Turntable History
2011
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Turntable History
2011
2011
Electronic Concert
'Turntable History' was originally conceived as part of an audio-visual installation installed in the circular vaulted brick space of a historical water container in Berlin in 2009. The original sound content is derived from recordings made by Dreyblatt of a Magnetic Resonance Imagining Scanner ('Siemens Magnetom Symphony Maestro Class') in a radiological practice in Berlin. Dreyblatt was fortunate to gain rare permission to record this device in operation without patients being involved. A technician from Siemens manned the machine especially for these recordings, searching for software settings related to their resulting sonic output rather for scanning particular body areas. Dreyblatt treated the device as a giant 'Tesla coil', in which the alignment and resonances of a powerful magnetic field is gradually altered by rotating radio frequencies. Dreyblatt analyzed and deconstructed the original recordings and grouped the audio segments by pitch, rhythm and density. The resulting five-channel composition of harmonically resonating, pulsating signals, sounded within this voluminous reflective space (with long delay times) was captured in a recording was issued by Important Records in February, 2011.
For the live version, which was premiered at a concert by Non-Event at the Goethe Institute in Boston on March 12, 2011, Dreyblatt created a palette of signals and patters derived from the original recordings which are 'played' and combined with the acoustic nature of the performance space in mind. While not attempting to simulate the new CD recording, Dreyblatt created a completely new spatial composition utilizing the original sonic material. Dreyblatt is planning futher concerts of this new solo work.
'Turntable History' was originally conceived as part of an audio-visual installation installed in the circular vaulted brick space of a historical water container in Berlin in 2009. The original sound content is derived from recordings made by Dreyblatt of a Magnetic Resonance Imagining Scanner ('Siemens Magnetom Symphony Maestro Class') in a radiological practice in Berlin. Dreyblatt was fortunate to gain rare permission to record this device in operation without patients being involved. A technician from Siemens manned the machine especially for these recordings, searching for software settings related to their resulting sonic output rather for scanning particular body areas. Dreyblatt treated the device as a giant 'Tesla coil', in which the alignment and resonances of a powerful magnetic field is gradually altered by rotating radio frequencies. Dreyblatt analyzed and deconstructed the original recordings and grouped the audio segments by pitch, rhythm and density. The resulting five-channel composition of harmonically resonating, pulsating signals, sounded within this voluminous reflective space (with long delay times) was captured in a recording was issued by Important Records in February, 2011.
For the live version, which was premiered at a concert by Non-Event at the Goethe Institute in Boston on March 12, 2011, Dreyblatt created a palette of signals and patters derived from the original recordings which are 'played' and combined with the acoustic nature of the performance space in mind. While not attempting to simulate the new CD recording, Dreyblatt created a completely new spatial composition utilizing the original sonic material. Dreyblatt is planning futher concerts of this new solo work.
Solo Performance: Computer Laptop and CD.
"The first of the two pieces he played at the Point Ephemere used a such tuning in the setting of a relatively recent electronic work, presented as a laptop performance. Well, maybe in the case of an electronic work one should rather speak of the 'range of frequencies used' rather than 'tuning'. The piece consisted in felds of sound that were gradually built up and developed around an E-core, and within which ever changing rhythmic patterns of beatings continue to evolve." - Soundblog in-strumm-end-s january 19, 2005.
Live at Octopus Festival, Paris, 2005
Calculations 14:55
"The first of the two pieces he played at the Point Ephemere used a such tuning in the setting of a relatively recent electronic work, presented as a laptop performance. Well, maybe in the case of an electronic work one should rather speak of the 'range of frequencies used' rather than 'tuning'. The piece consisted in felds of sound that were gradually built up and developed around an E-core, and within which ever changing rhythmic patterns of beatings continue to evolve." - Soundblog in-strumm-end-s january 19, 2005.
Live at Octopus Festival, Paris, 2005
Calculations 14:55
Die Luftmenschen
1987
1987
In 1986-87 I began working on a "digital dynamic processing system" for a commission
at Ars Electronica in Linz in 1987 and further developed this in a residency
at STEIM in Amsterdam in 1989. This system was triggered with recorded
machine tracks and interacts with acoustic instruments. Its basis are recordings
of the rhythms produced by a number of malfunctioning escalators on the Blvd.
Ansbach in Brussels which I made in 1987. A projection composition based on re-animated
family home movies accompanies the music. The performance system was later further
developed as End Correction, as a duet with Pierre Berthet and in the composition,
Escalator, performed by The Orchestra of Excited Strings and
by the Bang On A Can All-Stars.
"The composition of Arnold Dreyblatt, commissioned for Ars Electronica in Linz and executed on self-made instruments set a noteworthiest accent to the festival... ...minimalist structure, stoic repetition, half-tone modulations and hard sweeping rhythms whose otherwise bizarre beauty was almost a punk concert: sounds like sparks flying under a striking hammer. -Süddeutsche Zeitung
"The composition of Arnold Dreyblatt, commissioned for Ars Electronica in Linz and executed on self-made instruments set a noteworthiest accent to the festival... ...minimalist structure, stoic repetition, half-tone modulations and hard sweeping rhythms whose otherwise bizarre beauty was almost a punk concert: sounds like sparks flying under a striking hammer. -Süddeutsche Zeitung
Die Luftmenschen, Het Apollohuis, Eindhoven, 1987
1. Die Luftmenschen 1 19:17
2. Die Luftmenschen 2 15:11
Nodal Excitation
1979
1979
In the spring of 1979 I was approached to perform at a downtown performance festival in New York. I had been developing a repertoire of isolated percussive and bowed attacks, and these evolved into a continuous rhythmic technique in which I could excite chords of overtones above the fundamental. This technique is a combination of bowing and striking, in which a short portion of the bow is brought into contact with the string in a forward and backward motion. If the striking aspect is emphasized, the inharmonic nature of the attack overwhelms the sound and little resonance is excited. If a long section of bow hair is brought into contact with the string, the resulting sound is lacking in resonance.
"The performance is a careful consideration of the location and influence of the acoustic Nodal Regions as identified on #12 and #11 unwound Music Wire stretched on a double bass (40.5" speaking length). The integrity of a fundamental vibration is maintained for both strings at all times; all movement of pitch occurs in the overtone structure. A shorter speaking length is never created through "stopping" or "fretting" techniques. Rather, harmonic, partial vibrations are calculated, coaxed, and are occasionally isolated at the nodes of the string." - from program notes, 1979.
"Nodal Excitation (Solo)" has also been performed by Bassist Robert Black in a number of U.S. tours.
Download 2004 Review
"The performance is a careful consideration of the location and influence of the acoustic Nodal Regions as identified on #12 and #11 unwound Music Wire stretched on a double bass (40.5" speaking length). The integrity of a fundamental vibration is maintained for both strings at all times; all movement of pitch occurs in the overtone structure. A shorter speaking length is never created through "stopping" or "fretting" techniques. Rather, harmonic, partial vibrations are calculated, coaxed, and are occasionally isolated at the nodes of the string." - from program notes, 1979.
"Nodal Excitation (Solo)" has also been performed by Bassist Robert Black in a number of U.S. tours.
Live at Octopus Festival, Paris, 2005
Nodal Excitation 24:47
Download 2004 Review
