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

[bruce tovsky]

i keep meaning to add my comments to this, better late
than never...

i had the pleasure of working with laurie back in '77 or '78,
and also saw her perform many times, starting back then
to most recently at brooklyn academy of music a couple years
ago, doing her moby dick piece.
her tape bow violin piece that she did back in the '70's was
one of my favorite works of hers, incredibly simple, evocative
and moving. she told a story of a time when she was at a buddhist
retreat, where everyone was supposed to be silent. she talked
about how she heard sounds late at night, and she played the
tape bow violin to evoke the sounds she was hearing. sadly,
my memory of how the story concluded is vague, but i do
remember vividly that she was able to transform the sound(s)
on the tape into intelligibility - with shivers-up-the-spine effect.
her boyfriend at the time was bob bielecki - one of the most
innovative equipment/sound designers i've ever met and/or
worked with. i believe he had a hand in the incredible
"talking sticks" hand-held midi controllers that laurie used in
the moby dick piece at bam. incredible.
cheers
bruce

On Nov 25, 2004, at 9:24 PM, CCartCat at aol.com wrote:

>
>  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
>
bruce tovsky
www.skeletonhome.com
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