#Playground (Bass Clarinet)

[thekingofgear]

Tree Synthesisers begins with a gentle fade-in, presenting a web of synthesizer trills which is led by a gently plucked solo electric guitar. Most of the synths flip between C and F, but each one speeds and slows at its own pace, giving no sense of a common tempo. Jonny initially plays straight quarter notes, but loops them and adds syncopated layers above them, adding to the sense of there being no dominant pulse. The guitar and synths are joined (0:24) by gentle high-pitched digital noise, which pans from right to left, adding the only “percussion” on the track (though it barely constitutes that).

Then the atmosphere is changed suddenly with the entrance of the rich polyphonic synthesizer which will dominate the rest of the track (0:57). While the initial “trill” synthesizers are all quite stable and clean, reminiscent of an old video game’s crispy square waves, the main poly-synth is incredibly rich, with its analog oscillators sliding in and out of tune with each-other and its timbre varied by slow, deep modulation. Part of why the poly-synth is able to take such dramatic command of the track is that, unlike the initial synths whose lowest note is still in the mid-frequencies, the sub-oscillator on the poly-synth’s bass voice reaches nearly to the bottom of the audible range.

A photo of Jonny playing his ondes Musicales Dierstein, from the 2015 performance by Jonny and the London Contemporary Orchestra in Dublin. Using the keyboard, the Martenot easily could have supplied at least a part of the track’s persistent trills.

The poly-synth’s homophonic part is iterated in two voices, with a treble that alternates between F and A three times before settling on E, and a bass that simultaneously alternates between D and F before landing on a C which is paired with a dissonant B after one measure to deny any sense of resolution. This initial progression forms the basis for the rest of the track, and rest of the synth’s playing consists exclusively of repeats or transpositions of it.

After a repetition of the progression (at 1:22), we get the synth progression transposed down a fifth (1:47). Next, we get a repeat of the original version the progression (2:11). It is followed again by a transposition down a fifth (2:36), but this time the treble voice plays an octave higher than before (up a forth from the original melody), giving a more brilliant version of the variation. It is followed by a new variation, this one transposed up fourth from the first transposition (3:00). The final progression (3:25) is a repeat of the first transposition, this one with a rich upper layer added to the treble part (3:32). Surprisingly, it cuts itself short, moving the its last note (A) after only two alternations of its first two notes.

A photo from the 2014 performance by Jonny and the London Contemporary Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in Manchester (mx-magpie).

The first string instrument to enter is a cello (presumably Oliver Coates), contributing A’s and D’s (0:46). More players join after after the main poly-synth enters (~1:04), and next a violin (presumably Galya Bisengalieva) joins the lower strings (1:09) and begins to play the sparse high notes which have become an essential characteristic of the more melancholiac tracks on Jonny’s recent scores. Total, there seem to be about four-to-six total string players. The two cellos are evident at 3:48, and a second violin panned alternate to the first trades notes with it. The occasional F’s of middling pitch might be played either by violas or by the violins. The strings serve only as an accompaniment on this track, but their sparse, delicate notes – best heard after the main synth delivers its final note (3:44) – provide a wistful edge to the track.

Each string player switches between only a few notes over the course of the piece, and they seem to do so without any clear pattern. Based on Jonny’s recent compositions, which make heavy use of aleatoric writing, it’s likely that each player is given a few options to choose from for each note. For example, the principal violin primarily plays D’s and G’s, but occasionally C’s and F’s are employed as well. It’s likely that Jonny offered all four notes as options, perhaps providing a choice of two for a given measure. This would explain why the violin sometimes leaps up to G from D, other times leaps down from G to D, and sometimes simply holds the high G for double the duration.

Both Robert Ames (viola and co-director, left) and Galya Bisengalieva (principal violin, right) are key players in the sound of this track, and the YWNRH soundtrack as a whole (photo by Isabel Thomas). 

Instruments

As was already suggested by Jonny’s performances of Sandy’s Necklace (originally “Microtonal Shaker”) and other pieces with the LCO, the thick, rich “humbucker” timbres employed across the YWNRH soundtrack confirm that his primary guitars were his 70′s Gibson Led Paul Standard and his vintage Fender Starcaster. While Jonny’s old Telecaster Plus also offers a thick “humbucker” sound, its Lace Sensor pickups have a more even/neutral and slightly “compressed” sound compared to deep, punchy sound of Led Paul pickups, or to the open, chiming sound of Starcaster pickups. The brighter sound of the Starcaster seems to feature on the soundtrack’s more intricate songs, such as Tree Strings and Nina Through Glass, while the punchier Les Paul seems to feature on more aggressive tracks like Sandy’s Necklace and Dark Streets (Reprise). In the case of Tree Synthesisers, the Starcaster seems the more likely option.

