a pitch lattice of perfect fifths and harmonic sevenths: la monte young's the well tuned piano

Considered by the composer to be his most important work, The Well Tuned Piano is a somewhat lengthy improvisational piece - 5 or 6 hours is typical - based around a specific tuning on a Bosendorfer grand piano, first composed in 1964 and revisited frequently since then. Tonight on Avant Gardening... we'll play the 1987 released Gramavision version, recorded n New York May 10 1981 between the hours of 6:17 and 11:18 pm.

"La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano is an enthralling marathon a non-stop performance at once wacko and visionary" - Newsweek, 1987

"The Well-Tuned Piano is a work of tremendous vision; those who are willing to give it the time and effort it takes will find it one of the great monuments of modern culture." - Mark Swed, L.A. Herald Examiner, 1987

"La Monte Young began work on his magnum opus, The Well-Tuned Piano, in 1964. For 27 years he kept the tuning a secret - only a few close friends knew it. In 1991, with the use of a calculator, a tunable Yamaha DX7, and a CD player with an A-to-B button, I tuned my synthesizer to the Gramavision recording of the work and figured out ten pitches of the tuning. Why not all 12? Because one pitch, G#, never appears on that recording of the work, and another, C#, only appears in one five-minute passage on the fifth CD. I told La Monte that I had figured out the tuning and wanted to publish an analysis of the work. He thought it over and agreed that it was time to release the tuning into public discourse." Kyle Gann, 1997

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Playlist:

1. 'The Well Tuned Piano' by La Monte Young from The Well-Tuned Piano 81 X 25 6:17:50 - 11:18:59 PM NYC rec 1981 released 1987

graduation is a very important event / i don't wanna: the contradictory histories of henry flynt

“My music is a sophisticated, personal extension of the ethnic music of my native region of the United states. In all of my experimentation, I assert myself as an autochthon (colloquially, a “native” or “folk creature”)—siding with the emotional experience and the musical languages of the autochthonous communities. In particular, I assert that the objective sound elements of blues and country music are demonstrably incommensurate with the categorization of sound in European musicology—as for example in the use of an unaccented glissando on the beat as a “note”—and in non-arithmetical division of the beat.”

- Henry A. Flynt Jr., 'The Meaning of My Avant Garde Hillbilly and Blues Music, 1980 (revised 2002)

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Playlist:

1. Henry Flynt, Violin Strobe from 'New American Ethnic Music Volume 3: Hillbilly Tape Music', recorded 1978/ released 2003
2. Henry Flynt, Graduation from 'Graduation and Other New Country and Blues Music', 1975-9/ 2001
3. Henry Flynt, Jumping Wired from 'Hillbilly Tape Music', 1976/ 2001
4. Henry Flynt, Sky Turned Red from 'Back Porch Hillbilly Blues Vol 1' 2002
5. Henry Flynt, Solo Spindizzy from 'New American EthnicMusic Vol 2: Spindizzy' 1971/ 2003
6. Henry Flynt, Celestial Power from 'Graduation and Other New Country and Blues Music', 1975-9/ 2001
7. Henry Flynt, C Tune from 'C Tune', 1980
8. Henry Flynt & the Insurrections, Goodby Wall St. from 'I Don't Wanna', 2004
9. Henry Flynt & the Insurrections, Sky Turning Red from 'I Don't Wanna', 2004
10. Henry Flynt & the Insurrections, Dreams Away from 'I Don't Wanna', 2004
11. Henry Flynt, Central Park Transverse #1 from 'Raga Electric', 1963
12. Henry Flynt, Central Park Transverse #2 from 'Raga Electric', 1963
13. Henry Flynt, Central Park Transverse #3 from 'Raga Electric', 1963
14. Henry Flynt, Central Park Transverse #4 from 'Raga Electric', 1963
15. Henry Flynt & Nova'Billy, Amphetamine Rhapsody from 'Nova'Billy', 2007
16. Henry Flynt & Nova'Billy, I Was A Creep from 'Nova'Billy', 2007
17. Henry Flynt & Nova'Billy, Double Spindizzy from 'Nova'Billy', 2007
18. Henry Flynt, Solo Virginia Trance from 'New American Ethnic Music Vol 2: Spindizzy' 1971/ 2003
19. Henry Flynt, Blue Sky, Highway and Thyme from 'Back Porch Hillbilly Blues Vol 1' 2002
20. Henry Flynt/ C. C. Hennix, Warriors of the Dharma from 'Dharma/ Warriors' 2008

