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Bug Music\u00a0| David Rothenberg<\/a> Gruen 122\u00a0(EU) | Terra Nova Music TN 1309 (USA) | Audio CD > [order<\/a>]<\/p>\n Reviews<\/a><\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n <\/p>\n There has been rhythm on this planet for millions of years longer than humans have opened their mouths to sing.\u00a0 Long before birds, long before whales, insects have been thrumming, scraping, and drumming complex beats out into the world.\u00a0 David Rothenberg decided to investigate the resounding beats of cicadas, crickets, katydids, leafhoppers and water bugs in his unusual third foray into music made with and out of the animal world.\u00a0 After working with birds and whales, he now tackles the minute complex tunes of the entomological universe, building songs live nad in the studio with cicadas who emerge only once every seventeen years, treehoppers who tap complex vibrations onto plant stalks, and a tiny beetle who makes one of the animal world\u2019s loudest sounds by vibrating its penis underwater.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He is joined by guitarist J\u00fcrjendal, who has studied with Robert Fripp and Eno, Timothy Hill of the Harmonic Choir, Umru Rothenberg on iPad, and millions of tapping, screeching, and howling bugs\u2014Hear them before they hear you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Excerpts:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Track 1 <\/p>\n 16 Tracks (69\u203200\u2033) <\/p>\n Sound Art Series by Gruenrekorder <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a>Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cRothenberg\u2019s sounds reveal a fine and subtle music that crosses the boundary between water and land.\u201d \u2014Jon Hassell<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cA veritable tour de force that illuminates the primal connection between insect sound and the human sense of rhythm, music, and noise.\u201d \u2014Lang Elliot<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Denis Boyer | FEARDROP<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n \u00c0 l\u2019\u00e9poque romantique, Ludwig Tieck organisait dans son jardin des concerts afin que la musique des hommes et celle de la nature s\u2019unissent. Plus tard vint la musique \u00e0 programme qui parfois int\u00e9grait des bruits d\u2019animaux \u00e0 la composition. Mais c\u2019est bien plus encore avec le field recording et son utilisation que ce m\u00e9lange peut reprendre en des termes modernes. L\u2019un des exemples les plus remarquables dans ce domaine est celui de Yannick Dauby dont les synth\u00e9tiseurs s\u2019apparient de la fa\u00e7on la plus fluide avec les chants de batraciens de Ta\u00efwan. David Rothenberg ose peut-\u00eatre plus, il int\u00e8gre et use en \u00e9cho des rythmes dans sa musique qui se marient avec ceux des insectes et des grenouilles. Car David Rothenberg joue parfois, en pleine nature, en compagnie des insectes, de nuit comme de jour (ainsi avec les cigales). J\u2019aime particuli\u00e8rement la deuxi\u00e8me pi\u00e8ce de son CD Bug Music, orientalisante \u00e0 souhait, augment\u00e9e d\u2019un \u00e9cho jazz m\u00e9canique et de la participation en cr\u00e9celle de sauterelles Archaboilus musicus dont les frottements peuvent produire plusieurs tonalit\u00e9s. Avec Bug Music, David Rothenberg d\u00e9die au rythme primordial, celui que la nature a offert \u00e0 l\u2019homme, un travail qui le convoque, mais qui devant lui ne reste pas intimid\u00e9 ; le musicien ne suspend pas son souffle \u00e0 la parole des insectes, il \u00e9change avec eux. Et tout comme eux utilisent leur langage instinctif, d\u2019un minimalisme hypnotique, il offre en retour sa complexit\u00e9 de compositeur, sa subtilit\u00e9 humaine, un v\u00e9ritable effort d\u2019assemblage et d\u2019improvisation sur clarinette et ordinateur. Ainsi, chacun joue selon sa nature, le rythme, insecto\u00efde ou robotique \u2013 c\u2019est \u00e9gal \u2013 pave le chemin d\u2019une vague bois\u00e9e o\u00f9 le souffle d\u00e9hanch\u00e9 s\u2019encadre de basses, de glockenspiels, tra\u00e7ant des voies de lumi\u00e8re auxquelles les chants d\u2019insectes rendent un hommage par leur g\u00e9om\u00e9trie accord\u00e9e \u00e0 un cr\u00e9puscule que la musique de David Rothenberg parvient \u00e0 fixer suspendu tout au long de cette musique de chambre pastorale. […] <\/p>\n Kari Nevalainen | Inner-Audio<\/a><\/strong> ECM recording artist David Rothenberg, who’ve performed and recorded on clarinet with Jan Bang, Scanner, Glen Velez, Karl Berger, Peter Gabriel, Ray Phiri, and the Karnataka College of Percussion, decided to investigate the resounding beats of cicadas, crickets, katydids, leafhoppers and water bugs in his unusual third foray into music made with and out of the animal world. After working with birds and whales, he now tackles the minute complex tunes of the entomological universe, building songs live nad in the studio with cicadas who emerge only once every seventeen years, treehoppers who tap complex vibrations onto plant stalks, and a tiny beetle who makes one of the animal world\u2019s loudest sounds by vibrating its penis underwater.