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rejay.

2011-12-27T04:31:00.000-08:00

Said I'd never do it again, but all it took was for someone to phrase the request in the form, "I'm sure it's not worth asking you to do this, but..."

Actually I'm pretty sure that phrasing's been used before, I guess I just wasn't ready. Anyway, this post is to remind me that I'm DJing again for the first time in years.

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the discard pile.

2011-12-08T04:55:00.000-08:00

Photo: Raymond van Mil.

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So far, one of the toughest aspects of making music for dance/theater is having to throw things away b/c they don't work when placed in context with their intended visual components. I'm still too new at this to have any real understanding of how to build this "workingness" in from the beginning, so this means I am often spending hours making audio that, while it might be satisfying as audio when I'm at home, just totally fails once I get to the studio and try to match it with movement material. Which means that I have piles of audio languishing around that I have spent wildly varying amounts of time on, their common bond being their uselessness. This is The Discard Pile.

This here first discarded item is a totally painless one, maybe that's why it's first. It's something I threw together for WAFTUG in literally 10 minutes, but never even came close to suggesting we use b/c it's so different from the direction we were going in. It's just five versions of "The Last Post", slowed down to varying degrees and played simultaneously. Then I removed any moments that I found too disorienting or pointless, and pruned it into a shape that suggested some kind of "intelligent" harmonic movement, intelligent as in "on purpose".

Morsanek: The Last Post (2:07, 4.9MB).

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the girl who misses much.

2011-12-07T15:15:00.000-08:00

When I'm working on an audio editing project, the first thing I do is make a scratchpad in ACID and just quickly pick around in my audio archive bucket for 30 or 40 sounds that I feel are somehow relevant to the task at hand. And then I start combining and organizing interesting pairings so I can see if my initial impulses were remotely useful.

That's how it goes unless there's some kind of design goal that requires freshly-generated source material, in which case you got to make that shit first. For example...this summer Firestone and I participated in an event at the Stedelijk here in Amsterdam which involved remixing a work of their choice from their video archive. The work we were assigned was Pipilotti Rist's I'm Not The Girl Who Misses Much.

So the first thing I did was to take the audio track from the video and chop it up with BeatSlicer and build loops out of it in FL Studio, then grab most useful-seeming loops and see what kind of bigger things they suggest, etc..

This approach doesn't always work. Although I liked some of what I did for this assignment, the end result wasn't very satisfactory sonically. But when I listen back to the scratchpad versions of the music, there's much in them that I find promising or even OK as it is....how did things get fucked up? Hopefully I'll get a chance to talk about what went wrong, but until then, here's the scratchpad for that assignment: totally unmixed, unorganized, and underedited, but some of the sonics speak to me.

Morsanek: I'm Not The Girl Who Misses Much (20MB, 08:53).

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you so promotional.

2011-11-27T01:32:00.000-08:00

Ideally one would post about his gigs before they happened, but...yeah. There's one more date left on the current run: 19 jan 2012, at De Gouvernestraat in Rotterdam.

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http://wereallfortheunderground.wordpress.com/

Concept: Hillary Blake Firestone i.s.m Mark Morse & Floriaan Ganzevoort
Creation/ Performance: Hillary Blake Firestone, Mark Morse, Anat Spiegel
Light Design: Floriaan Ganzevoort
Technique: Floriaan Ganzevoort, Kees van Zelst
Advise: Igor Dobričić, Keren Levi, Sam Louwyck
Production: Martine Dekkers, Mara Tomanek
Co-Production: Grand Theater Groningen, nb Projects, Dansmakers
Amsterdam With support from Fonds Podium Kunst
Photo: Raymond van Mil
Graphic Design: cubicle-design.com
Thanks to: Stichting Studio Dok, Nicole Beutler, Wilbert Bulsink, Felix van de Vorst, Raymond van Mil, Jeroen Kimman, Thomas Myrmel, Clare Gallagher

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summer's kiss is over baby.

2011-08-31T22:46:00.000-07:00

In actuality it never showed up, did it. We had like 4 summery days this summer, and I think I was locked in a rehearsal studio for 3 of them. Total bullshit.

At least it's not like I have to switch back into work mode or anything: we never stopped. I'm not really complaining: August in Berlin was unsurprisingly fun and rewarding: our hosts at Podewil/sommer.bar/Tanz Im August were perfectly great, and our modifications to hardly resulted in something quite hallucinogenic and exhausting (in a good way). We did three loops over two hours, the video above is loop 1 plus 7 minutes of loop 2. I'm really hoping we get a chance to do this again somewhere so we can try more loops...right now we imagine that 5 in a row (3.5 hours) could be possible.

Currently enjoying the luxury of a whole week off, and then it's back into the studio to get some work done on WAFTUG before we take this is hardly an invitation to Milano in October.

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we need a reason to get drunk on a tuesday.

2011-07-28T00:34:00.000-07:00

I wish I could say that my non-stop working this summer was a calculated response to the relentlessly shitty summer weather we've been having (think 60F and rainy), but no...it's just a sort of mollifying coincidence, actually being inside when the weather makes you want to be anyway.

After the wildly successful Julidans/ILTWT excerpt/premiere of WE'RE ALL FOR THE UNDERGROUND (ok, it was at least "successful"), we took a whole week off, and now we're back in the studio (above) working on an adaptation of this is hardly an invitation for the Tanz im August festival in Berlin (tentatively titled this is hardly an installation, ha ha) wherein we transform the procession sequence into a live installation that destroys the stage and then cleans itself up and restarts as many times in a row as we can do it.

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i like to watch too.

2011-07-04T01:15:00.000-07:00

This is what's happening now.

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double quartet.

2011-06-07T02:26:00.000-07:00

This Friday, 10 June, a potentially provocative assemblage of improvisors band together to share a bill with Talibam! at OCCII.

DOUBLE QUARTET (NYC/TRONDHEIM/BERLIN/AMSTERDAM)
Ab Baars + Louise Jensen (NYC): reeds
Mark Morse + Jasper Stadhouders: guitar
Tom Blancarte (NYC) + Wilbert De Joode: bass
Luca Marini (Berlin) + Tollef Østvang (Trondheim): drums

www.stichtingwig.com/abBaars/AbBaars.html
www.myspace.com/louisejensen
www.morsanek.blogspot.com/
www.jasperstadhouders.wordpress.com
www.tomblancarte.com
www.wilbertdejoode.com
www.myspace.com/lucamarini
www.myspace.com/tollefostvang

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GLDMOG 2.0.

2011-05-29T01:22:00.000-07:00

.

Sleep Gunner is at OT301 with Duke Garwood this Wednesday (1 June)...please come on out if you're not doing one of the other 17 things that are going on that night.

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honeytone meltdown.

2011-04-05T03:30:00.000-07:00

(Photo: Raymond van Mil)

This is the encore from last Friday's Sleep Gunner gig at SMART. I was quite ill, victim of some kind of food poisoning thing, and I think my playing reflects a certain inner toxicity here. Since someone's already asked: besides a little tremelo at the beginning, there are no effect pedals here, just feedback and that underused bit of real estate on your guitar, the tone knob.

Sleep Gunner: Satan's Jeweled Crown (4:38).

Jeroen Kimman: harmonium
Mark Morse: guitar, handheld amplifier

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unprepared.

2011-03-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

So, I tend to do these solo studies when I have an impro gig coming up, because I really hate doing the same old shit all the time and these studies are an attempt to find something new to experiment with during the gig. This is going to be a set of two-minute impros on the 12-string neck, mostly unprepared, no effects, etc.

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Solo Study v-8.

Solo Study v-5.

Mark Morse: 12-string guitar

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multifingered.

2011-03-16T03:23:00.000-07:00

Before I started playing with other people again, back in 2007 or something, I was doing a lot of solo multitrack recordings, basically kind of playing with an idea for 2 or 3 minutes, then recording another take without hearing the first one, and then a third without hearing the first two, etc. Then I would nudge some things around in Sound Forge to synchronize events that were interestingly nearby each other. Anyway yes here are three of those kinds of things, probably recorded in 2006.

Wond.

Omeg.

Pipe.

