5. Shalom Sister
Jungle and Drum’n'Bass. An entire group of music styles built around variations of a drum loop sample – the notorious Amen Break from the track “Amen, Brother” by the Winstons.
Typically, a Jungle/DnB musican would take that break and then dis- and reassemble it to make something odd out of out. So I thought: what if I took a completely unrelated drum groove (like, one from the A Tätowierte Katz’ session), took it apart, and reassembled it so it would groove like the Amen Break?
This is, essentially, the idea behind this track: the original drum groove by Ralf Gruber was turned into a kinda-Amen-break, then a bass synth (virtual ARP2600 by Trilogy) was added, and a composed trombone lead was recorded at 2/3 speed and then pitched up. I also found some experiments I had done with different (HW and SW) solutions to get an acoustic guitar sound out of an electric one, and decided to recycle them, as they just happend to be in the right key.
Of course, a synth bass is boring – so I was very happy that Matt Erion (typically, a jazz trio-kinda guy) agreed to try and double the synth bass part – and he succeeded just brilliantly! Just listen to that bend in the last few bars in perfect unisono with the synth!
Matt Erion and his double bass
6. An Expensive Name for Frozen Water
Grand piano and lead instrument – the smallest (and thus, most flexible) one of the ensembles in classical music. I decided to give it a try.
The composition is something which I’d like to call “classical-20th-century-tonal”, perhaps in the spirit of composers such as Aleksandr Skriabin. And of course, with the 90-second-limit, everything happens rather quickly. After the introductory bassnote-chord motif on the piano, the theremin states the main theme twice in a slow part. What follows is a wicked second theme on the piano with the theremin playing a kind-of bass line in the high register, before the piano states a new motif again against the original theme in the theremin into a climax – before the coda brings it home quietly with a modified version of the intro.
The title, btw, is something my buddy Mops Moser said about sorbet – “ein teurer Name für gefrorenes Wasser” (an expensive name for frozen water).
For a lead instrument, my choice was “theremin” (and for the musician to perform it, again Kevin Kissinger). The idea for the piano part was Neil Alexander, but he had to bow out ’cause of scheduling issues – which meant I had to play the part.
Now if you ask “isn’t that part too challenging for you, Rainer”, the short answer is “yes” – the slightly longer one “it took me a considerable amount of time to get it done – but I did it!”
Kevin Kissinger: theremin
7. Bottom Freezer
Another one of the compositions written at Abseits, this works mainly with the intertwined playing of one of the elctric guitars and the electric bass guitar in the first section. Yes, there’s lots of odd meters in this track, and harmonies as well, but it feels rather normal, don’t you think?
After the introductory statement and the bridge, we might have a novelty: a solo by a squeaking fridge door (hence the song title). This was performed by Christine Caulfield, another twitter acquaintance. And finally, in the second part of the composed fridge solo, we have a simple synth part courtesy of Two Quiet Suns.
Bottom Freezer fridge part
8. Aqua Negra
Eclectic Blah. A project that had focused on music that was both radically and freely improvised and very danceable.
So what does this have to do with a project where composed music is the key?
At times, we tried things like the ensemble being conducted by a “leader” who based his conducting on a composition. The track Aqua Negra (from the Sansserif concert) is one example of that.
Eclectic Blah: Sansserif
There’s yours truly on synthesizer, and there’s Luke Cyrus Götze on electric guitar. Center stage (both physically and musically), however, was taken by Ralf Gruber on this one. Essentially, it’s a drum groove with guitar and synthesizer accompaniment. I really enjoy the snare drum sound on this one – it’s our Ralf Gruber.
(nota bene: this was a live recording – no fancy studio work on the sound).