method: vst, mainly, and balabolka TTS - until Jeff plucked his guitar into that magic pedal .... I had to dumb the upload down from wav to mp3 to make soundcloud accept it.

narration: you might be familiar with the lyrics - yes, this is the very poem you have heard on Hakan's Shuffle in a different setting ;-)

image: copyright jo richter (using elements photographed on a theatre in Budapest in 2009)

Poem / copyright Jeff Gardiner and jo richter:

in the nick of time
he gave in to dissent
for the mute perceptive mime
manically made him raise his head and unmaimed hand in mine

praise the unerring rebellion
in subconsentious unison
the empty shells of every single silly little thing
ahh, the knell, the bells, fashioned from our fathers’ coral vaults

selling out, shelling round, all around in disarray
vainly making everybody wane and wade into the fray
with withered, bamboo-watered canes - - - fracking shist
where our homes are still purported to exist

while scattered scraps of all things past, scantily, scantily clad,
protrude and flutter in the wind, strained and restrained by the net
of pleasant pleas - and subltleties are colors bright and crude -
watch the Mad Hatter's stint unwind in minor keys -
i thought that that - that hat that sat so squat- was you

at the academy of sovereignty
where massive piles of bones and crows
dominate the dark demeanor of the distant
tears of laughter, tears of loudly lovin’ laughter, that's exactly what we're after

in the purple land of diffidence
buying purple brands of pale deliverance
in the hidden forgotten region, religion
where forgetting – like neglecting - is an optional behavior
and of course, everybody's carcass, corpse keeps looking for a savior

down by the trodden, the unsavoury sovereign shouted
raw with the rotten game of galactic gallows and thrones
ah the one and only poet of starvation
standing in the market of used emotion

endless aisles, end base piles of sadness
masters mean and dirty and their slaves
bargain bins of binary longing, belonging, unrequited love
there’s a sale on betrayal - two for a dollar and three for none

thought i saw a broken bit of joy that once belonged to me
Though when i had it, it was absolutely free
Now they're askin’ fifty, literally frivolous dollars--

mother of deception of the self
see me on my knees, subordinate
to her immaculate calamity
that has transactional realities cooperate
under towers dark with blinded blinds
of my infantile infinity--

i asked my shadow: would she follow me
like a puppy with a crush, herself a pet invertebrate,
to inclinations more persian, more parisian than her will or mine
where i might find a package deal on Love -

on the moon, it read in slowly moving neon letters -
shadows neither show nor speak concerning primal matters!
no, said I, shadows squall and squeal and squeak

drinking gin on the rocks is not that bad at all
since it became impossible to find an Avacado
or my favorite alcohol
just don't answer when she fails to call-

kung tze in the subway car

Kung Tze in the Subway Car - with stonerjazz

Temporarily, SHELLF LIFE has requisitioned this page for publication purposes.  ENJOY!

I am overjoyed to partake in something beautiful:
https://stonerjazz.bandcamp.com/album/up-up-out

Jeff also gifted me a visiting role on his previous album: 
https://stonerjazz.bandcamp.com/album/quintessential

On his bandcamp page, Jeff points out: "This is the page where you can give some monetary support to me and the StonerJazz experiment."

.... and here is my own test account:
https://sonicstructuresandsilentstretches.bandcamp.com/track/eliza

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.

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)

New tracks tagged #poetic echoes reflecting from a wall of sound