<\/p>\n He is joined by guitarist Robert J\u00fcrjendal, who\u2019s worked with Fripp and Eno, Timothy Hill of the Harmonic Choir, Umru Rothenberg on iPad, and millions of tapping, screeching, and howling bugs. Both a CD and a book are available on the subject.<\/p>\n At the same David Rothenberg turns this work into a new sound installation for the Finnish sound-art gallery Akusmata, based on the two basic ways insects synchronize their sounds: overlapping irregular rhythms, and overlapping songs that blur into a drone. The drone sounds are based on the song of the seventeen year cicada, and the rhythmic patterns are based on the song of the snowy tree cricket.<\/p>\n The multi-channel sound installation also includes sounds from other surprising insects: Uhlers Katydid, said to have the most complex of all insect sounds, the Common True Kaydid, and the Pine Sawyer Beetle.<\/p>\n Additional synthetic sounds, inspired by the insect world, are added from computer and iPad. <\/p>\n Holger Adam | testcard<\/a> #23<\/strong> <\/p>\n Wonderful Wooden Reasons<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n Martin P | Musique Machine<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n The opening track, \u201cMagicicada Unexpected Road\u201d is reasonably uneventful, essentially Rothenberg improvising against a swirling wall of insect noise; with his son, Umru, providing electronic squiggles and noises in the mix. Intriguing enough. Hereafter though, the \u201cintriguing\u201d album turns to dung (insect metaphor, check). I\u2019m going to be fairly brutal here (its been a while), so fans of Rothenberg\u2019s work should feel free to stop reading now. Firstly, the second piece, \u201cKatydid Prehistory\u201d, introduces Robert Jurjendal\u2019s guitar – and its horrible. Unfortunately, it has that processed bluesy jazz sound, so beloved of noxious guitarists; he uses it to play\u2026 bluesy jazz\/jazzy blues and Rothenberg helps him along with similar. Its banal work, alas; even worse, every track featuring Jurjendal is thus rendered unlistenable\u00a0 – except, perhaps, \u201cInsect Drummers 2: The Water Boatman\u2019s Loudest Penis\u201d; where the guitar work is reduced to scrabbling sound effects. Rothenberg\u2019s playing is safe and unadventurous, often operating in languid, noir-ish jazz territories with a few exploratory peeps and poots. There\u2019s an atonal flavour to a lot of his playing, but there\u2019s little here that would stand up on its own. Which is unfortunate, because – more often than not – his accompaniments are often very uninspiring too. The insect sounds are often backgrounded by the dominant Rothenberg, whereas its seems obvious to my mind that the concept of the album would benefit from a more just blending of elements – treating the soloist as just another bug. Sometimes the insect sounds take on the appearance of odd shading for the pieces – like a jazz band with curious electronics; sometimes they are more foregrounded and heavily processed, though always in a somewhat rudimentary fashion. To be honest, the raw sounds are beautiful enough on their own, surely – so if you\u2019re going to process them in any way, they deserve a bit more imagination and exploration. Arguably the best tracks are those which involve the overtone singing of Timothy Hill – largely, I think, because his vocals operate as sound, rather than trying to impose jazz\/etc melodies on the insect sounds. The first Hill track, \u201cGlynwood Nights\u201d, though, raises a most pertinent issue for \u201cBug Music\u201d: \u201cauthenticity\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The album introduction finishes with these words (worth quoting in full): \u201cThe three live tracks were recorded out in the field, with no overdubbing by real human musicians and real insects. The others were created in the studio, but all the music has been played, not programmed.\u201d. \u201cLive\u201d, \u201cno overdubbing\u201d, \u201creal\u2026musicians\u201d and \u201cplayed, not programmed\u201d: authenticity, authenticity, authenticity. These are reasonably hackneyed words today, anyway; but Rothenberg doesn\u2019t just want his cake, he has to have a munch as well. Skirting the (to my ears) suspiciously cavernous reverb on his bass clarinet on \u201cMagicicada Warm Springs\u201d, my main bone of contention is his text accompanying \u201cGlynwood Nights\u201d: \u201cThe result is live and somewhat slowed down to reveal the subtleties of human\/bug interaction\u201d. I know this is nit-picking, but you can\u2019t have it both ways. (Though, either way is completely fine by me.) Rothenberg is very aware in this area (the execrable \u201cWhat Makes Them Dance?\u201d sees him singlehandedly multi-tracking an improvising jazz quartet), but the picture he pushes is largely of him standing in a field, joining the insect throng – whereas \u201cBug Music\u201d sounds anything but that, unfortunately.