Jonny’s Fender Starcaster (left) and Gibson Les Paul (right) have been his primary guitars for work outside of Radiohead since around 2011. Photo is from Jonny’s performance of Electric Counterpoint at the Barbican Center in 2014.

Unlike the guitar, it’s hard to gauge which synths Jonny may have used on this track. The initial trills could have been created with anything, even Jonny’s ondes Martenot or Ondomo. The later synth must be a rich analog synth of some kind, but this could be anything from a Dave Smith synth to a patch on Jonny’s modular. There’s definitely a sub-oscillator used for the bass voice, so the Dave Smith Tetra which Jonny had on the 2012 tour is a likely option. It offers a sub-oscillator per voice, and allows a unique patch per each of its four voices: that could explain why the sub-oscillator is only present on the bass voice. Of course, Jonny also could have multi-tracked the synth. The sound of its filter can best be heard when the extra higher voice joins in (3:32), and its resonance is noticeably different from the filter on Jonny’s Minimoog Model D, for example.

For the score of YWNRH, Jonny mentioned working both with a full orchestra, and with a smaller group of string players at Radiohead’s studio. One can hear a similarly sized ensemble on Playground (Bass Clarinet), particularly when the other sounds drop out near the end of the track, and YWNRH also features a fairly small ensemble (the extra definition of the small ensemble adds an extra edge to the dense orchestral writing on that track).

Jonny’s Dave Smith Instruments Tetra can be seen below and to the right of his laptop in this crop of a photo, which was taken by Jonny during Radiohead’s soundcheck for their 2012 performance in Taipei (deadairspace).

[backtohawkins]

WELCOME BACK TO HAWKINS, VICKIE LEVINSON (abigail cowen fc),

good luck and have a bitchin summer!

[abigail cowen, cis female, she/her] who’s that? oh it’s [vickie levinson]. i hear they’re [twenty] and are known as [the hoyden] around [hawkins]. they’re also a [junior] at [hawkins community college] & [clerk] at [hawkins records]. they’re known to be [sanguine + soft-hearted] and [bolshie + wayward]. some people say they remind them of [poster-collaged bedroom walls featuring every band worth listening to, a hastily-done stick and poke tattoo of a wonky smiley face, freckles on your nose which scrunches up when laughing]. [jess, 25, she/her, age gap relationships, bst timezone]

— believe it or not, while vickie is none the wiser about the darker side of hawkins and its recent history of the upside down, the mind flayer and vecna, she had started to conspire that something wasn’t as it seemed around the time of chrissy cunningham’s death. vickie had actually always admired chrissy from afar throughout high school, despite them being worlds apart in terms of cliques, interests and popularity. vickie doesn’t remember when exactly she started to realise that this admiration was actually a crush, but she does remember how invested she was in finding out what truly happened to her when she died, as she didn’t believe for a second any of the available theorized explanations such as the blame being on the ‘hellfire club’. a spark of curiosity in her mind started to consider something supernatural, but she never made a definite conclusion on it.

— vickie is a media buff, for both cinema and music. however, whilst her cinephilia is mostly just a hobby, her love for music is her passion. she has picked up skill in several instruments over the years – the first of which was clarinet, which she played back in her hawkins high school marching band days. she has since also learned to play bass guitar, drums and piano. she’d love to join a band one day, or failing that, become a music journalist as she likes to talk about music just as much as she likes to play it.

— vickie first considered the possibility that she was bisexual in her teen years, despite not having a lot of representation around her to show how common it was to be attracted to multiple genders. now that she’s 20, she’s comfortable in her sexuality but only out to a couple of close friends, as she isn’t sure how her family, college classmates or the rest of hawkins will react to it and feels she has more important stuff to focus on right now. she’s never had a romantic relationship anyway, aside from crushes and playground handholding as a child, which everyone knows doesn’t count. she figures she’ll tell her ‘person’ if she ever finds one, but she’s … selective to say the least.