Mark Morse: guitar, AudioMulch.

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in like a lion.

2011-02-28T02:36:00.000-08:00

Or something like that. In the absence of having anything smart or funny to say, I'll post about an upcoming gig, two sets of improvised skronk with a nice band.

22 march 2011 @ zaal 100, 21:00uur, 5 euro entry.

Jasper Stadhouders: guitar
John Dikeman: saxophones
Onno Govaert: drums
Mark Morse: guitar
Nicolau Lafeta: trumpet

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six string tunings.

2011-02-16T09:10:00.000-08:00

This isn't the most thrilling post on the block, but I've got to put it somewhere. I mess around with a lot of different tunings, but rarely ever write them down...or remember them. So, in an attempt to not waste my time by coming up with things that I then can't recreate, this little post will contain a list of these tunings, as I stumble across them. These are all from head-to-floor.

D, Ab, C, D, Bb, E

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love and sincerity.

2011-02-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

Koen from DNK kindly asked if I would play something for their Significant Music series on Monday, and the first thing I thought of was this, which I've written about elsewhere in slightly different forms...

UPDATE: I kind of just rewrote this again based on what I said last night at DNK. Now I'm done.

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In 1988 I dropped out of music school. I don't know if I ever really recovered from my time there, but by 1991/1992 the wound was still fresh enough to where I was having problems making music.

I was working at the Center for Music Research because I'd had the astoundingly good fortune to be in an airplane seat next to Steven Newcomb, who was running the place while working on the initial specification for HyTime, from which the HTML that you're viewing right now has borrowed many many concepts.

Regardless of the fact that I was missing the two main requirements for the job: 1) I knew nothing about computers and 2) I couldn't type, Dr. Newcomb hired me as a "lab assistant", which meant that I kind of sat around and watched people try to use email on UNIX terminals while an army of dot-matrix printers chattered nonstop in the background.

At the CMR I met Al Nelson, who was the other lab monitor and thankfully on the same frustrated musical trajectory as I was, and together to pass the long boring hours of lab monitoring we developed a kind of game, where we would search the music library archives for the most disturbing music we could find and then play it for each other on headphones, hoping to elicit some kind of visible physical or psychological response: a shiver of revulsion; clutching your ears in pain; falling to the ground; throwing up; bleeding, etc.

After a few months of this, the game no longer functioned properly: our tolerances for extreme sound and/or concepts had gotten so high that nothing was disturbing "noise" any more: everything was music. One day Al came into the CMR lab, where I was probably accidentally deleting a MicroEMACS message that I'd just spent hours typing (but to who? who else that I knew would've been on email in 1991? The only person I can think of is Al). He had an eyebrow-wiggling look of triumph on his face, and was brandishing something formidable-looking.

Which turned out to be Dry Lungs V, a gorgeously scarily-packaged 2-CD compilation released on San Francisco's Subterranean Records. My sheltered suburban ass had never seen anything like it, and the noise tracks on there immediately and completely redefined my ideas about the useful limits of structure, texture, aggression, technique, you name it.

The sound of Masonna, Hijokaidan, Merzbow, Incapacitants, Solmania, K. K. Null, and Violent Onsen Geisha was threatening and and beautiful, but Dry Lungs was also my introduction to musique concrète via Un Drame Musical Instantane, Etant Donnes, and Helene Sage + Bernhard Vitet. It was also my first exposure to non-hiphop sampling (Carl Stone) and advanced feedback (Arcane Device), and that's not even everything.

That's Dry Lungs. In 1992/93, shortly after leaving Al and the CMR (I graduated), I found (for cheap) what has remained maybe my favorite nostalgic Osaka (I think) noise disc, Come Again II (on Kim Cascone's long-defunct Silent Records offshoot Furnace Records). This is easily on my list of Top Most Important Records Anywhere, even maybe Top 5. Actually yes Top 5. For me the track I played at DNK, Holy Screaming, remains utterly beautiful and primally transcendent...I've spent more than a few minutes rewriting this sentence to try and explain why, but trying to simplify it into something verbally describable seems to miss the point entirely.

Love and Sincerity: Holy Screaming.

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More Come Again II:

Flying Testicle: Testicle Rider.
K.K. Null: Song for Shimen.
Aube: D-Frost.
Incapacitants: Return of Black Monday.
Solmania: Gastropod GTO.
C.C.C.C.: Sweet Scanning.

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tuesday's screwed.

2011-02-07T09:29:00.000-08:00

I like nice easy accidents like this. This is David Bowie's Subterraneans mashed up against Lynyrd Skynyrd's Tuesday's Gone. I just dropped them both an octave and started them at the same time, fading in the Skynyrd. I'll hopefully get around to a more considered edit of this soon, I need it for a new theater piece.

Morsanek: Tuesday's Screwed (demo).

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While I was slowing things down, I decided to finally mess with the recently-ballyhooed super slowdown tool, Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch. It's...OK, if you're not looking for realism. The artifacts are nicely different. Here it is applied to a harmonium loop I've got bigger plans for.

Morsanek: WAFTUG Incidental (demo).

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documention.

2011-02-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

Here's the recording of our gig at Oorsprong last week, three-fifths of The Family Tapes plus Christophe Scherbaum.

Plus electronics: Raph, Alfredo, and I have never really played together with effects before, it was surprisingly understated. You can't really tell how quietly we're playing until someone coughs or sneezes and drowns out the music for a second.

Oorsprong (40 minutes or so, 91MB).

Alfredo Genovesi, Mark Morse, Christophe Scherbaum, Raphael Vanoli: guitar/electronics.

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giggage.

2011-01-28T03:49:00.000-08:00

Well shit, Charlie Louvin just died. And I missed seeing him in Atlanta last year cause that damn Icelandic volcaner blew up, I had a ticket and everything. I guess one could read something into the slew of already-scheduled gigs coming up for our Louvin tribute duo, but...don't.

Here's a fullish list of upcoming gigs with various people.

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31 Jan 2011: OORSPRONG, Amsterdam. one set (I think) with Alfredo Genovesi, Raphael Vanoli (Knalpot), Christoph Scherbaum, me, all of us doing "guitar/electronics". Which I don't do very much anymore, I'm pretty sure my approach has changed significantly. I'll be the one with the tiny amps.

20 Feb 2011: OCCII, Amsterdam. Sleep Gunner. New arrangements and things we haven't played in a while.

01 Apr 2011: SMART Project Space: Sleep Gunner in some capacity TBD.

Also somewhere else, I'm forgetting. Better details soon.

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devil/details.

2010-12-08T05:49:00.000-08:00

I was backing this up today and realized that, without a looming performance context for which to half-memorize this shit, on paper it just looks insane. This is my part of the score for what happens onstage in ze collaboration with Hillary Blake Firestone, This is hardly an invitation.

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PRESET LIST

1. All Cube knobs taped down
2. Check Mixer levels: 202 is at 9, 404 to 6, mains to 5, phones to 1
3. Prepare tables and cables
4. Chair, GT-3

1. Fresh Batteries
2. Sampler volumes on full
3. Turn on PC Chrono
4. 202 power unplugged and on
5. Cube Power Unplugged, amp on
6. Mobile Amp settings: Dan goes to 5, Cube volume down, tone 10 gain 5
7. Cable settings: New mini/jack from 202 to Danelectro, Long ¼ inch from 404 to Microcube.
8. Have balloon cables visible and ready to go.
9. Balloon settings: have balloon tape/clamp ready
1. Bubbleblower ready
2. Tapeplayer + megaphone ready
3. Make sure GT-3 is set to 20-4
4. POLICE MEGAPHONE VOLUME DOWN ???????????????
5. Maraca
6. Have paper lantern and bubbleblower grabbable
7. Sparklers and lighter
8. Streamers with unrolling begun and Silly string
9. Perishing party blowers that work and clapper

C/G procession

TURN ON AMPS AND 202
MC voice 202-A8: GET CABLES FOR FRASCATI
1) PLUG IN POWER FIRST
2) WHEN 4o4 COMES ON, prepare C4

1st table slow walk, wait and follow hilly
walking toward little table in back is fast, go past table
bringing 2nd table out sideways speeds up
LEAVE together WAIT FOR HILLY SHE BRUSHES LINT OFF
PEDAL: DOWN together with pedal LEAVE RIGHT AWAY
I leave right away see if we can leave/enter simultaneously
Get chair
CLIPS?
Get plugs, plug in power first, remain standing until?