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Its hard to know who I feel worse for: human ears or the abused bugs. Insects are wondrous creatures, with wondrous sounds and they deserve better, here. I could see Rothenberg\u2019s ideas played out as a 1950\u2019s novelty exotica record: \u201cBug Jazz!\u201d; with a jazz combo joined by crudely dubbed insect sounds; but otherwise, I feel the tiny invertebrates are crying out for a John Butcher, or Richard Chartier, to sing with them. To some extent, the album art says everything you need to know: its cosy, cute and very cleanly designed; which tells you all you need about Rothenberg\u2019s notions towards the insects and the material sound\/production of \u201cBug Music\u201d. The obvious counterpoint to this, is Dave Philips; who has long worked with insect sounds to great effect. Although, to be fair,\u00a0 he most often leaves the sounds unprocessed and unaccompanied, he nevertheless explores the social and sonic lives of bugs with infinitely more respect and sonic interest than Rothenberg. In \u201cBug Music\u201d, the insects are as declawed as Jurjendal\u2019s guitar. <\/p>\n Dietrich Hei\u00dfenb\u00fcttel | Neue Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Musik<\/a> 05\/2013<\/strong> link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Brian Olewnick | Just outside<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n I don’t mean to be too hard on this. Many people will greatly enjoy it the way they do Frisell, Garbarek and others. It’s well played, well constructed and ingratiating. It just seems odd, to me, to relegate these presumed objects of fascination and awe to such a small supporting role, strikes me as a lost opportunity.<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Review | By freiStil – Magazin f\u00fcr Musik und Umgebung<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n VITAL WEEKLY<\/strong><\/a> link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Guillermo Escudero | Loop<\/a><\/strong> link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Idwal Fisher | IDWAL FISHER<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n I can\u2019t help thinking that I could listen to Rothenburg without the insects and the insects without Rothenburg but I\u2019m stuck with them both. If I was a fan of bad puns I\u2019d say it bugs me but I\u2019m not. The guy obviously loves what he does and has a quirky sense of humour [track 7; Phaaaroah! Surely he\u2019s a Pharoah Sanders fan? And track 9 \u2018The Water Boatman\u2019s Loudest Penis\u2019 – \u2018do not try this at home\u2019] But for the most part I find these pieces jarring. […]<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n textura<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n Three pieces were recorded live in the field and with no overdubbing added, making them particularly pure examples of human-insect interaction. \u201cMagicicada Unexpected Road,\u201d for example, finds the sounds generated by Rothenberg’s clarinet and his son Umru’s iPad caught within a dense cicada swarm. The other pieces use the insect noises as raw material to be looped and stretched in the studio (the insects’s thrumming and scraping lend themselves well to the construction of rhythm backings), with Rothenberg and J\u00fcrjendal joining in, sometimes soloing overtop a thick entomological backdrop and other times simulating call-and-response communications with their tiny collaborators. In that regard some interesting moments arise, such as when Rothenberg tries to respond to the irregular rhythms generated by three-humped treehoppers (\u201cTreehop\u201d).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It would be easy for the project concept to overshadow Rothenberg as a musician, but pieces such as \u201cWhat Makes Them Dance?\u201d and \u201cRiddim Bugz\u201d nicely spotlight his technical abilities as a player, especially when the tunes‘ laid-back grooves allow him to solo so freely; his decision to play bass clarinet on some of the tracks (e.g., \u201cKikitara\u201d) is a good one, too, given how well its deep-throated croak complements the insect sounds. The presence of guitarist Robert J\u00fcrjendal on four pieces also adds a lot to the recording. He serves up a quasi-psychedelic solo on \u201cKatydid Prehistory\u201d that serves as a nice lead-in to Rothenberg’s bluesy reflections, and on \u201cRiddim Bugz\u201d spreads Frisell-esque lines across a regulated mass of crickets and katydids. In essence, the guitar becomes a welcome third voice that adds contrast to the woodwinds and insect noises.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In keeping with the cover image, Rothenberg presents the project with a refreshing degree of irreverence. Oh, he’s serious about it, of course, but he’s also not averse to seeing its lighter side\u2014how could one do otherwise when one of the sounds comes from the Water Boatman, a tiny underwater beetle who produces its loud thrum by vibrating its penis underwater (to which Rothenberg dryly comments, \u201cDo not try this at home\u201d). He’s no fanatical purist either who views the alteration of insect sounds as some kind of heinous violation; in reference to to \u201cGlynwood Nights,\u201d for instance, he’s upfront about having slowed down the live outdoors recording in order to better reveal the subtleties of the human-insect interactions. Elsewhere, he’s not averse to including electronics to, as he says, \u201coutbug the real work of bugs, so close to the oscillators and filters of electronic music are the mechanisms of our ancient little friends.