Polyphonic rearrangement of ‘Possibly Maybe’
Original composition, lyrics & vocals by Björk (1995)
…
 
Possibly maybe
Maybe
Possibly maybe
Possibly

Who knows what’s going to happen?
Who knows what’s going to happen?

I’m exhausted, leave me alone

Where’s that love you promised me?
Where is it?

Possibly maybe 
I’m exhausted
Possibly maybe 
Leave me alone
Possibly maybe

This is possibly 
Love
Since we broke up
Love
I’m using lipstick again
Love
I suck my tongue
Love
In remembrance of you
Love

How can you offer me love like that?
My heart’s burned
Love
How can you offer me love like that?
I’m exhausted, leave me alone
Love

This is possibly 
Love
Possibly maybe 
Love

Possibly maybe
This is possibly 
Love

Love
This is possibly love
Love  

Uncertainty excites me
Baby, who knows what’s going to happen?
Who knows what’s going to happen?

Baby, who knows what’s going to happen?
Baby, who knows what’s going to happen?
Baby, who knows what’s going to happen?
Baby, who knows what’s going to happen?
Baby, who knows what’s going to happen?
Baby, who knows what’s going to happen?
Baby, who knows what’s going to happen?
Baby, who knows what’s going to happen?

Who knows what’s going to happen?
Who knows what’s going to happen?

possibly maybe (Bjork remix)

Humming voice by Hungarian composer, performer, and media artist Tibor Scemzö 
Excerpts from ‘Tractatus’ (1991-1995)

Purring by Mayakovsky (the cat, not the poet)

Additional voices: 12 composers reciting randomly selected fragments of the writings by Henry David Thoreau. Excerpt from ‘Lecture about the Weather’ (1975) by John Cage (1912-1992), performed at The New York Chamber Music Festival on Cage's 100th birthday, 5 September 2012

---

“I have a room all to myself; it is nature. It is a place beyond the jurisdiction of human governments.”

From the journal of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
3 January 1853

nature is a place

Voice of Dada artist Raoul Hausmann (1886-1971)
Recorded in 1946

Additional vocals by Aziza Mustafa Zadeh & Bobby Mc Ferrin
Excerpts from a live improvisation in Burghausen, Germany (2002)

Image: Raoul Hausmann als Tänzer / Raoul Hausmann as Dancer
Photograph by August Sander, 1929

---

Mesdames, Messieurs,
Le Dadasophe récite quelques poèmes de 1918

Ladies and gentlemen,
The Dadasophe speaks some historical poems phonétiques from 1918

Meine Damen, meine Herren,
Der Dadasoph spricht für Sie einige historische Lautgedichte von 1918

Dudu 
Du

Dudu 
Du

Dudu 
Du

…

Dada Dudu Du

Voice of Clemens J. Setz, reading ‘Fluküp’ (‘Atumn’) by Johann Schmidt. Written in 1960, the poem is in Volapûk, the constructed language created in the late 19th century by Johann Martin Schleyer.
More info about Volapük on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volapük

---

Fluküp

Fogastrips lunik vebons sus glun,
böds emoikons sa solaglut.
Teps rorons sovadiko ön zun,
letuigs dremons in tepavut.

Bleds lätik edofalons de bims,
valöpo tegons gluni gedik.
Nu binos fluküp. Adyö! o drims!
- ag! - adyö! o hitüp lejönik!

Ta fenäts reinatofs falons.
Seadob soaliko in cem
e tikods glumülik davedons,
lif oba beivegon in mem.

Flens obik takädons in sepüls.
Senälob osi de düp lü düp
das binob bäldik; e dü flapüls
lad obik spikon: „Binos fluküp.“

---
Published in: Clemens J. Setz
Die Bienen und das Unsichtbare
Suhrkamp Verlag, 2022

fluküp (autumn)

Cover of ‘Watermelon in Easter Hay’ by Frank Zappa (1940-1993)
First released on the album 'Joe’s Garage Acts II. & III’ (1979)
Vocal sample: Excerpt from Zappa’s so-called 'lost interview' (1990)

You can listen to extended excerpts from the interview in my previous rendition of the same song:
https://soundcloud.com/precariouspropositions/message-to-the-year-3k

watermelon in easter hay (Frank Zappa cover)

Voices of Nina Simone (1933-2003) and Gauhar Jaan (1873-1930)
Excerpts from Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’, recorded in 1965, and Jaan’s ‘Raga Jogia’, recorded in 1902

