RFI: Laurie Spiegel

Listening to Obsolete Systems now and there are parts of it that are so sparkling and crystalline and perfect - but yes, so warm and organic and rich at the same time.

this thread is a treat. think i've listened to laurie at least once a week for a few years now. just got lost in her website in that way that doesn't seem to happen anymore. frames! content! stuff! and it's all very enjoyable :)

http://retiary.org/ls/index.html

Sediment is listed in the credits as being a part of the musical score for The Hunger Games film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02DvJvPppI0

non-album 1972 piece that came out for the first time a few years ago on a Sub Rosa Anthology. deep drone piece. this youtube rip is a lot more aggressive that the CD version, sounds less like a meditative drone and more like a noise piece. the youtube comments are kind of fun.

/than the CD version

the fact that this film's got people sourcing obscure Laurie Spiegel tracks for the soundtrack is exactly what is going to tip the scales into me going to see this monster

this is p great in all regards

Whoa, this could be a reason for me to go too.

fyi: she's on facebook. her posts are great!

you're using your Condé Nast powers for the forces of good, Geeta

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/03/rare-electronic-music-hunger-games/

Front page Slate article trampolining off of Geeta's article, re-interviewing on the subject of not getting paid by Sub Rosa, and goes into depth on her back catalogue in a way that is incredibly satisfying to read in a national forum.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/03/30/laurie_spiegel_s_sediment_in_the_hunger_games_how_the_new_movie_righted_a_musical_wrong.html

I've e-mailed a bit with the person assembling these compilations at Sub Rosa, and he came across as an unusually knowledgable student of the history of electronic music. Maybe I'm just used to a world in which labels have stopped paying anything for compilation tracks, but I'm still a little uncomfortable with a nationally read blowing up Laurie's reasonable Amazon.com review into a full on railing against Sub Rosa without including him in the interview and giving him a chance to respond.

Meantime here's the scene in question (or at least a lo-res version of it):

http://lincolnmoreira.tumblr.com/post/19877170785/the-hunger-games-cornucopia-scene

Ha, wow, the three pieces I was most impressed by them using for the film all get used in that one sequence: Spiegel, Reich and Chas Smith

http://www.amazon.com/A-Wasp-on-Her-Abdomen/dp/B000QWNDZ6

They mix and match between those three pretty freely, especially the Smith & the Reich pieces which they blend together into one piece pretty seamlessly. I'm a big fan of those Chas Smith records, it is almost kind of a shame he's not getting as big a boost out of this: http://www.allmusic.com/album/chas-smith-nikko-wolverine-r512808

Hmm, sounds like I need to investigate further..

After I saw the movie, I came across the Tumblr of some teenager who was crowing about how she'd recognized an excerpt from Music for 18 Musicians on the score. Since I recognized no such thing, I'm relieved to find out it's a different Reich composition, one I haven't listened to dozens of times.

If you like pedal steel guitars, ambient country & the Lanois tracks on 'Apollo Soundtracks' as much as you like Alan Lamb or Harry Bertoia, then you pretty much automatically like Chas Smith

Ah well, that's that, then!

expanding universe reissue with FIFTEEN extra tracks. yes please!

http://thewire.co.uk/articles/9349/

*cartwheels*

downloaded that from some blog about two years ago, so it's nice to be able to put that right... (works out around £15 in english, including delivery)

Splendid

hoping there's a nice balance between the folky counterpointish algorithmic stuff and far out space drones

pre-ordered & most psyched

http://cec.sonus.ca/econtact/10_2/images/SpiegelLa_musicmouse_screenshot.gif

http://cec.sonus.ca/econtact/10_2/images/SpiegelLa_musicmouse_keyboard.gif

http://rhizome.org/editorial/2008/oct/2/early-computer-art-from-1970s-bell-labs-laurie-spi/

^ cheeee this woman is amazing.

