Bring Me The Head Of Tony Geballe

I had an entirely different blog prepared but then in my inbox I saw this interview between two very special people; Markus Reuter and Tony Geballe and I decided to switch directions entirely. But before I get to that I was having a conversation with a friend the other night and we were talking about how some artists and individuals value their own worth by the judgement of others or by numbers - as in how many people bought a ticket and came to the show or attended the opening. I’m reminded of a quote that Mark Fisher wrote about his blog K-Punk: “All that is lacking is the will, the belief that what can happen in something that does not have authorisation/legitimation can be as important - more important - than what comes through official channels.” Although he’s writing about the democracy of blogging this statement could just as easily apply to any art form or activity. It reads like a call-to-arms for all artists, writer, musicians, etc...  The worth lies within the work itself; not in it’s legitimation.

When I watched the video with Markus and Tony it brought home the idea that I am not the musician on the caliber that Tony or Pietro are. I know my limitations as a player. But music speaks through me in my limited capacity all the same. There's a moment around the 1:06 hour mark in the interview where Tony talks about a time where he questioned his value as a player. It's quite remarkable. That moment made me question my own value - not in terms of considering the judgement of others or by ticket sales but my own value within the band itself. Everyone in a band has a role and sometimes that role extends beyond music. My role in ZXE is to give it meaning; a reason for being.

The interview between Tony and Markus is not for the feint of heart or for people not well adapted to musicology. First off, it’s long. Over an hour and a half. And it explores certain aspects of music that may be lost on some not well versed in these things. Nevertheless, I find the interview fascinating. Especially around the 47:00 minute mark where Tony talks about how a phrase (a group of notes played with a certain type of inflection and dynamics) can be heard as a single sound (consequestly - Sound Of Music). Then he relates that to a line in Shakespeare. It drives home the idea that "hearing" is a personal, singular relation that has as much to do with culture as to our own personal preferences. But there are so many aspects of this interview that, especially for a musician, are extraordinarly instructive. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvGkzOxoCoc

But, if that's too long to watch, here is a link to the video for Milky Black Sun of which Bradley Eros wrote the words to. This is essentially the second premier of a video for the album, the first being The Sound which was posted the other day. This song also features the wild prepared piano of none other than Matteo Ramon Arevalos:

https://vimeo.com/539725856

Till next time.

Richard

Art?

The art proofs are in for Sound Of Music. Anyone who has ever proofed a written text or something about to be printed will certainly attest to the idea that this is as far from art making as you can possibly get. All you engage with is spelling, punctuation, cut lines and bleed marks, the DPI of JPG files  - the list is endless and if something can go wrong, trust me, it will.

When I was ten I made a painting of “Washington Crossing The Delaware.” I worked very hard on it and then painted the title on the top part of the canvas. I wrote “Whashington Crossing The Delaware.” How stupid could you be? I mean, really, there the teacher is showing this painting in front of the class and everyone is obviously looking at my misspelling and not the painting itself. It’s like displaying your biggest foibles for all and sundry to see. “Yeah maybe the kid’s got a little talent but he can’t spell for s—t.” It haunts me today so I have Tony look over all my spelling for ZXE. The packaging for the CD will have no spelling errors - I promise. But that brings us to the other side of the equation. The painting itself (that no one can see).

I call myself an artist but really have no idea what art is. That’s not entirely true. I know what it is, it’s just that language is so desperately inferior in its description; plus my spelling is bad. I’ve heard and read so many definitions of art that my head is spinning just thinking of them all. One of my favorites is from Marcel Duchamp who wrote: “It’s not what you see that is art; art is the gap.” I also like Henri Matisse’s advice to artists that seems to have gone unheeded in the university system today: “Whoever wishes to devote themselves to painting should begin by cutting out his own tongue.” It reminds me when at the MOMI I saw David Lynch’s Lost Highway. This was before the premier. Before it ever hit a theater. Even before there was a review. No one knew anything about it. After the movie showed the entire audience was perplexed. When the lights came up you were allowed to ask questions. The very first questions was, and I quote: “Mr. Lynch, can you tell me what I just saw?” David Lynch gave the best answer I have ever heard from an artist trying to describe their work, perhaps with the exception of Duane Michaels. He said “you saw it. You just saw it.”

