[sdiy] Tape head collage (pretty much not synth DIY, sorry)

[Scott Stites]

I've got Laurie Anderson's 'Home of the Brave" on VHS - in that, she uses the late William Burrough's voice on the violin.  He's saying "Listen to my heartbeat".  Burrough's shows up in a number of her recordings ("Sharkey's Day" for example), and of course was the source of the title for "Language is a Virus".

As a side note, I caught Laurie's solo "Strange Angels" tour in Lawrence, Kansas in the late 80's (early 90's(?)) in the fairly small theater on the KU campus (which has since burned, sadly).  It was an absolutely stunning show - funny, quirky, moving all rolled up into one.  At the time, William Burroughs was living in Lawrence, and he actually came on stage where they danced a waltz together.  Chance of a lifetime for a Kansas boy to see that.

No violin at that show, just a huge stack of synth's, samplers and electronic percussion, as well as some pitch shifting of the voice.   "Strange Angels" wasn't as exotic as the "Home of the Brave" tour.  Que is mas macho?

Cheers,
Scott

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: CCartCat at aol.com 
  To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl 
  Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2004 6:24 PM
  Subject: Re: [sdiy] Tape head collage (pretty much not synth DIY, sorry)



  In a message dated 11/25/04 9:36:27 AM, richard at skydancer.com writes:



    At 08:58 25/11/2004 -0500, CCartCat at aol.com wrote:

    >If I recall correctly from the film I saw 2 decades ago, Laurie Anderson's
    >tape bows were loaded with recordings of short pithy phrases like "Hi, how
    >are you?".  I don't even recall any randomness/extreme changes in the
    >speed or start point of her playback.

    I saw her live in the late 80s, and it was one of the funniest and most
    interesting gigs I've ever seen.

    She played the 'violin' as a sound effect, not an instrument. Mostly she'd
    slow down the playback speed as she drew the bow to make the now-familiar
    pitch warp sound.

    I have no idea what the source recording was.

    Richard






  Thanks for that--I was hoping some folks would post their own more detailed, eyewitness recollections.  

  Impressionable and even more technically challenged way back then, I was very impressed by LA's tape bow but never saw much of it outside the film clip.

  K. Seward, lurking once more
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