— vickie can come across as overbearing and even intimidating sometimes. she can be so intense sometimes … she may seem like she doesn’t want to make friends outside of her existing small circles, or that she makes assumptions of people before she’s gotten to know them. truth is, she’s a little guarded from being bullied back in high school for being your average awkward, nerdy band geek – and even now that she’s managed to leave that stereotype behind, she definitely overthinks social interaction and interpersonal relationships more than she should. but she’s trying!

[alexthedrummerboy]

for trivia tuesday: do you have any headcanons from the poyp universe that you haven’t shared yet? whether from alex and/or willie specifically, or in general?

ooo !! yes i do 🥺 a lot of them i’ll admit i screamed at @diwata-nation about but there are a fair few! i’ve probably mentioned some of them at some point but here’s a lil list!

alex luke reggie and bobby were all in marching band together

alex played flute, luke played the oboe (badly), reggie played the saxophone, and bobby played bass clarinet

JEWISH REGGIE AND HIS JEWISH MOM ELIZA WHO IS A MILF

his parents got divorced shortly before he left for university and he still has a great relationship with his mom - he doesn’t really keep in contact with his dad too much

he still occasionally has nightmares about when his parents fights would get really bad but since moving in with the guys they’re less frequent

willie has a tattoo of a bee on his knee because even tho he’s allergic he fuckin loves bees (thank u for letting me scream about willie’s tattoos @thesunwillshineclearer 🥺)

i made a list of willie’s tattoos here if anyone’s interested in reading about them!

harrison went to med school because he loves grey’s anatomy (also...he likes helping people i guess)

whenever things would get intense at home, harrison would take noah and alex in his car and they’d drive somewhere together (maybe to get ice cream, to a drive thru, just to go to a playground somewhere etc.)

alex loves empty children’s playgrounds at night time - he hasn’t found one in LA he particularly likes to go to yet but willie introduces him to one when they get back to LA !!

eventually, alex and willie do get tattoos together

alex gets the sunset curve logo on hip - willie does actually get that drumstick on his forearm 🥺

these are just the ones i can think of right now on the fly!! thank you for asking 🥺❤️

[dustedmagazine]

Museum of No Art — S/T (Séance Centre)

Museum Of No Art by Museum Of No Art

Mona Steinwidder wants to create space, or rather a “playground” to leave space for improvisation with her Museum of No Art project. “I like this idea of an open and light structure that can grow and transform and leaves spaces in all directions. Something without a clear beginning and ending,” Steinwidder explains. The name acts as a guidepost for the music’s intention: unobtrusive pieces acting as an installation without a set focus. It also, maybe intentionally, is an acronym for the artist’s first name.

The releases leading up to this self-titled Museum of No Art release suggest Steinwidder is elaborating on her interest in music’s meditative qualities. With her solo project Mohna, Steinwidder’s vocals are cocooned by slow, morose songwriting akin to Erased Tapes releases. Her duo with Lorin Strohm as Me Succeeds approaches an electro-pop sound, Mona’s vocals in this setting surrounded by churning synths and low-toned electronic drums. And Steinwidder’s only other release under the Museum of No Art name collects two longform looping, fluttering clarinet improvisations, studded with overdubs of recordings from an undefined body of water.

Created after a six-month stint to Vienna, concentrating on synthesizer, sampler and voice , experimentations, Steinwidder’s first full album for the project is propelled by arpeggiating synths, rounded but also long, smooth analog tones, deep, gut-tugging bass, flirty clarinet and the phonetic vocal lines. A bouncy feel is laced throughout, whether it’s a sustained phrase on a wave synthesizer, not necessarily danceable, or a repetitive, pop-embracing synth line in the canon of Arthur Russell. Often a leading part is either put through a delay effect or committed to a repetition, encouraging the player to chase the phantom trailing behind them, creating colorful circular and psychedelic exercises.

The album delves into an impressionist electro-pop again in the vein of Arthur Russell, although elements of the work of Julianna Barwick or Laurie Anderson seep in too. “Fabulous Youth,” the album’s second track, is an elongated chant that wades through an aqueous body of woody synth tampers and additional vocal lines which shift from ear-to-ear. Two song-like, vocal-centered tracks come at the end of the album with “A Nameless Person Tries to Describe Herself” and “Subconscious Message.” On the former, vocals flex in a coat of reverb and a team of staccato synths to create a timid disco, while the latter is defined mainly by the entrancing vocals and the ambiguous short story it tells. They both run against the grain of the album’s ethos to a degree, but they are fleeting moments which don’t detract from the album’s overall effect.