404 to C bank

C4 kick and HOLD when H passes tape line moving into space
One pass nothing
Receive CLOWN NOSE on 2nd pass after music starts
After clown nose, one pass, and then
I blow BUBBLEBLOWER on cue and PREPARE TO TRADE
She takes BUBBLE BLOWER I get PARADE WHISTLE in one right-hand motion SHE PUTS BUBBLE BLOWER BACK
PUT ON LEI
(This is an OK time to plug in GT-3 and balloon)
After FLOWER PETALS,
Then MARACAS, on 2rd pass I start rhythm
After silly string pass, give PAPER LANTERN , get 2nd MARACA and solo……keep playing maracas during paper lantern
Hilly picks up BUBBLEBLOWER
NEXT PASS RECEIVE BUBBLEBLOWER DISH and place far away
THEN DRESS OFF/POUR SHOTS IF NOT POURED YET
RECEIVE 1 POM POM on POM POM round then CATCH ONE AND SET HANDLES UP· on CONFETTI round PREPARE TO LIGHT SPARKLER
After Limbo Rock, light a SPARKLER
SPARKLER
SHIFT CHAIR LEFT and Then give FLAG SWIFTLY when H passes amp and take sparkler with left hand
RECEIVE FLAG WITH LEFT HAND after it passes
POPPERS
DIRT during sirens
AFTER SECOND STORM CLOUD I ADD BIG DRUMS
WEDDING CAR CANS then SPRAY HILLY
MEGAPHONE AND PUT BACK NEXT TO TAPE PLAYER
I THROW STREAMERS AND POPPERS AND MAYBE CONFETTI
After LATIN SHIT, play MEGAPHONE and PUT MEGAPHONE BACK NEXT TO TAPE PLAYER

When Hilly turns volume up, take 404 swiftly out of PA

Hilly rolls half circle then stop 404-C4 and start 202-D1

404-C3 insects during second air horn

D becoming

2 x long skitter
2 x pop
2 x pop and hihat
2 x pop with long skitters
2 x pop with short skitters
2 x pop with hihat
pop until chord change

8 bars after hiss rhythm start drums
TURN UP PA TURN UP PA
TURN UP PA TURN UP PA

THROW POMPOM OVER STRIP LIGHTS on 2 one thousand then HOLD to STOP when they hit the ground. FADE UP 404 if not already and D6

E/I reconstruction

CHECK IF MIXER FADE IS OK
Reroute cube to Gt-3
Align megaphone and tape
Set 202 to B bank
Don’t start E1 until construction stops
REMEMBER BEEPS

Turn on tape and TIMER
text starts, only E1

00:00 balloon solo cube only 20-4
01:30 hilly gets in pile (or writhe on the ground at 1:48) E5 (if she gets in at 1:30, the text runs out as she approaches the table)

02:15 balloon embellishments

03:50(4:08) “whole pig” E9 + KAOSSCILLATOR S.60 bass pour shots if not already
move hilly’s tray over to me

04:58 (5:16) sines E4 on tense chord, switch to J bank, bass

06:00 (6:16) my first blow 648

START J1 kick WHEN SHE SITS UP (around 6:40) possibly use J3 for tension
J12 then HOLD to turn everything off
Turn on police megaphone

I need to be at 202B8 and 404J

BLACK OUT SCREEN

F/J perishing party

202-B8 Then fucking 404-J12

Blowers
Crow
Whistle
Shot/Shaker
Stand up and Move Chair to bottom left corner of table

CROWN
· Turn up little amps during transitional chord
· Volume level for cube at end?
· As Hilly heads back to backstage, I pick up amp, and fade out PA while she’s backstage
· Time fade out of Cube with her balloon finishing, remember J11 is supplementary drone
· Close Laptop

BRING HILLY SHIRT

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complexities.

2010-12-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

The Family Tapes reconvened today for some recording and, yeah. It's still hard. Maybe I'll post a recording in a bit.

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tiptoe to the tulip.

2010-11-27T23:08:00.000-08:00

Or hop, skip, jump, etc. Jasper and I are doing a little duet this afternoon at De Tulp (Postjeskade 200), it will be loud and abstract but in a friendly way. I think we're actually playing second, contrary to what the flyer implies, maybe our names were just too damn long...

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LATER: Here's the recording. Also below is a recording from a session two days earlier, this is the very first time we sat down as a duo. Both sessions are effects-free.

Jasper Stadhouders + Mark Morse: z100e.

Jasper Stadhouders + Mark Morse: De Tulp.

Jasper Stadhouders: guitar + objects
Mark Morse: guitar + objects

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solo studies iv: dirt.

2010-11-25T14:16:00.000-08:00

Tonight I finally turned up the volume knob on my trusty sidekick Le Blues Junior, and together we laughed, we cried, we used ridiculous doubleneck slides. Here are some results, all using one or two "9" mutes. And a couple of them have reverb, yeah sorry.

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Study 19 starts out with pedestrian tinkles, but it's interesting to have 18 strings to use instead of 6; unexpected breathy sounds from rubbing inside of forearm on muted bottom string of top neck; pretty decent clarinet emulation until it's revealed that I'm playing a flute carved from a tree branch, badly.

Solo Study iv-19 (behind bridges twinkles, elbow breathing, pedicure bridge on bottom neck pickup, foil mute on top bridge pickup, ebow).

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20a gradually brings the background into the foreground by exaggerating fret noise.

Solo Study iv-20a (top neck, plastic slide, drinking straw bridge).

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Kind of just a little Sonic Toothish exercise in keeping material on both necks going simultaneously with mostly non-repeating chords.

Solo Study iv-20e (top neck harmonics, bottom neck rhythm).

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solo studies iii.

2010-11-21T02:47:00.000-08:00

So, yes, more studies and documentation thereof (backstory here). Just because, oh, I don't know, it kind of really is working for me, in terms of actually learning techniques vs. just crashing random shit into my strings.

There will be about 10 in total this time around, I'll be uploading them as I sort through the takes. And then deleting them again as I come to realize they suck (see study 16).

As objects/preparations, they're getting weirder but not necessarily better; but on the upside I seem to be getting a little more efficient/resourceful/ooh dare I say smarter in working with objects. And plus it's keeping me out of trouble, unless you count my dabbling with reverb on a few takes.

SOLO STUDIES III

This first one is a useless freak of a thing, but I've never seen or heard of it before, so I hereby share it with the world, who may already be doing this left and right, WTF, maybe I'm the last to know, who knows. I feel like a useless freak myself for "discovering" it, but you gotta believe me, I didn't spend hours on it, it just happened, you'll see how in 2 seconds.

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So there I was, dorkily taking pictures of preparations when I dorkily realized that hey, my camera makes noise. And not in a bad cell-phoney way. Here are the complicated instructions: turn on your digital camera and hold it right next to your pickups. That's it! Try it!

With my shitty camera I found that there were about 6 different constant/rhythmic sounds, one for each side of the rectangular block that is The Camera. So most of the variation you hear in the study is me rotating the camera around and bringing it closer/farther to/from the pickups. I don't know a single thing about science, but is it probable that the LCD screen is probably the source of this sound?

One way to interrupt the constant sounds is to put something like a finger in front of the lens (with autofocus on), and you get a slightly different sound for a few secs. Much cooler than that (but not really useful on a regular basis) is the sound that happens when you depress the Take a Picture Now button (actual name?) so that your infrared laser thingie comes on but you don't actually take a picture. This is the quick synthish melody you hear towards the end of the first version of the study. Taking a picture sounds completely different and sadly, less cool (you hear this at the end of the second version)...it sounds like maybe the SD card being accessed, you also hear something similar at the beginning, I think this is turning the camera on.

