Music and Language

I have recently been enrolled in French Classes which means I have been studying French for 30 hours a week for the last three weeks. My head has been spinning with a mélange of French and English, as well as the idea of a language. I am taking a class made up of mostly immigrants that speak multiple languages already, and my appreciation for the amount of effort and sacrifice that immigrants make to become Canadian has awakened. I had no idea of the difficulties, why do we have to give some many wonderful people a rough time? I guess humanism is dead in this part of the world and most. Especially with wars being replaced by homeland security, but this is for another time.

What I really want to talk about is the globalization of art and music, and in particular the use of music as a language. The phrase, music is the universal language, I doubt is anything of a surprise to the people reading this blog, but music itself is a blanket term for countless numbers of musical dialects, most of which are very hard to learn. However what makes music interesting is how over centuries musical dialects have mashed and mixed with one another, creating new languages and fashions for creation. The laws of the language of music are extremely flexible and adaptable. Like the English language I will argue, after years of colonization, has undergone a constant and rapid evolution. The English rose to global power with the great advancements in technology, distribution, capitalism, and of course the United States. New methods of distributing the mass amount of American Culture emerged in the 1900s, which of course backboned by capitalism. These technologies, which ultimately led to digital technologies, the Internet, and today’s musical landscape, have allowed the language to mash and bend faster than the technologies can keep. The spell check on the Microsoft program I am using to type this is a prime example.

I have an interest in world music, and in particular pop, rock, and psychedelic music of the 60s and 70s. I am amazed at just how well artists from around the world were able to synthesize the evolutions in rock and integrate them into their own cultural characteristics. Artists like Omar Khorshid, who did his version proto-eruption guitar heroics, melding fiery Egyptian modes with American surf music. He is perhaps, only rivaled by Dick Dale or Link Wray. Another example is Korean guitarist Shin Jung Hyun, who was doing his own heavy, fuzzed, out, wah-worship, proto-prog jams, around the same time as Hendrix. But unlike Hendrix, he music does not seemed to be rooted in blues, but in something way far out, or just foreign to my ears.

It is amazing how these cultures were able to understand the musical dialects, syntaxes, and accents. Just listen to groups of the above-mentioned artists. Someone learning a language will attest to how difficult it is to learn an accent. It takes years to learn a language if you are not born into it.

This idea of musical globalization should not be mistaken for western imperialism; it’s symbiotic. This is particularly obviously with late 60s American psych-rock or the experimental music of the minimalists. Both borrowed heavily from India and African musics. They took their ideas of musical architecture, rhythm, improvisation, and trance. Globalization in music is in fact way older. An early example is that of the chaconne, a popular dance of the baroque period. Bach composed a famous Chaconne. The rhythm itself however, actually comes from South America, imported by colonization. Mozart too, Rondo a la Turk, was largely inspired by Turkish music (hence the name). As well as Ravel who was deeply moved by the music of Indonesia.

With technology our world gets smaller, and global consciousness increases, but as we can see our world has always been small, and maybe music points to a future where we speak a melting pot language.

-Z

SHOW THIS SUNDAY!!!

Sunday January 17th, doors open at 8pm.

• THE BLIND SHAKE (Minneapolis -- http://www.myspace.com/theblindshake)
• OMON RA II (Halifax / Montreal -- http://www.myspace.com/theyproject)
• FUTENSIL (http://www.myspace.com/futensil)
• INTERRACIAL LOVE TRIANGLE (http://www.myspace.com/interraciallovetriangle)

@ Friendship Cove (215a Murray - Metro Bonaventure)

PAY WHAT YOU CAN

-----------------------------

THE BLIND SHAKE are one of Minnesota's best bands in recent years. In 2007, they released a collaborative album with 60s Minneapolis psych / weirdo rock legend MICHAEL YONKERS called "Carbohydrates Hydrocarbons," which was amazing and one of the most critically acclaimed albums of that year. On their own, the band play a distinct style of psych influenced post-punk that has given them favorable comparisons to bands like The Urinals, Fugazi and The Intelligence. We are really excited to have them up here for the first time.