Which brings me to the cover of Sound Of Music. Is it art? Yes it is art. I’ve been asked numerous times what it means and have even heard a friend say; “It looks like a blob of white with some circles.” Yes, it is a blob of white with some circles. It’s also an X-ray of my father’s head, neck and shoulders taken just prior to his death overlaid by two opposing diagrams of black holes. Someone asked “do the two black holes represent the choice, upon death, between heaven and hell?” I have no answer for that question. In fact I would never have thought that question. But maybe, just maybe, that is the very gap that Duchamp speaks of.

I make art. My entire life is consumed by art in one way or another. Most all my friends are artists. I make art because that’s the world I wish to inhabit. And it’s never been easy. I remember my father, who was a minister, said that I believed too much in the human endeavor and was wanting in spiritual aspects. Later in life he changed his assessment and saw within me a different kind of spirituality than his own. But I never disagreed with him. Yes, I do believe in the human struggle which may not seem lofty in principle compared to religious salvation. Even the tiniest of human artistic acts, like the red hand prints on rocks in caves from thousands of years ago when the only shelter we had was a cold, dark cave, mean as much to me as the collected writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Because there, on that day, thousands and thousands of years ago, barely clad in some animal skin, and probably very hungry, a human being imprinted his/her hand onto a rock that boldly and blatantly said “I am here. I exist.” And thousands of years later I can see that handprint and say “Yes, I see your handprint and I am here and I am you.” That is the nature of art.

We’re almost done. Almost home. It was Twyla Tharp that said, “art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” Well, we’re on the home stretch now. Again, I want to thank everyone that’s written or spoken to me saying how much they enjoyed these updates. It makes me think that everything, and I mean everything, has a story. Even this little album of ours. I will leave you with this very short excerpt from my film Here Comes Everybody. This film is a "dream of western history." The small excerpt linked below groups together the Marilyn Monroe, Socrates, and Brynhild sections, where the child narrator implores us all to tell our own story. 

https://vimeo.com/538808218

Till next time,

Richard

Exiting The Vampÿrate's Castle

Someone who has been indirectly and directly linked to Zero Times Everything from its earliest days is Bradley Eros. I think of him as the Shadow Member of the band - always lurking in the shadows causing mayhem and inspiration. It’s written that he “is an artist, experimental filmmaker, mediamystic, maverick curator, sound collage, photographer, expanded cinema, performance, writer & poet, nomadic teacher and private investigator. He has created dozens of ‘zines, posters, soundtracks, unique artist’s books, and film performances in the unfixed universe of ephemeral cinema.” But, trust me, that’s not even the half of it.

It would be impossible to write convincingly and thoroughly about my friend Bradley so I’m not even going to try. He so full of contradictions that the minute I write something on paper about him or attempt to describe him in words I could very easily have written the exact opposite and it would ring true.

I have collaborated with Bradley more than with anyone else I can think of. And our collaborations come in myriad forms. For instance, recently I made music (on the fly) to accompany films he projected about insect sex in the Lower East Side garden Le Petite Versaille run by the illustrious Jack Waters and Peter Cramer. We recently also became the House DJ’s at Synesthesia in Brooklyn. We call ourselves the Vampÿrates. More on that later.

