Analog synthesizers and effect pedals. Remixed material used for "Distraction" https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/distraction. All sounds - except for the audio-snippets from "Blade Runner" & "Twin Peaks" - mixing and production: Velvet Something Superdark. Image: VSS.

Abstraction

slowly gliding —
a snail in the grass
follows the clouds.

Haiku by El Wud

Picture by Wolfgang Hasselmann

Project Source: The full source code is available on my GitHub: https://github.com/tonpatt/compositions/tree/master/glowingly%20opaque%20-%20naviarhaiku632

glowingly opaque - naviarhaiku632

Paul Amlehn - Strange attractor of sonic elements, high frequency shift of piano performance, ringmaster of aural components
William S. Burroughs - Text, vocal
John C. Lily - Field recordings, quarter-speed shift of field recording audio
Lisa Moore - Piano
Arthur Rimbaud - Title
Robert Mapplethorpe - Photograph of William Burroughs (Detail)

From the album: A Walk To the End of the World

I Is Other

Back to Mountain  わけいって山

Paul Amlehn - Cut-up text for aria; sung voice of Oedipus; catalyst texts for music composition of all music - save for the field recordings of Alan, Ann, and David; catalyst texts and music for Valentine's monologue; editing; mixing; arranging; production
Hans Peter Kuhn - Sound environment, sound design
Valentine Caille - Spoken voice of Jocasta
Nicholas Currie - French Horn
Alan Splet - Field recordings, sound design
Ann Kroeber - Field recordings, sound design
David Lynch - Field recordings, sound design
Jeff Zeigler - Cello
William Klugh Connor III - Electronics
Eberhard Kranemann - Synthesizers, electronics
Bill Gilonis - Organ, guitar
Jeroen Visser - Saxophone
Andrzej Żuławski - Still image of Klaus Kinski and Romy Schneider from his film "That Most Important Thing: Love," repurposed here to recast Klaus and Romy as effigies of Oedipus and Jocasta

Oedipus learned from the oracle at Delphi via prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother but, unaware of his true parentage, believed he was fated to murder and marry his adoptive parent Polybus and Merope, and so he left for Thebes to try and cheat fate. On his way, he met Laius, an older man, who was (unbeknownst to him) his father, and killed him in the midst of a quarrel. Continuing on to Thebes, he found that the king of the city (Laius) had recently been killed and that the city was at the mercy of the Sphinx. Oedipus answered the monster's riddle correctly, defeating it and winning the throne of the dead king – and the hand in marriage of the king's widow, who was also (unbeknownst to him) his mother Jocasta.

Years later, to end a plague on Thebes, Oedipus searched to find who had killed Laius and discovered that he himself was responsible. Jocasta, upon realizing that she had married her own son, hanged herself in her wardrobe. Oedipus was on the way to slay his mother when he discovered her body. He then seized two golden pins from her dress and blinded himself with them.

Oedipus and Jocasta

Paul Amlehn - Quasi-stochastic procedures, catalyst texts and vocals for Mick Rossi's piano composition, quantum entangled two-piano arrangement, entropy incursion, editing, mixing, production 
Michael Riesman - Piano
Mick Rossi - Piano
Ariel Lorca - Moog Sub Phatty
Gustave Moreau - Painting: "Oedipus and the Sphinx"

A piece characterized by largely Apollonian energies is,  at a certain point, descended upon and overrun by Dionysian energies, which temporarily transmute and transfigure the  nature and structure of the composition.

This work is in part inspired by the dance work "Occasion Piece," two simultaneous solos performed by Merce Cunningham and Mikhail Baryshnikov at the Lincoln Center on the 21st of July, 1999.

Oedipus and the Sphinx: 2nd Movement (The Muses Bequeath the Riddle to the Sphinx)

The Shape Of Memory

PROGRMIERERINNEN

M / R / A

Electric guitar, violin bow, analogue bass synthesizer, effect pedals, unsynchronized loops, voice, two tube amps. All sounds, voice, lyrics, mixing and production:  Velvet Something Superdark. Image: Kottbusser Tor, Berlin, as seen in a car side mirror (photo: VSS).