So, nifty. But in terms of a technique you can learn and develop, this isn't it: it's pretty limited sonically if you're not using effects pedals, which we're not. You will notice below that I exploited a loophole in the no-effects-pedals rule and did one take with my amp reverb turned up all the way...yes, I feel guilty about it and would like to say I won't do it again but in fact I know that's not true. I also included a totally dry take for reference.

Solo Study iii-15 (camera with amp reverb).

Solo Study iii-15 (camera dry).

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This one's an orphan from last week, I don't remember what I was doing. What typically happens is, I press REC, play for 2 minutes and quickly decide if it sounds like anything or not and then jot down what I did technically, but I must not have liked this one when I did it b/c I have no jottings, I imagine b/c it's a bit too close to Bela Fleck Plays Gnawa pastiche. But it turns out that now I do like the oud-dy-ness of it all and the gimbri elements in the bass, though I wish I'd left out the one or two most obvious stock "Middle Eastern" articulations that snuck in there.

Solo Study iii-14 (shortened scale on bottom neck and playing behind the capo on top neck).

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The one pictured here and at the top is something I haven't quite figured out yet. It involves using a thundermaker, part of which is essentially a giant guitar string, pressing it up against your pickups, and at least one ebow. The prep as it's currently evolved isn't pictured b/c i've got an ebow in each hand and the camera has to be held innit.

Basically, as notes for myself: there is one ebow that works on the thundermaker, mark it with something: hold that ebow with its front facing upwards at you; optionally put foil on the neck pickup to prevent unplanned loud noises.

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Awesome name aside, the thunderstick doesn't quite work yet. Plus you look like an ass when you're doing it. Instead, we move on to a wonderfully rhythmic, abrasive, and unpredictable prep. It involves:

1) a large metal baking spatula at around the 2nd or 3rd fret, going UOUOUO (under-over), and then continuing on to the bottom neck, under your top "E" string and over all the rest. It should wobble.
2) a foam mute underneath the bottom 4 strings on the bottom neck.
3) the ebow.
4) technique: keep the ebow on the neck with your left hand, use either pickup, and ebow your fifth string. You will get an unpredictable pitch with a rhythmic component due to the suspended spatula being vibrated. You modify the pitch and the vibration rate by either a) moving the ebow closer or farther from the spatula (changing the string length); b) pressing down on the sixth string (not the one you're ebowing) to tighten the suspension of the spatula; c) moving the spatula to a position directly over a fret; d) changing the string length at the bridge side with your right hand palm or index finger.

The fact that you've got the ebow in your left hand lets you do useful things like work your volume and tone controls with your right hand, or mute the string.

Solo Study iii-17a (baking spatula, one ebow, foam mute, dry).

Solo Study iii-17b (baking spatula, one ebow, foam mute, reverb).

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Like a lot of wobbly things, the baking spatula is a little unpredictable.Say, what if there was a much more subtle and reliable prep that was almost as good? This is a 1/2 cm-thick rectangle of aluminium foil on my bridge pickup and an ebow. OK, it's not really almost as good, but...if you play this take and the two above at the same time it sounds like Machine Gun's first album at quarter-speed. Try it!!!

Solo Study iii-18a (aluminium mute, bottom neck, ebow, dry).

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I am liking this next thingie a lot, it's reliable and surprising at the same time. They have these everywhere in Amsterdam, and every guitar player seems to have one:

It's some kind of squishable metal scrubber. Pros: it's loud, and you can use it in either hand with different results, plus it's well-suited to playing non-guitar sounding rhythms, with or without a simultaneous e-bow component, held in either hand. It's textures become more diffuse and mysterious with a touch of reverb (but what doesn't really), so we have quickish examples of: ~~a highly unspectacular ebow thing that I need to replace when I find a better take (dry)~~ and then ~~a kind of interesting thing where I hold the scrubber in my left hand and drum on that hand with my right hand (dry)~~, and a thing yeah where you just desperately fret with the scrubber and play like you're a 1986 Marc Ribot recording, something badly recorded and released on Knitting Factory Works probably.

~~Solo Study iii-16a (metal scrubber + ebow)~~.

~~Solo Study iii-16b (metal scrubber + finger rolls, dry)~~.

Solo Study iii-16c (metal scrubber + left hand fretting, less dry).

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Speaking of funny-looking things on stage, here's something I'm working on:

It's the movable one-hand ebow/slide combo. Can almost do it good, the hard part is a) keeping the ebow far enough away from the slide for there to be enough string length to vibrate, and b) at the same time keeping your slide parallel to the fingerboard. But when it works it's pretty unusual.

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solo studies II.

2010-11-05T14:12:00.000-07:00

Continuing with preparation documentation, plus pictures to aid my aging memory. This first quick one is another version of the knitting needle trick from the last post. In the photo above you can kind of see my 3rd and 4th fingers on my right hand grabbing and moving the needle while ebowing. The thing I've added here is using fret-changing as a rhythmic component: since it's an unavoidable and loud artifact of what I was originally messing with, might as well do something useful with it.

Solo Study 2c (knitting needle/ebow).

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Almost every prep I do ends up shortening the string length and thus the scale (could that be b/c it's way more difficult to lengthen the string?), but this one is specifically aimed at trying to emulate violin-like glissandos with an ebow and slide.. Here's what this prep looks like as recorded, but you could use anything as your third bridge, I just happen to like the sound of this wooden spatula at the 17th fret. And then you ebow on the nut side of your wooden spatula equivalent. The capo is there to bring the strings closer to the neck so that they always touch the spatula.

Solo Study 8 (short scale, ebow, slide, wooden spatula).

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This one is using a large flat metal baking spatula over the bridge pickups and, yeah, something I can't quite remember is fucking up the 12-string neck (EDIT: I've remembered it's this little cheese knife). I'm also holding a slide in my left hand and picking in front of the slide also with my left hand with some random finger. I might also have an ebow in my right hand. Again, not totally sure. I like this one because the loud weirdness of the spatula hitting the pickup magnets creates a range of attacks that are almost digital-sounding or like a badly-edited cassette.

Solo Study 10 (baking spatula).

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This one isn't much of a performance, but there's something very interesting going on in terms of timbre. I'm pretty sure I'm using two precariously balanced metal spatulas that begin wobbling asynchronously, and at some points there's an odd static-y distortion that pops up. Typically this happens when a mute comes in contact with one of the pickup magnets but I don't think that's the case here. Anyway, the point of these three clips is: take notes.

Solo Study 11 (baking spatulas).

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Tying up loose ends: here's a picture of the two superball mallet technique from last post, as well as the "hard foam slide":

never shall part.

2010-10-25T04:09:00.000-07:00

The Family Tapes seem to have decided to give it another go, this time "without taking it too seriously", which you would find hilarious if you'd seen us barely able to get onstage at our last gig due to lack of a setlist.

But, yes, seriously, this is good news, it's a project that we all loved the idea of but it never really fully developed, so hopefully we take it further this time. Here's a nice post about us on Disquiet.com.

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solo studies.

2010-10-24T05:44:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Geeky pictures that illustrate some of these things can be found here.

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So, ja, a week or so ago, I played a set of solo improvised no-FX guitar in public for the first time in my fucking life.

Embarrassing, I know. How is that possible. I guess it's two things: my lack of non-failure-based motivation, and plus...I'm shy? I don't know, I guess for a long time I focused on doing creative things with analog/digital processing gunk and over the past 3 or 4 years have kind transferred that interest into doing it without the gunk.

But, so, whatever: I agreed to do this solo thing, mostly because I'd never never done it before. And in the end it went OK, it was fun, but alas, oops, shit: the night's performances weren't recorded. And since I spent quite a bit of time building some preparations to improvise with that night, I thought I'd write down the recipes. Mostly for myself because I'm notoriously bad at repeating inspired concoctions, but also I figured that someone else out there might be at home Googling "homemade superball mallet" like I was last week, and well now here's one more relevant result.

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Quick setting: like a lot of prepared guitar, many of these sounds are the result of creating one or more extra bridges. I'm really starting to dig on soft or fibrous materials for bridges b/c of their unpredictability (foam and aluminium foil are my go-to materials right now) and odd timbres when ebowed.