\u201d<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Wire<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Little Machines for Singing: David Rothenberg takes on the swarm<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We praise thee auspicious Cicada, enthroned like a king <\/p>\n Written in the first century BC, these lines by the Greek poet Anacreon are the earliest recorded example of insect praise. Attributing god-like status to his singing friend, Anacreon recognises its difference from other life on Earth. In a later age he may have asked \u201cwhat prevents thee from being a machine?\u201d<\/p>\n When Sublime Frequencies released Tucker Martine<\/a>\u2019s album of insect field recordings, Broken Hearted Dragonflies: Insect Electronica From Southeast Asia in 2004, many listeners refused to believe that the glitchy, buzzing tones on the CD hadn\u2019t originated in a laptop or a synthesiser. Conversely, anyone listening to David Tudor\u2019s Rainforest for the first time might easily be persuaded that they were hearing actual field recordings from the Amazon jungle.<\/p>\n \u201cSome hear bug music, some hear people music, all depends on your ears\u201d wrote the 19th century Japanese poet W\u00e2fu. This epigram opens David Rothenberg<\/a>\u2019s new book Bug Music, which explores this overlap between natural and synthetic, insect and human-made sound.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you like electronic music, you will like insect sounds,\u201d says Rothenberg. \u201cBug music is electronic music, there is a deep, important connection here. People have loved insect sounds for many thousands of years. Prehistoric people, and Neanderthals, would probably have loved analogue synthesizers.\u201d<\/p>\n Rothenberg himself is rhapsodic about insect sounds and, as with his previous investigations of bird and whale song, he set out to perform alongside a range of insect musicians: \u201cthe snowy tree cricket is one of the simplest and most beautiful\u2026 the cicadas among the most intense and gripping, while the treehoppers\u2019 vibrational taps are among the most astonishingly complex.\u201d All these collaborations can be heard on the Bug Music companion CD<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bug Music encompasses an incredible breadth of scale, from the great \u2013 the mysterious 17-year incubation cycle of the Magicicada<\/a>, a monstrous brood of which will hatch in New York State early this summer \u2013 to the very, very small \u2013 the molecular sounds recorded inside the brains of mosquitos at Clarkson University in New York. \u201cI want readers and listeners to consider rhythm and noise at all possible scales of human awareness,\u201d says Rothenberg, \u201cfrom the microscopic to the macrocosmic.<\/p>\n „That’s why I found Curtis Roads<\/a>‚ granular synthesis so compelling \u2013 the granular dimension of time is the secret of bug music. Dividing sounds into tiny ‚grains‘ can have huge implications for the re-conceiving of all human thought and our place in the universe\u2026 when I mentioned that to Roads he said, \u2018don’t get too carried away!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Rothenberg encourages readers to open up to an expanded sense of what music can be, and from this he hopes we might encounter an expanded sense of our surroundings. The implicit message is that retuning oneself to think differently about music might be beneficial on multiple levels: to each of us individually, to humankind as a species and, perhaps, even to the planet as a whole.<\/p>\n \u201cListening to nature can be a gateway towards listening to experimental music, but listening to and enjoying experimental music can also be a gateway towards listening to the sounds of nature.\u201d<\/p>\n Humankind\u2019s ability to empathise with and understand the needs of other species is one of our greatest talents, and listening to them is just one part of that. \u201cWe know so little about the sensory world of other creatures,\u201d says Rothenberg, \u201cnature is still a giant book waiting to be opened, translated, and deciphered; or, if you see it as music, it can be listened to and interacted with.\u201d<\/p>\n Bug Music: How Insects Gave us Rhythm and Noise is published by St Martin\u2019s Press.<\/a> More details on the book here<\/a>, and on the CD here<\/a>.<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Julien H\u00e9raud | improv sphere<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n Une musique qui tend souvent vers de nombreux idiomes, entre musique \u00e9lectronique et world-jazz, entre free jazz et field-recordings, mais le tout de mani\u00e8re tr\u00e8s \u00e9dulcor\u00e9e. Bug Music\u00a0| David Rothenberg Gruen 122\u00a0(EU) | Terra Nova Music TN 1309 (USA) | Audio CD > [order] Reviews There has been rhythm on this planet for millions of years longer than humans have opened their mouths to sing.\u00a0 Long before birds, long before whales, insects have been thrumming, scraping, and drumming complex […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9530","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9530"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14164,"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9530\/revisions\/14164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nGermany \/ 2013 \/\u00a0Gruen 122\u00a0(EU) \/\u00a0Terra Nova Music TN 1309 (USA)
