Three buddhist chants, occurring simultaneously.

This recording was taken standing in the main courtyard of the "Sound of Thunder" monastery complex in Dunhaung, China. On my left, 20 meters away, was a temple of female monks chanting, with the leader amplified. In front of me, about 50 meters away was a smaller temple of female monks chanting, un-amplified. To the right, 35 meters away, was a small group of male monks reciting a chant and playing percussion before raising a banner.  

At one moment, behind a parked car a large collection of fireworks was set off (accidentally?). I turned suddenly to face away from it, and try to avoid overblowing the signal.

Equipment: 
AudioTechnica Bp4025
Zoom H4N 
Post production: compression and equalization.

Recorded on Sept. 23, 2013 at the 雷音寺 (Sound of Thunder) Buddhist Temple, Dunhaung, Gansu, China.

Three Buddhist Chants (Simultaneous) - Dunhaung, China

Four bottles

tk 22 [tape]

Excerpts from a longer take in June  2016. 

This take is from the forest edge, facing the trees. Behind the trees are more trees, spruces and pines. Birches. Moss and berries. Sheep.
Everything is green, brown and grey.

To the left is more forest, as well as some farmlands and a vegetable garden. To the right is more forest, as well as more farmlands. Behind the microphones there is a valley with more farmlands, fields and more vegetable gardens, a few houses, some smallholdings, our smallholding, a rooster. 

Original take is 1h 17min.

Sun followed by thunder. Thunder by rain. Rain by sun.

“Solitude”, a solo piano piece which has several versions. The latest one, as well as the submitted one, probably is the version can be expended for multiple using.
Many ideas were translated into notes in this solo piece:
1.    Language to music: this work starts with notes: C, B-flat, E-flat, which correspond to the pronunciation of the word “Solitude”. At the same time, C note and B-flat create interval which is frequently used in the piece because it contains contradict and echoes the aesthetic view I absorbed in recent years-“ugly is new beauty”, which turns out is true. On the other hand, I reserved time and designed long notes in the part of beginning to give audience enough time to observe and even appreciate the resonance of intervals in order to show the pure sound of piano and the unusual beauty of extreme register.

2.    Literature to music: While writing this music, I reflected myself more clearly especially from cultural aspects because I was inspired by a Taiwanese early 1920s. song lyrics from“longing for the spring breeze”. In the first part “at night waiting alone under a dim lamp, with the spring breeze blowing on the cheeks”. I used seventh to express the color of being alone and dotted note to represent the constant breeze from the window (bar1-11). If this would be a theater play, it would be 3 characters-a human, shadow and the moon. Later, the characteristic changes, I started to describe the emotion running through the mind especially when we are alone, sometimes our mind is like a wind or even hurricane, like the spiral in the brain.(bar12-17) I used triplet frequently in this part to describe the human mind tends to think too much. The selection of note is based on the theme of the previous part to make the coherence effect.

3.    Status: after I added the grooving simply by rhythm and dynamics in the middle to build up the fake climax by expending the register and chords but fade out very soon to arouse the curiosity of the audience(bar18-22). I tried to convey the idea-“Party is a group of people’s solitude. Solitude is a person’s party”.
And then all of sudden, the party stopped. Later on, I broke the chords and used only two notes (A-flat, G)(bar23) in order to describe the heartbeat after a person’s party. And then build up the layers again to the highest register on piano.

4.    Audible view: later, I made the effect of moonlight sparkling in the water by playing quickly on piano’s highest registers to create the “bubble” effect(bar25). It represents the moon is laughing at a person for her flying thoughts while alone. In the end, 3 set of quick octaves represent the sound of crows in a silent night (bar26)and then it leads to the last note which imitates the sound of moonlight reflected on the water.

Solitude -(Yun-Chih Huang)

Fy - Orange Tape Scream

Beck+Col - Lumpy Scream

improvised upright bass with realtime generative accompaniment software builit in max msp. 

the program is matching the timbre and tonality of the upright bass to trigger segments of guitar, bassoon and other sounds.

duo for bass and software pt. 1

Charles Curtis: Performances & Recordings 1998-2018 3xCD (SLT-005)

Saltern presents its fifth release, Charles Curtis: Performances & Recordings 1998-2018, the first comprehensive collection of recordings surveying the career of renowned, American cellist Charles Curtis. Selected by Curtis and Tashi Wada from recordings spanning the past two decades, the collection offers a broad, inclusive view of Curtis's activities across the diverse worlds of music he inhabits, containing rare, unreleased recordings, and never-before-released music by Terry Jennings, Richard Maxfield, Éliane Radigue, Alison Knowles, and Curtis. The wide-ranging scope of this release speaks not to a musical restlessness, but to a genuine spirit of inquiry, as these areas of activity for Curtis have existed concurrently in dialogue, not simply in succession, for decades. Over two hours of music by composers and artists with whom Curtis is closely associated including Éliane Radigue, Guillaume de Machaut, Tobias Hume, Silvestro di Ganassi, Terry Jennings, Morton Feldman, Anton Webern, Olivier Messiaen, Alison Knowles, Richard Maxfield, and Curtis himself. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu with liner notes by La Monte Young, Spencer Gerhardt, and Tashi Wada. Custom packaging and screen printing by Alan Sherry; edition of 500.

Performances & Recordings 1998-2018

Charles Curtis – Unfinished Song (1998)

silentnight

A collection of pieces, field recordings, and works in progress.

Ian Battenfield Headley works with field recordings and electroacoustic music. His music has been described as, exploring the, ”beautiful dichotomies between organic recordings and processed sounds that imitate each other,” (Weird Ear Records), and “strikingly visceral, three-dimensional” (New Music Box).

Three Buddhist Chants (Simultaneous) - Dunhaung, China

Ian Battenfield Headley

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