SOUNDTRACK: JASON SHARP-A Boat Upon Its Blood [CST119] (2016).
Constellation records had been rather quiet this year in terms of new releases. And then back in August they announced three new discs with this intriguing blurb:
Constellation’s three new fall releases by Off World, Automatisme and Jason Sharp are dropping on September 30th… These new releases are wildly different yet satisfyingly leftfield albums that share an electric thread of sorts. Electronic music strategies, technologies, histories and sensibilities come into play, in very diverse ways, with each of these debut records – making them stand out a little differently in the context of the Constellation catalogue perhaps, but also informing one another and making a lot of sense to our ears as an album trio (somewhat in the spirit of our Musique Fragile series).
This is the third of those three.
Jason Sharp has written this disc as “music written for amplified heart & breath,” and Sharp is credited with “playing” amplified heart, feedback, synthesizers and bass saxophone. Other instruments listed are Pedal Steel Guitar, Violin and various percussive instruments.
From the Constellation site: “Using custom-built equipment to translate breath and heart rate into variegated sonic triggers, along with other modes of signal processing and in tandem with traditional instrumentation…[the album] deploys the human metronome of amplified pulse as a recurring undercurrent, with compositions that incorporate electro-acoustic and musique concrète strategies, drone, noise, electronics, methodical dissonance, tone poem, layered rhythmic and melodic figures, and improvisation.”
The disc opens with a trio of songs: “A Boat Upon Its Blood Pt.s 1, 2 & 3” Part 1 begins with some quiet drones and pulses and what sounds (if you think about it) like water running through pipes or blood through veins. It also like plectrum hitting strings or a musical rain stick. The songs build in intensity until a pulse that sounds a lot like a heart beat (which it should) ends the track. This heart beat segues into Part 2 which is dominated by violins. The violins seem to alternate between drones and dissonance with the pulses seeming to beat a bit faster in parts. As this track ends, a martial beat takes over the drums, and that segues into Part 3 which has more drone sounds. About midway through, new percussive sounds come in, changing the tone of the piece entirely.
Track 4 is “In the construction of the chest, there is a heart” is the most interesting of the bunch. It has what I assume are several different heart beat sounds modified to create different percussion under various droning sounds. It really exemplifies the “heartbeat” aspect of the piece, which I thought would be more prominent in the disc overall. The second half of the song is full of swishes and scratchy sounds which I certainly hope are the sounds of his blood pulsing through his veins.
“A blast at best” is a noise piece which sounds almost like the heart beats have been put through an autotune. Midway through the song comes the bass sax playing some farting and pulsing sounds that add an interesting melody to the sloshy noises.
Tracks 6 and 7 are another multi-part song “Still I sit
with you inside me Parts 1 and 2.” Part 1 opens with a much more pleasant, albeit somber violin. Slowly the heartbeats grow louder and more prominent. The pulses increase and decrease although not necessarily with the intensity of the music. The violins swirl and ebb, growing louder and more intense and then fading and seguing into the last track which opens with pretty guitars and accompanying violin. About halfway through the song, the heartbeat resumes. It come pulsing into the song louder and louder, dominating the whole thing. And then with a few seconds left it builds a wall of feedback and noise that gives way to a cathartic echo.
This would be another string candidate for NPR’s Echoes. Have you heard this, John Diliberto?
The disc notes that the piece was inspired by the Robert Creeley poem, “The Heart,” which I have included at the end of the post.
[READ: April 9, 2016] Sardine in Outer Space 5
Sardine is a children’s book published by First Second. It was originally published in France (and in French) and was translated by Sasha Watson. There are six Sardine books out.
The inner flap says “No Grownups Allowed (Unless they’re pirates or space adventurers).” For the first time, Sardine was created without the help of Joann Sfar. And I found this one to be my favorite one yet!
It seems like Sardine has really hits its stride with Book 5. The author is having a ton of fun playing around with pop culture and with the idea that the characters know that there are books about them. It’s still a little weird that Supermuscleman is really the only bad guy and that he is always coincidentally where they show up, but that’s clearly not the point of the comic, right? (more…)
I Just Read About That... 