Check out this review in the Seattle Weekly (http://www.seattleweekly.com/2008-10-29 ... cary-good/)

And their tracks on Last.FM and myspace to see for yourself.
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Blind+Shake
http://www.myspace.com/theblindshake

OMON RA II are a new band that have risen from the ashes of Halifax psych rockers (and Divorce and Fixture Records alumni) OMON RA. The band is lead by composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Zachary Devereux Fairbrother, who upon moving to Montreal, started up the band again and expanded the lineup to four members (including long time collaborator Chris D'Eon). A force to be reckoned with live, this is one of just a handful of shows the band has played since their re-birth in Montreal.

FUTENSIL are a three piece garage punk band from the St-Henri borough that bring to mind Thee Oh Sees jangly guitar parts and male / female vocal harmonies, but with the added warped experimental bent of weirdos like The Residents. They were one of three bands hand picked to perform live on CKUT's "If You Got Ears" program during the station's annual funding drive week last year, and their catchy songs and killer live shows make them one of the city's most exciting up and coming bands.

INTERRACIAL LOVE TRIANGLE are an awesome new two piece minimalist garage rock band who have been blowing audiences away with their incredible live shows recently. Their drum kit consists of two metal salad bowels turned upside down, and their riff heavy, raunchy guitar sound and super charismatic front man make them this city's long awaited answer to The Gories.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/even ... 71&index=1

Some New Prints

Some New Prints by me and Emily Tortalia. These were used as small Christmas gifts. Colors are not as vibrant as in the flesh but after the scanner treatment they now sort of look like washed out double exposures.

-Z

***SHOW TONIGHT**

***AT L'ESCO MTL 4467 ST-DENIS***
***PAY WHAT YOU CAN!!!! SHOW STARTS AT 9PM***
***WITH POSTCARDS AND THE HOA HOA'S***
***THE HOA HOA'S RECORD RELEASE SHOW***

*SOLO DEBUT EP ON DIVORCE RECORDS*

Tim Crofts performing my piece "Buddha Box 1.0"


I just released a solo EP on Divorce Records as a part of the FREEWAVE series; a series free download-able EPs. You can donate to the label if you wish, all proceeds go the label and to the artists. Other artists featured are Mess Folk and Husband & Knife. The EP is a single 15min solo piano piece that I wrote for my friend Tim Crofts. Tim Crofts is a lecturer, improviser, and performer living in Halifax. He regularly performs with the SuddenlyListen concert series, the Upstream Music Ensemble, and his own group Zakugaku. Be sure to check him out and get to know him because you'll learn so much about music talking with him.

Here's what Divorce said about the EP!

Buddha Box was performed in a university concert hall last spring as part of Zachary Fairbrother’s thesis recital in modern composition. I am not sure what the usual crowd looks like for these events, but I saw a lot of cosmic kids tripping in the soft seaters, waiting for their man Fairbrother be born as a professional composer. A special day. This piece involves a grand piano, singing bowls, Buddha machines, various effects and piano treatments. It starts and ends in the most delicate ambient webs, but somewhere in the middle it’s like the piano is on fire and rocketing through space. Quite overwhelming, at the time. Includes a pdf of the score and a photo by Jacobo Garcia.

***GET IT FOR FREE HERE***

Omon Ra - The Spirit of Jerry Garcia Playing the Rolling Stones AVL-04

Omon Ra, photo by Jacobo Garcia

The past two years have easily been the best years of my life. I've made lots of very close friends, traveled lots of ground, and made large leaps artistically. The biggest part of my life for the past two years has easily been my musical project Omon Ra, formed with who would become my closest and best friend, Daniel Miller. I think that our friendship transcends into the recordings and the music and art we created is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. We moved through many styles from quiet psych-folk, to psych-punk blowouts, to free improvisations and drone worship; we both grew tremendously as people and as musicians.