living in the world / the blindfold test : peter stapleton

live on the show tonight : Peter Stapleton talking about the lesser known aspects of a 30 year music practice, from the experimentalism of the mid 1990s onwards, including gallery installation sound works, film-sound collaborations, and the use of shortwave radio as an instrument.

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Playlist:

1. Peter Stapleton, 'Summer Rain', piece for the Bunker sound art series at Christchurch Art Gallery, 2011.

2. Peter Stapleton, 'Is Not the Sea Full of Green Islands' soundtrack to exhibition by Rose Stapleton, the Honeymoon Suite, Dunedin, 1993/4

3. Rain, untitled/unreleased track, 1997

4. Flies Inside the Sun, 'The Black Ship' from Cactus Sky, 1998

5. Eye, 'Insomniac', from Black Ice, 2005

6. PSN Electronic, 'Teleporter 1', installation piece for Etherradio, exhibition curated by Zita Joyce for Cloudland: Digital Art from Aotearoa at ISEA Singapore, July 2008, from Teleporter 9
7. PSN Electronic, 'Teleporter 9b', live at the Substation, ISEA Singapore, July 2008, from Teleporter 9

8. PSN Electronic, 'The Ten Year Anniversary of Bad Sleep', Teleporter 10, live at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2009

9. Peter Stapleton, 'Lift', collaborative soundtrack for installation by Katharina Jaeger, The Physics Room Contemporary Art Space, Christchurch, 2002

10. Peter Stapleton, 'Pool', collaborative soundtrack for installation by Katharina Jaeger, Campbell Grant Galleries, Christchurch / Blue Oyster Contemporary Art Space, Dunedin, 2008

11. Peter Stapleton, 'Dawn', audio visual collaboration with Kim Pieters, 2008

12. Peter Stapleton, 'Epilogue to Blood Meridian', composition for multiple voices, for Sound in the Cracks festival, Dunedin Public art Gallery, 2008

13. Peter Stapleton, Tristan Dingemans, & Jim Currin, live score for film, part of the Sound in the Cracks festival, Dunedin Public art Gallery, 2008

14. Flies Inside the Sun, 'La Maga', from The Invisible Pyramid, 2003

15. Sleep, 'Lines of Flight, from Enfolded in Luxury, 1998

16. Rain, 'Tusalava', from Sycamore, 1997

'into vast gardens of ether and lightning' : angus maclise

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Playlist:


1. Angus MacLise, 'Another Druid's Nestalum', from Brain Damage in Oklahoma City (Siltbreeze, 2000)
2. Angus MacLise 'Cembalum', from Brain Damage in Oklahoma City (Siltbreeze, 2000)
3. Angus MacLise, 'Description of a Mandala', from The Cloud Doctrine (Sub Rosa, 2002)
4. Angus MacLise (with Hetty MacLise), 'Epiphany', from Brain Damage in Oklahoma City (Siltbreeze, 2000)
5. Angus MacLise, 'The First Subtle Cabinet', from The Cloud Doctrine (Sub Rosa, 2002)
6. Angus MacLise, 'Tunnel Music #1', from The Cloud Doctrine (Sub Rosa, 2002)
7. Angus MacLise, 'Tunnel Music #2', from The Cloud Doctrine (Sub Rosa, 2002)8. Angus MacLise, 'Tunnel Music #3, from The Cloud Doctrine (Sub Rosa, 2002)9. Angus MacLise, 'Drum Solo', from Brain Damage in Oklahoma City (Siltbreeze, 2000)10. Angus MacLise (with David Moore), 'Haight Riot Mime', from Brain Damage in Oklahoma City (Siltbreeze, 2000)
11. Angus MacLise, 'Loft College', from Brain Damage in Oklahoma City (Siltbreeze, 2000)
12. Angus MacLise, 'Smothered Under Astral', from Astral Collapse (Locust, 2003)
13. Angus MacLise, 'Two Speed Trance', from The Cloud Doctrine (Sub Rosa, 2002)
14. Angus MacLise, 'Shortwave - India', from The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (Siltbreeze, 1999)
15. Angus MacLise, 'Shortwave Radio', from The Cloud Doctrine (Sub Rosa, 2002)16. Angus MacLise, 'Heavenly Blue pt. 4 & 5', from The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (Siltbreeze, 1999)
17. Angus MacLise, 'The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda', from The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (Siltbreeze, 1999)

