Shawn Greenlee - Orgiophant

Sifting

Shawn Greenlee "Sifting" (2021, stereo mix)

Mixtape compiled by ‘VM’, member of the Gruppo di Nun and chronicler of Rome’s dark twin city of Remoria, takes us back to the years 1990–1994, when a new brand of home-grown techno pumped a chronic strain of no-future energy into the peripheral zones of burned-out Empire.

For the accompanying text by VM, and tracklist: https://www.urbanomic.com/document/dark-continuum/

Between Possession and Depression: The Dark Continuum of Roman Techno

Iapetus Trace (2012)
Duration: 01:08:27

Iapetus Trace utilizes photographs of Saturn’s moon Iapetus, taken by the NASA spacecraft Cassini, as the framework for a synthesized composition rendered by custom software. This work relies on an additive synthesis procedure where color values are extracted from pixel rows and used to set the volumes and spatial locations for 256 harmonic oscillators each tuned to a specific pitch. Red and blue values correspond to left-right panning, while green values center the sound in the stereo field. 



Shawn Greenlee "Iapetus Trace" (2012)

In 1952, John Cage wrote a piece called “Imaginary Landscape No. 5” for “any 42 phonograph records.” The piece consists of a graphical score and a series of instructions by which one may make a recorded work, including simple procedures such as the changing of records, silencing or allowing their playback, and making adjustments to levels from “soft” (1) to “loud” (8). The result of a series of chance operations made using the I Ching as a guide, the piece is at times frenetic, with as many as eight records playing within the span of a couple of seconds, and at other times sparse, with one or no records whatsoever playing.

The piece was made for a solo dance performance by Jean Erdman entitled “Portrait of a Lady,” and Cage‘s realization exclusively used jazz records, partly because he felt that the performance “had a character that suggested popular music” and partly to “come to terms” with jazz. Rather than trying (and failing) to repeat history by approximating Cage‘s realization of “Imaginary Landscape No. 5” using jazz records from the 1950s, “A Simple Procedure” features 42 uncompromising new works made specifically for this project by a broad spectrum of acclaimed performers and composers of experimental music and cut onto 7" records via a Presto 6N lathe recorder from the 1940s. The resulting records, transcribed using an antiquated technology whose makers could certainly never have foreseen such a (mis)use, speak honestly to the nature of their translation into the physical world, lying buried under layers of static in a way that harkens towards impossible histories or unlikely uses of time travel.

Estuary Ltd. is making each of these 42 recordings available in single editions on a first-come / first-serve basis (single copies were also made for each of the artists as well as the label‘s archives). All copies feature letterpress printed, die cut and hand numbered sleeves, as well as a realization of “Imaginary Landscape No. 5” on the B side, made by Mark Cetilia using custom software and the A sides of the 42 records themselves. The complete set of recordings, including “analog” and “digital” realizations of the piece (realized using the lathe cut records and digital files, accordingly), are also being made available as 2 CD set, in an edition of 200 copies featuring letterpress printed, die cut and hand numbered sleeves.

Noted composer Alvin Lucier once said “I don‘t think of technology as technology. I think of it as a landscape... and I‘m just responding to the landscape of my time.” Sixty-plus years after “Imaginary Landscape No. 5” was written, the musical landscape is indeed very different, in great part due to Cage‘s contributions. “A Simple Procedure” is a celebration of that legacy, and a re-imagining of the piece through the lens of contemporary musical practice.

“Imaginary Landscape No. 5”  © 1961 Henmar Press Inc.
Sole selling agents C.F. Peters Corporation.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All other works © + ℗ 2015 courtesy of
contributing artists. All rights reserved.

Special thanks to Tyler Bisson at Audio Geography.

Shawn Greenlee - Peninsula - Excerpt

Missents was composed for the network of loudspeakers installed along the canal in downtown Providence, generally used for the regular Waterfire event.  The piece sounded on October 9, 2015 for 12 hours.  

This multi-channel sound work explores the interaction between different loudspeaker groups /zones and the surrounding architecture, particularly aspects of phasing and latency due to the long distances between speakers spread over the geographic area. Custom software was written to produce a non-repeating soundscape over its duration.   This featured both synthesized material and field recordings from sites near waterways.

Shawn Greenlee "Missents" (2015, excerpt)

Outwash was composed in 2019 for high density loudspeaker arrays.  Development of the piece began during a residency at Virginia Tech’s Cube in March and it was later completed at the Rhode Island School of Design’s Spatial Audio Studio.  In this work, twenty independent voices reliant upon the same underlying erratic synthesis procedure move throughout the room in varied spatial formations.  Audible contours and modulations are produced by parametric deviation and distance fluctuations between the voices of this ensemble.  While the piece is set in its duration and sequence, real-time processes afford unique outcomes in each performance. Ambisonic field recordings from a 2018 Anchorage Museum residency in Alaska can be heard throughout, providing a counterpoint to the synthetic sounds.  The piece premiered at Virginia Tech's Cube Fest 2019.

Shawn Greenlee "Outwash" (2019, stereo mix)

Shawn Greenlee live at PUFFERS IV, September 19, 2014.
Performing "10KDescents"

Shawn Greenlee "Iapetus Trace" (2012)

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