aisatsana

so the hauntingly beautiful performance from the Barbican - the acoustic piano piece described in the past as "Rhubarb II" and "better than anything on drukqs" - is now with us in full, studio quality. this is a track that cannot be described; its aching beauty is an instant reminder of that combination of raw, unfiltered sentiment and far-reaching technical skill that richard - and only richard - can possess.

with that in mind, the decision to have a birdsong track playing in the mix makes a lot of sense. it's a lovely, natural sound that goes well with the tone and feel of the track. on its own, this isn't a particularly new or innovative idea - we've heard tracks from the likes of Beck, The Beatles and Boards of Canada where a field recording of some bird chatter is put in the background.

but then something else occurred to me, and this is where that legendary AFX expertise comes into play. i remember reading an interview with La Monte Young in which he discusses pitch resonance - basically the idea that frequencies can combine and reinforce each other when they're at just the right balance. La Monte Young was a huge figure in the foundation of minimalism in the 1960s and 70s, and has had decades of education and experience with drones and harmonization.

http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/interview_young.html

 

  Quote

If you create music that is in tune with this hum, then there can never be an interference with the music that you are creating. For example, when I sing outdoors, I listen to the resonance of the canyon or the ocean, or whatever is the natural resonance of the woods... Let's say I'm walking through the woods. I sit and listen to the resonant frequency. It's easy to hear it because the birds sing at this frequency. They tune in to the resonance of the woods. You hear different birdcalls reflecting this resonance, although the calls are different. What is a resonance? A resonance is that frequency which, if you assume that you have two parallel walls, a resonant frequency is that frequency which starts on one wall, hits the other wall, and gets back to wall number 1 just in time to reinforce the very next positive pulse of the frequency. This is resonance of the simplest type. These occur in many different kinds of situations including outdoors, in canyons and in caves, tunnels, and in the woods.

it is one thing to use an unrelated birdsong recording in a mix, like so many other musicians have done. but could it be that richard has actually crossed over yet another boundary of modern music, and all human measurement of awesomeness, with his recording of aisatsana?

what if aisatsana was actually recorded outdoors? what if he really made that step, and harnessed the very nature of audio in the wild, by creating a resonance between the piano chords and the birds that were actually present? this isn't to say he simply performed the track in the open; there could've been all manner of ways to make this work, anything from spectral tuning/manipulation of the chords to an extensive adjustment of the resonance around the birds' enclosure.


it is a little speculative, but it's a wonderful idea and it would be amazing if there was some truth to it. and it makes sense - if you think about what richard was trying to do here, this seems like the logical thing to do. the original Barbican performance was based on pitch adjustments (that was the whole point of that swinging setup) and given the many years richard has spent working with audio i would be very, very surprised if he wasn't aware of what La Monte Young discusses above - or at least a basic idea of this concept.

feel free to discuss, deride and/or speculate further. also general syro final track thread.

its alright

  On 9/23/2014 at 5:47 AM, The Caustic Window said:

its alright

Die.

dont want to do an a/b, is it different from barbicon? seems like it.

 

i think its great. could make myself a decent length rdj mellow piano mix now. some room for more...

Edited September 23, 2014 by very honest

from what I read (And what it sounds like) is that he has loud birds right outside the house of where he recorded the piano (indoors).

beautiful song. I wrote a song once that was my wife's name backwards, seemed like a really generic romantic thing to do back when I wrote it, but now that I know RDJ did the same thing the idea is more cute to me

Tbh, i prefer the live version. The sound of the swing was part of the track, imo.

 

Besides that, perfect ending of a brilliant album!

Yeah, it's a great track, but the swinging sound/detuning from the frame distorting/doppler made it special in the Barbican recording.

Haven't heard the album yet but is this version played by hand or "programmed", like the live one? The short preview I heard sounded pretty "live".

I'd say it's programmed, with velocity changes. The rhythm sounds pretty rigid.

Since hearing the album, it was my least favourite until i listened to it last night in the dark through headphones. now i love it muchly

those weird thud's before some of the notes are quite interesting too

  On 9/23/2014 at 5:43 AM, Rhombix said:

 

so the hauntingly beautiful performance from the Barbican - the acoustic piano piece described in the past as "Rhubarb II" and "better than anything on drukqs" - is now with us in full, studio quality. this is a track that cannot be described; its aching beauty is an instant reminder of that combination of raw, unfiltered sentiment and far-reaching technical skill that richard - and only richard - can possess.

 

 

That's just pure fanboyism. I love the track.

asian santa

 

From that awesome Pitchfork interview… you all have probably read it. It belongs in this thread...

 

  Quote

 

"RDJ: Yeah, it's written for my wife. When I first did that, I did this installation-y art thing at the Barbican with a remote orchestra. [The song] was made on my Disklavier [controlled piano], which was swung from the roof at that gig, and there was this massive Doppler effect. It is pretty mental. There's a bad cameraphone version of it on YouTube, but in the flesh it's fucking amazing. To listen to this piano swinging, you almost see all the notes stretching out, so it'll hit you at different times. I never knew if it was going to work or not, and everyone was like, “What the fuck is he swinging a piano for?” But when we actually got it going, we were just like, “fucking hell.” It was so extreme. My friends were like, “Are the strings stretching?” The pitch deviation is that big, it sounds like the actual frame is contorting. Maybe it is, I don't know!"

 

 

 

 

I love this track. I couldn't listen to it without getting teary for the first few times I heard it.

Edited September 23, 2014 by J3FF3R00

nannou, nanou & now : aisatsana...

 

 

after he'll compose one for his daughter...

 

 

 

three years after, he'll do a song for his paramour...

 

 

 

twoism bringing the avian knowledge:

 

"If anybody is wondering what the birds are in the background of the piano track Aisatsana. The track starts with Blackbirds singing, the chip chip calls are house sparrows. There's song thrushes also in the mix. The loudest very melodic call is from the little wren.

 

Beautiful track."

  On 9/23/2014 at 6:47 AM, goDel said:

Tbh, i prefer the live version. The sound of the swing was part of the track, imo.

 

Besides that, perfect ending of a brilliant album!

 

  On 9/23/2014 at 9:50 AM, jasondonervan said:

twoism bringing the avian knowledge:

 

"If anybody is wondering what the birds are in the background of the piano track Aisatsana. The track starts with Blackbirds singing, the chip chip calls are house sparrows. There's song thrushes also in the mix. The loudest very melodic call is from the little wren.

 

Beautiful track."

 

That's quite the knowledge.

  On 9/23/2014 at 9:50 AM, jasondonervan said:

twoism bringing the avian knowledge:

 

"If anybody is wondering what the birds are in the background of the piano track Aisatsana. The track starts with Blackbirds singing, the chip chip calls are house sparrows. There's song thrushes also in the mix. The loudest very melodic call is from the little wren.

 

Beautiful track."

Bill Odie in the house

Aphex Twitcher

:)

  On 9/23/2014 at 9:27 AM, usagi said:

asian santa

 

holy flol

  On 9/23/2014 at 10:46 AM, MadameChaos said:

a really beautiful track, hopefully they'll be more stripped down piano to come

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

please!

 

 

 

  On 9/23/2014 at 10:46 AM, MadameChaos said:

a really beautiful track, hopefully they'll be more stripped down piano to come

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

please!

 

 

 

asian santa pls

is now starting to remind me of ...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW08Pr5z7Gw

erm... BIOXLAT, sorry, your fluo green is great but illisible! Can u use the red, please? because "outch my eyes!"

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