Listen With Others No.4 – October 3rd 2025
Links are in blue
1. Gordon Mumma – Hornpipe (1967) 15’17’’
“Hornpipe is a composition for solo French Horn. The instrument has been modified and contains a special microphone. A few feet behind the performer is a series of vertical pipes, containing their own microphones and resonant at different frequencies. Further behind is the loudspeaker from which the music is heard. All of the microphones are applied to tlle sound modifying circuitry, but at different points in the configuration.”
The acoustical feedback loop which exists between the French Horn, the resonant pipes, and the loudspeaker, is part of an electronic feedback system which employs amplitude gated frequency translation.
As the performance begins the system is balanced. Sound is produced only when something in the acoustic-electronic feedback-loop system is unbalanced. The initial sounds produced by the French Hornist unbalance parts of the system, some of which rebalance themselves and unbalance other parts of the system. The performer’s task is to balance and unbalance the right thing at the right time, in the proper sequence.” https://brainwashed.com/mumma/creative.htm
https://newworldrecords.bandcamp.com/album/electronic-music-of-theater-and-public-activity
2. On the Other Ocean by David Behrman (1978) 23’45’’
“Originally released on Lovely Music in 1978. David Behrman’s On The Other Ocean is an improvisation by Maggi Payne and Arthur Stidfole centered around six pitches which, when they are played, activate electronic pitch-sensing circuits connected to the “interrupt” line and input ports of a microcomputer, Kim-1. The microcomputer can sense the order and timing in which the six pitches are played and can react by sending harmony-changing messages to two handmade music synthesizers.”
https://davidbehrmanlovely.bandcamp.com/album/on-the-other-ocean
3. Carl Stone – Shibucho (1984) 18’56’’
“Carl Stone is one of the pioneers of live computer music, and has been hailed by the Village Voice as “the king of sampling.” and “one of the best composers living in (the USA) today.” He has used computers in live performance since 1986. Stone was born in Los Angeles and now divides his time between Los Angeles and Japan.”
https://carlstone.bandcamp.com/track/shibucho-1984
4. Untitled Art Piece from Somewhere Beautiful by Natacha Diels (2025) 9’02’’
“Untitled Art Piece unravels cohesion through incessant rigor and the pressure of too many layers. It was created using a custom-built MIDI controller designed to harness the complex geometric patterns of geared drawing machines. Through a series of switches, I interpret these perfect forms into imperfect musical structures.”
https://natachadiels.bandcamp.com/album/somewhere-beautiful
https://natachadiels.com/about.html
5. The Expanding Universe by Laurie Spiegel (1980) 28’28’’
“Earlier than most, Laurie Spiegel recognized that computers could offer “the complete freedom to define any kind of world you wanted and work within it.” Her compositions from the ’70s and ’80s were coded instead of written, revealing new horizons for improvisation and experimentation while remaining accessible. In those decades, Philip Glass and Steve Reich were her contemporaries in the close-knit experimental scene of downtown New York. But Spiegel continues to set herself apart from the high-profile minimalist movement, preferring the term “slow change music.” Her innovations to American and electronic music have by now gone down in history, but her rise to recognition has been as slow and subtle as her compositions.””
https://lauriespiegel.bandcamp.com/album/the-expanding-universe
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