---

Birds flying high
You know how I feel

Sun in the sky
You know how I feel

Breeze driftin' on by
You know how I feel

It's a new dawn
It's a new day

It's a new life 
For me, yeah

It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day

It’s a new life 
For me

It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day

It’s a new life 
For me, yeah

It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day

It’s a new life 
For me

new dawn

Voice of Nina Simone (1933-2003) 
Repeated excerpts from the vocal intro to Simone’s 1960s live performance of ‘Feeling Good’ 

---

Birds flying high
You know how I feel

Sun in the sky
You know how I feel

Breeze driftin' on by
You know how I feel

It's a new dawn
It's a new day

It's a new life for me
Yeah

It's a new dawn
It's a new day

New life for me

new life

Voice of John Cage (1912-1992) 
Excerpt from an interview in 'Listen’ (Écoute), a film by Miroslav Sebestik, 1992

---

When I hear what we call music
It seems to me that someone is talking
And talking about his feelings or about his ideas of relationships

But when I hear traffic, the sound of traffic, here on 6th Avenue for instance,
I don’t have the feeling that anybody is talking
I have the feeling that sound is acting

Sound is acting 
And I love the activity of sound

What it does is
It gets louder and quieter
And it gets higher and lower
And it gets longer and shorter
It does all these things
Which I’m completely satisfied with
And I don’t need sound to talk to me

It gets louder and quieter
And it gets higher and lower
And it gets longer and shorter
And I don’t need sound to talk to me

Sound is acting 
And I love the activity of sound

Sound is acting 
And I love the activity of sound

We don’t see much difference between time and space
We don’t know where one begins and the other stops

There are two things that don’t have to mean anything
One is music and the other is laughter

Don’t have to mean anything, that is
In order to give a us very deep pleasure

You know that 
Don’t we?

you know that

Voice of Whitney Houston (1963-2012)
Excerpts from the isolated vocals of ‘I Will Always Love You’ (1992) 
Original song & lyrics written by Dolly Parton (1973)

---

Mm, mm
Mm, mm

If I 
Should stay
I would only be in 
Your way

Mm, mm
Mm, mm

So I'll go 
But I know
I'll think of you 
Every step of 
The way

Mm, mm
Mm, mm
Mm, mm       

You, you, you, you
My darling, you

Mm, mm
Mm, mm
Mm, mm
Mm, mm

Bittersweet 
Memories 
That is all 
I'm taking 
With me

So goodbye
Please, don't cry
We both know 
I'm not what you 
You need

Mm, mm
Mm, mm
Mm, mm

I hope 
Life treats you kind
And I hope 
You have all you’ve 
Dreamed of

And I’m wishing you joy
And happiness 
But above all this
I’m wishing you 
Love

Mm, mm

I will always
Love you
You

Mm, mm

Darling I love you
Oh, I’ll always
I’ll always
Love you
…

Mm, mm
Mm, mm
Mm, mm
…

I will always love you (Whitney Houston rework)

Voice of Henri Matisse (1869-1954)

---

Moi, je crois que la peinture et le dessin, 
c'est la même chose. 

Moi, je crois que la peinture et le dessin, 
c'est la même chose. 

C'est la même chose. 

Le dessin est une peinture 
faite avec des moyens réduits. 

Sur une surface blanche, une feuille de papier, 
avec une plume et de l'encre, 
on peut peindre en créant certains contrastes, 
par des volumes on peut changer la qualité du papier, 
donner des surfaces souples, des surfaces claires, surfaces dures, 
sans toutefois mettre ni ombre ni d' lumière. 

Pour moi, le dessin c’est une peinture avec des moyens réduits.

Moi, je crois que la peinture et le dessin, 
c'est la même chose. 

C'est la même chose. 

Moi, je crois que la peinture et le dessin, 
c'est la même chose. 

C'est la même chose. 


…

Personally, I think that painting and drawing are the same thing. 

Drawing is a painting done using limited means.

On a blank surface, a sheet of paper,
with a pen and some ink,
one can paint by creating certain contrasts,
through volumes one can change the character of the paper,
produce flexible surfaces, light surfaces, hard surfaces,
without however putting in either shadow or light.