But I’m here to write specifically about his contributions to the Sound Of Music. In some respects he permeates the entire record. Besides collaborating we also hang out together quite a lot and always have a ton to say to one another about every topic under the sun. There's never a loss of words. You can often catch us talking about how the sunplay on early Egyptian Heiroglyphics inside pyramids was an early form of cinema, or the energy inhalation of black holes in space; we even collaborated on a short film called Black Hole Cinema that includes poetry written by Bradley that ZXE uses for the track Milky Black Sun - an extraordinary tongue twisting play on words that conjures up spiritual solar masses. This song also features the wild prepared piano of Matteo Ramon Arevalos who I wrote about in update number 9, number 9, number 9... Bradley is one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever been around and everything from the ideas of black holes, white holes, collapsing space, mathematics, colliding and collapsing stars, the art of the ephemeral, the cinema of expansion, etc… that we use for inspiration in the album or even for our live shows has its roots in our conversations and in that mediamystic brain of his.

He also lends his voice to the final track on the record called The Sound  whose words were written by my daughter Sønje Sylvarnes and he’s featured in the video of the song. In my interview with Mikey Kirkpatrick on the Wild Lakes radio show, from update number 10, I spoke about the chilling emptiness of New York City in April of 2020. The images that you see from the beginning of the video were taken in Soho and Little Italy in Manhattan from that time. There wasn’t a soul in sight. Chilling to say the least. It felt like the end of the world. Here’s a link to the video:

https://vimeo.com/519196422

One night Bradley and I were at a club and the DJ, although famous, was “dialing it in” - shall we say. We both thought “damn we could do better than that” and dared ourselves to do so. That moment birthed the Vampÿrates - the DJ duo of Bradley and I. Sometime later this year (here comes another shameless promotion) we will also release an album filled with, you guessed it - stolen material. As Bradley likes to say “what part of the name Vampÿrates do you not get?" New York is slowly beginning to open up and we performed on the rooftop of Synesthesia. We invited Reg Bloor to help us attack culture and she came to lend a hand - and a guitar to shred. Although in some respects this video is not directly about ZXE, the three people pictured in the video are all a part of ZXE; whether being a band member, collaborator, a great source of inspiration, or a friend. Here’s a link to the video which is a little over 26 minutes long, then we blew the electrical circuit. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x3X8VojAhQ&t=909s

In order to prep for this update I decided to read an interview with Bradley. It was the first time I ever did that in all the years I've known him. His closing sentence rang true to me and I will let you decide what "it" means.  And I quote: "It all begins with a moment of consciousness and personal responsibility, then from that awareness, our personal choices and actions follow."

In the next update let's talk about art.

Till then,

Richard

Lux Aeterna

If there’s one song I should speak about but haven’t yet it is Lux Aeterna or, as we affectionally call it - our Supper’s Ready. I imagine there are a few people reading this who have no idea what Supper’s Ready is and if that's true then you're probably too young to be reading this or I’m just showing 'hur gammal jag är'.

Lux Aeterna is the longest track on the record, coming in at slightly over 26 minutes, and our most ambitious track to date. It is an apocalyptic song in spiritual, political, and scientific terms. Growing up with a Scandinavian heritage I was deeply immersed in Scandinavian mythology although at my high school they only taught Greco Roman mythology. One of the most striking differences is that, in Scandinavian mythology, Ragnarok, or the coming end of the world, seems to always be imminent whereas the gods of Greco Roman mythology luxuriate in the splendor of immortality (and great wine) - or so it seems. Harsh winters as opposed to a Mediterranean climate probably had a lot to do with that. This idea of the end of things always captured my imagination.

A number of years ago there was a scientific convention and, for fun, they asked the attendant scientists how they thought the end of the world would come about. At the close of the convention they gathered all the answers and posted the ten most popular. Strange, I know. There’s a hint of Dr. Strangelove here. This gathering of scientists and their fun games starts off the piece. In the middle of Lux Aeterna are random texts from the Brave New World radio play that Rachael Guma dropped on us (written about in the update number 14). Closing Lux Aeterna we invited a wonderful singer named Patricia Rothberg to sing El Cant de la Sibilla which is a liturgical piece that prophecies and describes the Apocalypse. I’ve never heard prophecies about something so horrible as the end of the world sung so beautifully. I’ve included an early rehearsal snippet, not the final recording, from this section of the song to illustrate my point. This recording is just Patricia’s voice and Pietro’s guitar.

