The Steel Guitar Forum

Posted: **7 Apr 2003 2:44 pm**

i just got my copy an hour out of desert center and love it. this is to chas since there is no email option. you must be familiar with this sound sculptor <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>
the 156-string sound sculptor called the Lyra Sound Constellation, designed by George Landy. The metal strings are stretched 15' to 20' long, each tuned to microtones (intervals in between the regular intervals), and each string was connected to crystal and magnetic pickups. Two tracks were recorded directly from these pickups, and two tracks from mics placed in the room, in this case the Double Rocking G Gallery in Los Angeles. The four tracks (remember, this album predated MIDI samples and our digital recording capabilities) were then processed and orchestrated before final remixing. The players for this album include Michael Stearns and Landy, plus Susan Harper. Additional players and chorus (for some ghostly voices) include Georgianne Cowan, Sandy Gekler, Jean Krois, and Kristine Shelton. The music is ethereal and heavy at the same time, vastly expanded with pluckings, sonorous echoes, rocket blasts, bass roars and yaws, ghostly gongs, and percussive sequences. The one sound that stays with me is the "crystal buzzsaw" section, especially on the track "Invocation." <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
another of my very favorites
http://www.musicabona.com/catalog1/471608-2.html

and the first cd i ever bought even before i had a cd player http://www.audiovisualizers.com/library/catagory/reviews/eno_thur/eno_thur.htm [This message was edited by ebb on 07 April 2003 at 03:55 PM.]

Posted: **7 Apr 2003 4:44 pm**

I haven't heard this particular CD yet, but I have some of Chas's previous work, and it really is something else.

I think it's safe to say that Chas' work stretches the very definition of the word music. I find his work very etherial and beautiful and some of my musician friends who are really aware and sensitive agree. However some of my less sensitive friends (including a b*nj* player who shall remain nameless) just didn't get it and dismissed it as meaningless noise.

I predict that people here will either really love or hate Chas's work with great intensity, and there will be no middle ground. Be that as it may, I'm really glad to see that his CD is being featured this month. I urge you all to check it out, even though (assumeing it's like his other work) it is not just not country, it's not even remotely like any kind of music you've ever heard before.

Posted: **7 Apr 2003 6:30 pm**

funny how this was moved to steel players. i originally was going to put it there but thought better after concluding that one could listen to this and not realize steel was involved. also that it wasn't fodder for the push/pull and/or if its good enough for them its good enough for me pundits. i am more interested in music and thus interested in people like sneaky pete, sonny garrish, chuck campbell, chas smith, gabby pahinui, gib wharton and many others passed by by your local steel convention.

Posted: **7 Apr 2003 7:42 pm**

I predict that people here will either really love or hate Chas's work

You can relate to that, can't you. Mike?

Posted: **8 Apr 2003 7:07 am**

I just think Chas Smith is a true genius. Even if one didn't like what he does, one would certainly have to appreciate what goes into it. I feel so fortunate that I have been able to look into "Chas' World". The instruments he builds and modifies are just unbelievable. I met Chas for the first time at his house to sell him some Sho Bud parts. He invited me in and I really have never been quite the same since. I came away just awestruck by his talent and committment to his art. Great job on the new CD, bud! Thanks for sending it....Now if I can just settle these dang cats down again...

Posted: **8 Apr 2003 7:32 am**

An extension of "Krell music", no doubt. Nice to know that Louis an Bebe's work is being carried on!

Posted: **8 Apr 2003 9:33 am**

I don't think you have to "love it or hate it", Mike. There are times when I like to have ambient sound happening, and I find Chas's music very good for that. It doesn't command attention or impose itself on what I'm doing.

If I try to listen to it as "music", I can't relate to it at all. But I'll admit that it's a pleasing "noise", and it's a good background sound when I'm programming.

Like abstract art, I don't like to try to analyze it, but sometimes it matches the decor of a room.

------------------
<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax

Posted: **8 Apr 2003 8:04 pm**

Gentlemen, thank you for the kind words and generous comments.

Ebb, actually I don't know George Landy and unfortunately I missed that performance. Double Rocking G is/was downtown and I played there once sometime in the early '80s with an art ensemble I worked with at that time, known variously as Ronin, Stillife, A Hundred Miles of Sheep Jokes, it was the same group with a different name every couple of years. Michael Sterns was on the same bill playing his Serge.

When I moved to the Valley in '83, I was excommunicated.

Posted: **8 Apr 2003 9:08 pm**

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>If I try to listen to it as "music", I can't relate to it at all. But I'll admit that it's a pleasing "noise", and it's a good background sound when I'm programming.