I'm calling these studies, I guess that's what they are. Basically I fuck around with a technique/setting/set of objects until I can predict some of what will happen, then I press REC and play for about two minutes or so, because this is the default setting for my attention span.

I'm trying to be as musical as possible but in some cases I fail more than others: I was mostly in a hurry to capture my gross sonic intentions so I could retune and restring my ridiculous guitar and get on down the road.

Yes, the recording quality is crap: I could apply some gloss and sweetener via some reverb, EQ, spectral infusionators and whatnot...but also I'm a sucker for ugly-ass guitar, and this is supposed to be the raw naked shit, people! I'm trying to put the gunk behind me. So yeah this is just a guitar, a cable, and an amplifier. And some foam.

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SOLO STUDIES.

Before I lose this tiny crinkled scrap of paper with this 12-string tuning on it, I write it here, yes? Thickest string to thinnest string:

BC GA DB GbEb BC DbEb:

I think it can maybe best be described as Eb Altered? Maybe some kind person who understands harmony can confirm/deny.

I didn't write down the tuning for the 6-string neck b/c in this case the open strings aren't used for distinct pitches, and if you're going to get inspired and retune while playing, the bottom neck is the one to use (listening to or watching someone tune a normal guitar onstage is one of the All-Time Great Boring Stage Events, but listening to or watching someone tune a 12-string guitar onstage is like spending all day at the dentist's office. I can only imagine what it's like watching someone tune their 12-string neck onstage and THEN move on to tune their 6 string neck, because anyone who's ever tried it has probably been killed immediately).

All that's important for this first set of studies is that the 5th and 3rd strings are slacker than their neighboring strings (for ebowing).

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So these first studies are using especially snappy foam mutes under the strings at the pickups and then a capo on the top neck. By snappy I mean foam that is very dense and squeaky (two words you almost never see together, or at least not often enough), not like a sponge, but almost like styrofoam? To get the greatest variety of sounds, it seemed to work well to have the double-muted neck on its neck pickup and the capoed 12-string neck on bridge pickup, remembering to play inside all newly bridged areas (behind capo, between capo and mute, between mutes, behind mutes, etc).

Most of the bass is coming from the lower neck and the harmonics-esque notes are coming from the 12-string neck, which means, if you're careful, you can one-handedly pluck out interesting clusters of notes that you wouldn't have access to on a 6-string neck.

Musically, yeah. The development kind of officially stalls a bit around the two-minute mark because 1) as I mentioned, that's the default setting for my attention span, and 2) I was wanting to slide the capo down a fret but couldn't find a good time to do it.

Why the pretentious Braxtonesque nomenclature: I've had to number my mutes because they're all cut special (for example, this prep idea can also be done usefully with mutes 7 and 9, with quite a different result), and for now it's helpful to remember what goes where. I can imagine getting tired of these names pretty quick, so if they go away, well let's call it natural selection.

Solo Study 1 (mutes 1 + 4 + 10 capo 4).

Solo Study 1a.

That could be some kind of digital glitch at the beginning, because I proudly use Tascam! but it could also be this pickup-palming thing I was doing. This take is not so hugely different from the first, but it does emphasize a new farty bass sound that i like very much (from sliding the lower mute back towards the bridge), and yes also fewer pitched sounds, more metallic timbres, etc. I also include this take to remind me that it can be almost OK to fingertap as long as you don't sustain anything, use vibrato, or accidentally sound like slap bass.

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Solo Study 2 (knitting needle at 12th fret through both necks, ebowing on headstock side of needle while moving needle with ebow hand).

This is a hard-to-do and almost definitely stupid-looking right hand position that involves a) grabbing the exposed bottom (hee hee!) of the 12th-fret knitting needle with your right-hand pinky so you can wiggle it while you ebow, b) holding on to the ebow as far away as you possibly can from the 12th fret (otherwise there's not enough string length for it to vibrate), for me this is around the 7th fret, which leaves frets 1-6 available for non-tempered fretting with the left hand, and c) leaving your right ring finger free to rudely plunk the string you're ebowing now and then. I like how this generates some very Ab sounds (that's Ab Baars, not A flat).

Solo Study 2a (excerpt).

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Solo Study 3 (knitting needle at 12th fret through both necks, ebowing with one ebow on each neck, headstock side, moving knitting needle with mouth).

This is one of those non-musical performances where it's all about documentation. The point here was to figure out how to use two ebows, holding one in each hand, and still coming up with interesting ways to add vibrato and change pitch and timbre. I was really surprised that the 12-string neck doesn't add much here, I was hoping to get 3 simultaneous notes, but without a fretting finger you can't really get the top neck string pairs to sound both notes reliably: thus, you usually hear one ebow note per neck.

The more abrasive timbres here are what happens when you push the needle off the neck via your mouth or chin...and so it's kind of like you're fretting the string from the underside of the string (not with your chin, luckily)?

Note to self: for playing the knitting needle with the mouth, I really have to find a way to not crack a tooth or Mara will kill me, probably just a firm piece of (non-toxic!) foam. I also thought maybe a pencil eraser would work, assuming those still exist. Besides tooth breakage the other downside of this preparation is that it's totally possible to start, eh, drooling, a guitar problem you don't see every day.

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Solo Study 4 (superball mallet).

This is a homemade mallet built from a superball crazyglued onto a metal kebab skewer. Unfortunately it doesn't even do the thing that I made it to do, which is to make an awesome squawky sound when you drag it across a lacquered hollow object like, say, a cello: my doubleneck isn't hollow enough.

BUT, the mallet has a couple of other interesting properties: the skewer has a ring at one end so you can loosely dangle it off your finger and let gravity do most of the work, which actually allows the ball to bounce. Here's two mallets at the same time, both dangling from right hand fingers, which takes some practice. This time I'm also "fretting" with this slide made of hard green foam, that I'll also play by itself in a second.

Solo Study 4b (two superball mallets).

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Solo Study 5 (hard foam slide).

I guess this isn't truly a preparation, I'm just playing slide with this thing I was just talking about, the bouncy green foam that does an awesome job of finding harmonics and letting them ring. I just like the sound of it. The final 30 seconds or so of this are really braindead wanking and I would normally edit that shit out but I was running out of steam and wanted to finish this little project.

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Solo Study 6 (two knitting needles, two ebows).

I could have included this in the knitting needle/double ebow discussion, but this one is kind of different and less versatile. Because you've got 4 bridges now (nut, two needles, actual bridge), the area between the two needles is really resonant and gives you lots of interesting but difficult-to-pitch sounds, which is why it's sometimes useful to use one of the ebows pressed up against the string so that it's fretting a pitch while it's vibrating the string.

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predilection.

2010-10-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

I want to say something here about my weird and recent preference for playing with other guitar players (maybe because I believe they'll "get me"?)...but I don't have time, so I'll just mention some more upcoming gigs.

November 28 I've got a duo with Jasper Stadhouders, one of my favorite local guitarists. It's in a church somewhere in Amsterdam (details forthcoming), expect plenty of abrasive preparations and big volume.

December 7 at Zaal 100, there's a gig with a handful of excellent people that should be lots of fun:

jacob wick (chicago/NYC): trumpet
eiríkur orri ólafsson (reykjavík): trumpet
mark morse: guitar
jasper stadhouders: guitar
onno govaert: drums

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couples, therapy.

2010-09-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

This post is for the good people who ask "why don't you ever tell me when you're playing". Not that I'm answering that question, which is a good one, but I'm sidestepping it by listing some upcoming gigs. Maybe that's the answer to unlocking my inner self-promotionalist: ask me hard questions and I spew evasive information.

