finding the core of a song

photo by Ben Piekut

I was just on the East Coast performing with pianist, improviser and songwriter-singer Annie Lewandowski. I met Annie in the Bay Area music scene when we both lived in Oakland, and she is now based in Ithaca, NY where she recently began a post in the music department at Cornell. In the last several years, I have seen Annie’s songwriting project, Powerdove, develop and unfold in beautiful ways. As I am someone who composes for very specific performers and sounds, I marvel at the way in which Annie creates the fundamental core of a song (beginning with the melody and then composing text around that) and allows for various intepretations of the song with different musicians and instrumentation. The austerity of her song forms and the brutal sincerity of her vocal delivery create an almost ‘severe’ quality, something we discussed that she actually strives for and embraces.  But the melodies and arrangements of the songs are anything but severe- they breathe with a gentle poetry that makes it clear why her first album is entitled “Quiet Myth”. Below are three versions of the same song, “Be Mine”. The first is Annie singing and playing acoustic guitar. The second version is with Alex Vittum on percussion and Jason Hoopes on upright bass, and the third is with Curtis McKinney on electronics. Annie is also about to release a gorgeous album with collaborators John Dieterich (Deerhoof) and Thomas Bonvalet (L’ocelle Mare).
For more on her work, visit: www.annielewandowski.com
* Annie also says drinking a liter of water before a show works magic for the vocal chords!
Go here to check out 3 versions of “Be Mine”

vocometer

How does your voice change according to the person you’re talking to?

rabbit rabbit radio

Illustration by Mariko Ando

This is a brand new project (launched on Feb.1st) of friends and collaborators Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi. Based on Cape Cod and transforming from touring-musician-road-warrior-champions to dedicated creative parents,  they have launched this online radio station as a way to continue their song making activity and stay in touch with their audience while being present in the formative stages of their daughter’s life. For a minimal $1/month subscription, you can have access to one song that they record and post per month plus photos, recipes, poetry, musings and more about the creative process and life on the Cape through the eyes of two amazing artists.
www.rabbitrabbitradio.com

 

A Tribute to Julius Eastman: Feb 10 Berkeley Art Musuem 7:30pm

Julius Eastman

Julius Eastman was a composer, pianist, vocalist and dancer. Besides creating his own body of politically provocative pieces, he was part of Meredith Monk’s vocal ensemble and can be heard on her album Dolmen Music. My dear friend composer and musicologist Luciano Chessa has curated a show of several of Eastman’s works, which I’m sure will be stunningly performed in the beautiful Berkeley Art Museum – one of my favorite spaces, designed by architect Mario Ciampi.

For more info on tickets, etc.:
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/late021012

“Julius Eastman (1940–90) was one of the first composers to convincingly combine rock and house influences with minimalist processes. Active in New York throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he endured addiction and homelessness and died alone, likely of AIDS-related conditions. His pioneering work paved the way for generations of experimental composers and pop artists. Coprogrammed by composer/musicologist Luciano Chessa, this performance will be the first major Bay Area presentation of his compositions, including Gay Guerilla, an expansive and emotional work for four pianos.”

musical intonation therapy

I just came across the work done by Gottfried Schlaug, M.D. Ph.D. of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, which deals with using singing to help stroke patients regain their capacity of speech when struck with aphasia. Because melody and pitch are processed by the right side of the brain and language by the left, patients who are unable to speak have shown remarkable process in their speech recovery when retrained to use words in a melodically intoned way.

More on Dr. Schlaug’s work here: http://www.musicianbrain.com/#index
And an NPR article on this research from December 2011: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/12/26/144152193/singing-therapy-helps-stroke-patients-speak-again 

gong experience

Land art version of sculpting air: I recently visited the Memphis Gong Chamber (www.memphisgongchamber.com) while visiting my partner’s family in Memphis Tennessee. This somewhat hidden room is part of (but not open to the public) the Memphis Drum Shop – a meticulously curated drum store of supreme quality. Hidden in the back is the gong chamber, which usually requires an appointment for entry- but after a brief ‘interview’ with the owner in the conference room, we were shown one of the world’s largest gongs, an 84 inch work of art made by the German cymbal company, Paiste. The owner played it – and other smaller large gongs in the room (all from 4-7 feet in diameter I would say) – and I could feel my organs moving inside me. He had us also stand 2 inches away from the gong as he played it, and I could feel my clothing flapping from the vibration of air being pushed outwards. It was incredibly powerful and awe inspiring. I couldn’t help but request to sing with these gongs – which when not played by someone else, act as a resonating surfaces for the voice, echoing back all the frequencies that I produced.

I’ll try to get a video posted soon!

cymatics

In 2010 I made a Chladni plate by rewiring a speaker coil and connecting it to a mixer and mic, so my amplified voice would vibrate a simple sheet metal plate that was attached to the speaker magnet. These are some of the patterns that I generated by singing single tones – what you see is salt sprinkled on the plate, moved into these patterns by the vibration of my voice. This is a rather crude example of what’s been done out there using sine-tone generators and more finely constructed plates. It really opens up a whole world of visual manifestation of our air sculptures- that all vibration has logic and form even if its chaos and noise – but it is there, just unseen to the naked eye. This was used for a solo performance on cello and voice at the Soundwave Festival.