Fourth Collage: "Peinzing"

This collage was broadcast on Dutch Radio 4 in the NPS program "Supplement" on may 18, 2003; 21.30 - 0.00.

[English Translation of the introduction]

EEN 'SABBATICAL' VAN 2½ UUR?

"Peinzing", heet de 2½ uur durende muziek-collage die Supplement op 18 mei 2003 uitzendt. Het verschil tussen 'muziek' en 'geluid' zal voor de luisteraar niet altijd even duidelijk zijn.

De verstilde pianoklanken van John Cage en Arvo Pärt omsluiten een breed scala aan klanklandschappen. Daartussenin zijn het soms 'gewone' popsongs die de route bepalen, zoals Paul Simon's 'Quiet': "I am heading for a time of quiet / When my restlessness is past / And I can lie down on my blanket / And release my fists at last".

Wie echter 'New Age' muziek verwacht zal bedrogen uitkomen, ondanks de walvis-, krekel- en andere natuurgeluiden. Soms is de gelaagde klanksamenstelling spannend, misschien wel confronterend. In de collage krijgen de gebruikte flarden muziek een nieuwe lading door de context waarin ze worden gebruikt. Wat die lading precies is, bepaalt de luisteraar zelf.

Wie er deze uitzending voor gaat zitten (verlichting op halve kracht, gordijnen gesloten, telefoon van de haak, géén bezoek) zal na afloop het gevoel hebben een intense reis gemaakt te hebben.
Een 'sabbatical', maar dan in 2 ½ uur.

Quiet

I am heading for a time of quiet
When my restlessness is past
And I can lie down on my blanket
And release my fists at last

I am heading for a time of solitude
Of peace without illusions
When the perfect circle
Marries all beginnings and conclusions

And when they say
That you're not good enough
Well the answer is
You're not
But who are they
Or what is it
That eats at what you've got
With the hunger of ambition
For the change inside the purse
They are handcuffs on the soul, my friends
Handcuffs on the soul
And worse

I am heading for a place of quiet
Where the sage and sweetgrass grow
By a lake of sacred water
From the mountain's melted snow

(Words & Music by Paul Simon)

Funeral Ikos

Why these bitter words of the dying, O brethren,
which they utter as they go hence?
I am parted from my brethren.
All my friends do I abandon, and go hence.
But whither I go, that understand I not,
neither what shall become of me yonder;
only God who hath summoned me knoweth.
But make commemoration of me with the song:
Alleluia.

But whither now go the souls?
How dwell they now together there?
This mystery have I desired to learn,
but none can impart aright.
Do they call to mind their own people, as we do them?
Or have they forgotten all those who mourn them
and make the song:
Alleluia.

We go forth on the path eternal,
and as condemned, with downcast faces,
present ourselves before the only God eternal.
Where then is comeliness? Where then is wealth?
Where then is the glory of this world?
There shall none of these things aid us,
but only to say oft the psalm:
Alleluia.

If thou hast shown mercy unto man, O man,
that same mercy shall be shown thee there;
and if on an orphan thou hast shown compassion,
the same shall there deliver thee from want,
If in this life the naked thou hast clothed,
the same shall give thee shelter there,
and sing the psalm:
Alleluia.

Youth and the beauty of the body
fade at the hour of death,
and the tongue then burneth fiercely,
and the parched throat is inflamed.
The beauty of the eyes is quenched then,
the comeliness of the face all altered,
the shapeliness of the neck destroyed;
and the other parts have become numb,
nor often say:
Alleluia.

With ecstacy are we inflamed if we but hear
that there is light eternal yonder;
that there is Paradise,
wherein every soul of Righteous Ones rejoiceth.
Let us all, also, Enter into Christ,
that all we may cry aloud thus unto God:
Alleluia.

From the Order for the Burial of Dead Priests,
translated from the Greek by Isabel Hapgood.