Most of what I'm doing these days are duos, but the first couple are not. The first (Monday 27 Sept) is with Dirk Bruinsma (saxes) and Santiago Botero (contrabass) in a kind of semi-acoustic trio at a series called De Oorsprong at RESERVAAT in Amsterdam Noord. I'll be playing doubleneck, and there is somehow a theme of aluminium foil involved in our preparations. There are three sets:

1)
Leo Svirsky - piano
Nicolau Lafeta - trumpet

2)
Dana Jessen - bassoon
Oscar Jan Hoogland - piano
Raoul van der Weide - contrabass, crackle box, sound objects

3)
Mark Morse - guitar, preparations
Santiago Botero - contrabass, preparations
Dirk Bruinsma - baritone sax, alto sax, preparations

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It's a beautiful thing (or at least it should be) when a band or musician you like unexpectedly asks you to make some music with them. In 2006 I was in the audience at the recording of The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation's first CD, and really thought it was one of the best shows I saw that year, and since then we've played the CD quite a bit around the house. So it was a very pleasant surprise to be asked to join them on guitar at OT301 on 07 October for a show (maybe it shouldn't be so surprising since Charlotte joined Hilary and I for a gig way back when). The Kilimanjaro Dark Jazz Ensemble plays afterwards: which, although it's exactly the same people...yeah, it's not totally my thing. But, we see!

On the 14th of October, there's an evening of music/dance duos at OT301: one musician, one dancer, six couples in total. My partner is Ema Nik Thomas, who I always enjoy watching because she's never careless and often gives off a tiny sense of menace. I'll be playing solo unadorned doubleneck guitar, which I never ever do, which is also why I'm doing it. Other musicians that night include Ab Baars, John Dikeman, and that's all I can remember.

In November, two of my favorite duos: this is hardly an invitation with Hillary (12 November at Theater Bellevue), and the return of Sleep Gunner with Jeroen (19 November at OCCII).

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in the weeds again.

2010-08-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm just trying to get these off my chest? Maybe it's a cleansing thing.

These are primarily solo guitar pieces using AudioMulch, recorded in 2002-2003, and stylistically they have almost nothing to do with me anymore. Why am I dispensing them in this seemingly random or at least non-sequential order one might wonder, and the answer is that I'm briefly remastering them in order of easiness, and posting them as they're done.

This block of recordings is kind of an uncomfortable thing to share, because although I think there are a couple of moments worth preserving, my guitar playing was really in a total Shambles of Derivativity at the time, and for me these recordings are largely the sound of frustration, documenting some of the first tentative attempts to start figuring out a way out of the hole I was in, or, yeah, out of the weeds I guess.

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Morsanek: In The Weeds I (1:55), 4.4MB.

Morsanek: In The Weeds II (4:37), 10.6MB.

Morsanek: In The Weeds X (4:41), 10.7MB.

Morsanek: In The Weeds XIV (7:31), 17.2MB.

Mark Morse: guitar, AudioMulch, FruityLoops programming.

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in the weeds vi.

2010-08-01T14:21:00.001-07:00

Still cleaning, still turning up old tracks. This is another from 2002-2003. There was a greater concept for these bits, but I was struggling with a multitude of factors at the time and nothing ever happened, a situation which could hardly be more generic, I know. But now that there is no greater concept, especially now that there's no visual component, I'm thinking about detaching that now-not-so-necessary generic beat underneath. I should also just totally ignore this overwhelming compulsion to fuck with old recordings.

Morsanek: In The Weeds VI (7:55), 17MB.

Mark Morse: guitar, AudioMulch, programming.

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archival footage.

2010-07-15T05:06:00.000-07:00

Just unearthed a couple of old hard drives, I'll be posting some previously unpublished things here in a few, just 'cause. Most of this stuff should be from the period 2001-2005, years in which I was mired in a massive creative crisis and had almost completely stopped playing guitar, except to use it as an input to the AudioMulch patches I was semi-obsessively building.

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Morsanek: In The Weeds IV (2:46), 6.3MB.

Mark Morse: guitar, AudioMulch.

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what's happening, peter.

2010-06-15T22:54:00.001-07:00

Minimal activity here other than a few weeks of vacationizing in London, which was luxuriantly expensive but ultimately good nonetheless. TIHAI is back in action this fall, but before then July and August will hopefully be dominated by going to the beach and the manufacture of a Sprawling Low-Key Pop Masterpiece, though it remains to be seen if one can just decide to do that, the masterpiece part I mean.

This week's audio is from LYSN, Hilary Jeffery's exploratory drone project. Hil and Alfredo and I and at least five others (for sure two saxes, bass, trumpet, and drums, but maybe more) just played an unexpectedly LYSN-ish set this past weekend at 4am during the all-night gig at MLK in Amsterdam, and the unsolicited positive feedback by non-musicians after the show reminded me how important it is for us to try and play this music for new audiences instead of for the same old fifty improvisors.

LYSN: Suspension (10:35), 24MB.

Hilary Jeffery: trombone and tromboscillator
Chris Long: accordian and electronics
Anne Wellmer: analogue electronics and harmonium

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rummage sale.

2010-05-04T21:55:00.000-07:00

Photo: Andy Moor. Cleaning out an old DJ hard drive and found this mix that's a good snapshot of what I was listening to in 2004. Features alva.noto, Peter Warren & Matt Samolis, Senking, Xerophonics, Leviathan, Philip Jeck, Suicide, David Dunn, Paul Lemos, Porter Ricks, Dymaxion, some Sardinian acapella shit, Dalek, Merzbow, Broklyn Beats, Team Shadetek, Moblin...and that's just what I can identify/remember. This was mixed live @ OT301 in Amsterdam in late 2004, I also seem to remember running this whole thing through my guitar effects rig for "added excitement", but due to poor planning by me the recording was straight off the laptop so we just get the unmolested tunes.

(dj) morsanek: the ubertomb, 59MB.

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remix repost.

2010-04-21T01:26:00.000-07:00

Since my other blog that used to host this info is now toast, I'm reposting a pocket of info about the My Life in the Bush of Ghosts remix I did in 2006 for Disquiet (here's some background).

Listening to the remix now, I find it to be an encapsulation of most of the recurring problems with the Morsanek approach circa 2006: arresting, pretty cohesive beginning; weaker, meandering middle; practical but unsatisfying ending.

I'm not sure that I ever did figure out how to avoid these pitfalls, but if I ever decide to learn from my mistakes, this is as good an illustration of them as any.

Here's most of the original post.

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This post is mostly to make sure that everyone is credited properly....large thanks again to everyone who donated their music to this mix. Any sound not sourced from the below is either from the Eno/Byrne tracks or my guitar and/or digitally mucking about.

Initial bewildered feedback about the remix suggests that I should mention a couple of things: I didn't really listen to more than a few seconds of the originals before I started (no remixes either), only the multitrack source files...a few seconds after I started listening to the originals I realized I didn't want to know what parts were where in the originals...start, finish, foreground, dominant, etc. I wanted everything to have equal potential value.

Thanks again to Marc at Disquiet for initiating this exercise and for asking me to participate. Here's the finished version.

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morsanek: the black isle (full version). (192kbps)

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Source recordings:

"Sociologist", "Artist", and "Blindman" from Wordless by Yannis Kyriakides, (c) 2006. Used with permission. Yannis Kyriakides: electronics and field recordings.

"Shell Fish" and "Wet My Shelf" from All by Myshelf by Alan "Gunga" Purves, (c) 2005. Used with permission. Alan "Gunga" Purves: percussion.

"Madang" from Krang by Ab Baars, (c) 1989. Used with permission. Ab Baars: tenor saxophone.

"Solos #1", "Solos #3", and "Solos #4" from Solos by Michael Fischer, (c) 2002. Used with permission. Michael Fischer: tenor saxophone.

"Zombie Love", composer Hilary Jeffery, (c) 2005. Used with permission. Vanessa Vromans: violin. Elisabeth Reiter: violin. Yoos Moghaddam viola. Kumi Kondo: cello. Hilary Jeffery: electronics.

"Krimp" from 7 CC in IO by Cor Fuhler, (c) 1995. Used with permission. Cor Fuhler: prepared piano.

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in the silvery moonlight.

2010-03-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Jeroen has uploaded a few properly-normalized excerpts from the gig on his new blog.

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Until I have time to do something friendlier to it, here's the unadulterated audio from Sleep Gunner's last gig at DNK. Unadulterated in that you get two minutes of crowd chatter before we're even onstage.