But alas, for some reason I have moved to a different city. I needed to grow, I was feeling claustrophobic and frustrated within Halifax, the sleepy little coastal town, and I needed to leave. I miss it a lot, I think about going back, but I can't not now, maybe never, who knows. Me and Dan had hopes of keeping the band going, traveling to France in the new year. But due to financial circumstances, aka the difficulty of finding proper employment in Montreal, and the fact that our growing ideas needed to leave the abstract, we began playing and recording with different groups, all with mutual friends however. Dan teamed up with the members of the Ether and Friendly Dimension, to form his new group "OmmaCobba and The East Side Marijuana Band." And I teamed up with fellow east coast ex-pats Matthew Wilson and Chris D'eon, as well as my good friend Emily Robb, to form what I have called (in tribute to Krautrock band Amon Düül II), Omon Ra II. These new formations have yielded new musical directions and the old Omon Ra is no longer. For the mean time we will focus on our respective groups until sometime in the future, when perhaps, hopefully, me and Dan will collaborate again, and who knows how that project will take shape.

We would like to thank all the people that supported that group and hope you will continue to support our new endeavors, as they are both sonic continuations of the creative-embryo that was Omon Ra.

In celebration I have uploaded one of the two, last Omon Ra records we hoped to release, The Spirit of Jerry Garcia Playing the Rolling Stones. This record was recorded over fall to spring last year, it was our longest time spent recording an album. We acquired some new technology when recording and is easily our best sounding most ambitious record. Most of the songs are Daniel's and I would try to do my best to add some tasty licks, keyboard tricks, and harmonies to the wonderful pieces. My only contributions other than the collaborative tracks, were "Children of the Alien Avatar" and "Eurydice". There are many good moments to this record and we arranged it to really fit the flow the music; to help the listener get in the world of the record. This album gives a good idea of where Dan is taking his music with his new group. The art was kindly done by our friend Andrew McCgregor. One of our last shows was a freely improvised collaborative set with Gown, Andrew's project.


Album artwork by Andrew McCgregor aka Gown



Daniel jamming his new project. Photo by Jennica Lounsbury.

Speaking of his new group, Dan kindly sent me a song from their upcoming album, Faster Acid Sun, Burn Burn. There are a lot of bands doing the whole Spacemen 3, krautrock, homage thing right now, but this is easily one of the best I have heard. I have posted the epic title track, clocking in over 12 minutes, which features bass, drums, guitars, chants, clarinets, and saxes. The piece moves through Warlock-esq rock n' roll with Contortions approved horn squeaks and skonks over top, to spacey Cluster-like ambiance, to Boredoms friendly drum jams. This is some very promising music. I understand the record will be available soon with artwork from Ether front-man Luke Corrigan. They are also playing a couple of shows in Halifax back to back in early December, the first on 11th at the Khyber Club with Rich Aucoin, and the 13th at Reflections with the Friendly Dimension. Check out the track!



In the next couple days I will post some more Omon Ra material, please check back!
Thanks!

Here's the album.

http://rapidshare.com/files/310253066/The_Spirit_Of_Jerry_Garcia_Playing_The_Rolling_Stones.zip

-Z

Games by Ryan Kirk

Reposted from Ryan Kirk's Blog, Nayr Krik.

Great blog! Ryan has some very interesting muses and points. A multifaceted musician and writer, Kirk creates music centered around mythology and is an avid drone-practitioner. Kirk can play many instruments including french horn, trumpet, guitar, and piano. He is a very interesting, thoughtful, and thorough writer of both prose and music. Please enjoy this wonderful essay he posted! Thanks for sharing Ryan!

-Z
_______________________________

"A game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context." (Clark C. Abt)

I have always been fascinated by games. Whether board, video, role-playing, abstract, or sport, games have always managed to suck me in and in many cases to distract me from other more pressing matters. I’ve been thinking about them quite a bit lately and so I’ve decided to share some of my experiences, observations, and ideas relating to games.

Games can be based around three different methods; skill, strategy, and chance. Although in practice most games somehow blend two or more of the above. Even a game as simple as dice, though it may appear to be all chance involves some kind of strategizing and decision-making. And games that appear on the surface level to be all about skill, like hockey or football actually involve a fair amount of strategy and large scale planning.