\nLC 09488 \/ EAN 4050486089699<\/p>\n
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\nDans son conte Sylvius, Henri Bosco a \u00e9crit : \u00ab Jadis, Sylvius chantonnait ; et, le soir, de sa clarinette, au fond de son jardin, il tirait quelque br\u00e8ve m\u00e9lodie qui faisait sortir de la vasque les grenouilles \u00e9merveill\u00e9es. Les grenouilles, qui sont des b\u00eates sociables, r\u00e9pondaient \u00e0 la clarinette, et Sylvius \u00e9tait content de ce concert lacustre, dont le chant animal se prolongeait parfois, par une ou deux grenouilles plus sentimentales, jusqu\u2019au fond de la nuit, paisiblement. \u00bb<\/p>\n
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\nThere has been rhythm on this planet for millions of years longer than humans have opened their mouths to sing. Long before birds, long before whales, insects have been thrumming, scraping, and drumming complex beats out into the world.<\/p>\n
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\nDrei\u00a0Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen vom Frankfurter Gruenrekorder-Label, jede versehen mit h\u00f6heren akademischen Weihen und ebenso konzeptuell aufgeladen. Kopf-H\u00f6rer-Musik. An begleitenden Texten zu den Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen mangelt es folglich nicht, und es ist in der Tat gut zu wissen, was sich jeweils hinter dem, was man zu h\u00f6ren glaubt, verbirgt. Dabei sind, zumindest im Falle von David Rothenberg und Budhaditya Chattopa dhyay, bereits die Titel sehr sprechend: Rothenberg hat buchst\u00e4blich live im Feld mit allerlei Insekten Musik gemacht. Begleitend zur CD ist auch ein Buch erschienen: \u00bbHow Insects Gave Us Rhythm And Noise\u00ab \u2013 und die Erfahrung einer beeindruckend mikrotonalen Klangumgebung hat vielleicht der eine oder die andere selbst schon gemacht: in der Wiese liegend, Grillen lauschend. Rothenberg hat die Kl\u00e4nge dieser und anderer Insekten eingefangen, sie als Musik h\u00f6rbar kontextualisiert und um eigene T\u00f6ne dazu erg\u00e4nzt. Das Zusammenspiel der entomologischen Orchester mit den menschlichen Gastmusikern klingt zumeist abwechslungsreich und beein druckend, an der einen oder an deren Stelle spielen die Menschen etwas zu gef\u00e4llig zum feingliedrigen Noise der Insekten \u2013 an den Tieren liegt es nicht! Budhaditya Chattopadhyays Eye Contact With The City ist das Pendant zu einer Video-\/Klanginstallation, die Bilder und Sounds aus den Stra\u00dfen Bangalores ausstellt. Nachbearbeitet erinnern die sph\u00e4risch verwehten Kl\u00e4nge allerdings nur noch entfernt, wie durch Fensterglas wahrgenommen, an die Ger\u00e4usche einer Zehn-Millionen-Metropole. Ich nehme an, dass die Bilder zu den Kl\u00e4ngen der Installation hier und da nicht zueinander passend pr\u00e4sentiert wurden, was den Verfremdungsefekt verst\u00e4rken w\u00fcrde. Die Recordings auf Eye Contact With The City lassen zumindest keine eindeutige Zuordnung der Ger\u00e4uschquellen mehr zu. Die Stadt als Klangk\u00f6rper verschmilzt zu einer Industrial-Noise-Klangfl\u00e4che, die dazu einl\u00e4dt mit den Ohren erkundet zu werden. Wenn die Ohren nach den Insekten und der Stadt noch nicht m\u00fcde sind, dann gibt es mit Mark Lorenz Kyse las Eins+ u. a. noch zu h\u00f6ren, wie der Musiker klingt, wenn er Musik macht. Mikrofone r\u00fccken Kysela, der auf diese Weise ein kompositorisches Konzept des Komponisten Christoph Ogiermann realisiert, so sehr auf die Pelle, dass nicht nur das Instrument und die Kl\u00e4nge die es erzeugt, geh\u00f6rt werden k\u00f6nnen, sondern auch der sich mit dem Instrument bewegende K\u00f6rper des Musikers. Insgesamt steht der physische Akt des Musikmachens im Zentrum, nicht so sehr das damit einhergehende klang liche Ergebnis. Dieser Logik, nach Kl\u00e4ngen diszipliniert unter verschiedenen Bedingungen und nach Ma\u00dfgabe aller vorhandenen M\u00f6glichkeiten der Instrumente zu forschen, ohne ein Klangerlebnis im Sinne einer \u00bbsch\u00f6nen Musik\u00ab zu beabsichtigen, folgt Eins+ \u00fcber 70 Minuten lang, in denen Kysela noch f\u00fcnf weitere Kompositionen von Alvin Lucier, Uwe Rasch und drei weiteren Vertretern Neuer Musik realisiert. Eine Herausforderung, Meta-Musik zu der man das beiliegende Textbuch studieren muss, um eine erweiterte Vorstellung davon zu erhalten, was es jeweils zu h\u00f6ren gibt. Keine Musik f\u00fcr jeden Tag, aber das ist auch sicher mit keiner der drei\u00a0Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen beabsichtigt.
