Pierre Boulez is apparently among those to have pointed out
that as soon as a microphone is used with any acoustic instrument then
one is dealing with electronic music. Presumably he made this statement
of the obvious in defence of electronic music at a time when electronic
or electronically mediated sounds were still a novelty to lovers of
serious music. Now it appears that artist need only claim to be using
new technology in order to be celebrated as creators of substantially
new and qualitatively valuable music.
For those who care to look or listen no further, the
concomitant of this may seem to be that an artist like myself using
body plus the old mechanical technology of the saxophone must of
necessity be irrelevant. But I'm just stating a fact if I say that I
have and do and must think and listen further than that, for the sake
of my own self-respect. I play music that is initially (and often
exclusively) acoustic and generally "live" in the sense that it happens
for me and for the listener in real time; in a world where most of the
music that most people hear is coming out of loudspeakers, after the
fact. I am always trying to find ways of using electricity that
illuminate it and the interplay between electronic technology and
acoustic sound, time and memory. When Phil Hargreaves proposed to me
that we record some saxophone duos, I felt that we should try to
highlight aspects of what recordings are - electronically captured and
reproduced documents of sounds made in a specific place at a particular
time. Phil was tireless in finding extraordinary acoustic locations in
Liverpool, in which, over the years, we made a series of stereo
recordings, concentrating on musical material of two sorts: often
playing what was appropriate or beautiful or effective in the location,
but also a selection of pre-agreed sounds (including held intervals) to
act as constants which would further expose the differences between the
various acoustics.
Then we used a computer to edit this digital information
into one long piece, which includes some recordings in their entirety
and fragments of many others. At times we used the reference intervals
as bridges between recordings, in the hope of revealing the diversity
and beauty of the sonic spaces and also for the peculiar and unique
sound in the crossfade of one space blossoming into another during the
same musical material. Although similar sonic experiences do happen to
a lesser extent in day to day life, our aim is to accentuate the
artificiality of the recording and editing process, rather than
ignoring or trying to conceal it, and to expose, as much as a recording
can, the specificity of spaces and sounds that only live acoustic music
can completely celebrate.
This CD is the product of two or three meetings a year over
the space of nearly four years - in some ways I wish we'd given it more
time in fewer years, but when I hear the music now, I hear those days
in Liverpool, warmer (metaphorically) and more accessible than London,
and it reminds me of that eventful time in my life (two pregnancies,
two children) and of the unfailing kindness of Phil and his family.
I hope that the above leaves enough unsaid for you to hear
something of your own in our music . Thank you for listening.
Caroline Kraabel
London 2004
It was all so
simple to begin with. Before things spiralled so deliciously out of
hand. Doubtless you have similar stories you yourself could tell, of
seemingly small choices, almost casual decisions, running your life
onto an entirely different track, spinning off into unplanned
diversions through unmapped lands; but i get ahead of myself, and your
stories will have to wait on another telling.
My story, the story of this recording, begins mid-2000. I'd
secured funding for the first amere3 CD, which meant i had a little
left over for another project. Something quick and easy, i thought, and
it didn't take me long for the name of Caroline Kraabel to come to
mind. I emailed Caroline to see if she fancied a duo CD. She did. So
far, so quick and easy.
Then i had a thought - i'd just acquired some recording gear
that was giving some good results, so why not find a nice-sounding
room, and record there? No need for a studio. Easy. Quick. And then
another thought. Why not more than one room? Idea followed idea, and
soon the project was to record in significant buildings around
Liverpool - a sort of acoustic portrait of us in the city, and our
quick and easy project had mutated into something altogether more
administratively unwieldy. I'm not sure whether i'm not advocating
thought as a process, or whether thoughts are just more dangerous when
they hunt in packs…
Anyway, i set off in search of the various permissions
needed to record in the places i'd identified, and we struggled to work
around the logistics of getting together to do the recordings, and
gradually a library of tapes grew up of the two of us in different
locations, bouncing ideas off each other and off the walls. The next
problem that presented was how to edit six or seven hours of recordings
into one CD, and another thought (damn them! How do i stop these
thoughts?!): that they sounded best juxtaposed, and we decided to spin
yet another layer of complexity into the project by computer editing
the raw improvisations into one long piece. We hope you think it works,
that it was worth it, that all the ideas were to some point. We were
aiming for a recording that sounded like we were somewhere when we
recorded it, rather than the anonymous international space that is the
modern recording studio, and it's a long, long way from the
quick-and-easy, done-in-a-day improvised music recording i first
envisaged. It's been a long journey, and along the way we became much
closer friends, both personally and musically, and big things happened
in our lives. And now it belongs to the world…
phil hargreaves
liverpool 2004
listen to an extract from the CD
this is the
first 7'45" of the CD release, in MP3 format