Label: Lovely Music, Ltd. – LCD 1042 Format: CD Country: US Released: Genre: Electronic Style: Modern Classical, Experimental
Otherworldly electronic levitation meets proto-artificial-intelligence from American composer and computer music pioneer David Behrman - A lifelong ANF favourite.
One of THE great experimental records of 1980s, Leapday Night seems Behrman’s systems-driven composition approach working at peak performance.The system consists of pitch sensors ("ears" with which it listens to the performing musicians), various music synthesizers (some homemade), a computer graphics colour video display and a personal computer.Essentially sounds are created by Behrman, Rhys Chatham and Fluxus legend Takehisa Kosugi, to which the computer ‘hears’ and then reacts with it’s own synthetic improvisation, to which the dialogue between human and machine continues to evolve.If this is of zero interest to you, don’t worry - since we only discovered this information a good 10 years after first listening to the record.Whilst the compositional technique is interesting and super ahead of the time, it’s the music here that actually takes the spotlight.The tryptich title track is a surreal duet that sees to float in the air - plump bass surges and slippery, if somewhat erratic and totally unpredictable, computer tones working in unison with Rhys Chatham’s dulcet trumpet notes.It really sounds like little else before or since.The Interspecies Smalltalk two-parter switches out the trumpet for Kousugi’s deft violin notes, adding a more avant and yet timbral edge to the computer (which is by now really fizzing on it’s own accord), whilst the CD-only ‘A Traveller’s Dream’ is a lesser mentioned electronic tapestry laced with softly effervescent electronics and clotted percussion.The perfect companion for gently tripping on a warm summer’s evening. (Mint / New - deadstock CD)
Tracklist Leapday Night 1 Scene 1 6:30 2 Scene 2 6:36 3 Scene 3 8:38 A Traveller's Dream Journal 4 Berlin-NY, Setting A 9:22 5 Berlin-NY, Setting B 9:20 Interspecies Smalltalk 6 Scene 1 9:38 7 Scene 2 11:54