The tempos are sprightly, the sound is very honest, and the highlight is probably the encore, a pretty funny never-really-played-before omnichord/feedback version of Satan's Jeweled Crown at 28:56. Also nice to hear people giggling at hocketing @ 7:45. Really, only at DNK do you get props for hocketing and feedback.

sleep gunner live @ DNK 32:13, 59MB.

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another non-invite.

2010-01-15T05:37:00.000-08:00

It's on again (background here).

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distressed.

2009-12-14T00:29:00.000-08:00

Almost a year ago I very quietly released a split LP on the vinyl-only Kazemat label. As an anniversary present to myself I wanted to re-release it digitally via some sort of conceptually relevant and ambitious analog remix: tiny speakers in seashells; surveillance microphone recordings, etc.

None of that stuff happened. I originally constructed this track as a sort of imagined beachtown noir; this simply "distressed" version aims for the kind of lo-fi audio experience a viewer might have on a late and lonely night in a run-down oceanfront motel via YouTube.

Morsanek: The Vacation (Low Bit Distress mix) 19:20, 45MB.

MEM: all instruments, editing, recording, etc. Except for a couple of tiny non-musical samples that I stole from a movie or two or three or four. Free copy of the LP to anyone who can name two of the movies.

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high lonesome.

2009-11-18T01:55:00.001-08:00

Sleep Gunner is working working day and night on rehearsals/music for The High Lonesome, a piece by choreographer Hillary Blake Firestone for Conny Janssen Danst. The High Lonesome opens in Rotterdam on 10 December.

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The High Lonesome

Square Dancing: an American folkdance based on constantly shifting group patterns, whose beauty is refined spatial virtuosity. Sleep Gunner: two Amsterdam-based guitar players devoted to the complex harmonies of 1950s Alabama heartbreak duo The Louvin Brothers. The High Lonesome: a performance that takes its inspiration, forms, physicality and pleasure from Square Dance; its four songs -with lyrics of longing for home and memories of familiar things- from the Louvins' catalog; and its structure from a country jamboree. Or, The High Lonesome: a band of six whose numbers are all about one thing: space and place, presence and absence, longing and belonging.

Credits:
title: the high lonesome
choreography: hillary blake firestone i.s.m. the performers
performers: winston arnon, yanaika holle, jeroen kimman, lola mino, mark morse, christiana ruggieri
music/arrangements: sleep gunner (jeroen kimman & mark morse)
original songs: Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar, Kentucky, Alabama & Southern Moon, recorded by The Louvin Brothers
length: 20 minutes
thanks to maurits van geel

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lysn in gonzo.

2009-10-10T08:52:00.001-07:00

This month's Gonzo Circus has a nice little feature on Hilary, and there's a LYSN track on the included Mind the Gap CD as well. This is what we looked like hungover in Berlin last month (foto: Siegmar Zacharias).

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i am sitting in a NastyReverb contraption.

2009-09-18T14:46:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a long week in Berlin, long in a good way. One of the week's successes was the glitch-free debut of my new tiny laptop/guitar rig running AudioMulch. So I thought I'd post a Mulch MP3 or two, recorded last week.

I'm normally quite the anti-loopist these days, probably because I spent many years looping and just eventually became a bit fatigued by the sound of it and the playing strategies that it traps one into. But nonetheless these are a few loopy guitar improvisations through one of the example patches that comes with Mulch version 2.

It's a patch written by Christian Haines called lucier.amh, and it's supposed to kind of coarsely emulate the resonant frequencies techniques used in I Am Sitting in A Room, though here there are no real rooms involved: these are the resonant frequencies of one NastyReverb contraption and five two-second SDelays (along with a bit of "nice" reverb at the end of the chain, added by me, which I realize completely smooths over and destroys any remaining vestiges of Lucier's intended soundworld, but...I don't think I was ever aiming for that anyway).

This is a simple patch, but an interesting and useful way to degrade or erode a shortish loop. In each of these recordings I stop playing after about 3 minutes, which is a little too soon musically: if I'd had a bit more patience I could've paced the first five minutes better, but the sooner I stop adding new material, the sooner the loop can start to degrade, and that degradation is what these studies were about. So that means that in each study there's an absence of development from the 3:00 mark to 5:00 minutes while I wait for the resonance to kick in.

#15 and #14 below are super-friendly and modal, and the other two are a little less so. #11 and #12 are so similar it's worth asking why you'd include both, but I guess maybe it's educational to see what happens when you forget to include any lower pitches as I did with #11.

The other idea was to see what if any interesting wobbles happened with different levels of intentional dissonance. I also imagine that soon I'll try using more sophisticated "rooms" to see how we can end up in less predictable or more controllable places.

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Room Study 14.

Room Study 12.

Room Study 11.

Room Study 15.

MEM: electric guitar, e-bow.

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superstardom, imminent.

2009-08-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

For more spills and thrills, there is now a Sleep Gunner website.

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summer breeze.

2009-08-04T03:18:00.000-07:00

It's a conundrum, summertime in Amsterdam: it's the only time where everyone's schedule is completely free and you can consider actually getting some work done on all those late-night beer-fueled conceptual projects that you all talk about all year long.

The equal and opposing reactive force to these empty schedules is the summertime weather. Hot and sunny for 18 hours a day. A huge deterrent to staying inside and practicing anything. The beach is 45 minutes away.

Nonetheless, Sleep Gunner is trying to do some studio recording this week. I'll post any interesting results here.

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familytime.

2009-06-02T02:38:00.000-07:00

Above: Brainiac. I can remember exactly where I was when I heard that Timmy Taylor was dead. Bonsai Superstar was easily my favorite record of 1994 (and 1995), and I'd been eagerly awaiting a live show. I still use the Timmy Taylor Defense whenever it doesn't make financial or geographical sense for me to go see a live show that I will one day regret not seeing.

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So, Family Tapes gig 2 was better than the first one, but still mostly helped us realize what we don't want to do.

But OK, also what we do want to do, some of which I think is to play compositions. This is part of a new piece that we tried for the first time on the day of the gig (like, with at least one person seeing their written parts for the first time that day), where two notes in a row are rarely played by the same guitarist (in this section we each play every 5th note). In its original context, this bit (loop 4) lasts for about 10 seconds, this is an experiment to see what happens if it lasts a little longer.

The Family Tapes: The Happy Days (4/13).

And this excerpt is not actually composed, but we knew we were going to do it: this is us blowing on the strings with amps turned up very loud.

The Family Tapes: Blown.

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extract of invitation.

2009-05-27T03:25:00.000-07:00

This is a seven minute edit of our hour-long piece this is hardly an invitation. The edit (not done by us) does an amazing job of not giving you any context for anything that happens onstage, but luckily includes a full minute of us taking bows afterwards. I imagine that we'll have our own comparatively useful edit up here in the next couple of weeks.

And here's the first bit of unfinished music I'm posting from the piece, this would be The End:

Morsanek: perishing party (5:54)

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arrangements in public.

2009-05-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

This is Kenzo Kusuda at the Jewish Historical Museum last week performing to a (now rather old) DJ mix of mine called Arrangements, all of which is also part of the My Name is Spinoza festival. For some of the clip you can hear the audio as the headphoned audience could, and for some of the clip you're in the position of non-audio participant, at least I think that's what's happening...I wasn't there for the performance myself unfortunately.

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this is hardly an invitation.

2009-05-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

this is a perishing party...
this is a festivity lab...
this is hardly an invitation

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a performance by/with Hillary Blake Firestone & Morsanek
i.k.v. My Name is Spinoza Festival

Grand Theater Groningen May 19 @ 20.30h
Frascati Amsterdam May 22, 23 @ 21h

Light design: Floriaan Ganzevoort
Thanks: Keren Levi, Mara Tomanek, Jeroen Kimman, Jordis Jabuzichek

Made possible with the support of SKOR, Grand Theater Groningen, DWA and the Violet Bureau

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We need maracas
We need mutton
We need garish
We need gaudy
We need a reason to get drunk on a Tuesday
We need a reason to be childishly guileless
We need a reason to get in a fight
We need a reason for ABBA
We need a reason for orange
We need to practice being a corpse
We need a reason for marzipan teeth
We need fringe
We need food fights
We need a reason to think about decay
We need a reason for love letters
We need a reason for lapdance
We need a reason for limbo
We need a reason to get in over our heads
We need seduction
We need surrender
We need a reason for human target practice
We need a reason to spike the punch

this is hardly an invitation is a collaboration between sound artist Morsanek (aka Mark Morse) and choreographer Hillary Blake Firestone. Commissioned to create a performance inspired by Deleuze & Guattari’s concept of the Body without Organs, the two distilled from the text the unlikely combination of festivity as theme and laboratory as location. Joined by light designer Floriaan Ganzevoort, the group inaugurated a Festivity Lab, a liminal space devoted to testing the mechanisms of celebration.