18. Angus MacLise, 'Chumlum' from The Cloud Doctrine (Sub Rosa, 2002)

19. Angus MacLise, '6th Face of the Angel', from Astral Collapse (Locust, 2003)

20. Angus MacLise, 'Blasitude', from The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (Siltbreeze, 1999)

21. Angus MacLise, 'Humming in the Night Skull', from The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (Siltbreeze, 1999)

22. Angus MacLise, 'Cloud Watching' from Astral Collapse (Locust, 2003)

23. Angus MacLise (with Tony Conrad), 'Electronic Mix for 'Expanded Cinema', from The Cloud Doctrine (Sub Rosa, 2002)

24. Angus MacLise (with Tony Conrad & John Cale), Trance #1, from The Cloud Doctrine (Sub Rosa, 2002)

25. Angus MacLise (with Tony Conrad & John Cale), Trance #2, from Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music : First A Chronology 1921-2001 (Sub Rosa, 2002)

26. Angus MacLise (with Tony Conrad, Jackson Mac Low, Hetty MacLise & Henry Flynt), 'Dreamweapon Benefit for the Oklahoma City Police Dept. Pt. 1', from Brain Damage in Oklahoma City (Siltbreeze, 2000)

27. Angus MacLise (with Tony Conrad, Jackson Mac Low, Hetty MacLise & Henry Flynt), 'Dreamweapon Benefit for the Oklahoma City Police Dept. Pt. 2', from Brain Damage in Oklahoma City (Siltbreeze, 2000)

a deaf piano : alex mackinnon

"Alexander MacKinnon’s place in Dunedin’s current generation of experimental sound practitioners is as multifarious as it is catalytic, with his occasional live solo appearances supplemented with frequent collaborative performances in the groups Khomet, Dirt Room, the more recent Piano Queen Rainbow Star Telephone, and a duo with drummer Lee Noyes, as well as a recent stint in Matt Middleton’s rock band The Aesthetics, work on his sound installation practice (characterized by its lo-fi take on media materiality, as well as its careful attention to the spatiality of sound), a central place as an event organiser around the None studio artist collective and in the wider Dunedin community with Alt Music’s distributed event series and the celebrated Lines of Flight festival, and publisher of the “craft DIY” record label Radio Jaundice."

"MacKinnon’s solo performance practice folds the mechanical, the electronic, the broken and the circuit bent into a space both graceful and harsh, with the sliding scale of volume and tonality amounting to electrifyingly engaged listening spaces which read sound history without collapsing its immediacy and sensual potential, prodding the moment of live expression for its sonic possibilities, and stretching the embodied ear of the listener all the way from shudderingly oceanic sweeps to microscopically attentive near-silence. Known for his transcendental approach to the guitar as expanded instrument, in which the laconic investigations of “free noise” tradition are wedded to both the catharsis of deconstructed rock mayhem and the incisive investigations of minimalist electronic composers, in MacKinnon’s repertoire sound is never allowed to rest on its laurels, and the medium is always interrogated, whether that medium be tape loops, guitar amplification, circuit bent radios, or manipulated resonance captured within glass vessels."

-Sally McIntyre, 2009

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We were excited about Alex MacKinnon's brief return to New Zealand to oversee the installation of an iteration of his work 'A Deaf Piano' in a large group show at City Gallery in Wellington, so of course we invited him up to Avant Gardening, to talk to him about the years he spent as organisational and musical catalyst in Dunedin, his many local collaborations, his installation work, 'Precious Metals', the band he began in Athens with Aliki Boufis, and life in his current home in London.