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\nQuite a lot of the music I write about in Wonderful Wooden Reasons is decidedly insectile in nature filled with skittery and restless taps, creaks, rustles, scrapes, rasps and chirrs.\u00a0 Usually these serve as decoration, the texture to the main sounds of the piece.\u00a0 Here though clarinetist and saxophonist (and more) Rothenberg uses the sounds of various creepy crawlies (and creepy flyies) as a full and equal (if maybe unaware) collaborator on each of the pieces as he (and a few other collaborators) improvise around the songs of the various crickets, katydids, water boatmen, leafhoppers, beetles and many more.
\nThe result? Well, it’s beautiful.\u00a0 Rothenberg is a sympathetic and restrained improviser with a really mellow and melodic style that is a joy to listen to.\u00a0 Obviously his contributions cannot help but impart a certain ambience to the proceedings as often the sparsity and melancholy of his (and the other human participant’s) playing complements but belies the furore of the insect noise he’s accompanying but that, I would suggest, is perhaps unavoidable and also perhaps just in my interpretation.
\nWhat is for sure though is that ‚Bug Music‘ is beautifully made and provides many moments of sublime enjoyment listening to these wacky chaps jamming with the beetles (sorry) and this is a beautiful set that had me transfixed from start to finish each time I pressed play on it.
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\nHere\u2019s an intriguing release: the album notes inform us that Rothenberg has made every attempt to \u201cplay along\u201d with insect song – playing along live in the field, playing along with recordings (raw or processed) and creating his own insect sounds artificially. He interacts using \u201cbass clarinet, clarinet, seljefoyte and soprano saxophone\u201d, aided and abetted by a few other hands on other instruments. The cd arrives in a playfully packaged digipak, with album notes and text for each individual track.<\/p>\n
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\n\u00abDie Grille hatte den ganzen Sommer gesungen\u00bb, so beginnt die moralisierende Fabel von Jean de la Fontaine, der diesem nutzlosem Treiben die arbeitsame Ameise gegen\u00fcberstellt. Als Musik wurde das Zirpen der Grillen bereits in vergangenen Epochen wahrgenommen. Der Gesang der Zikaden in einer Sommernacht bietet bis heute, sofern nicht vom Verkehrsl\u00e4rm \u00fcbert\u00f6nt, die beste Gelegenheit einer r\u00e4umlichen Wahrnehmung durch das Ge\u00adh\u00f6r: Es sind Ger\u00e4usche, die s\u00fcchtig machen k\u00f6nnen und einem wie der Anblick des Sternenhimmels ein Gef\u00fchl der Einheit mit der unermess\u00adlichen Natur geben.
\nDavid Rothenberg, der sich auf \u00e4hnliche Weise bereits mit den Ges\u00e4ngen der V\u00f6gel und der Wale auseinandergesetzt hat, ist mit seinem Sohn Umru in die W\u00e4lder von Virginia gezogen, als sich die Zikaden dort wie nur alle 17 Jahre vernehmen lie\u00dfen: er mit der Klarinette, der Sohn mit dem iPad. Ein andermal begleitete ihn der Obertons\u00e4nger Timothy Hill, ein drittes Mal zieht er allein aus und stimuliert die Zikaden mit einem lauten \u00abSchhhhhh\u00bb.
\nDer Philosophieprofessor und Jazzmusiker verheimlicht nicht seine Fachkenntnisse der Entomologie, \u00fcber die er ein dazugeh\u00f6riges Buch ver\u00f6ffentlicht hat. Aber auf der CD geht es um die musikalischen M\u00f6glichkeiten, die sich aus der Interaktion mit dem Klang der Insekten ergeben. Er verwendet Aufnahmen als Samples, bringt mit Hilfe des befreundeten Forschers Charles Lindsay die Zikaden dazu, sich auf dem Mikrofon niederzulassen, konfrontiert die unterschiedlichen Zirp- und Schrapger\u00e4usche mit elektronisch erzeugten Doubles und seiner Bassklarinette. In mehreren Tracks rhythmisiert er die Kl\u00e4nge der Grillen, Zikaden und Grash\u00fcpfer, unterlegt sie mit den rockigen Rhythmen des E-Gitarristen Robert J\u00fcrjendal oder im letzten Titel mit einem vorw\u00e4rtstreibenden, komplexen elektronischen Beat.
\nDie von den Insekten erzeugten Ger\u00e4usche sind dabei mal Impulsgeber, mal Gegenstand der Aufmerksamkeit des H\u00f6rens, mal auch einfach perkussiver Hintergrund f\u00fcr Rothenbergs Klarinettenl\u00e4ufe. Dem Klang der Maracas vergleichbar, bleibt doch jederzeit eine andere Dimension, jenseits der menschlichen Sph\u00e4re. Es ist nicht so sehr eine wirkliche Interaktion zwischen Mensch und Insekt in dem Sinne, dass die Zikaden auf die Klarinette antworten und umgekehrt. Eher ist es Rothenberg, der nach Ber\u00fchrungspunkten sucht: Die schnarrenden Kl\u00e4nge der Bassklarinette oder des Obertongesangs resonieren von fern mit den Vibrationen der Schwertschrecke, des gefleckten Langhornbocks oder der Maulwurfsgrille. Die Rhythmen, welche die Buckelgrille beim Trommeln auf Zweige erzeugt, bieten ein Klangger\u00fcst, wie es sich sonst allenfalls mit elektronischen Mitteln herstellen lie\u00dfe.