The performance itself takes place within this oddly clinical disco. Exploring the imaginative flow and reconstructive energy that define festivity, the performers propose dry-humoured experiments where various hypotheses are tested…some of which are bound to fail.

The result is equally visual, musical and physical: a solo parade; a funny-sad spectacle; a lonely party for two people and their public, tinged with the recognition that within every celebration, along with the eternal, there is an inevitable suggestion of the perishing. Hoera.

Hillary Blake Firestone (USA, 1974) is a choreographer, performer, and teacher, based in Amsterdam since 1999. After studying Dance Performance/Composition and Literature in New York, she began making her own work, first with the dance/theatre collective Unexpected Company. Since moving to the Netherlands, she has worked in collaboration with choreographers, composers, musicians, and visual artists. The relationship between movement and sound is one of the primary focuses of her work. To this end, she often makes use of simple objects and complex music.

Mark Morse aka Morsanek (USA, 1969) is an improvising guitarist, DJ, and sound editor who builds his own source material through a variety of prepared guitars, customized software, and feedback generators, and then painstakingly assembles dense narratives that draw on techniques from film editing, field recordings, and DJ mixing. His new LP on the Dutch label Kazemat has been called "a fascinating puzzle" (Gonzo Circus).

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thirds.

2009-04-07T00:58:00.001-07:00

A couple of people have asked about other Kebab recordings, this is the last one I have I think. It's also more abrasive and abstract than the others, almost definitely because of the change in venue to the more noise-friendly OT301 (as opposed to the Zaal 100 recordings, which were part of an evening whose tagline is "New Ways of Jazz").

The first sound you hear is the last tune of my DJ set, Gilbert Altman's great "Urban Sax Part 3", which we then fade in over. This recording is from 13 December 2006.

Minister Kebab: Heresy's Syrup (43:02).

Hilary Jeffery: trombone, tromboscillator, voice

Mark Morse: feedback, samplers, electric guitar, analog synths, voice

Alan "Gunga" Purves: drums, bells, mallets, whistles, tubes, etc.

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minister kebab: tone pig.

2009-03-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

Minister Kebab live at Zaal 100, Amsterdam. 18 March 2009.

Minister Kebab: Tone Pig (48:21).

Hilary Jeffery: trombone, tromboscillator, voice

Mark Morse: feedback, samplers, electric guitar, analog synths, voice

Alan "Gunga" Purves: drums, bells, mallets, whistles, tubes, inflatable animals, seven thousand other things

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six more weeks of winter.

2009-03-12T02:38:00.001-07:00

Minister Kebab is ducking their collective head out of its collective hole next week, our first gig since 2006. To commemorate this auspicious moment, here are 3 of the least informative videos I've ever seen, plus audio from a 2006 performance. By the way, that cheap-ass guitar sound in the first clip is not me, it's Gunga playing something through a guitar amp, which makes it way more OK than if I'd done it.

Here's an MP3 of the whole show @ Zaal 100, Amsterdam (06 December 2006).

Minister Kebab: Please Please David Put Out The Lights (50:04).

Mark Morse: guitar, samplers, feedback, voice
Alan "Gunga" Purves: drums, percussion, brim bram, wee bells, squeakology
Hilary Jeffery: trombone, tromboscillator, voice.

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turn your speakers down.

2009-03-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

Catching up on YouTube's collection of Japanese noise. This is from 1993, which was a year after Hijokaidan and K.K. Null and everyone else on the Dry Lungs V compilation erased whatever personal musical boundaries I'd drawn up to that point. I embed this video b/c I couldn't embed this one.

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disconnection.

2009-02-19T00:50:00.000-08:00

My rider very specifically states that all performance photos of me must be taken from the same POV.

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the family that plays together.

2009-02-08T02:57:00.000-08:00

The Family Tapes had their first gig in early January. Was it....fun? Yes.

Was it....good? I think it was probably OK. I mean I have the recording, but it doesn't sound like music yet: instead I'm just trying to figure out what I'm doing to see if I should congratulate myself or set myself aflame.

Actually figuring out what I'm doing is pretty easy on bits like this next one, because I'm playing the role of disruptor. But I think in general it became clear that we can't continue to Just Let Things Happen, we're just not getting diverse enough results: we need some structure. Here's the first 4 minutes of the show, wherein I demonstrate me some handheld amplifier technique.

The Family Tapes: The Shyboy Opening (10MB).

So you see what I mean. We're taking some steps to try and force ourselves into new territory: we're doing some writing and we're working on getting some external composers interested in writing for Family Tapes...which will either fix us or break us for good. The latter would be untimely, yo: we just made disquiet.com's Best of 2008 list.

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mirabai brawl.

2008-12-04T22:16:00.000-08:00

This MP3 represents a couple of failures. It's a pretty uninformative recording, the music is barely audible. And it's the first song in a set that was dedicated to victims of violence around the world, only to have an actual fight break out in the audience a bit later: punches, screaming, ejections, broken glass, the works.

But: the music had some really beautiful moments, and you can almost tell from this recording.

LLL @ Zaal 100, 27 November 2008.

Louise Landes Levi: voice
Hilary Jeffery: trombone
Rozemarie Heggen: double bass
Mark Morse: 9-string acoustic guitar + ebow

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detritus.

2008-10-14T03:49:00.000-07:00

Ongoing warts-and-all documentation of the summer and fall's efforts, for better or for worse.

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The Family Tapes. Rehearsal Recording. June 2008.

"Funnel Cloud"

"Machine Oil"

"Mutiny"

"Harakiri"

Alfredo Genovesi: guitar
Jeroen Kimman: guitar
Jasper Stadhouders: guitar
Raphael Vanoli: guitar
Mark Morse: guitar

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LYSN live at the ADM Festival, Amsterdam: "A Drone Moment". 31 August 2008.

Hilary Jeffery: trombone, tromboscillator
Alfredo Genovesi: guitar
Charlotte Cegarra: voice
Seamus Cater: harmonica
Mark Morse: guitar

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sleepgunner live in Kikker Theater, Utrecht. 24 Sept 2008.

"New Partner Waltz". (Mark: main melody, tremelo gtr; Jeroen: tele solo)

"Lorene" (Jeroen: ebow/slide, non-slide melody; Mark: ebow/harmonizer, slide melody)

Jeroen Kimman: guitar
Mark Morse: guitar

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junket-ready.

2008-09-13T09:23:00.001-07:00

These are the only photos I've got at the moment, will try to get some better/hi-res ones soon. The photo credit on the first 5 is Andy Moor, the last is Mara Tomanek. Is it just me, or do I look like Pac-Man in photo 3?

that which stands beneath.

2008-08-04T01:36:00.000-07:00

Note to self, the Jack Chambers films would be nice to show in case Plan A falls through.

gig MP3s: tuesday night jazzcafe, 18 march 2008.

2008-03-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

Latest gig recordings, from Tuesday 18 March 2008.

Set 1
Set 2

These files are like 400MB each, so you have to really want to hear this set. Set 1 is the better of the two. Set 2 gets hijacked by fucking crazy Cees b/c we forgot to give the sign to have him removed. I forgot.

Set 1
James Fulkerson: trombone
Chris Long: piano
Alan Purves: drums, percussion
Mark Morse: electric guitar

Set 2
Hilary Jeffery: trombone
James Fulkerson: trombone
Chris Long: piano
Alan Purves: drums, percussion
Mark Morse: electric guitar
Cees Klaver: trumpet and uncontrollable vocal outbursts

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