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Tuesday, 6 October 1998
Sonosphere News, October 1998 ::
from composer/keyboardist Doug Wyatt
Hello, and thanks for reading this newsletter. It’s to let you know what I’ve been up to, and perhaps introduce you to some other artists you might not otherwise have heard of.
Accidental Beauties CD release
The reviews of Accidental Beauties are in. Thankfully, I don’t have to invent descriptions of my music any more... :-)
“A fine debut effort full of atmosphere, intrigue and emotion. Recommended for anyone wishing to hear an exciting, creative and passionate new voice in the electronic music sphere.” - Anil Prasad, Innerviews
“Ambient in a synthetic way, but still organic and lulling. ... For a debut CD this puts Tangerine Dream to shame.” - Scott Noegel, OffLine Reviews
“Mesmerizing combinations of exotic sound samples, original synth patches, sound processing, imaginative percussion, beautifully simple and simply beautiful melodies, ethereal sound paintings... A fresh music that will instantly fill and transform the space in which you listen to it ..."- Levente Toth, freelance reviewer
“The music is unashamedly electronic, with clanks and swoops and twitters and echoes, a mixture of up-to-date innovation and nostalgia for the ‘old-style’ electronic music sound of the ‘50s and ‘60s. Funny how at the end of this century we can be nostalgic about ‘futuristic’ music! This multi-level thinking, both musically and culturally, is what makes Doug Wyatt’s Accidental Beauties such an excellent find. I highly recommend searching it out.” - Hannah M.G. Shapero, Wind and Wire
Accidental Beauties was recently listed in New Age Voice top 20 reports for Emusic (WDIY, Allentown/Bethlehem, PA) and Star’s End (WXPN, Philadelphia).
The Ithaca Journal ran a feature in their weekly Arts and Leisure section, with the CD cover on the front page in color.
Mother Mallard
In August I joined David Borden’s Mother Mallard ensemble for a concert at Cornell University. The group was formed here in Ithaca, in 1969, with the help of synthesizer inventor Robert Moog, and was the world’s first performing synthesizer ensemble. (I learned this from David’s pre-concert lecture.) David Borden’s music features intricate interplay between multiple monophonic parts. Music critic John Diliberto described it as “kinetically exciting, like stepping into the middle of a carnival ride of spinning concentric circles. Patterns unfoldand perspectives shift with every turn of phrase as Borden juggles his melodies in four dimensional space.”
The concert went very well. The musicians were David, Sam Godin, Lynn Purse and myself (all on keyboards), Gabriel Borden (electric guitar), Louise Mygatt (soprano), and Les Thimmig (woodwinds). We played three Birthday Variations (including one David wrote for me in 1992), The Continuing Story of Counterpoint, Part 9, and Variations on a Theme of Philip Glass. Counterpoint, Part 9 was a particular challenge, and it was very satisfying that we performed it well. There were typically three or four parts, including mine, all playing constant 16th notes in varying odd time signatures, often with each line in its own meter.
David is planning to keep the group together for future performances and I’ll be honored to participate.
Adventure and familiarity
When you go to a new restaurant, do you like to try things you’ve never had before, or do you tend to stick to your favorite dishes? Do you approach listening to music the same way that you approach a new menu? I’m curious about this. A book on music theory mentioned the need for a balance between some amount of predictability and continuity, and not being overly safe, repetitious and boring. The author was describing the way we listen to an individual piece of music, but I also find it applicable to the way I seek out music to listen to - I’m always looking for music that is similar to what I already know and like, but I’m also in search of something really new and different. “What dishes are there that I’ve never tried?”
viewing total solar eclipse, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, February 1998
Where does music come from?
Sometimes I’ll notice Linda, my wife, watching me play. I stop and she’ll say, “how do you do that?” and I tell her I’m just playing what I’m hearing. The creative process can seem so mysterious from the outside, and even after experiencing it firsthand for most of my life, and having thought about it a lot, it’s still mysterious to me too! I see it as an exploration, both of my own thoughts and emotions, and of sounds and musical ideas. Composing often starts with a sound that inspires me, and I’ll record improvisations using the sound, sometimes modifying the sound as I play. I accumulate hours of recorded improvisations, then go back and find moments that seem particularly inspired, and use these as the basis for pieces to be further developed using more traditional techniques. Sometimes I also compose by working out a piece measure by measure, and the results are pretty different from what happens when I improvise. It’s probably not hard to tell which pieces are composed on top of improvisations vs. compositions with spaces left open for improvisation.