'Peinzing I'

• Alexei Lubimov - John Cage: In a Landscape
  Der Bote - ECM New Series 1771 461812-2 - 2002
• DNTel - Pillowcase
  Life is Full of Possibilities - Plug Research PR320106CD - 2001
• Autopoieses - c[] edit
  Full Swing Edits - Orthlong Musork orth 05- 2002
• Arno Peeters - Audentity II
  Aeroson - Mille Plateaux MP031 CD - 1996
• Paul Simon - Quiet
  You're the One - Warner Bros 47844 - 2000
• Jon Hassell - These Times...
  Dream Theory in Malaya - Editions EG EEGCD13 - 1981
• Thomas Köner - Daikan I + IV
  Daikan - Mille Plateaux MP 107 - 2002
• Christina Kubisch - Oase 2000
  Sonic Boom - 2000
• Biosphere - Green Reflections
  Cirque - Touch TO:55 - 2001
• Arno Peeters - Audentity - extended
  Aeroson - Mille Plateaux MP031 CD - 1996
• Echoes of Nature - Turkey Talk
  Jungle Talk: The Natural Sounds Of The Wilderness - Delta B000001V4S - 1993
• Eleni Karaindrou - Lament I
  Trojan Women - ECM New Series 1810 - 2002
• Nigel Ayers/John Everall/Mick Harris - Mesmeric Enabling Device part 2
  Mesmeric Enabling Device - Soleilmoon 01923 - 1997
• A Produce - Midnight Pond
  The Other World - Hypnos hyp 1804 - 1998
• Bass Communion - A Grapefruit in the World of Park
  Where Stalks the Sandman - Noh Poetry NPR 003 - 2001
• Kent Sparling - In a Mumbling Sky
  Under New Manna - Farfield Records/Emusic.com - 2000
• Susumu Yokota - Grass, Tree and Stone
  The Boy and the Tree - Leaf Label bay25cd - 2002
• Clint Mansell & Kronos Quartet - Coney Island Low
  Requiem for a Dream (2000 film) - Nonesuch 79611-2 - 2000
• Dhafer Youssef - La Priere de l'Absent
  Electric Sufi - Enja 9412-2 - 2002
• Jah Wobble - The Compound
  Umbra Sumus - 30Hertz cd 5- 1998
• Jah Wobble - Chela
  Umbra Sumus - 30Hertz cd 5- 1998
• Alan Howarth - Storm on Ceti Beta VII
  Real Hollywood Sound Effects - GNP Crescendo GNPD 8054 - 1997
• Fred Szymanski - It's Hard to Know
  Various Artists: A Storm of Drones - Asphodel ASP 0966 - 1996
• Thomas Köner - Ilira
  Teimo - Barooni BAR05cd - 1991
• Thomas Köner - Foutu
  Various Artists: Communication Problems - Vibragun VIN 003 - 2002
• Rothko - Bloodtied
  A Continual Search for Origins- Too Pure - 2002
• Liquid Morphine - Droom
  Internet download (nonalbum) - 2000
• Arve Henriksen - Path around the Pond
  Sakuteiki - Rune Grammofon 2021 - 2001
• Leif Inge - 9Beetstretch 3.2 (partial)
  9Beetstretch - EX FIELD X 24H 9B - mp3- 2002
• John Taverner - Funeral Ikos
  Byzantia - Virgin Classics 7243 5 45352 2 2 - 1999
• AV911 - Rain Storm 2
  mp3.com

Mysteries

God knows how I adore life
When the wind turns on the shores lies another day
I cannot ask for more

When the time bell blows my heart
And I have scored a better day
Well nobody made this war of mine

And the moments that I enjoy
A place of love and mystery
I'll be there anytime

Oh mysteries of love
Where war is no more
I'll be there anytime

(Words & Music by Beth Gibbons)

'Peinzing II'