In my view, drawing is a kind of painting using limited means.

la même chose

Voice of Smokey Robinson
Repeated vocal excerpts from the intro to ‘More Love’ (1967) by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
Image: Robinson with Tammi Terrell, c. 1967


---

Ooh-ooh-ooh

Let it be soon
Don't hesitate
Make it now 
Don't wait 

Ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh
…

Let it be soon
Don't hesitate
Make it now 
Don't wait 

Open your heart 
And let my love come in
I want the moment to start 
When I can fill your heart with 
More love
And more joy
Than age or time could ever destroy

And my love will be so solid
It’ll take a hundred lifetimes
To live it down

A hundred lifetimes
To live it down

A hundred lifetimes
To live it down

To live it down

Let it be soon
Don't hesitate
Make it now 
Don't wait 

Ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh
,,,

And my love will be so solid

It’ll take a hundred lifetimes
To live it down

more love (Smokey Robinson rework)

Voices of Ian Bostridge, Peter Schreier, Fritz Wunderlich and Barbara Bonney
Rearranged excerpts from four renditions of “Ich hab' im Traum geweinet’ (I wept in my dream) 
From ‘Dichterliebe’ (1840) Op. 48 by Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Lyrics by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)

Image: Portrait of Robert Schumann
Lithograph by Eduard Kaiser, 1847 

---

Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet (IB)

Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet (PS)
Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet (FW)

Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet (FW + BB)
Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet (PS + FW)

Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet (IB + PS + FW + BB)
Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet (PS + FW)
Mir träumte, du lägest im Grab (PS + FW)

Ich wachte auf, und die Träne (PS + FW + BB)
Floss noch von der Wange herab (PS + FW + BB)

Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet (PS)
Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet (PS + FW + BB)
Mir träumte, du lägest im Grab (PS)

Ich wachte auf, und die Träne (PS + BB)
Floss noch von der Wange herab (PS + BB)

…

I wept in my dream
I dreamt you lay in your grave
I woke, and the tear
Still flowed down my cheek

Ich hab' im Traum geweinet

Voice of Nina Simone (1933-2003) 
Excerpt from Simone's 1960s live performance of ‘Brown Baby’

---

As you grow up 
I want you to drink from the plenty cup

As years go by 
I want you to go with your head up high

I want you to live by the justice code
I want you to walk down freedom's road

So lie away
Lie away sleeping
Lie away singing 
Lie away sleeping

Lie away
Safe in my arms

safe in my arms

Voices of Jochen Distelmeyer (‘Eines Tages’); Johannes Stüttgen and Henning Christiansen (Joseph Beuys’ ‘Ja Ja Ja Ne Ne Ne’); Theodor W. Adorno (‘Über die Dialektik des Fortschritts’); Heiner Müller (‘Herzkranzgefäß’); and Martin Feifel (Friedrich Hölderlin’s “Hälfte des Lebens’)

---

Deine innere Stimme
Niemand hat sie vernommen
Sie wollte nicht klingen

Du suchst dich zu finden
In den Stimmen der anderen

---

Your inner voice
No one has heard it
It wouldn’t sound

You try to find yourself
In the voices of others

---
Excerpt from ‘Eines Tages’; first track on the Blumfeld album ‘Old Nobody’ (1999)
Original lyrics by Jochen Distelmeyer (pictured)

in den stimmen der anderen

Voice of Helen Folasade Adu aka Sade
Isolated vocals from Sade’s ‘Haunt Me’, originally released on the album ‘Stronger Than Pride’ (1988)

---

Haunt me in my dreams
If you please
Your breath is with me now
And always
It’s like a breeze

So, should you ever doubt me
If it’s help that you need
Never dare to doubt me

And if you want to sleep
I’ll be quiet
Like an angel (like an angel)
As quiet as your soul could be
If you only knew
You had a friend like me...

So, should you ever doubt me
If it’s help that you need
Never dare to doubt me

never dare to doubt me

Voice of Bill Evans (1929–1980)
Excerpt from the documentary ‘The Universal Mind of Bill Evans’ 
Directed by Louis Cavrell, 1966

peace piece (pp cover)

Voices of Jane Siberry, K.D. Lang, Nick Cave, and Bruno Ganz. Excerpts from the intro to Siberry’s ‘Calling All Angels’ (1991), a verse from Cave’s ‘Into My Arms’ (1997), and a scene in Wim Wender’s ’Wings Of Desire’ (1987)

Image: Otto Sander as Cassiel in ‘Wings of Desire’

---

Santa Maria
Santa Teresa
Santa Anna
Santa Susannah
Santa Cecilia
Santa Copelia
Santa Domenica
Mary Angelica
Frater Achad
Frater Pietro
Julianus
Petronilla
Santa 
Santos
Miroslaw 
Vladimir 
And all the rest