Like her past releases under other monikers, the music on this self-titled is deliberate, often slow and full of deep, resonant tones. Steinwidder has an honest pop sensibility that peeks out from time to time on Museum of No Art, one which seems weary to split from her curiosity for experimental manipulations. This interplay makes the album intriguing and watching how Steinwidder will couple these sensibilities and curiosities in future releases is a reason to keep listening.

Ian Forsythe

[fire-gift]

Jonny Greenwood - You Were Never Really Here [OST]

1. Tree Synthesisers 0:00 2. Sandy’s Necklace 4:25 3. Nausea 8:13 4. Hammer and Tape 10:03 5. Playground (Bass Clarinet) 11:26 6. The Hunt 15:12 7. Dark Streets 18:35 8. Ywnrh 20:28 9. Nina Through Glass 24:25 10. Votto 27:46 11. Dark Streets (Reprise) 31:49 12. Downstairs 33:42 13. Joe’s Drive 34:32 14. Tree Strings 35:55

[fully-known-and-loved]

In the beginning...

These feelings started way back when I was younger. Interestingly, it wasn’t boys I started liking first, but girls. I remember in elementary school having a small crush on an older girl (she was a whole year older, oh so scandalous). I didn’t even know her - not even her name - but I thought she was pretty. During recess, I would steal glances at her across the playground as she played with the other big kids. Sometimes I caught myself daydreaming that she noticed me, that she liked me too and wanted to hold my hand. Ironically, there were a few guys in my class who liked me, and I would rebuff their affections. During recess one day, one boy whispered in my ear “I like you.” I proceeded to chase him down in anger, and then I gave up and cried on the playground because I didn’t want him to like me. (Side note: I later saw him again in middle school, but we never spoke of what happened. We didn’t even acknowledge each other’s presence, but I knew that we both knew each other and we knew about what happened on the playground that day. We were kids anyway, so no need to bring up the past...) Anyway, once I moved to a different elementary school, the thoughts of this girl faded and I didn’t think too much about it. I think I was too naive to realize that these thoughts could be seen as “sinful” by the Christian community I grew up in.

But the feelings toward girls continued when I started crushing on a couple girls in my class, especially one who transferred to our school in 6th grade. Again, more daydreams, more hopes, but never truly acting upon these thoughts. I did, however, befriend them just because I wanted to be their friends. As I settled into friendships with these girls, the attraction faded away and I was happy with being in the friend zone. Again, I thought nothing of my attraction toward girls in terms of my Christian beliefs.

Then came middle school. 7th grade was the first time I had a crush on guy. He was in my PE class, and one of my friends let it slip that he liked me. Of course, knowing someone likes you automatically makes you start liking them. Same deal happened where I crushed on him, acted nervous around him, daydreamed if he would ask me out and we would become a couple. But I never made a move, and neither did he. Turns out he liked me because I was pretty good at basketball (figures). But then there were two girls in Band class who were both gorgeous (we’ll call them C and T), and all the guys in Band actively pined for their affection. Not me though, nope. If you can’t already tell, I’m more of a “pine from afar” kinda girl. I would catch myself looking at them and admiring their beauty, which unintentionally led to thoughts of being with them. One time, C was drinking water from the fountain, her bass clarinet in one hand, and I felt a tug inside me (my body was feeling things, if you know what I mean). Same thing happened when I saw T kiss her boyfriend after school in the band room. But again, I eased into friendships with them (which wasn’t hard when you spend time together as part of the band community), and I was happy just being friends with them. At the same time, however, as I delved deeper into my relationship with Jesus (sparked by powerful, Spirit-filled weeks at a summer Christian youth camp) I became more aware of how wrong it was to have these feelings. I remember times when I wrestled with myself, moments of confessing my sinful thoughts to God and asking Him to take them away. As I struggled with having lustful thoughts, I found myself satiating myself by watching romantic moments in movies and YouTube videos (usually harmless, PG stuff like the long-awaited first kiss). But more on that subject another time.

