method: There was this poem I'd written. I asked Jeff (stonerjazz) whether he knew what it sounded like. Jeff returned a full-blown, elaborate acoustic ballad.  Mesmerizing! Just for fun and contrast , I weaved in some shoegaze. This is this song. Headphones are recommended. Thank you, https://soundcloud.com/user-911083679 !
narration: Basically, this is a second part to Vinyl Ventriloquist ("people are busy / completing first lines / ...."). People of similar age and interest will hear some allusions and few quotations. The working title 'amrita' refers to the Indian legend alluded to in the last verse. That milkmaid entered the poem via an idiom in my native language: Milchmädchenrechnung. 

poem / copyright jo richter:

the milkman who used to collect
and replace empty jars
a figment of folklore now
of pageants and rural farce

streamed into raw senses
tuned in to see to forget
there is nowhere to head to now
but right into your head

far away, some milkmaid counts
her hoard of subscription fees
to gather gem regalia
that match the icy queen‘s

and all around the watchtower
wild weeds rise and bloom
swirls of living, breathing colour
where feral painters roam

the mountain king bequeathes
fluid shards of liquid glass
to his river daughters
lunatics dwell on the grass

and orpheus, oh orpheus
sings and plays the lyre
while a tribe of nanobots
dances round the fire

out of their caves, a race
of intrepid homunculi swarm
to join the merry carnival
to feel the bliss, to risk the harm

milky oceans churned by gods
give birth to shapes and sounds
while mythical milkmen undetered
still make their morning rounds

Leave of absence - with stonerjazz

POETRY IS VITAL

This threshold space exists for those who feel like listening to some of my quite professional poetry embedded in rather amateurishly recorded but judiciously arranged sound, a modicum of purely acoustic work notwithstanding.  Fortunately, some other artists have also transformed the symbolic expression of my words into the tangible beauty of real songs and soundscapes - just listen to Sympoetic Ultrasounds: https://soundcloud.com/sonic-textures/sets/sympoetic-ultrasounds !

SOUND, SPACE AND TIME

Tend your listening senses gently. Even though my general approach welcomes and embraces lo-fi concepts like the precision of spontaneously occuring imprecisions, headphones worth their membranes are recommended - unless you like your sounds flat, mangled, battered and helpless. You don't, do you? Be kind to these soundscapes.

STRUCTURING IMPULSE

Due to the nature of "poetry soundscapes", your listening expectations regarding traditionally structured "songs", sonically purified "raw wildlife soundscapes", keyboard-laden "ambient recordings" or voice-centered "readings" might not be met. You will find some of those in my list of /likes/. "Noise" is a recurring structural element like any other. This is what this sounds like - within its own rights, limitations, tangents and interconnections. Sonic structures. Silent stretches. Poetry emerges from the gaps between the ruts, seeps in from the undergrowth, sweeps down.

CARVING, CHISELLING, KNEADING, MORPHING

A quick glance into my toolshed rests on Zoom recorders, Samplitude software and a dizzying array of diverse sonic machinery. After all, sound is one way my poems know to materialize - insolently shapeshifting, indelibly greening into the cultural real.

LARGE AND SMALL GIFTS

-----------------------------
Small Gifts

the less to remember, the more to listen
gifts from the ice age reverberate
a simple story, a forest, a coastline
entangled in silence, one starts to relate
---------------------------------------------

In case you have read up to this point, you might be a sonic creator yourself. May I ask you for a helping ear? Above, there is a tiny poem of mine that I do not understand how to translate into sound. If you do - please act on it. It is a matter of common decency, of course, to keep the title (Small Gifts) and to credit the lyrics to me (jo richter). And please do notify me of your version via a soundcloud message. One bewilderingly beautiful version crafted by mono-lux has already gone public, as well as an amazing version by cthonicist.  You'll find both in my playlist Sympoetic Ultrasounds. This is just a small gift, not a challenge - life already has more than enough of those on offer, doesn't it? Treat it this way.

POETRY IS VITAL
sound, space and time
structuring impulse
carving, chiselling, kneading, morphing
large and small gifts
poetry is vital

GENERAL POLICY regarding the use of LIKES, REPOSTS and FOLLOWS:
I like what I like and want to hear again.
I only repost what I've had a hand in creating.
I follow when I see directions or arrivals I like, not when followed (though I might peek in to get an idea of what your sounds are about). I have set myself a limit of accounts I follow not to be all too overwhelmed. Not following does therefore not mean I do not appreciate what you contribute to the enjoyments of soundcloud.
Do not expect other behaviour from me.
(jo richter)

Leave of absence - with stonerjazz

sonic structures and silent stretches