Sounds of the Dawn NTS Radio May 26th 2018 VALLEY OF THE SUN SPECIAL PART III

Recorded for Greta Eacott’s ’10bpm Dance Club’ night which took place at Christianshavn Beboerus, Copenhagen in November 2017.

Factory Yard

Mix Tape by Çaykh 
Mastering: E.K.G. Technik
Layout: Thomas Baldischwyler

Boomkat Product Review: 
Ever since that incredible 'Au Revoir, Mogadishu' mixtape of Somalian obscurities was released back in 2015 we’ve been obsessed with Çaykh’s mixtapes, always offering a haul of impossible to categorise gems from who-knows-where, pulling us deep into the wormhole. This new one for Nina and Tobias' V I S label is predictably another doozy; a snaky knot of hypnotic, outernational gems slipping from amazing Arabic rhythms to etheric disco, intoxicating drone-pop, keening communal rituals and spiritual jazz. Honestly, there are few selectors that dig quite this deep. 

Enviably crammed with rarified, heady and impossible-to-identify goodness, and regularly prone to take the unexpected path, ‘V I S C 09’ is a treat that keeps on giving, opening along multiple axes of exploration while maintaining the cool head of journeyman who knows it’s all about the trip and not the destination. 

A star chart for armchair navigation; a late, late night party induction; or a vessel for vast mental transportation; however you use this mixtape, the effect will be wonderfully absorbing, disorienting and refresh your most neglected chakras. Wormholers - take note.

VISc09 A ÇAYKH 2

Nathan Davis, Cactus (1999)

Homage to John Cage

The idea for a cactus and tape work came about when I heard a performance of John Cage’s Child of Tree.  I was immediately smitten by the sound of the cactus in particular.  Taken from its natural environment and placed in the confined and groomed existence of a pot, amplified with a contact microphone, the cactus took on a completely new and interesting character, however paradoxical.   Without the amplification its subtle and poignant resonance goes largely unnoticed.  The relationship between natural objects and their unnatural extension is the metaphor which inspired Grandchild of Tree.  I am deeply indebted to Nathan Davis for his amazing cactus technique and samples! 

Degrees of Separation, Grandchild of Tree

Après l'ascension du grand escalator du métro, un dernier bout d'ascension mécanique avant de déboucher sur la grande Halle de St Charles… Faire ressortir de façon sensible le tempo de la gare au milieu de la débauche d'informations et de mouvements qui nous harcèlent sitôt émergés au coeur de cette Cathédrale temporelle. Jeux de distorsions temporelles: accélérations, ralentissements, étirements… La superposition aléatoire des voix d'ELLE et de celle de la SNCF crée d'autres changements de perspectives, un peu d'humour, de recul, aussi…
~~~~~~~~~
Conception / Direction artistique / Mise en son : Stéphane MARIN
Composition:  Emmanuel MÉNIS / Stéphane MARIN 
Écriture textuelle: Elizabeth MASSE / Stéphane MARIN
Collecte témoignages: François SARDI
~~~~~~~~~
© Espaces Sonores
~~~~~~~~~
"Gare aux Pépins ! " - ESPACES SONORES - @ Small is Beautiful (Lieux Publics) - Oct 2011.
~~~~~~~~~
http://www.espaces-sonores.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ESPASON 
 https://www.facebook.com/AnUmbrellaFor2

QUAI A 1 - "Un Pépin pour 2" @ Gare Saint Charles - Small is Beautiful (Lieux Publics)

DC Promo Tracks #543: "Alice" by SiP is part of the release "Leos Naturals" on Not Not Fun @not-not-fun-1  

Buy Now: https://sip-groop.bandcamp.com/album/leos-naturals 

Subscribe to our weekly email: http://dreamchimney.com/subscribe

DC Promo Tracks #543: SiP "Alice"

Written & Produced by @producedbyflaty & @Dices

Square Fauna - Twilighty

Radiophonic work in 10 parts, duration - 30min.
Production: Radio Television Serbia - Radio Belgrade 3
Produced partly in Electronic Studio Radio Belgrade using EMS Synthi 100
Premiere: May 30, 11:10PM, Radio Belgrade 3
Artwork (sculpture): Goran Stojčetović - Art Brut Serbia
Photo: Milan Milutinovic - Black Sheep Produkcija
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/7bu6HcFKI1k
*Winner of the Serbian most prestigious composition prize "Mokranjac" for 2020

Post-excavation activities (teaser)

happy full moon!!

full moon means - time to release!

