Vol. 44 Issue 4 Reviews | Reviews > Recordings > | ||
Jack Callahan and Jeff Witscher: Stockhausen Syndrome | |||
Compact disc, 2021, FLEA006, available from Flea, www.newmusicindustrialcomplex.com/. Reviewed by Ross Feller
Gambier, Ohio, USA
The title of this
disc is as provocative as the music it contains. Stockhausen Syndrome is a conceptual spoof on the psychological
condition known as the Stockholm Syndrome, wherein victims of abuse bond with
their abusers. Derek Caterwaul (on alibi.com) describes the Stockhausen variant
this way: “Those suffering from the Stockhausen condition believe
they’ve obtained a deep appreciation for boring or poorly executed avant-garde
performance. This syndrome helps suppress the infuriating realization that someone
– likely yourself – is wasting your time, money and/or mental energy.” With respect
to the disc under review, the implied Stockhausen condition celebrates, makes
fun of, and critiques the aforementioned sentiment.
Stockhausen
Syndrome has been touted as “a concept album utilizing an
IRCAM-developed ‘assisted orchestration’” algorithm.” Reference is made to
Peter Ablinger’s Piano
and Voices album, but one also thinks of the politicized text-to-guitar works
of the Canadian composer René Lussier. The music on this disc is tightly wound
up with textual and vocalized speech and rhythmic patterns. This is replicated
on a short YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLDIce9t8zU) that
both serves as an infomercial and an extension of the work itself, featuring
images of Karlheinz Stockhausen and several pop
culture figures over rapid-fire sounds and voices.
There are 17 works on Stockhausen Syndrome, each titled with an Emoji. The Emojis are
arranged according to a palindromic pattern that revolves around the central
axis of Track 9, which is titled with a down arrow, black box, and an up arrow,
suggesting the equivalency of movement in both directions. The Emojis include
familiar signs: eighth notes, a computer monitor, red/green/blue graphs, a
crystal ball, two different microphones, and several more. Besides the title
pairs, the musical, textual, or processing approaches in each pair are also
connected. So, the Emoji titles and materials for Tracks 1 and 17 are related,
as are Tracks 2 and 16, Tracks 3 and 15, etc.
Track 1 features a fast-paced granular texture using
several contrasting instrumental timbres that articulate perfect fifth and
octave intervals, which gradually become unglued and distorted. Given these
intervals, this track functions as an introductory fanfare for the disc as a
whole. Track 17 contains a similar approach, which also makes it a suitable
close for the collection. For both tracks one gets the sense that we are
hearing vocal rhythms minus the vocals, as articulated by the instruments of a
virtual chamber orchestra. One might describe this as an invisible force that
leaves audible traces on the extant material.
Track 2 contains three minutes of sampled and
manipulated sounds similar in technique to Ablinger’s previously mentioned album. But here the result is much more disturbing, even
annoying (in a good way!), reminiscent of the work of The Residents. Some of the
voices remind one of those found in cartoons or animated films. The crazed
(asymmetrical and distorted) unison rhythms combined with the voices are
refreshingly irreverent. Similarly, Track 16 features an informal conversation
about the meaning of superheroes, punctuated by the sounds of a chamber
ensemble. Interestingly, the materials in-between the spoken text parts get
stuck on various sustains, only to be dislodged with the next textual outburst.
Track 3 contains recorded news clip about collusion between
Donald Trump and “the Russians.” This is paired effectively with the sound of a
bassoon. After the piece is introduced, Callahan and Witscher rife, in cut-up sampled form, on the word ‘collusion’ over a cyclical series of
bassoon notes that manage to sound simultaneously broken and funky. Track 15
presents flutes and the voice of President Biden telling a story that can be
described as a lot of hot air. The language he uses is also suspect.
In Track 4 we hear an informal commentary about the
state of music, as well as conjecture about what a contemporary listener to a
Beethoven symphony might have heard. These texts are matched with pizzicato,
arco, and tremolo string sounds. Track 14 employs a small wind ensemble to
punctuate two male voices conversing about creativity.
Clarinet and flute sounds are first heard alone in the
first half of Track 5. Around the halfway point a voice enters, the rhythm of
which is used to perforate the wind sounds. In Track 13, paired with Track 5,
we hear a voice from a learning to count from one to one hundred recording. At
times the voice becomes blues-inflected and sings the numbers. The voice is
paired with string sounds. The paired connection between tracks 13 and 5 seems
more conceptual than actual.
Track 6 features pulsating amplitude-modulated wind and
string sounds that shift unevenly between different sections of the sampled
material. At times it lands on or extends a microtonal inflection. There are no
voices here, just ‘pure’ instrument sounds that undergo various forms of
computer-assisted distortion. The same is true of Track 12.
In Track 7 we hear a conversation about creativity and
expression, over a background texture of a keyboard-led chamber ensemble that
syncs up with the conversation at the beginnings and endings of phrases. Track
11 features a short vocalization of an English text spoken and sung by a male
voice with a French accent.
Track 8 begins with a conversation about Bernie Sanders
and the by now familiar accusations of ‘socialism’. This is cut short after the
text: “eating the rich” is heard, which triggers an instrumental cadenza
articulated by a small, percussive sounding, chamber ensemble. In Track 10 we
hear an argument between a man and a woman about the inner workings of dating
sites. The man sounds like an incel follower and his
voice is appropriately punctuated with gaseous wind and brass sounds.
Finally, we reach the middle of the form with Track 9.
Knowing that is serves as an axis of rotation for the structural palindrome
that represents the 17 works on this disc, I expected it to be the same played
forwards or backwards. But this was not the case. Instead, Track 9 presents 39
seconds of a short text read by a Siri or Alexis voice, juxtaposed over the
rhythmically in sync chamber orchestra instruments.
The works on this collection range in length from 20
seconds to five minutes and twenty-eight seconds. They present the listener
with a challenging listening experience as we encounter sonic snapshots of
culture today, disturbing and ridiculous, but a force to be reckoned with.
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