• Brannan Lane - Mouth
  Lost Caverns of Thera - World Circle Records/ Emusic.com - 2000
• John Zorn - Mysteries
  IAO - Music In Sacred Light - Tzadik TZ 7338- 2002
• Thom Brennan - Mist
  Mist - TMB Music TB1034 - 2000
• Roger Eno - Where the Rock Fish Feeds
  Night Garden - La Cooka Ratcha Records CD-16714 - 2000
• Tim Gerwing - Stars
  Being to Being - MAPL (no number) - 2002
• Banabila/Vloeimans - Roofscape
  Voiznoiz III - Javaanse Jongens/Challenge JJT 77009 - 2002
• Silent Watcher of Dark Matter - Toward the Infinite
  Hempmachine Music / MP3.com - 2001
• Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works II - 11
  Selected Ambient Works II - Warp 021 LP- 1994
• Yves Daoust - Suite Baroque: l'Extase
  Various Artists - Excitations - Empreintes Digitales - 2000
• Jon Hassell - Rising Thermal 14-16N;32-28E
  Fourth World: Possible Musics - Editions E.G. EGED7 - 1980
• Jamuud - Sayan
  Niskala - Konstellations, 769490111152/SSeyo CDRom - 1999
• Bono/Eno/Hassell/Lanois - Bathtub
  The Million Dollar Hotel - Interscope 542395- 2000
• Bono/Eno Hassell/Lanois - The First Time
  The Million Dollar Hotel - Interscope 542395- 2000
• Echoes of Nature - Hoots and Howls
  Jungle Talk: The Natural Sounds Of The Wilderness - Delta B000001V4S - 1993
• Akira Rabelais - [....] edit
  Full Swing Edits - Orthlong Musork orth 05- 2002
• Alio Die - In Mean Time
  The Hidden Spring - Crowd Control Crowded 004 - 1997
• Alan Howarth - Blue Light Constant
  Real Hollywood Sound Effects - GNP Crescendo GNPD 8054 - 1997
• Dino Pacifici - Timeshift (edit)
  Hallowed Ground - Dance Plant Records/Farfield Records/Emusic.com - 1999
• Tosca - Schwimmer.session 4
  Dehli9 - G-Stone/!K7 140cd - 2003
• Justin Bennett - The Mosques of Tanger 1 + 2
  the Mosques of Tanger - Staalplaat STmCD 010 - 1994
• Holger Czukay - Mirage
  Good Morning Story - Tone Casualties tccd 9944 - 1999
• Barry Truax - Fog (Pacific Region), part 2
  Fog - Cambridge Street Records, CSR CD 9101 - 1990
• Humpback Whale
  NOAA Ocean Explorer Archive
• Beth Gibbons - Mysteries
  Out of Season - Polydor 066 574-2 - 2002
• Humpback Whale / Slowdown
  NOAA Ocean Explorer Archive
• Stephan Micus - Adela (edit)
  Desert Poems - ECM 1757 - 2002
• Arno Peeters - Blindside
  Soundscape Jabotek 2001* radio recording
• Banabila - Steam
  Spherics II - Boudisque Recording BOU 8 - 2003
• Brannan Lane - Cavern V: Circle of Darkness
  Lost Caverns of Thera - World Circle Records/ Emusic.com - 2000
• Plenum - GSD
  Various Artists: Communication Problems - Vibragun VIN 003 - 2002
• Harmonic Choir - Rainbow Voice
  Hearing Solar Winds - Ocora c. 558607 - 1988
• Arvo Pärt - Für Aline
  Alina - ECM 1591 - 2000
• AV911 - Rain Storm one + two
  mp3.com
  
  

A 2½ HOUR SABBATICAL LEAVE?

"Peinzing" (pondering, muse-ing) is the name of the 2½ hour musical collage that was broadcast on dutch Radio 4 program "Supplement" on may 18, 2003. The difference between 'music' and 'sound' will not always be clear to the listener.

The still piano sounds of John Cage and Arvo Pärt surround a broad spectrum of auditive landscapes. Inbetween, sometimes 'ordinary' pop-songs define the theme, like Paul Simon's 'Quiet':"I am heading for a time of quiet / When my restlessness is past / And I can lie down on my blanket / And release my fists at last".

Do nót expect 'New Age' music, however, despite some whale-, cricket- and other sounds of nature. At times the layers of sounds are dark and threatening, maybe even confronting. In this collage the pieces of music seem to get a different 'meaning' through the context in which they are placed. Eventually, it's the listener who decides what that meaning is.

If you take the time to listen to this collage (dimming the lights, disconnecting your telephone, and nó visitors), at the end you will feel as if you have been on an intense travel.
Like a sabbatical leave of 2½ hours.

(Listen to the introduction)

(go to the playlist)