I almost revived this thread this morning, this woman is the true drone and all other drones are false

This interview is 15 years old but it's new (and interesting) to me and I don't see it on the thread:
http://cec.sonus.ca/econtact/10_2/SpiegelLa_KD.html

Need to order reissue, have been paralysed by indecision about vinyl vs CD since seeing it mentioned on this thread

definitely the CD for the bonus material alone, but even then: the last piece is a quiet rolling 28 minute drone with a lot of low end so it really doesn't even matter how good the new pressing will be, you're just not going to hear all of the piece on vinyl

So thankful for this thread!

definitely the CD for the bonus material alone

you get a download code for all the CD tracks (as lossless, if you wish) w/the vinyl though! that is the source of my dilemma. but I probably will go CD if only for cheaper international shipping. thanks for the info re the last track, looking forward to all the drones

was wondering this morning where these cds had got to. just got this email:

"Thanks so much for your preorder of our 2CD set of The Expanding Universe.
International orders for this format have been shipped as of today and you
should see it in about a week."

I missed this! Might have to break my CD buying moratorium (which come to think of, I just broke last month) for this.

Pre-ordered the vinyl which has been delayed, but a compensation the label sent a download code for the FLACSs of the extended release early, working my way through now, some amazing work.

Very. Got a promo copy a little while ago and it's just astonishing stuff.

Got my CD in the mail, listened to the first disc and liked it a lot. The first track was beautifully programmed, and "Drums" is an interesting early attempt at creating electronic drum polyrhythms. I'm not fond of vinyl rips, so I'd never heard the eponymous track itself before... It was slow as melasses, and I actually fell asleep on the sofa while listening to it (something which I shouldn't have done, according to the liner notes by Spiegel, as she says this isn't ambient music but something to listen to carefully), but what I caught was luminous and pretty. Can't wait to play disc 2!

Speaking of the liner notes, though, while it's great that there's plenty of background information written by Spiegel herself, the choice to print some of the text white on yellow background is poor, as it makes the text hard to read. Also, tracks 2 and 3 are listed in different order in the inner sleeve than in the back cover, so I'm not sure which one is which. Still, it's intriguing to read all the technical explanation on how the tracks were realized, even though I don't understand half of it.

i have a feeling most of us don't read italian, but spiegel will be part of this new book:

Come anticipate Johann Merrich's "Le Pioniere Della Musica Elettronica," about female electronic composers

feature in wired this month:

http://boomkat.com/books/570949-the-wire-issue-344-october-2012

IMO the second disc isn't as good as the first one, but there's some interesting stuff there too. "Clockworks" wouldn't feel out of place on a 1990s IDM album, and "The Orient Express" has a cool perpetual motion sound.

All in all, I feel the more melodic and/or mood-based pieces on the comp still sound great today, whereas the ones where Spiegel experiments with rhythm/pitch/etc aren't quite as impressive, since the technical limitations of the era mean the experimentation doesn't work as well as Spiegel (probably) would've wanted it to work. Even with those pieces, though, it's still cool to read about the concepts behind them in the liner notes.

Aw yeah I have my CDs! First CD I've ever bought to show a glimpse of Fortran source code in the liner notes. Sounding great so far.

I had a brief email exchange with her a few years back, wherein she mentioned that she has lots of unarchived recordings in her home. Someone needs to convince her to make it all publicly available. I vote Dan Selzer to be in charge of this.

i would throw in some bucks to kickstart that!

By the way, in that exchange she was the friendliest person. There is really nothing not to like about this composer. She even said that she hopes that someday the archive is made public.

i would throw in some bucks to kickstart that!

^^^^^^^

holy shit yes.

same here, i'd imagine there are quite a lot of synthesizer geeks who would also go in on that too

love the liner notes, especially the comparing of conscious interaction w/ programmed processes to conscious interaction w/ subconsciously generated processes (finger-picking patterns); there's some rich phenomenology in there. didn't realise the images that were posted upthread were actually programmed in a similar fashion to the music. that is so, so cool, i'd been thinking about this a bit after looking at databending & then, there they are. & she was a big john fahey fan! wld absolutely stump up for further releases.

Yeah, the sense of 'pop,' as in a popular, self-taught and exploratory mode, is crucial to why this collection is so enjoyable, I think. It really runs throughout the whole thing.

i'm not sure i've ever listened to anything as mathsy as this, so utilitarian. you can hear the control over each shift even if you can't track what all the variables are.