The thing is, I wasn’t raised in an environment where I would have been primed to have such thoughts. I was raised in a Christian household, surrounded by heterosexual couples. The early 90s and 2000s, as far as I can recall, wasn’t as open to the LGBTQ+ community yet, either (at least not where I lived), so there wasn’t as much representation in media or in public in general. So I can’t truly say that I started having these thoughts because of the environment, but it was something in me, who I was. It was just a part of me that happened to be drawn to girls and boys (more towards girls from what I can remember). And so I found myself “praying the gay away” because I was taught that having these feelings were sinful. Yet, the feelings never went away, so I learned to just actively suppress them. I was pretty good at that when high school came along, although there weren’t any girls that I had a crush on during high school. There were a few guys, however, that I came to fancy (never acting upon it, of course), but those were fleeting since these guys never actually acknowledged me (their loss!). At the same time, I was already friends with the aforementioned girls whom I’ve known since elementary and middle school, so I was chillin’ as I enjoyed being friends with them. And if there were any lustful thoughts that came up, I actively repressed and ignored them.

Anyway, the thoughts and attraction were there ever since I was younger. And it makes more sense, looking back now. Instead of looking back with shame, I’m looking back with more clarity and understanding of who I am. It’s kind of fun, actually, putting the pieces together. Of course, the wrestling part was not fun, and still isn’t fun today. But I think God’s been helping me through it as I learn more about my identity now. It was part of the process in reconciling who I am with my faith.

And college is a whole another subject, for another day.

Peace out, for now :)

[arnulphus]

HARMONICS - KIDSUKE by Stompy's Playground Reworks One - EP exploring music from Slugabed, Luke Abbott, Dauwd, and Kidsuke. Violin- Connie Chatwin Viola - Sally Wragg Cello - Tom Oldfield Trumpet - Tom Dennis Clarinet - Henry Melbourne Trombone - Ross Lumbard Saxophone - Greg Sinclair Piano/ Vibraphone - Laura Prescott Harp - Glenda Alloway Bass - Ben Hayes Drums / Percussion - Pete Hill Drums / Percussion / Vibraphone - Rob Hervais-Adelman Arrangements: Sex - Greg Sinclair Unfurling / Free Migration - Rob Hervais-Adelman Could It Be - Pete Hill Harmonics - Ben Corrigan Recorded by Alex Beitzke at Dean Street Studios, London Mixed by Alex Beitzke Additional mixing by Hannes Plattmeier (Could It Be) Produced by Alex Beitzke and Ben Corrigan Mastered by Pete Maher Photography © https://ift.tt/3eaqhGr

[riffsstrides]

Skúli Sverrisson

Sería II

Sería, 2010

Seria II: Skuli Sverrisson (chitarre, basso, organo, autoharp, piano, percussion). David Thor Jonsson (piano, organ, batteria, banjo); Eyvind Kang (viola, bass trumpet); Amedeo Pace (chitarra, omnichord); Olof Arnalds (voce, charango); Anthony Burr (clarinetto); Hildur Gudnadottir (violoncello); Oskar Gudjonsson (sax tenore); Kristin Anna (voce)

Sería II is the second installment in a series of releases from the versatile Icelandic musician Skúli Sverrisson. For the last two decades Skúli has approached his music with an open mind and collaborated with a number of well known artists, from a diverse background of musical genres.

The idea behind Sería is to mirror and reflect Skúli’s sense of musical freedom and to create a playground for his fellow musicians. Sería I was released by 12 Tónar in 2006 and was chosen the alternative CD of the year in the Icelandic Music Awards.

On Sería II Skúli has called on some great musicians: Amedeo Pace, Ólöf Arnalds, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Eyvind Kang, Anthony Burr, Óskar Guðjónsson, Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir and Davíð Þór Jónsson. The music was specifically written with these musicians in mind and to be performed on viola, cello, clarinet, organ, harp, celeste, piano, bass, guitar, dobro, plus voices. Sería II was mostly recorded in the Sundlaugin in Mosfellsbær by Birgir Þór Jónsson, but also in New York, New Orleans and Berlin.

Skúli has been living in the US for a long time and his music has taken him to all corners of the world. He has performed on well over 100 albums, including releases from his long time collaborator Laurie Anderson, and also Lou Reed, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Blonde Redhead and David Sylvian.