Like abstract art, I don't like to try to analyze it, but sometimes it matches the decor of a room.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That reminds me of a quote from Robert Fripp, where he described a certain music as "low impact psychic wallpaper."

I haven't heard Chas' music yet, maybe this is the CD to get. Knowing how much Chas cares about music, I'm sure he isn't out where he is just for a gag. I just bought "Murph" last weekend at a steel show, and really like that. The Bigsby-like guitar Chas made for Mr. Murphy really sounds great, and looks good in the pictures.

Chas, as a solo artist have you always done the same type of stuff you're doing now, or were you once more "inside?" If someone wanted to hear a more traditional solo project of yours to compare with your new one, or maybe a collaborative effort, are there any available?

Thanks,

Jeff

Posted: **9 Apr 2003 12:49 pm**

That reminds me of a quote from Robert Fripp, where he described a certain music as "low impact psychic wallpaper."

While I wouldn't describe what I do as ambient, I can easily see why Desert Center would be described as such. The music most of us listen to has multiple chord changes and melodies and, as such, has a familiar trajectory from the beginning to the end. I see Desert Center as a succession of "colors" and harmonies that that evolve.

Ambient music goes back to Music For Airports, Brian Eno, and Ambient 2 The Plateaux of Mirror, Brian Eno and Harold Budd. The intent was that the music would be an unobtrusive presence and/or would serve an architectural function, where it would help "shape" the space in the same way that color, light and objects shape a space.

as a solo artist have you always done the same type of stuff you're doing now, or were you once more "inside?"

This is the probably the most "inside" thing I've done in 20 years. Back in the eary '70s, after giving up on my quest to be a jazz pianist in the "Bill Evans" mode, I concentrated on working with the Buchla 200 synthesizer and studying with Mort Subotnick. "Contemporary music", at that time seemed to revolve around either set techniques, 12-tone, fractal and stochastic; pattern music, Reich, Riley and Glass; electronic, minimalist, drone and others. With the exception of perhaps, Lou Harrison, none of it, in my opinion, was specifically about the aural beauty of sound. It was more about the beauty of structures or ideas, which I can easily appreciate.

I was also studying with Hal Budd and Mel Powell and we spent a lot of time on Debussy, the master orchestrater (colors, and color fields). Hal and Daniel Lentz had begun writing beautiful music, beautiful chords and beautiful colors, which was pretty avante guard for the avante guard. This in turn "gave license" to do the same. That probably doesn't make any sense, you're thinking, well if you want to write beautiful music, you just start writing it. In the academic environment, one has to be concious of the "linneage" and history in order to build on it or extend it. (The same thing happens in country and western)

So after working on noise pieces (white noise and pink noise, the sounds of the ocean and wind) I started working on making "beautiful" music come out of a Buchla, not a simple task. The idea was that the room, we were working in quad, would be filled with a slowly evolving beauty that would also be different depending on where you were sitting. If you think of listening to the ocean, it's always changing and evolving and it's always the same, it doesn't go any where. That was the early/mid '70s.

Three other composers and myself had formed an ensemble of players and were presenting what we were doing in various galleries and performance places. We practically got run out of one venue because they wanted to hear, what they called "blip blop" music, and they hated us. I love sitting on a stage and watching the audience stream for the exits.

So I got seduced by what the steel guitar sounded like and I've never lost the passion for that sound. Back in 1982 I had an EP released on Cold Blue Records (long out of print) and in '83, a single piece on the Cold Blue Anthology, that were tonal and tried to exploit the sound and the beauty of the steel guitar. Fast forward 20 years and I see Desert Center as a redux to the sounds and the beauty of what the steel guitar can do.

To make a long answer longer, most of what I've done in the last 15 or so years was to work with complex sounds and to that end I've constructed a number of instruments and have been writing and working with the sounds they make.

[This message was edited by chas smith on 09 April 2003 at 02:16 PM.]

Posted: **9 Apr 2003 2:32 pm**

That's a helpful synopsis of your compositional journey Chas, thank you. I am going to order your latest. It's interesting to assume that you probably have often had more conventional band, studio, and film projects going on throughout the years. It would be an interesting balance to your original stuff.

In some ways the West Coast must be almost unfathomable from a Midwestern viewpoint. Where else could a little subculture of close-minded rednecks evolve who were unwilling to give anything besides "blip blop music" a chance?

Posted: **9 Apr 2003 4:10 pm**

The intent was that the music would be an unobtrusive presence and/or would serve an architectural function, where it would help "shape" the space in the same way that color, light and objects shape a space.

That's exactly how your music sounds to me, Chas, which is why I described it as "ambient" in the Forum catalog. Is there another genre name that you prefer?

