I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: HAUSCHKA-“Improvisation,” “Random Gifts” and “Mt. Hood” in the NPR studios (2010).

Hauschka is German composer Volker Bertelmann and he plays the prepared piano.  What that means is that he places things on and in the piano to alter the sound of it.  (Nothing he does creates any permanent damage).

Mostly he creates percussive sounds with things like bottle caps,Tic Tac boxes and skewers.  And while it sounds simple, it is really quite ingenious.

This Vimeo link shows him talking to Guy Raz at NPR about the random materials that Raz has given him and then demonstrating how they change the sound of things.  Then he plays the “Random Gifts.”

The Youtube Video below shows another improv piece from the same day using different items.

This Vimeo link to him playing “Mt. Hood” shows off his use of ping pong balls.

All of his songs are fairly simple and fairly slow, primarily because the preparations add resonances and percussion that would overwhelm if he played faster.  Thus his pieces are often moody and reflective

Hauschka has a new album out as of this month called Abandoned City.  Every track on the new CD is named after a city that has been abandoned, that is vacant.  And his spare oftentimes eerie music goes very well with that theme.

There’s lots more videos of him on YouTube which are worth checking out.

[READ: June 23, 2014] Flinch

I was grabbed by the cover of this graphic novel.  The book is so short that I was really surprised to see that it was actually a collection of short stories.  As you can tell from the subtitle, this work is going to be dark and more than a little creepy.  And it is.  And while there are some similar visual styles, it’s interesting to see just how different these 13 stories can be.  Most of the stories use very few words, relying instead on the power of the visuals.  And it works pretty well.

I didn’t think any of them were especially creepy or dark, although the first one is kinda gross.  I enjoyed them for what they were, short stories that revel in the darker side of life.  I hadn’t heard of most of the artists.  The only one I knew was Shaun Tan.

Bobby.N-“Withheld”
This is a story about a man getting out of prison and how much his life will change after 30 years there.  The actual “plot” of the story is dark and twisted but is really rather incidental to the internal story that the man is telling (although not to his wife, obviously).

SHAUN TAN-“Moral Lesson #32” “Moral Lesson #12” “Moral Lesson #7”
I love Shaun Tan’s art–he’s always doing something weird and unexpected.  These three one-page pieces are a little less than satisfying because they seem like they need more information to be fully enjoyable.  I’d actually prefer them without the “title” that’s included on each page, because they’d be better if they were more ambiguous.

MEL TREGONNING-“Night”
A wordless story about the night taking over a young girl. I really liked the visual style of this one.

CHRISTIAN SCOTT, MARK WELSH-“Eggshells”
The story of a dream that proves that things will be okay.  It is one page and reminds me of something by Dave McKean.

ANTON MCKAY-“The Ride Home”
A man on a bike listening a late night call in show on the radio hears a story that the DJ certainly didn’t want to get out (if it was indeed true)  The female caller remembers him a little too well from his past days.  I liked the bookending of the rider, and the vaguely comic ending.  And I liked the drawing style quite a lot.

MICHAEL KATCHAN-“Way Out”
This has a crazy artistic style, again, not unlike Dave McKean, but wilder.  This is a story about one way out of a bad situation–even if the way out may not want to help you out.

TERRY DOWLING, SKYE OGDEN-“Daemon Street Ghost-Trap”
This was the longest story in the book with the most words.  It was actually a little too much text for the size of this book (a larger book would have been easier to read).  But anyhow, this was a lengthy story about ghost hunters and their chance to witness a ghost that was recently trapped (a rare Renfeld-4).  The story is far more complicated than just that, with an interesting history and a very thoughtful tie to cancer.  Although the end was a little less exciting than I hoped, the story was really good.

TOM TAYLOR, TOM BONIN-“96,000m”
Any story with a Colossal Squid is a good one.

CHRISTIAN READ, ANDREW RICHARDSON-“No Craft”
The narrator professes his love for Lovecraft and says how he wishes that our world were more like H.P.’s–but that we don’t deserve it.

JUSTIN RANDALL, CHRIS BONES-“Speak of the Devil”
In this story a man with a tow truck is called upon to clean up an accident.  But when he gets there, mystical things are a foot (or afloat).  I was a little unclear about exactly what the tow truck man was supposed to be, but the visuals were interesting and I liked the drawing style a lot.

RAY FAWKES, ANTON McKAY-“The Snare”
Can a holy man do battle against the spirits that posses people?  It’s a tough fight.

TOM TAYLOR, COLIN WILSON-“White Dove III”
This was a very short story about hopelessness in time of supposed regrowth.  The double joke on repopulating was pretty funny, though.

JAMES BARCLAY, CHRIS BOLTON-“Twain”
The visuals in this were dark but very well done.  The story was a little convoluted but was relatively easy to follow.  It felt, however, like the story got cut off–the ending was unsatisfying.