Name: Once Upon A Time by Maja S. K. Ratkje
Duration: 4 min 32 s
Description: From the record Adventura Anatomica (Semishigure 2006) by Maja S. K. Ratkje. Made for a dance performance with the same title.

Ah yes, loved this CD (along with Blixter Toad), must take them off the shelf again soon.

More on this 484th weekly Disquiet Junto project — A Movable Heart (The Assignment: Transplant the sounds of Chris Kallmyer’s wind chimes to a new location) — at: https://disquiet.com/0484/

More on Chris Kallmyer at: chriskallmyer.com.

Major thanks to Alex Hawthorn for support: alexhawthorn.com

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0484-a-movable-heart/

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Image associated with this project is by Chris Kallmyer, used with his permission.

A Movable Heart - disquiet0484

From the record Adventura Anatomica (Semishigure 2006) by Maja S. K. Ratkje. Made for a dance performance with the same title.

Once Upon A Time

The spike organ or nail chello (sic) is thought to originate from an early middle Europe monastic sect, the Iscariotians. They may have used the instrument to accompany their lengthy rituals contemplating the pain of the crucifixion.  

The Iscariotians are said to have been wiped out by returning crusaders at the behest of emperor Leopold III. Other commentators have suggested that the whole story may have been a constructed  alibi for the defeated crusaders plunder and desecration of the brewery of ..Santa Quaffa...


A possible surviving 'chello' object, made from of lignum vitae and iron, resides in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. Its interpretation is not without controversy with some critics asserting the object is nothing more than a kind of agricultural implement, though this does not explain its cruciform shape and carved decoration.

In 1972 the scholar . Roland de Févin was granted permission to investigate the Rouen Chello, explore its sound making capabilities and make recordings. his theory was that the instrument was to be played by a rosined bow.  Unfortunately de Févin's playing and handling resulted in two of the nails fracturing and so the investigation was terminated after only one day. The single recording de Févin made was never released but it was played to audiences on an European lecture tour he conducted shortly before his death in 1974. 

It has been subsequently alleged that de Févin's  investigation  coincided with the great fire at  Nantes cathedral. This lead to several occultist conspiracy theories, most notably retold in the pulp fiction novel Blood Nail-(Brownie Dane,1975) much of the plot was lifted for the Italian soft core film Sistero Orgasma (1977) where the action was switched away from a monastery to a scantily clad convent.(citation needed) 

On the film soundtrack, the sounds of the Chello were replicated by experimental electronic synthesiser the achoirorium- itself the  subject of intrigue- as its extremely high operating voltages caused the death of its creator  Luigi soon after the recording session.


This recording was made in 1980 by UK avant geographer Forster Iberix who attended several of de Févin's lectures.  He set about building a replica device and making reconstructions of the Iscariotarian mass based on a column of scribbled numbers  which appear reverso  in one of Leonardo da Vinci's codex's (Coded notebooks). The recording was released on an untitled flexi disk issued by cult French label sordide sentimental -who now deny any knowledge of its existence. It does not appear on their official discography.  Improbably- Haringey local studies library, London, has a copy in their archive. The library does not provide any method of playback for the flexidisc and items from the archive cannot be withdrawn -so some subterfuge was involved in me getting this track taped. Whilst the disk was in my possession an inexplicable number of minor disasters befell me -so I can assure you I hurriedly returned it.

disquiet0385
More on this 385th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Audubonus Instrumentum / The Assignment: Imagine a fake instrument, and make music with it — at:
https://disquiet.com/0385/
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
https://disquiet.com/junto/
Thanks to Paul Harrington for the Latin assistance.
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0385-audubonus-instrumentum/

The Nail Chello (disquiet0385)

Sleep Museum - Tall Concrete

Donate

in sect

Excerpt from the B-side of the 'Albatross' cassette, to be released in September.

Albatross

Grant Evans - India Ink Mirror (excerpt)

Sent Ahead

Originally composed for the 2020 edition of the Australasian Computer Music Conference, 'City Circles' is a 28 minute piece that furthers my research on loops as a main musical currency, as well as the exploration of urban sounds and scenery, also present in 2018's "A deafening silence". 

Available from chemical imbalance in CDR and digital: https://chemical-imbalance.bandcamp.com/album/subespai-city-circles

Composed by Subespai (Mauri Edo).
Artwork & layout by Josh Paton.
Recorded, mixed & mastered by Matthew Syres.
Performed @ Alpha House Gallery in Erskineville, Gadigal Land. Sovereignty was never ceded.

City Circles (excerpt)

taken from the project 'mineral veins' (dissolves)  natural substances breaking down under environmental pressures, interactions and distortions. 

(recorded using JrF d-series hydrophones & adapted geophones)

mineral veins | Lugnas Dissolve (extract) - headphones / speakers needed

Without Her

O.V.   https://soundcloud.com/noirmoderne/geometry-of-fear

Noir Moderne - Geometry Of Fear (Senglar No-Fear Rmx)

Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, composer and performer (born Dec. 29th 1973 in Trondheim, Norway), finished composition studies at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo in 2000. Her music is performed worldwide by performers such as Klangforum Wien, Oslo Sinfonietta, The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Fretwork, TM+, Cikada and Vertavo string quartets, Quatuor Renoir, Ticom, crashEnsemble, Pearls for Swine Experience, Torben Snekkestad, Marianne Beate Kielland, SPUNK, Frode Haltli, POING and many more. Portrait concerts with her music has been heard in Toronto and Vienna, she has been composer in residence at festivals like Other Minds, San Francisco, Nordland Music Festival, Bodø, and the Avanti! summer festival.

Ratkje has received awards such as the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris for composers below 30 years of age, the Norwegian Edvard prize (work of the year) twice, second prize at the Russolo Foundation, and in 2001 she was the first composer ever to receive the Norwegian Arne Nordheim prize. Her solo album «Voice», made in collaboration with Jazzkammer, got a Distinction Award at Prix Ars Electronica in 2003.

Ratkje is active as a singer/voice user and electronics player as well as studio engineer, as a soloist or in groups such as SPUNK or Agrare. Other collaborations are with Jaap Blonk, Joëlle Léandre, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, Stephen O’Malley, Stian Westerhus, Lasse Marhaug, POING and the metal band Trinacria. Ratkje has performed her own music for films, dance and theatre, installations, and numerous other projects. In 2003, she played a leading part in her own opera, based on the texts from the Nag Hammadi Library. In 2005 she performed the voice solo part of her first big work for orchestra, commissioned by Radio France. She has also been soloist with Klangforum Wien and Oslo Sinfonietta.

Her scores are found at the Norwegian Music Information Centre and her records are released on Tzadik, Rune Grammofon, ECM, Kontrans, Asphodel, Important Records and others.

Once Upon A Time

Maja S. K. Ratkje

Recent comments

davidevoid

Related tracks