\nWiewohl sich die Herangehensweise von St\u00fcck zu St\u00fcck \u00e4ndert, bleibt doch immer ein faszinierender, klanglich reicher und differenzierter Hintergrund h\u00f6rbar, der die Gedanken ein St\u00fcck weit hinaustr\u00e4gt in die Weite der Sommernacht.<\/p>\n
\nNot Don Byron (just wanted to get that out of the way).
\nReed player Rothenberg accompanied by a cast of thousands, if not millions. 16 shortish tracks wherein Rothenberg (plus the odd human accomplice) is heard amidst cicadas, katydids, leafhoppers, crickets and the famed Lesser Water Boatman and its (loudly) vibrating penis. The pieces are more or less „songs“ and easily digestible ones at that, loping along in comfortable grooves. Rothenberg is a good player, has an especially nice sound on the clarinets, but treads a musically very safe pathway here. My first thought was that, if you’re going to take insect sounds seriously (and, of course you would), why not try to deal with them somewhere on their own level instead of using them as a kind of exotic accompaniment? Judging form his website, Rothenberg has garnered a good deal of public notice from this combination of interests, appearing on the Today show, getting a profile in The New Yorker, etc., and it’s easy to see why: the music itself, with the insectile garnish, is non-demanding in the way that Zornish NYC music has become in the last 20 years. The insects, which by and large are great, by the way, sound more adventurous than the anthropoid contributions which are very competent but staid. One of his press blurbs makes a comparison to the late Joe Maneri–now that might have been an interesting pairing, Papa Joe and some bugs. I found myself thinking back to a concert I saw at BAM in the mid-80s, David Byrne leading a host of Brazilian musicians, me in the audience thinking, „Those guys are so much better than you, Mr. Byrne. Please have the grace to leave the stage and let them play.“<\/p>\n
\nDavid Rothenberg generiert da mit ein paar sp\u00e4rlichen Helferlein, meistens aber allein, einen komplexen Soundteppich. Saxofon und Klarinette schweben \u00fcber dem elektronisch erzeugten Wabern, Rauschen, Blubbern und Ticken. So haben vielf\u00e4ltige Klangerlebnisse ganz nah beieinander Platz, sorgen damit f\u00fcr eine dichte atmosph\u00e4rische Grunddisposition. Sch\u00f6n, wenn Rothenberg mit warmem, sattem und vollem Bassklarinettenton gegen einen ganzen Insektenschwarm erfolgreich bestehen kann. In einem fr\u00fchen Gedicht von Antonio Fian waren die Guten die schnelleren Pistoleros; bei Bug Music verliert niemand, es gewinnt nur der geneigte H\u00f6rer an Erkenntnis, wenn man sich bewusst aber gedankenlos dieser Klangreise aussetzt. Interessant w\u00e4re es zu erfahren, was der Leader mit gleichberechtigten Musikern in einer Livesituation bewerkstelligen w\u00fcrde. Die Frage wird hoffentlich bald beantwortet werden. (ernst)
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\nRothenberg is a man with many talents. His main subject is the relationship between humanity and nature. The explores the relationship between humans and other species under the aspect of music. Especially as a writer of books like \u2018Why birds sing\u2019, \u2018Thousand Mile Song\u2019, etc. His newest book \u2018Bug Music\u2019 is accompanied with a cd. The same was the case with some of his earlier books. This implies he is not only a writer, but also a composer and musician. For his earlier cd releases he worked with people like Ben Neill, Robert Rich, Lukas Ligeti and DJ Spooky. In 2010\u00a0 ECM released an album by him with Marilyn Crispell on piano. For his new work \u2018Bug Music\u2019 he is joined by guitarist Robert Jurgendal, who worked\u00a0 with Fripp and Eno, plus Timothy Hill of the Harmonic Choir and Umru Rothenberg on iPad. And above all by thousands of bugs. Long before mankind started making music, all kinds of animals produced sounds that later became aspects of the music created by man like for instance beat and rhythm. Rothenberg formulates it as a thesis that \u201cmost likely human music evolved out of the millions of years of listening to the sounds of bugs that filled the soundscape of our ancestors.\u201d Prove is hard to get I\u2019m afraid, but it makes sense and it is an inspiring thought. It\u00a0 Rothenberg to create music based on the sounds by bugs. In each piece we hear insect or insect-like sounds. He tries to arrange a dialogue with these animal sounds, and respond to the unusual structures that are hidden in them. In most pieces the insects provide some rhythmic base like in \u2018Listen outside the ear\u2019 with a Norwegian flute in the lead, or \u2018Chirped to death\u2019 that has the overtone singing by Hill on the forefront. Or in \u2018Riding Bugz\u2019\u00a0 that has pastoral patterns by sax and electric guitar. Some of them are recorded live in the open field. For example \u2018Glynwood Nights\u2019 where overtone singing Timothy Hill seeks the company of an immense choir of insects. The three pieces that make up the \u2018Insect Drummers\u2019 suite, I found the most intriguing. Sensitive sax playing by Rothenberg over incredible insect sounds mixed with sound of electronic origin. Unheard abstract miniatures are the result. (DM)<\/p>\n
\nDavid Rothenberg is a musician, composer, author and philosopher-naturalist. As a musician he has been published twelve records and in 2010 released in the prestigious ECM label. He is the author of the book and CD ‚Why Birds Sing‘ which was a documentary for the BBC. ‚Thousand Mile Song‘ is another book about making music with whales and recently was published a new book under the title ‚Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise‘.