https://soundcloud.com/zero-times-everything/sibyl-rehearsal

Lux Aeterna is broken up into six sections. They are:

1. Zero Hour

2. The Ten Most Popular Ways The World Will End

3. Indeterminate Light

4. Brave New World

5. Cant De La Sibyl

6. Every Day Apocalypse

I am not going to say what the ten most popular ways the world will end are. In order to find out you will have to buy the CD or the digital download. But I will say that a new global pandemic is number three. And, as can be surmised, alien invasions are one of them.

Lux Aeterna is one of the darkest and most foreboding works ZXE has ever done. We performed it once live for a benefit but it’s dangerous to perform since I was only a few feet away from Rachael Guma as she was swinging a chain down onto a slab of metal at the front of the stage. As careful as her aim was it was still a bit nerve wracking to be near. 

Till next time,

Richard

Don't Lend This Woman Your Records. You've Been Warned.

Turntablism is defined as the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects and other creative sounds using one or more turntables. Enter Rachael Guma.

We invited Rachael to join us in the making of a piece called Lux Aeterna. She is a multi-media artist, maker of beautiful animation films, a foley artist, theramist (I’m sure that’s not a word but it implies she plays the theremin), a turntablist, and much more.

When Rachael came to the studio to record with us she brought along what looked like a Fritz-The-Cat bag of magic tricks. It was like Mary Poppins’ bag that, although only a foot in depth, contains an endless mountain of odds and ends and noisemakers. I swear she reached deep within and pulled out a four foot long hunting sword from this small little bag but I've been told that was only a dream I had. She also brought along a small plastic turntable and a shopping bag of records, some with heavy tape positioned at various points on the disc. I immediately thought that I’d never lend her my albums if this is how she would treat them.

The song we were recording was essentially already written and for this recording session we were focused on recording Rachael’s part. She had never heard the song before so she had to respond to what we did without any forethought. Once her table was set up with various sundry elements and I got the recording gear ready I said to her; “Okay Rachael - you start us off.” This is like throwing someone into the lion’s den. Some people would have shied away, some would ask what key the song is in or how fast the song is or mood or…… She didn’t blink and started playing one of her records with the thick tape strategically placed so the record would skip at preordained spots. I did mention that I would never lend her one of my records. What she created was akin to a glorious fanfare gone horribly wrong that fell into a repetitive scratch. I loved what she did so much that I kept it and how the song begins on the record is exactly what Rachael played for us that night. Talk about nailing it on the first try - well that’s the definition.

But even more remarkable was what came during the middle section of the song where she began to randomly drop the needle on a record that was a radio play of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World  that depicts a futuristic dystopian society. Thankfully this record is in the public domain. The sections and words she randomly dropped the needle on were so perfect for this song that I truly believe that this moment and her improvisational performance was divine providence. I know, it’s only a song, but, sometimes, it seems music guides us in the right direction. There is no other explanation.

Here is a short clip of the magic of Lady Rachael as she puts her turntable styings through a series of pedals and you'll see why I titled this update as I did.

https://vimeo.com/391080656

For my next blog I will write a short piece about our longest song to date. 

Until then, be well.

Richard

Coffee And Percussion

Mike Evans likes coffee. I like coffee. Sometimes we get together and have coffee. Sometimes we get together with Patrick Grant because he likes coffee too. In fact I was at the Goya show at the Met the other day and Mike called me to get together for some coffee. Although I don't think Mike ever tasted Tony's coffee which is the best coffee I've ever had and that's how we start every mixing session at String Theory Studios.