My own history interacting with games, and most likely yours, goes back to the earliest days of my childhood. Beginning with simple games like catch, musical chairs, and tag, children learn to interact with one another in specific social contexts. In a way games become social rituals for children that determine appropriate behaviours and modes of interaction and establish hierarchies and pecking orders. They also often encourage conditioning and development of the body and motor skills as well as encouraging a healthy psychological state by facilitating play and learning.

As well as those simple children’s games, I was also exposed to traditional boardgames in my home. We always played the staples, snakes and ladders, parchisi, checkers, and then when I was a bit older some of the more complicated ones like chess, Scrabble, and Risk. Risk was always my favourite. I was a typical kid and loved playing with army men and G.I. Joes and watching old war movies that would play on television during the day. So I guess the idea of controlling whole armies over continents and ultimately the world really appealed to me. I played all kinds of boardgames and cardgames throughout my childhood and they have a special place in my memories. But then videogames came onto the scene.

I got my first Gameboy for Christmas when I was six or seven. It came with Kirby and I was hooked from the start. From there I got a few other classics like Mario and Zelda and then a year or two later my brother and I got a Super Nintendo and a little colour TV to play it on for Christmas. Super Mario World consumed my childhood. I played it incessantly and even today I will once and awhile hook up the old Nintendo and it instantly takes me back to the countless hours I spent as a kid trying to reach %100.

From that point on videogames mostly dominated my gaming experiences. I tried my hand a few sports, but never really took to any of them, and unfortunately my obsession with videogames stopped my board gaming short. Which brings me to the downside of some forms of gaming, specifically videogaming. At certain points in my preteens and early teen years I became so obsessed with games that I would relegate school work, physical activity, and socializing just to get further ahead in the games. It wasn’t all bad, and some of my friends played videogames, so there were social times of playing together. Overall though I would say there were far more hours spent playing them alone in my room. There was also the frustration they posed. There would be points where instead of having fun I would get so angry I would throw the controller at the floor. Fortunately I grew out of that pretty fast. By the time I finished high school I was only playing videogames sporadically. I had found other activities that interested me more and used my time in more productive ways. I still don’t feel that videogames are bad, but they can become addictive in ways that I never experienced with social games or boardgames.

These days I’m pretty busy and don’t have much time for games. But when I do I tend to prefer boardgames and cardgames. I find that videogames are too time consuming. A boardgame can start and end in an hours time and it allows you to game in a social way. Whereas my experience with videogames tends to be that an hour just wets your appetite and that generally it’s more difficult to videogame socially. My favourite games these days are mostly strategy and abstract. Games like chess, checkers, backgammon, Risk, and Diplomacy. Diplomacy takes the interactive element of gaming to the extreme, I’ve only played it once but would love to try it again. I also enjoy a few cardgames; poker, cribbage, and crazy eights.


These days I also see elements of gaming and play in other activities I enjoy. One that rings especially true to me is music making. Although in many cases music exists as more than just a pastime or fun activity, it still involves elements that are shared by games. There are often multiple independent agents involved, and there is usually a common goal of some kind as well as a limiting context and the same elements of chance, strategy, and skill figure in. Take for example a symphony orchestra; the members are all working towards the goal of realizing the piece being performed, the conductor and performers use strategies to ensure a successful performance, the players need skill to actually perform the parts when they come up, and as far as chance, well things can always go wrong. It’s even plainer to see in improvisation.

Artists like John Zorn even explicitly compose game pieces. Where players can compete and there is a conductor who establishes rules and divides players into sub-ensembles or teams. In some cases there are even point systems. Free improvisation also incorporates a large component of game and play. Within the performances there can be room for competition and subversion. Music like John Cage’s Book of Changes draws explicitly on chance through the use of dice, a tool common to many games.

I find games interesting because they seem like such a natural human activity. Boardgames date from the earliest known civilizations in Mesopotamia, and in many cases are not that far off from contemporary games like chess. They’re a productive pastime that encourage socializing and stimulate your mind. Games can offer you an escape from the everyday world, yet in familiar and comfortable ways, either through simulating a situation or encouraging roleplaying. After all, who doesn’t want to conquer the world, especially when the leaders you’re competing with are all your best friends?

-Ryan Kirk