I concentrated on working with the Buchla 200 synthesizer and studying with Mort Subotnick. "Contemporary music", at that time seemed to revolve around either set techniques, 12-tone, fractal and stochastic; pattern music, Reich, Riley and Glass; electronic, minimalist, drone and others. With the exception of perhaps, Lou Harrison, none of it, in my opinion, was specifically about the aural beauty of sound. It was more about the beauty of structures or ideas, which I can easily appreciate.

I had never made the connection between you and Subotnick. I enjoyed his electronic music in the 60's. And of course I'm a big Lou Harrison fan, too. I always wondered what he would write for the pedal steel, if someone could have interested him in it. Guess we'll never know...

------------------
<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax[This message was edited by Bobby Lee on 09 April 2003 at 05:19 PM.]

Posted: **9 Apr 2003 4:33 pm**

i have that cold blue ep and it is a very prized possession. i remember when i got it saying to my father someone has done what i want to do before i did it. i also remember listening to subotnick's "side winder" and riley's "in c" in the juilliard library and then turning on my receptive composition teacher jacob druckman to it. i remember laying on pillows in downtown lofts for hours as lamont young rhapsodized on his just tuned piano. just tuning sound familiar gang? then there was george crumb's "vox balaenae" and berio's "sinfonia". i was never a glass or reich fan but i did torture my sister with penderecki's "victims of hiroshima". after messaien, tournemire and kieth jarret i have to say john adam's "naive and sentimental music" kicks some butt.

Posted: **9 Apr 2003 4:48 pm**

Ebb,
I used to go to those well tuned piano concerts. My favorite concerts at that loft were the Pandit Pran Nath events. I even lived upstairs from Lamont's eternal music installation for a while. I studied music with Pran Nath and Lamonte during that time too. Jon Hassel lived around the corner right up the street from Philip Glass. Nice neighborhood.

Bob

Posted: **9 Apr 2003 6:18 pm**

i have hassel's "possible musics" with his electronically doubled trumpet which i really like but haven't heard much from him since. at one time i lived next to john abercrombie and used to hear him practice 12 hours a day (so thats how you do it). glass does nothing for me.

Posted: **9 Apr 2003 9:02 pm**

Is there another genre name that you prefer?

Ambient is fine, if you were to ask me what genre it is, I don't have an answer. There was a lot of concern that it might be too tonal and too "friendly". There was a point in the 4th cut, at the resolution, where things lined up and made a huge "raise the Titanic, stand up and salute, shoot off the fireworks" triadic moment. Way too much, so I went round and round for days on how to knock the center out of it and keep it in context.

I had never made the connection between you and Subotnick.

I studied with Mort, Hal Budd, James Tenney, Mel Powell and Earle Brown. It was Silver Apples of the Moon, at the end of the '60s, that got me interested in sythesizers. The fact that Mort taught at Cal Arts and there was a nude swimming pool was all I needed to hear to entice me to come out.

I am going to order your latest. It's interesting to assume that you probably have often had more conventional band, studio, and film projects going on throughout the years. It would be an interesting balance to your original stuff.

Jeff, thank you, I hope you enjoy it. I've been involved with a lot of different kinds of things (master of none). I've never thought that music was in any way mutually exclusive. The bigger the playground, the more fun it's likely to be and you get to meet a lot of interesting people. Personally, I don't care what someone is committed to as long as they're committed to something. I remember a discussion about art and what is the art. Is it the object or is the object the "residue" of the artistic experience. I think the art is the relationship the artist has with the materials, and the materials can be sound.

my receptive composition teacher jacob druckman to it.

You studied at Yale? Penderecki's Threnody and Dies Irae (Auschwitz Oratorio) always gave me the creeps. I always liked Reich and some of Phil Glass' stuff. I remember a review of Glass where he was described as the best thing since Czerny. I could listen to LaMonte Young's piano "clouds" for days.

Posted: **10 Apr 2003 1:42 am**

juilliard clarinet and compositon. jacob fashioned a piece on my ability to play faux chords on the clarinet. czerny huh. what a compliment

Posted: **10 Apr 2003 12:48 pm**

Seems to me that I have some marimba music by Jacob Druckman on CD. Real good modern music.

Posted: **10 Apr 2003 6:07 pm**

Chas, for me your music is beautiful and moving, more classical than ambient. My .02 is that enjoying it requires a good attention span. Many Thanks, friend.
T. Sage Harmos

Posted: **10 Apr 2003 7:07 pm**

I like the 'Bigsby', but I love that 'Kirby'!

GB

PS. The Pez Eater rules!

Posted: **10 Apr 2003 7:13 pm**

but I love that 'Kirby'!

It was a push-pull....