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Playlist:

1. Alex MacKinnon, My Mancer from 'Mancer' 2009 (Radio Jaundice)

2. Dirt Room, House No Orikata from 'Curses' 2008 (Radio Jaundice)

3. Alex MacKinnon, Mystic Precipice from 'Mystic Precipice' 2011

4. Alex MacKinnon, Fastest Double Kick in the World from 'Mystic Precipice' 2011

5. Alex MacKinnon, Three Seas Panegyric, unreleased

6. Precious Metals, live at Bios (excerpt)

7. Alex MacKinnon, The Many, unreleased 2010

8. Alex MacKinnon, An Orthodox Observation, 2010

9. UEB Systems (Alex Mackinnon & David Merritt), track 1, 'Recordings Wanganui', 2005/6 (Self Released)

10. Alex MacKinnon, Piano Coalescence, 'The Dirt Beneath the Daydream : A Collection of Sound from Aotearoa / New Zealand', The Wire / The Audio Foundation, 2009

11. Alex MacKinnon, The Good Ship Mutiny, from 'Dead House', 2008 (Radio Jaundice)

12. Alex MacKinnon & Lee Noyes, Bell Like Beat Up, from 7 inch lathe cut, 2008 (Root Don Lonie for Cash)

december's black children / when i die, hell awaits : Japanese psych-rock in the 2000s : LSD March, Kawaguchi Masami, Up-Tight and Suishou No Fune and related musics.

There are several different strands of what could be described as "Japanese psych" music. One of the most recent is also one of the more coherent - a quite distinctive breed combining very Japanese and very European traditions. Following on from the template established by the epochal ur-band of Japanese psych music, Les Rallizes Denudes (whose singular story will be covered in depth in a future Avant Gardening) - one of extreme volume, constant feedback, crunchingly minimal rhythms and structures and violent, discordant guitar playing, along with obligatory black leather jackets and sunglasses. From this influential structure, comes the lessons and structures demonstrated by the previous wave of Japanese psych bands, epitomised by similarly black leather clad icons like Keiji Haino (Fushitsusha, solo) and Jutok Kaneko (Kousokuya), largely documented on the PSF label and others through the 90s, who brought a greater level of experimentation, a tendency towards exploring a wider range of textures and modes.

This subsequent school, explored in tonight's show, was first identifiable as such on the 2003 compilation The Night Gallery. By retrospectively featuring bands from back in the mid 90s who didn't still exist by then, we add a few more transparent elements. Bands like LSD March and Up-Tight have added a structured rock linearity that traces from the Velvet Underground, where Shizuka and Suishou No Fune show the influence of shoegazing. There's a greater impression of a tendency to be looking outwards, both in the music and in the distribution: More and more albums by these bands are released on non-Japanese labels like Siwa, Slooow Tapes, 8MM and Holy Mountain. At the same time, there's a lot of energy put into self-releasing, and murky labyrinthine discographies that mimic the sounds on display here.

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Playlist:

1. Shizuka - 'Heavenly persona/ A Song for the World Left Behind' from Live: Traditional Aesthetics (Rec 1995 rel PSF 2008)
2. LSD March - 'Bisyonure No Kimi' from Under Milk Wood (Important, 2009)
3. LSD March - 'Yellow Sea' from Live (cd-ARCHIVE, 2006)
4. LSD March - 'Track 1' (no title) from Disc 3, Box (Self released, 2005)
5. LSD March - 'When I Die, Hell Awaits' from Kanashimino Bishounen (Siwa, 2004)
6. Broom Dusters - 'Soko' from Sound From the Bottom of the Tokyo Underground (rec circa 1996, rel Siwa, 2007)
7. Miminokoto - 'Dokonimo' from The Night Gallery vol 1 (Alchemy, 2003)
8. Miminokoto - 'Tokedasu' from U.S. Tour 2005 E.P. Live in Tokyo (Self released, 2005)
9. Kawaguchi Masami - 'Part 2' from Live in December (Public Eyesore, 2004)
10. Kawaguchi Masami New Rock Syndicate - '(Theme from) New Rock Syndicate' from Cat Vs Frog (Palindrone, 2007)
11. Kawaguchi Masami New Rock Syndicate - 'Melt' from Live in Japan 2007 (self released, 2008)
12. Doodles - 'Sunagatari' from The Night Gallery vol 1 (Alchemy 2003)
13. Up-Tight - 'Sweet Sister Oct 1998 at Studio' from Sweet Sister 1994-2003 (Self-released 2003)
14. Up-Tight - 'The Destruction' from The Beginning of the End (8MM, 2009)
15. Up-Tight - 'The Beginning of the End' from The Beginning of the End (8MM, 2009)
16. Suishou No Fune - 'Entrance to the Labyrinth' from The Gold Labyrinth (Blossoming Noise, 2008)
17. Suishou No Fune - 'Your Tears Drop From The Sky' from The Shining Star (Important, 2007)

