C&H 002: Ben Owen . Michael Pisaro | Available for Download

Ben Owen: 2 over, -1. Scored instruction for durations

Recorded: 20080527
52° 29' 41.12" N
13° 25' 32.23" E
Landwehrkanal, Berlin, Germany

The score is 10 minutes in duration. When the piece is played this specified duration is left to the perception of the performer, rather than the clock, to follow. The performance that takes place within this perceived 10 minutes is then shaped by the performer's sense of time. The actions occur as a result of these delineated durations.

For this recording, a radio was the instrument. The setting was an early May morning along the Landwehrkanal in Kreuzberg, Berlin. The sound of a generator is in close proximity, along with wind, people passing, morning songbirds, and a vehicle.








Michael Pisaro: Ascending Series (2.1) (to Joachim Eckl)

Performers: Antoine Beuger, flute, Jürg Frey, clarinet, Marcus Kaiser, violoncello, Radu Malfatti, trombone, André Möller, guitar, Christoph Nicolaus, stone harp.

Live Recording Date and Location: 25 July 2008, Neufelden, Austria (heim.art). (Engineered by Michael Pisaro)
Field Recording of the Grosse Mühl, taken near the Neufelden train station made by Michael Pisaro at ca. 5 p.m. on 21 July 2008.

Score published by Edition Wandelweiser, Haan, Germany.

This piece consists of a score (Ascending Series (2)) arranged in this case for the ensemble at hand during the Wandelweiser days in Neufelden in July, 2008. We were there as guests of artist Joachim Eckl (heim.art). The piece is to be played outdoors and/or accompanied by a field recording. The field recording used here was made by the composer near a waterfall in the river Die Grosse Mühl that runs through the Oberösterreich region and into the Danube. Besides the water itself, the town bells, cicadas and various voices and autos from the nearby train station are clearly audible, along with a host of unidentified environmental sounds. The recording was played back into the small concert space and there a simultaneous live recording was made of the ensemble piece. (We thus have a field recording situation for the recording of the piece itself.) The instrumental score stands in a somewhat variable relation to the recording environment. At times it is completely submerged, at other times, clear harmonies emerge: mostly it floats between these poles.

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