CIAT-LONBARDE

Greyn.mp3 by Peter Blasser

Peter Blasser - french horn
Dan Conrad - triangular light box
Carson Garhart - Wavy Gravy Pear Shaped Electrolute
Katherine Young - bassoon

When I construct a one-off instrument, it often sits around the house for a while because I am embarassed by its animal nature; it is not a crystal of infinite possibilities, but more of an idiosyncratic set of limited actions. The Wavy Gravy Pear Shaped Electrolute is such that it has a fixed set of "grey" pitches and a likewise fixed set of "green" pitches. Although both sets are not in a perfect chromatic tuning, I nevertheless transcribed them as melodies, to be played on the French Horn and Bassoon, undoubtedly the most embarassing and idiosyncratic instruments of the orchestra. The triadic intersection of Electrolute and these two instruments will thus create forests of difference tones and squirrel farts arising from "tuning anxiety". I currently work with Dan Conrad, a Baltimore light artist, on chroma-conductor for the piece; it is serendipitous that the Electrolute has grey buttons for one pitch set because visually it will force an exploration of grey light, which is only realized in juxtaposition to colored light.

Incantation by Carson Garhart

Peter Blasser - Namastitar Analog Lute
Carson Garhart - voice, trumpet, and Esoterica Analog Wind Processor

This piece is inspired by Nirvana and Esoteric Theosophy. The Namastitar Analog Lute is an electro-acoustic instrument, sensitive to electronic touch as well as acoustic touch. Its scale is a "jazz fusion intersection" of Arabic and Japanese flavor.

The Silent Barn Song by Johnny Misheff and Severiano Martinez

Peter Blasser, Carson Garhart - acapella
Dan Conrad - monolithic light box

"All I do is whimper since you left my house now, all I do is pray
All I do is whimper now that I don't skimper, like I used to do, I'm 4063
Now I just do whimpers, all the day I'm silver, in The Silent Barn
Nary was really good at math but I like the way you play

Now I can just whimper when I'm in the silver, Witch beyond the day
I'm a simple brick layer, all I do is lay bricks, I think of you every day, and then I go away
All I do is brick-pips, I can be a stick-shift, Witch beyond the day"

Alien Eyes Phantasia by Peter Blasser and Carson Garhart

Peter Blasser - Sidrassi Organ, french horn
Carson Garhart - trumpet, Esoterica Analog Wind Processor

Alien Eyes originally materialized as a pop song in 15-beat, a chant for touring the Deep South and the far West Coast. It is essentially Daoist- exploring the dialectic between a Yin orientation and one of Yang. We have distilled the Yin melody as a carnatic style late-evening abstrusity, and the Yang as a bright mariachi harmonic cannon. The Sidrassi Organ provides comic relief from set dogma with its random devil's tones. The Esoterica Analog Wind Processor offers counterpoint by mimicing the melody at an arbitrary pitch offset.