"My initial explorations involving SOUND and TIME took place on 12/08/80. It was a date not to be forgotten. As the cover of "Vocal Explorations" shows, I was at that time employed working on an offshore oil rig. I would work two weeks out, and then one week back on land. So, on 12/08/80 I was back in my apartment listening to the radio while trying to decide which record to play next. That's when I heard about the murder of John Lennon.

I'd known, like many do, that John had a "fondness" for manipulation of sounds with tape recording. So while I was waiting for updates on his situation I was searching for sounds on the radio. I found a radio station in Philadelphia that was airing an international music show, and at that time it was a combination of Balinese and Javanese recordings.

With my reel-to-reel recorder, I began recording snippets of the music on one channel, then stopping it to find out about John. Eventually, I would rewind the tape to start recording more music on the other channel. The result in playback was nothing like the original. The rhythms and sometimes the "keys" of the music were way different than the original material.

A couple of years later, when the exploratory drilling ended on the East Coast, my next job was working for a record label in their warehouse. Now there were almost unlimited sources for sound.

So take "Magindinao Chant" as an example. The total time length is 11 minutes 15 seconds. The original source material was ~5:07 in length). That would have been recorded on one channel of a 4-track reel-to-reel. It was then recorded again on the same channel. So, 2 copies end-to-end on one channel. Next that info was dubbed to a cassette. That became the source for recording the OTHER channel of the R2R. The process continued... Honestly, I didn't keep notes on how many times I did this and I just dealt with "The Process" until the end result felt right.

"Peace of Glass" (~11:17) would have been very similar in the details, but the more dense "Wholerin'" (~25:22) took much longer to produce. The source is a solo voice, but I created a "duet" by staggering the two channels on the R2R. The duet became a quartet, an octet, etc. As the recording became more and more dense, there were "wonderful" results. The original voice of a man somewhere between the ages of 40 to 60 (or older) became a choir of young boys. The lower frequencies were cancelling-out, and the upper harmonics became more prevalent.

So what it is you will hear in the 3 pieces will be an extended version of the technique that was "discovered" on 12/08/80. Happy listening!"

-Mischa Falkenburg

credits

Music Composed and Produced by Mischa Falkenburg
Mastering & Design: Alex Ring Gray

© 2022 Mischa Falkenburg, admin Music by Cmntx Publishing (BMI)
℗ 2022 Mischa Falkenburg. Under exclusive license to Cmntx Records.

Philip Glass: "Dressed Like an Egg, Parts 4 & 5" ℗ Orange Mountain Music © Dunvagen Music Publishers. Sample used with permission.