For this piece I'm revisiting material I recorded for my project "Polaris" (2023/ revised 2026): https://soundcloud.com/velvetsomethingsuperdark/polaris and a poem I wrote some years ago:

Gegenstadt

Es gibt da einen Bahnhof 
von dem jeder Zug nach Norden fährt.
Mutter ist mal in einen gestiegen 
als sie die Wange ans Glas drückte
sah man alle ihre Zähne

Es gibt da ein Haus 
wo jede Treppe abwärts führt.
Vater ist mal auf einer gestolpert
brach sich einen Knochen im Hals 
seitdem spricht er rückwärts

Es gibt da eine Straße
wie ein verschorftes Knie.
Der kleine Bruder läuft immer 
das Kopfsteinpflaster entlang

Manchmal wacht sie auf  
in der anderen Stadt und 
sieht ihr Kindergesicht 
hinter allen Türen

----------------------

Countercity

There is a station
from which each train goes north.
Mother got in once
when she pressed her cheek against the glass
you could see all her teeth

There is a house
where every staircase leads below.
Father took a tumble once
and broke a bone in his throat 
since then he's speaking backwards

There is an alley
like a crusted knee.
Little brother always runs 
along the cobblestones

When she wakes sometimes
in the other town
she sees her childface
behind all doors

Gegenstadt / Countercity

My name is Paul Amlehn. I am an artist working in the mediums of literature, music, visual art, theater, opera, dance, performance art, and film.

My poetry, prose, and texts for theater and opera have been published in literary journals in 23 countries, including Exquisite Corpse, the California Quarterly, Poetry Salzburg Review, and Evergreen Review.

My paintings, photographs, music, and video art works have been exhibited throughout the world, including at Artist's Space, Luhring Augustine, the Chelsea Art Museum, and Tate Liverpool, and at festivals which include Art 42 Basel (with the Serpentine Gallery - curated by Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist), documenta 14, and the 51st, 55th, 56th, 57th, 58th, and 60th Venice Biennales.

On my music projects I have collaborated with Robert Fripp (King Crimson), Ulrich Krieger (Lou Reed), Chuck Hammer (David Bowie), Jamie Saft (Iggy Pop), Susan Stenger (John Cale), Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno), Michael Blair (Tom Waits), David Van Tieghem (Laurie Anderson), Michael Johnson (Joy Division), Joe Gore (PJ Harvey), Hans Peter Kuhn (Robert Wilson), Terry Edwards (Tindersticks), Mick Rossi (Leonard Cohen), Jem Finer (The Pogues), Kate St John (Van Morrison), Mark Egan (Arcadia), Eberhard Kranemann (Kraftwerk), Reinier van Houdt (Robert Ashley), Thomas Stern (Einsturzende Neubauten), Paul Barker (Ministry), Jessica Stewart (Psychic TV), Ches Smith (Mr. Bungle), Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire), Susan Alcorn, Suzanne Ciani, Lisa Moore (Philip Glass), Keiron Melling (The Fall), Julia Kent (Antony and the Johnsons), Mick Harvey (Crime and the City Solution), Laurent Petitgand (Wim Wenders), Jen Baker (Werner Herzog), Jim Pugliese (New York City Ballet), David Crowell (Philip Glass Ensemble), Joan Jeanrenaud (Kronos Quartet), Eric KM Clark (California EAR Unit), Eleonor Sandresky (Philip Glass Ensemble), Melanie Russell (Philip Glass), Peter Hess (Philip Glass Ensemble), Mick Rossi (Philip Glass Ensemble), John King (Merce Cunningham Dance Company), Robert Black (Bang on a Can All-Stars), Stan Harrison (Radiohead), Mark Grey (Kronos Quartet), Amy Knoles (California EAR Unit), William Klugh Connor III (The Centre for Transgressive Behaviours), Frank Cassara (Steve Reich and Musicians), William Winant (Terry Riley), Andy Findon (Michael Nyman Group), Andrew Sterman (Philip Glass Ensemble), Jeff Zeigler (Kronos Quartet), and many others.

On my film and video art projects I have collaborated with actors, actresses, singers, and dancers, including Philippe Nahon (Gaspar Noe), Artur Barciś (Krzysztof Kieślowski), Anne Louise Hassing (Lars von Trier), Kate Moran (Peter Greenaway), Kate Fisher (Robert Wilson), Elisa Lasowski (David Cronenberg), Pamela Flores (Alejandro Jodorowsky), Stefania Casini (Andy Warhol), and many others.

I am currently working on an album of music which has texts and vocals by William S. Burroughs, in cooperation with the Burroughs Estate. I am also presently working on an album of music which reimagines the work of John Cage, in cooperation with the John Cage Trust.

Cover art for my albums has been provided by painter Gerhard Richter and artist, musician, and filmmaker David Lynch.

At the end of 2024, I worked on several re-creation compositions which utilzed sonic elements from pre-existing songs by Brian Eno and David Byrne, Nine Inch Nails, and Grimes, from their albums "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," "Ghosts I-IV," and "Miss Anthropocene," combined with new music by myself and other musicians.

At present I'm working on a new music recording project called: "Oedipus and the Sphinx."

Soli Deo gloria.

Oedipus and Jocasta

Paul Amlehn

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