Mike Evans is a percussionist extraordinaire. I never wonder what Mike was like as a little boy because, at heart, he is still that little boy. And that's why I asked Mike to lend his ear and talents to a couple of projects including ZXE's Sound Of Music. He plays on several tracks; especially the closing track The Sound  where he displays his finger drumming virtuosity. He invited me to his basement in downtown Brooklyn to record him. The basement is short and not meant for people of my height - I only banged my head about six times - and it is filled to the brim with all sorts of sound making implements ranging the entire world. He speaks of a piece of metal he found at a flea market as if talking of a lover. Here is a clip of that afternoon of wonder that I will never forget. The end of the clip segues into the ending of the song The Sound with the voice of Bradley Eros.

https://vimeo.com/391079060

I look forward to getting that coffee with MIke as I always do. His accomplishements are beyond the beyond. Here's the short list of people he has worked with: Ron Anderson, Jeff Arnal, Audio Artists, Claire Barratt, Samm Bennett, Jac Berrocal, Carla Bley, Naval Cassidy, James Chance, Martha Colburn, Combustible Edison, Lol Coxhill, EasSide Percussion (ESP), Roger Ely (the Devil’s Chaueffeur), Nicolas Dumit Estevez, Ken Filiano, Fast Forward (Gobo), Chris Ferris, Michael Gira (Angels of Light, Swans), Gisburg, Gilbert Godfried, God Is My Co-Pilot, David Grubbs, Alexander Hacke (Einsturzende Neubauten), Susan Hefner, Steve Horowitz’s Code Ensemble, Jarboe (Swans), Pamelia Kurstin, Skip LaPlante’s Music for Homemade Instruments, Zach Layton, Gen Ken Montgomery, Neil Leonard, Aimee Mann, Karen Mantler, Sean G. Meehan, Donald Miller, Eric Mingus, Gordon Monahan, Joe Morris, Michelle Nagai, Anders Nilsson, Evan Parker, Andrea Parkins, Maxime De La Rochefoucauld, William Parker, Yvette Perez’s Birdbrain, Yvette Perez’s Mitra Sumara, Gino Robair, Lary Seven, Elliot Sharp, Moe! Staiano, LaDonna Smith, David Simons, Jesse Stewart, the Talking Band, Toronto Dance Theatre, Stephen Vitiello, Christopher Walken, Jason Willet, Peter Zummo’s Noisy Meditation Band, John Zorn..............and Zero Times Everything.

For my next blog I will explore turntablism and its effect on music making.

Richard

Oculus Part 2

In order to work with the Oculus composition and chance itself I modified a roulette wheel. The note circles in the Oculus diagram taken as sets of 3 bound a triangle. The top triangle (triangle number 1) is bounded by the notes C, A, and E comprising an A minor chord. There are 18 triangles in the Oculus composition. In a roulette wheel there’s 38 possible numbers, two of them being zero. Leaving the two zero’s alone leaves 36 possible numbers. 36 divided by 2 is 18 making the roulette wheel perfect for chance operations in the Oculus score. Doubling up each number from 1 to 18 we used the roulette wheel to define the chords we were to use.

We each took turns spinning the wheel 13 times in total and the outcome was 5, 3, 7, 14, 17, 14, 2, 15, 14, 8 , 12, 12, and 5 sequentially. From these numbers we built triads from the corresponding triangles. The triads, in order, were:

05 = F A C#

03 = A E D

07 = D C# G

14 = G F# Bb

17 = D Bb F

14 = G F# Bb

02 = A F D

15 = E D G#

14 = G F# Bb

08 = D B G

12 = C# G D

12 = C# G D

05 = F A C#

A few things that stand out are the three times that the roulette ball landed on 14. Also that the number 5 was hit first and last. These chords became a structural device for several sections in Oculus. The opening triad that is first struck and starts the piece is number 5 or F, A, and C#. Instructions to the players for the different sections were:

1. Play a note and only move to an adjacent note when you desire to move.

2. Play a numbered triad and only move to an adjacent numbered triad when you desire to move.

3. Only play the Blue Triads with the connecting Yellow Triad.

4. Only play the Red Triads with the connecting Yellow Triad.

5. At a certain point we will all play a specific Triad that was dictated by the Roulette Wheel.

We used a metronome to be precise (as one’s timing is) as to each of our changes.