18. Suishou No Fune - 'Endless Descent' from I Throw A Stone Into The Endless Depths (Slooow Tapes, 2007)

the whole point of no return / let me off please, I am so tired : robert wyatt

At Avant Gardening we're quite fond of following the more hidden threads across musical careers : in a recent show dedicated to Tom Rapp/Pearls Before Swine, we explored an artist arguably at his most dramatically diverting when he dipped briefly into the familiar narrative tropes only to then head radically away from the cliche. Tonight we present an eclecticism of a similar breadth. There's a strikingly obvious turning point early in the artistic life of the great British singer/ composer Robert Wyatt : the blonde, frequently shirtless drummer/singer for jazz/prog pioneers Soft Machine (and later Matching Mole) throws himself drunkenly out of a fourth floor window after too close an adherence to the Keith Moon formula of rotating tequila and Southern Comfort, and breaks his back... and becomes a depressive, culty songwriter in a triumph of (relative) artistry over adversity. This has always been the dominant opening strand for R. Wyatt 101, but the sting in the tail is a little longer than that.

Nearly 40 years since the accident, and Wyatt has gone on to become the most interesting, consistently shifting and developing member of that generation of English musicians who created what is now known as the "Canterbury Sound" of "progressive rock". And there's a condescension in the reception of the trajectory that comprehensively overshadows the ongoing career, that is belied by Wyatt's own response: to be a serious, ongoing figure who requires no pity but constantly acknowledges his situation as casting a long shadow over his life and his work. The need to listen closer applies to his unique singing voice: tremulous, deeply accented in sound and delivery yet profoundly expressive and addictive in its depths of feeling. It's the best kind of voice to present in terms of the argument between a technically "correct" voice of general precision and that of a person who has a singular take and will sing in a singular way.

Wyatt talks about his singing in terms of jazz, as a kind of "human horn", and he often sings beautiful wordless passages without defusing emotion or focus. He has an ongoing predilection for re-interpreting old songs from disparate sources - take for example his classic take on Chic's At Last I Am Free. This tendency in the work - most likely a kind of modesty at odds with the 70s tradition of singer-songwriters he isn't really a part of - sometimes overshadows an engagement with his own songwriting. The knowledge of and love for a ridiculously open array of music reflected in the sonic textures covered across those decades is not contradicted by the range of themes expressed verbally, but the style of songwriting is much tighter, and no less compelling for it. Throughout his career as a songwriter - first expressed in tracks like Soft Machine's Moon in June and Matching Mole's Signed Curtain - he's been a striking adherent to the British schools of intelligently whimsical wordplay, perhaps somewhere between Lewis Carroll and Samuel Beckett. Somewhere in there, he's become a master of honing this tendency to a very sharp communicative point indeed... It's in evidence on tracks like the paired Alifib/Alife off Rock Bottom ("Alifib, my larder" sings the recently crippled Wyatt to his wife and ongoing collaborator, Alfreda Benge. "I'm not your larder" is the response, several minutes later) and the later Free Will and Testament off Shleep.

