Annie Gosfield - Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery (2001)

Tracklist:
1-3. EWA7 (1999) 42:23
sampling keyboard ANNIE GOSFIELD
electric guitar ROGER KLEIER
electronics IKUE MORI
drums, percussion JIM PUGLIESE, SIM CAIN
metal factory percussion HANS-GUNTER BRODMANN, MATTHIAS ROSENBAUER
4. FLYING SPARKS AND HEAVY MACHINERY (2000) 14:36
FLUX STRING QUARTET and TALUJON PERCUSSION QUARTET

NOTES ON THE CD
EWA7 and Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery were both inspired by machine and factory sounds; the scrapes, squeaks, and bangs of metal, the ambient buzzes and whines of electric devices, and the imperfect rhythmic repeats of heavy machinery. Most of the music was developed in 1999 during a six-week residency in the factories of Nuremberg, Germany, in a program sponsored by the Siemens Corporation designed to “combine art and industry” My work in Nuremberg included visiting many factories, observing and listening to all types of machinery, and recording sounds on site. I was particularly fascinated by the ever-changing sonic landscapes that occur in each factory as sounds shift, overlap, and echo in the distance. A critical part of the residency was the opportunity to listen: what I initially heard as a mass of cacophonous factory noise gradually revealed itself to be a beautifully complex amalgam of layered textures and timbres. The sound of a buzzsaw’s rising harmonic grind would emerge out of the quiet ambient hum of fluorescent lights, for example, only to be obliterated by random arhythmic crashes and bangs from a huge metal press. Machine rhythms went in and out of phase, dynamics varied wildly, and in an environment of constantly shifting activity and noise, the frequency spectrum fluctuated from sub-audio rumbles to barely audible high-pitched whines.
EWA7
EWA7 was premiered by my ensemble in the EWA7 factory in Nuremberg. It is comprised of many overlapping pieces with varying instrumentation, from short sequential solo sections to larger works for the full ensemble. Much of the musical materials used in this piece are derived from actual machine sounds that I recorded on site in many different factories, and then sampled for use in live performance. Driving machine samples, layers of ambient noise, crashing metal and electronic blips and bleeps all meld and collide, evoking the clamor and din of a journey through a grimy working factory. Each musician’s interpretation has been critical in the development of this group of pieces, which ranges from short improvisatory solos to fully composed works. We recorded the basic tracks at a studio in Brooklyn that was conveniently located upstairs from two metal fabricating shops, whose owners generously loaned us huge sheets of metal, welding tanks, lengths of steel tubing, and a variety of discarded bits and pieces, which we incorporated into our ever-growing percussion set-up.
FLYING SPARKS AND HEAVY MACHINERY
Shortly after returning home to New York from Germany I was commissioned to write a piece for string quartet and percussion quartet. This new work was also inspired by the ambience, energy, and sheer power of industrial sound that I experienced in my residency in the factories of Nuremberg. I was intrigued by the challenge of writing a strictly notated chamber piece for acoustic instruments that would evoke the inherent beauty of a factory environment without the use of electronics, samplers, or tape. I used traditional notation to evoke the shifting industrial landscapes, employing techniques ranging from on-site transcriptions of factory recordings, to Russian constructivist-inspired manifestations of industrial activity. Strings focus on microtonal variations of pitch, replacing equal-temperament with the untuned buzzing, humming, and grinding sounds of machines. Percussion instruments are primarily of indefinite pitch, and imitate the banging, scraping, and hissing cacophony of the factory.

EWA7 recorded at Mission Sound, Frank Booth, and Avatar Studios, New York. in 2001. Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery recorded at Avatar Studios, New York, in 2001.

all compositions by ANNIE GOSFIELD except Combustion Chamber, by ANNIE GOSFIELD and ROGER KLEIER
produced by ANNIE GOSFIELD and ROGER KLEIER
executive producer JOHN ZORN associate producer KAZUNORI SUGIYAMA

Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery was commissioned by the Other Minds Festival with funding from the CCP and the Jerome Foundation.

Recording of the CD supported in part by the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, The Jerome Foundation, and the Yvar Mikhashoff Fund for New Music.

"I find this a wonderful disc, beautifully performed and produced. Perhaps more than any other composer of her generation Gosfield has taken up the challenge of Edgard Varèse, writing music which addresses forthrightly the aesthetic challenge of mechanization, technology, and science. She makes "noise" sound as though it was always meant for the musical context in which she inserts it. And often, the result fun to dance to! A winner."– Robert Carl, Fanfare, 2002


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