And I don't believe in the existence of angels
But looking at you I wonder if that's true

But if I did, I would summon them together
And ask them to watch over you

Ask them to watch over you
Ask them to watch over you

Over you

Santa Cecilia
Santa Copelia
Sister Mary Angelica
Frater Achad
Frater Pietro
Julianus
Petronilla
Santa 
Santos
Miroslaw 
Vladimir 
And all the rest


Ich 
Weiss 
Jetzt
Was 
Kein 
Engel 
Weiss

…

saints and angels

Voice of Thành Luke. Excerpts from a 2018 live performance of Cá Hồi Hoang's  
‘Điền Vào Ô Trống (250)’ / 'Fill In The Blanks'
Image by Hagan Nguyen, 2024

---

“Mời anh hoặc chị Cá Hồi Hoang đến quầy dịch vụ số 250 để nhận lại hành lý thất lạc”

Mình làm từ xương từ da cafe thuốc lá và hai tram năm mươi lít đồ có cồn
Còn bao ô trống cho ta điền vào?
Còn bao ô trống cho ta điền vào?
Còn bao ô trống cho ta điền vào?

---
“Please come to service counter number 250 to receive your lost luggage”

I am made from bones and skin, coffee, tobacco, and 250 litres of alcohol 
How many blank spaces are there for us to fill in?
How many blank spaces are there for us to fill in?
How many blank spaces are there for us to fill in?

---

Điền Vào  Ô Trống (250)_ pp rework

MUSIC FOR BUILDINGS

Demo track for my ongoing architecture & sound collaboration with London-based architects 
A IS FOR ___ 

Adopting a process music approach, I transcribed the columns, walls and balconies in the floor plan of one of their planned apartment buildings in Folkestone into a graphic notation and translated each architectural element into a discreet musical cell. You are listening to a track that explores the balconies layer. More info coming soon.

---

Site recordings
Taken on Marine Parade, Folkestone in February 2024 
Courtesy of Hazel Cowie 


Image
Plot D-1: Façade study (detail) of the planned residential building in Folkestone, Kent, 2021
Architecture: A IS FOR __

https://www.aisfor.co/project/folkestone-plot-d-1
https://www.aisfor.co/news/music-for-buildings

balconies (demo)

MUSIC FOR BUILDINGS
Second demo track for my architecture & sound collaboration with A IS FOR ___

---

Site recordings
Taken at Mare Street Studios, Hackney, London in March 2024 
Courtesy of Duarte Lobo Antunes 

Image
Mare Street Studios
Photo: A IS FOR __

www.aisfor.co

---
First demo track
https://soundcloud.com/precariouspropositions/balconies

balconies II. (demo)

Rework of ‘Flight from the City’ 
Original composition by Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson (1969-2018)
Released on the album ‘Orphée’ (2016, Deutsche Grammophon)

Samples

Morse code and French voice:
Excerpts from the number station radio scene in Jean Cocteau’s ‘Orphée’ (1950)

German numbers:
Excerpts from the vocal intro to Jóhannsson’s ‘A Song for Europa’ (‘Orphée’, 2016)

HTML code:
Voice of Antye Greye-Fuchs/Greye-Ripatti. Excerpts from Craig Armstrong’s ‘Waltz’ 
Released on the album ‘As If to Nothing’ (2002, EMI / Astralwerks)

---

Attention!
Écoute!

Zwo, Eins, Zwo, Sieben, 
Zwo, Zwo, Vier, Sieben, 
Eins, Null, Acht

Trente-huit, trente-neuf, quarante
Deux fois

Je répète
Trente-huit, trente-neuf, quarante
Deux fois
Attention!
Écoute!

Acht, Sieben, 
Eins, Fünf, Vier, Eins, Sieben, 
Acht, Sechs, Zwo, 
Eins, Zwo

Attention!
Écoute!
Deux mille deux cent quatre-vingt-quatorze

Vier, Sieben, 
Eins, Null, Acht, Sieben

Colour, f, f, f, f, f, f, s, w, life, connect, 
ist gleich, false, width, 
ist gleich, Zweihundertsiebzig, hey, 
ist gleich, Fünf, Sechs, 
ist gleich, type, 
ist gleich, application, slash

Attention!
Écoute!

Trente-huit, trente-neuf, quarante
Deux fois
Attention!