this song is a cover - famous song, beautiful versions by nina simone and david bowie, among others

new ep "the desert calls" out -  https://vidavojic.bandcamp.com/album/the-desert-calls

album download includes a lil digital zine - with further travels into spiritual wilderness in search from the true heart - “meet me in the desert” - that good old emptiness <3
much luuv

the desert calls

wild is the wind

July 3, 2020  Live at VOID   (Rehearsal Demo)

Music for Sauntering Cows

Fourth episode of Indented Head, featuring a 'mini-mix' with the show's first special guest, Gwyn. https://soundcloud.com/user-130205156
'Indented Head' an hour of family music hosted monthly by Scott and Lew is back on MutantRadio.net with new episode and their guest Gwyn.

Indented Head Episode: 4 Feat. Gwyn Mixdown

On the border between listening to the soundscape and "in situ" compositions, in the porosity proposed by a work who rubs the real,his artistic, ecological and spiritual paths approching each day a little closer to the silence.

/////
The originality of the company "Espaces Sonores" is based on a radical approach to sound and musical composition developed in close collaboration with the sites where we work.
The sound is always the driving force behind our work, which then opens up to other artistic disciplines. The latter then blends with the sound, music and text, to offer new vistas, new perspectives.
Proposing sound based site specific shows where the notions of spaces crossed, paths travelled, and text entwined, are the fields explored played with, developed & inhabited.

~~~~~~~~~~

L’originalité de la compagnie Espaces Sonores repose sur une approche radicale
de la composition élaborée en lien étroit et au contact des espaces où seront
entendues les oeuvres.
Le son est le premier moteur de propositions artistiques qui s’ouvrent au partage à
d’autres disciplines. Celles-ci viennent alors à la rencontre de l'écriture sonore et
musicale pour lui offrir de nouvelles échappées, de nouvelles perspectives.
Nous proposons des créations contextuelles où les espaces traversés sont les
champs d’investigations de pratiques artistiques transversales.

Stéphane MARIN:
Acteur du développement de l’art sonore en espaces libres (Espaces Sonores - Lieux Publics - Décor Sonore), ​​​compositeur de musiques électroacoustiques multiphoniques pour le spectacle vivant en espace public (2ème Groupe d'Intervention, Osmosis Cie) Stéphane Marin s’investit depuis plus de 10 ans dans ces aventures artistiques qui prennent la ville comme lieu de résonance, comme matériau vivant pour la composition de nouvelles formes musicales et sonores.

Il crée en 2008 ESPACES SONORES, dont le travail repose sur une approche radicale de la composition élaborée en lien étroit avec les espaces où sera entendue l'oeuvre. Il y conçoit des créations sonores contextuelles pour sites spécifiques.

C'est à la frontière entre l'écoute du paysage sonore in situ et la composition, dans la porosité que propose l'oeuvre qui se frotte au réel, que s'engage son travail.​​​
Sa trajectoire artistique, écologique et spirituelle le rapproche chaque jour un peu plus près du silence.





An interesting caveat to consider metaphysically as well as geographically:  that perhaps the most interesting efforts in contemporary music do not occur in our major cities, but in areas one might seldom think to explore.  Such a premise was suggested by Kyle Gann, in New York’s Village Voice, in reviewing my composition, ‘to release... to allow... to emerge...’, premiered by The Atlanta Contemporary Chamber Ensemble for New Music America 1992 at Georgia State University.  

I've been creating works since 1972, premiered at such venues as Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, The Electric Mountain Music Festival of Central Wyoming College, the 11th and 16th Annual International Electronic Music PLUS festivals, the Festival Synthese Bourges in France, and Atlanta’s own Eyedrum.  I've also performed with the avant-garde performing group Phobia Nova at venues including Atlanta’s Railroad Earth (in conjunction with Pauline Oliveros) and The Contemporary, and, through Composers’ Resources, an organization I founded in 1980, sponsored performances of contemporary instrumental and electronic music by some of the world’s most noted and interesting composers.  

Can a 20th/21st century composer maintain music creativity as an art form free to explore new areas and uncover new truths about sound, time, aesthetics, and our relationship to these elements as both individuals and a society, while surviving on an ever-more challenging planet?  Maybe... with some energy, some luck, some talent, and the inspiration of some very energetic, talented, and amenable colleagues!

And time.  

Time is Music.  Time is Memory.  Time is Achievement.  Time is Life.

QUAI A 1 - "Un Pépin pour 2" @ Gare Saint Charles - Small is Beautiful (Lieux Publics)

Espaces Sonores

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