\nRothenberg argues that for millions of years the beat came out before the man sing. They are insects that have been buzzing, scraping and drumming complex rhythms. He has researched the rhythms of cicadas, crickets, grasshoppers and water bugs.
\n‚Bug Music‘ shows the sounds of cicadas, treehoppers that take avantage of complex vibrations in the stems of plants and a small beetle that makes one of the loudest sounds in the animal world, vibrating its penis underwater.
\nRothenberg plays bass, clarinet, soprano saxophone, electronics, bug sounds, Robert J\u00fcrjendal on guitar, Timothy Hill, overtone singing, Umru Rothenberg, ipad and Charles Lindsay, cicada wrangler.
\nThis album moves between free-jazz and avant-garde. Rothenberg produces a combination of pure insect sounds weaving improvised dialogues through he’s clarinet, plus some electronic noises. In relation to the rhythms of insects, Rothenberg responds to them with masterful clarinet blowing, creating a common language between the insects and Rothenberg’s music.
\nInteresting proposal that shows the various nuances of the sounds of insects, a world unknown to many of us.<\/p>\n
\n[…] David Rothenburg likes to blow his Sax too. And his bass clarinet and a Norwegian flute that has no holes. He likes to play along to insects sounds as captured on several tracks here. Rothenburg wanders into the great outdoors to blow improv and play along with the Katydids. The idea being that the insects provide a natural rhythm to Rothenburg\u2019s improvisations. On a number of tracks he\u2019s helped out by friends, most effectively on \u2018Glynwood Nights\u2019 where the overtone singing of Timothy Hill compliments the found sounds of nocturnal insects. A live track as recorded in Estonia [\u2018in which only 50 people were allowed to attend\u2019 it sez here] is perhaps my pick of the bunch, mainly due to it not having much of Rothenburg but lots of a guitarist called Robert J\u00fcrjendal whose Hillage like noodlings are the perfect compliment to the nighttime sounds of the Borneo rainforest.<\/p>\n
\nOn Bug Music, clarinet and soprano saxophone player David Rothenberg communes with all manner of insect creatures, from cicadas and crickets to katydids and engraver beetles. It’s not the first time the ECM recording artist has turned his attention to the natural world: he’s the author of the book-CD project Why Birds Sing and the book Thousand Mile Song, which concerns music-making with whales, and now brings us the seventy-minute Gruenrekorder CD, released concurrently with the book Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise (St Martins Press).<\/p>\n
\nOn the tree\u2019s summit, thou cheer\u2019st us with exquisite song\u2026
\nFree from suffering, though hast neither blood nor flesh \u2013
\nWhat is there prevents thee from being a god?<\/p>\n
\nJe n’avais d\u00e9j\u00e0 pas franchement appr\u00e9ci\u00e9 le dernier duo Rothenberg\/Scanner paru chez Monotype, alors autant le dire de suite, c’est pas avec ce solo que je vais commencer \u00e0 aimer son travail. La d\u00e9marche est int\u00e9ressante, David Rothenberg a voulu ici produire un duo entre les insectes et sa musique, un duo cens\u00e9 mettre en avant les liens entre la production sonore des insectes et les productions sonores humaines, qu’elles soient rythmiques, m\u00e9lodiques, ou noise. On en tend donc pas mal de samples d’insectes, d’oiseaux et du monde naturel de mani\u00e8re g\u00e9n\u00e9ral, ainsi que ses habituelles clarinettes. Une musique douce, m\u00e9lodieuse, o\u00f9 les mondes animal et humain sont \u00e9videmment en parfaite harmonie. Outre l’aspect tr\u00e8s easy-listening que j’ai du mal \u00e0 appr\u00e9cier, c’est aussi la mani\u00e8re de trop plier les productions sonores naturelles aux intentions musicales que je ne trouve pas forc\u00e9ment tr\u00e8s juste.<\/p>\n
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