From my CD changer
I’m not very good at writing about music in detail. But I do want to point you towards some of the music I’ve recently discovered and particularly enjoyed:
Wayne Shorter - Moto Grosso Feio (One Way, 1993) - Shorter goes way out there on this 1970 session with Chick Corea on percussion (!), Ron Carter, John McLaughlin, Dave Holland, and Michelin Prell.
Dru - From the Hall of the Digital King (self-produced, 1994) - I really identify with Dru’s human approach to synthesizers. A wonderful sonic adventure. (Available through CMC)
Fred Frith - Gravity (East Side Digital, 1990) - I bought this on vinyl in 1980 and was recently reminded, thanks to the CD, of how dearly I loved “N—rrgarden Nyvla” and some of the other quirky hybrid progressive/folk pieces on this album.
Bruford Levin Upper Extremities (Papa Bear, 1998) - King Crimson alums Tony Levin (Chapman Stick) and Bill Bruford (percussion) are joined by David Torn (guitar) and Chris Botti (trumpet). It’s the same instrumentation and three of the four players heard on Torn’s Cloud About Mercury. Too groovular to be prog, too heavy to be jazz. Just some great, creative playing.
Other recent performances
In May, I played at Ithaca’s ABC Cafe with Robby Aceto (guitar), Peter Chwazik (bass) and Bill King (drums). Robby has worked with David Sylvian, Mick Karn and other former members of Japan, and has a solo recording on Alchemy Records, Code. Bill and I appear on Code, and were in Red Letter with Rob. Peter has played with jazz great Don Cherry, and along with Bill, is a member of cellist Hank Roberts’ trio (Hank is perhaps best known as a former member of guitarist Bill Frisell’s band). The performance went well and I hope to get all of these guys in the same place again soon.
In May and June, Peter, Bill, and I also played a highly improvisatory score by Peter for several local dance performances choreographed by Jill Becker. The second performance was outdoors at the Ithaca Festival, and climaxed in a rain squall blowing in from Cayuga Lake.
In June and July, I performed a couple of times with Deane Delli-Bovi. Deane did a wonderful job with the mastering (final audio tweaking) of Accidental Beauties, and is also the host of the New Music Discoveries program at MusicDiscoveries.com. Deane has a number of self-produced contemporary instrumental recordings out; my favorite is his collaboration with Kudzu, a foray into a spacey Realm Two. We’re continuing to develop ways to complement each other’s compositions and playing in performance.
In the works
Patrick Cahill is one of my oldest and best friends and musical collaborators. We co-led the popular Ithaca fusion band Simon Jester in 1982 and wrote the group’s music together. In the mid-1980's we did a number of improvisatory avante-garde performances with dancer Frey Faust in New York City. In the early 1990's we developed our original music further. An improvisation from that period, “Undercurrents,” appears on Accidental Beauties. Recently, we’ve begun working on some new music with his wife, Chisa (bass and vocals) and some other musicians in the New York area. While the music is song-oriented, it has a very adventurous instrumental sound. I’m looking forward to working on this project some more.
Linda and I are both learning to play the theremin (a classic synthesizer, controlled by moving one’s hands in proximity to metal rods. A modern version is manufactured by Bob Moog’s company, Big Briar).
Etc.
My former Red Letter bandmates Robby Aceto and Rich DePaolo are on tour with Douglas September. Robby will be touring with the Tom Tom Club in October.
My friend and longtime collaborator Peter Chwazik composed original music for Vroom, “Watkins Glen’s Theatrical Celebration of 50 Years of Road Racing in the U.S.,” by American Dance Asylum. I worked with him to record the soundtrack.
Over the summer, I was busy at the day job, developing a new audio hard disk record/play engine for Opcode’s Vision DSP (a tool for recording audio and MIDI).
A final word
Thanks for reading this. I’d like to thank everyone who’s listened to my music, written about it, played it on the radio, or played it for a friend; I appreciate the support. I’d also appreciate feedback of all sorts, about the music, this newsletter; it’ll encourage me to write and send another installment in a few months. Be well.
- Doug
| << Point Music | 1998 > October | post-Columbine >> |