We invited the musician Zach Layton to join us so we would have four guitarists for the score. I thought Zach would be a perfect addition to realize Markus' score and I quote; “Zach Layton is a guitarist, composer, curator, improviser, teacher and video artist based in Brooklyn. His work investigates unconscious autonomic musical impulses via improvisation and indeterminacy. Using an EEG, which monitors brainwave signal in realtime, he is able to sonify and visualize this stream of unconscious data. His music involves a combination of digital and analog processes, field recordings and electric guitar played in non-standard tunings.” This is the bio on his Soundcloud page. I also know him to have a killer mod synth unit.

http://www.zachlaytonindustries.com is a link to his webpage. I’ve played a few times with Zach as part of the multi disciplinary group Optipus headed by the one and only Bradley Eros. The link to the video shows us beginning to work on the piece which started out awkwardly as we’re all trying to find our footing but soon we did and that is revealed in the final piece on the record.

https://vimeo.com/519255244

But for all the intense descriptions in the bio, Zach also just loves playing the guitar and playing music. When he first arrived Tony started playing some beautiful spacey guitar and we all jumped in and improvised along. This improvisation was edited down and is called Coda on the record.

Till next time,

Richard

Oculus Part 1

In 2018 I found myself again in Berlin (my favorite city outside of New York) and I met up with Markus Reuter for a drink. He is a prolific composer and extraordinary musician. http://www.markusreuter.com/  is the link to his webpage. I would recommend everyone to check it out. One of the things that immediately jumps out at you when you’re with Markus is how consumed he is by music. Music is his life. I don’t know how many albums he has but I think he’s threatening Frank Zappa’s output. He actually reminds me of Zappa with the immense diversification of output that he has. His bandcamp page is about a mile long. As I’m writing this I am listening to his String Quartet No. 1 Heartland  but I could just as easily be listening to Falling For Ascension; an electric guitar ensemble workout, or the beautiful haunting ambient quietude of Gratitude, Vol.1. His output is really breathtaking. 

https://iapetus-store.com/album/string-quartet-no-1-heartland

While we were at the bar he described a few of his methodologies to music making. It seems he is always scheming ways to excite the muse. One diagram he drew on a napkin really intrigued me. It was a series of adjacent triangles with circles drawn at each point. In each circle he would place a musical note. He called it an Oculus. The idea was that when you played a note the very next note you could play had to be connected in the diagram to the note you just played. If you were at the top of the diagram your only choice was either of two notes. The most possibilities you had were six notes if you found yourself in the middle of the diagram. His stated mission with this type of working method was to (as I paraphrase his words) use a compositional system that basically disallows the musicians to play intuitively. The musician has to follow rules which serve to create really strange melodies and harmonies. This brings to mind the idea of what it means to play intuitively or, vice versa, to play against your intuition. Having played Markus' score I can certainly attest to the results and the idea that these so-called "rules" were actually quite liberating. Perhaps our own "intuitive" playing is only a set of "rules" that we have unconsciously given ourselves. 

I don’t know if I begged, pleaded, cajoled, swore allegiance to some nefarious cult, or promised to buy the next round of drinks but he agreed to make an Oculus for ZXE. Once again I have to say this is one of the reasons you do a double album. To embrace the experiment itself. The jpg below shows the Oculus composition that Markus made for us. It now hangs framed in my office.

One of the things I also admire about Markus is that he specifically told me not to get too bogged down with any conceptual ideas about the piece. That it was just a means to an end; to make music. I took that to heart and in the next update I will show how I interpreted what Markus said to me and the license I took to modify things. I also invited Zach Layton to join ZXE for the realization of Markus' piece which resulted in the recording of another song on Sound Of Music called Coda.

Tack så mycket,

Richard