Please to read:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/09/an-electronic-music-classic-reborn.html?printable=true¤tPage=all

I think Unseen Worlds is more suited to the task, as I represent a currently terribly slow and inefficient record label.

reissue of the year

additional packaging is incredible, the bell labs punch cards with her ballpen sketches on them & the fortran code & the sitar leaning up against her electrocomp

when all I had was an old scratchy vinyl copy of this, I preferred the range & sonic variety on her other records, especially Unseen Worlds, but now that this has been cleanly remastered, I've been listening to it constantly -- it is so simple and elegant -- and the bonus material helps with the immersion, now with two discs it lasts long enough that you don't ever quite burn out, it's always changing just enough to stay ahead of you, like a continuous stream

big piece by me in frieze:

http://blog.frieze.com/an-interview-with-laurie-spiegel/

Hey geeta, I sent you an email to the address you give on theoriginalsoundtrack.com, with a link to download something I thought might interest you. Just a heads up in case you don't normally check that.

Sorry, no Laurie Spiegel content.

just saw it! thanks!!

best article yet and that is saying something. placing cultural context is one thing, but emotional context is another

nice youtube of a guy who got Music Mouse running on an Atari ST emulator on his Windows machine, patched in through Reason as his synth. His improvisations are a lot more traditional than anything Spiegel herself released but it's nice to get a sense of the software by seeing the GUI in action

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8083/8306890717_56e6697742.jpg

Okay bought "The Expanding Universe," will listen and report back

Did this get linked somewhere? Jeremy Greenspan's reworking of Drums:

http://www.spin.com/blogs/junior-boys-jeremy-greenspan-reworks-laurie-spiegels-proto-techno-drums

http://www.thewire.co.uk/news/22473/laurie-spiegel-designs-new-wiret-shirt

Finally caved and bought the LP version of this. Very pleased. A question, though - the CD has a really big, detailed booklet with diagrams and photos. The LP doesn't? Or is it just my copy that lacks an insert?

Sometimes, if I buy digital/Vinyl I email the record label and ask for a .pdf of the inlay card if its got loads of detail.

some have been great - RVNG.itl

some have been awful - Gronland records

I try to include the email invoice of the digital or a photo of me holding the record....

it kills me when the reviews talk of the amazing stuff in the liner notes and the vinyl has a white inner sleeve and nothing else..

I've had similar interactions with Matt who runs RVNG. Definitely one of the good guys.

If you redeem the digital download code included with the vinyl of The Expanding Universe, you'll get a .pdf of the CD liner notes.

It's amazing that more labels don't do that. The downloads that come with those cards can be anything. When you buy any of the last 3 Acute releases (before they sold out that is), the download gets you the LP, plus tons of bonus tracks plus a PDF of the liner notes. More labels should include videos and other stuff like that.

Thanks J Sam - got it. Would still have loved the liner notes in tactile form--what if, in two years, I have the record handy but not the hard drive / laptop / whatever?--but at least now I can read 'em.

Vinyl gouging sucks bad enough without getting less than what you would get if you bought the CD.

tbf, though, this Spiegel reissue is super inexpensive, given what these sorts of things usually cost ($20ppd with download / pdf, etc)

but at least now I can read 'em
You might actually be one up on us CD owners there, as half of the text in the booklet is virtually illegible due to the tiny printing and odd background colour scheme choices (white font on yellow for example).

anyone seen this? http://cubittartists.org.uk/2014/05/29/a-caelo-usque-ad-centrum-dena-yago-laurie-spiegel/

http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/laurie-spiegel-grassroots-technologist/

thanks, fantastic interview. what a hero(ine)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fy5ilFJENo&list=UUEIPw9uWhRVz8K8nrCcxwPQ&index=2

I would love an album of her guitar playing, very curious about it

ah just meant to post this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDA2uQCJPjE

I played music in other people’s ensembles, played guitar or banjo or whatever for Tom Johnson and with Rhys Chatham. I would do these filigree patterns, and Rhys would do these long drone-like lines against the stuff. That balanced it.

has anyone else been trying to imagine this? mb it's niche but it sounds so promising to me

https://www.thewire.co.uk/video/watch-a-short-film-about-laurie-spiegel

Quick drop in to say that I’m in an FM kinda mood and just listened to Unseen Worlds ... love this.

i just picked up a copy of Unseen Worlds a couple weeks ago! still digesting it - very different than Expanding Universe, which makes sense because it used a totally different setup/programming interface

multichannel work in nyc in march https://issueprojectroom.org/event/laurie-spiegel-harmonic-algorithm-collaboration-seth-cluett-caterina-barbieri