Eins, Zwo, Sieben, 
Zwo, Zwo, Vier, Sieben, 
Eins, Null, Acht, Sieben,
Eins, Zwo, Zwo, Sieben, 
Zwo

Colour, f, f, f, f, f, f, s, w, life, connect, 
ist gleich, false, width, 
ist gleich, Zweihundertsiebzig, hey, 
ist gleich, Fünf, Sechs, 
ist gleich, type, 
ist gleich, application, slash

Eins, Zwo, Zwo, Sieben, 
Zwo, Neun, Zwo, 
Vier, Sieben,
Acht

...

flight from the city (pp vocal rework)

Voice of John McLaughlin
Excerpt from a video interview about the recording session of ‘In a Silent Way’ 

Written by Joe Zawinul (1932-2007), first released on the studio album of the same name by Miles Davis (1926-1991), and recorded in one session on 18th February 1969
Image: The hand of Miles Davis. Photograph by Irving Penn, 1986

---

I listened 
and it was unbelievably beautiful

In a silent way

In a silent way
it was unbelievably beautiful

In a silent way


---
Musicians in the original recording

John McLaughlin – electric guitar
Joe Zawinul – electric piano, organ
Miles Davis – trumpet
Wayne Shorter – soprano saxophone
Chick Corea – electric piano
Herbie Hancock – electric piano
Dave Holland – double bass
Tony Williams – drums

John McLaughlin interview: Miles & In a Silent Way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sB5UkrkMu4&list=RD4sB5UkrkMu4&index=1

in a silent way (pp rework)

Voices of Antye Greye-Fuchs/Greye-Ripatti and Thom Yorke

Vocal excerpts from Craig Armstrong’s ‘Waltz’, released on the album ‘As If to Nothing’ (2002); and from ‘Sail Us To The Moon (Brush The Cobwebs Out Of The Sky.)’ by Radiohead, released on the album ‘Hail to the Thief’ (2003)

---

Styles
I miss you

I miss you

I miss you
I miss you

sail us to 
the moon

sail us to 
the moon

to the moon

Voice of Thom Yorke
Excerpts from the isolated vocal track of ‘Paranoid Android’ by Radiohead
First released on the album ‘OK Computer’ (1997)

---

Rain down 
Rain down
Come on rain down 
On me

God loves his children
Yeah

rain down on me

Rework of Cole Porter’s ‘Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye’ (1944)
Vocal excerpts from three renditions by Jochen Distelmeyer (2006), Ella Fitzgerald (1956)
and Chet Baker (1987)

---

Every time 
We say goodbye
I die a little

Every time 
I wonder why 
A little

There's no love song finer
But how strange the change
From major to minor

Every time
Every time we say
We say goodbye

We say
We say goodbye

Every time
Every time

But how strange the change
From major to minor

Every time we say 
Goodbye

every time we say goodbye

MUSIC FOR BUILDINGS
Third demo track for my architecture & sound collaboration with A IS FOR ___
https://www.aisfor.co/news/music-for-buildings

Adopting a process music approach, I transcribed the columns, walls and balconies in the floor plan of one of their planned apartment buildings in Folkestone into a graphic notation that translates each architectural element into a discreet musical cell.

---
Site recordings
Taken at Marine Parade, Folkestone in February 2024 
Courtesy of Hazel Cowie

---
Listen to two more demos here
https://soundcloud.com/precariouspropositions/balconies
https://soundcloud.com/precariouspropositions/balconies-ii-demo

columns, walls and balconies (demo)

sound is acting I 1:50 min.
Voice sample: John Cage (1912-1992) in 'Listen’ (Écoute) by Miroslav Sebestik, 1992

some call it music - sound is acting

Tenebrae | ˈtɛnɪbriː, ˈtɛnɪbreɪ |
Origin: Latin, literally ‘darkness’

Plural, noun: (In the Roman Catholic Church) matins and lauds for the last three days of Holy Week, at which candles are successively extinguished. Several composers have set parts of the office to music. 

Voice sample: ‘Miserere, mei Deus’ (1630s) by Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652)
Lyrics: Book of Psalms, Psalm 51
Verse 3: Miserere mei, Deus: secundum magnam misericordiam tuam.
Verse 21 […] tunc imponent super altare tuum vitulos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miserere_(Allegri)

tenebrae  3rd mvt: dawn

tenebrae  2nd mvt: night

tenebrae 1st mvt: dusk

https://precariouspropositions.wordpress.com/

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