Of course, the sharper the point, the smaller the detail it illuminates, and Wyatt's is a deceptively modest art, one that highlights the important difference between this expressive "everyman" and the more sterile notion of the "universal". A lover and responsible appropriator of many forms from bluntly commercial pop music through many histories of jazz, world music and punk, he is also a specialist in adapting tools available with clarity and laterality. Witness the 1981 Radio Experiment LP, where he was given the tools of a small Italian radio station studio for a week to develop from scratch an equivalent of an album and did so with only the items to hand from a constant process of solitary improvisation... or also the sometimes derided tendency to use the most basic of preset sounds from 80s keyboards to great expressive effect.

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Playlist:

1. Robert Wyatt, Sea Song from 'Rock Bottom' (1974)
2. Robert Wyatt, At last I Am Free from 'Nothing Can Stop Us' (1980)
3. Soft Machine, Moon in June from 'BBC Recordings 1967-71' (rel 2003)
4. Matching Mole, Signed Curtain from 'Matching Mole' (1972)
5. Matching Mole, March Ides I from 'Smoke SIgnals' (rec 1972, rel 2001)
6. Matching Mole, Starting in the middle of the day we can drink our politics away from 'Little Red Record' (1972)
7. Robert Wyatt & Friends, Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Road from '1974 Live at Drury Lane' (rec 1974, rel 2008)
8. Robert Wyatt, I'm A Believer from 'Peel Sessions' (rec 1974, rel 1987)
9. Robert Wyatt, Alifib from 'Rock Bottom' (1974)
10. Robert Wyatt, Alife from 'Rock Bottom' (1974)
11. Robert Wyatt, Muddy Mouse (c) Which in Turn Leads To Muddy Mouth from 'Ruth is Stranger Than Richard' (1975)

12. Robert Wyatt, Solar Flares Burn For You from 'Solar Flares Burn For You' (rec 1975, rel 2003)
13. Robert Wyatt, Opium War from 'Radio Experiment Rome, February 1981' (rec 1981, rel 2009)
14. Robert Wyatt, Holy War from 'Radio Experiment Rome, February 1981' (rec 1981, rel 2009)
15. Robert Wyatt, Prove Sparse from 'Radio Experiment Rome, February 1981' (rec 1981, rel 2009)
16. Robert Wyatt, Shipbuilding from 'Shipbuilding' 7" (1982)
17. Robert Wyatt, Amber & The Amberines from 'Works in Progress EP' (1984)
18. Robert Wyatt, Pigs (in there) from 'Abuse - Artists for Animals' compilation (1986)
19. Robert Wyatt, Gharbzadegi from 'Free Will and Testament' (2003)

20. Robert Wyatt, The Animals Film (excerpt) from 'The Animals Film LP' (1982)
21. Robert Wyatt, We Got an Arts Council Grant from 'Solar Flares Burn For You (rec 1973, rel 2003)
22. Robert Wyatt, Vandalusia from 'Old Rottenhat' (1985)

23. Robert Wyatt, Alliance from 'Old Rottenhat' (1985)
24. Robert Wyatt, The Sight of the Wind from 'Dondestan' (1991)
25. Robert Wyatt/Chris and Cosey, Unmasked from 'A Short Break' EP (1992)
26. Robert Wyatt/Pascal Comelade, September Song (w Pascal Comelade) from 'September Song' EP (2000)
27. Robert Wyatt, Was a Friend from 'Shleep' (1997)
28. Robert Wyatt, Free Will and Testament from 'Shleep' (1997)
29. Robert Wyatt, The Verb from 'Solar Flares Burn For You' (rec 2003, rel 2003)
30. Robert Wyatt, Forest from 'Cuckooland' (2003)
31. Robert Wyatt, Lullaloop from 'Cuckooland' (2003)
32. Robert Wyatt, Stay Tuned from Comicopera' (2007)
33. Robert Wyatt, A Beautiful Peace from 'Comicopera' (2007)
34. Robert Wyatt, A Beautiful War from 'Comicopera' (2007)
35. Robert Wyatt, Out of the Blue from 'Comicopera' (2007)
36. Wyatt/Atzmon/Stephen, Lullaby for Irena from 'For the Ghosts Within' (2010)
37. Robert Wyatt & Friends, Memories from '1974 Live at Drury Lane' (rec 1974, rel 2008)