artist: CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE
title: In Mid-Air
label: Alga Marghen
country: Italy
format: CD
title: In Mid-Air
label: Alga Marghen
country: Italy
format: CD
1. Sine Tone Study 3:44
2. Open + Closing 3:37
3. Seven Organism Study 7:50
4. Negative Sound Study 23:47
5. Timbral For Pran Nath 15:18
The first electronically generated sounds that Charlemagne Palestine ever heard came from the
machines he encountered in ordinary daily urban life. Machines like the refrigerator electric motor,
or electrical generators; but it was especially the sounds of motion (race cars, motorcycles, war
planes, rocket ships) that first excited his sonic imagination as a young teenager. Then he heard
the electronic music of Tod Dockstader, Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer, the famous 'Podme
Electronique' of Varese, Xenakis and 'Gesang der Junglinge' of Stockhausen. He immediately
reacted buying a cheap reel to reel tape recorder, cutting and pasting recording tape and making
collage sound experiments.
Then, one day, Charlemagne Palestine experienced at an electronic music studio what
electronically produced sounds waves looked and sounded like through an oscilloscope and he
began studying Helmholtz's on the sensation of tone. He started dreaming of an expressive
continuous ever moving, ever changing sound form; an enormous sonorous, 3-dimensional
sculptural canvas in mid-air using electronically produced sounds. The first experiments were done
with simple sine tone generators emitting the purest sound waves without any overtones. With
access to more complex systems the sound was constructed using the sine/sawtooth/square wave
oscillators in a fluid ever changing mix of adding or filtering overtones and white noise to create
sonorities constantly changing timbres and weight. Five early electronic compositions including
'Sine Tone Study' (1967); 'Open Closing' (1968), created through speed alterations of 'Holy 1+2';
'Seven Organism Study' (1968); 'Negative Sound Study' (1969) and 'Timbral for Pran Nath' (1970).
Late night electronic sonorities created on the Buchlas 100 & 200 systems available at the New
York University Intermedia Centre.
All compositions previously unreleased. 3-folded digipak cover with original photos and liner notes
written by the composer."
2. Open + Closing 3:37
3. Seven Organism Study 7:50
4. Negative Sound Study 23:47
5. Timbral For Pran Nath 15:18
The first electronically generated sounds that Charlemagne Palestine ever heard came from the
machines he encountered in ordinary daily urban life. Machines like the refrigerator electric motor,
or electrical generators; but it was especially the sounds of motion (race cars, motorcycles, war
planes, rocket ships) that first excited his sonic imagination as a young teenager. Then he heard
the electronic music of Tod Dockstader, Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer, the famous 'Podme
Electronique' of Varese, Xenakis and 'Gesang der Junglinge' of Stockhausen. He immediately
reacted buying a cheap reel to reel tape recorder, cutting and pasting recording tape and making
collage sound experiments.
Then, one day, Charlemagne Palestine experienced at an electronic music studio what
electronically produced sounds waves looked and sounded like through an oscilloscope and he
began studying Helmholtz's on the sensation of tone. He started dreaming of an expressive
continuous ever moving, ever changing sound form; an enormous sonorous, 3-dimensional
sculptural canvas in mid-air using electronically produced sounds. The first experiments were done
with simple sine tone generators emitting the purest sound waves without any overtones. With
access to more complex systems the sound was constructed using the sine/sawtooth/square wave
oscillators in a fluid ever changing mix of adding or filtering overtones and white noise to create
sonorities constantly changing timbres and weight. Five early electronic compositions including
'Sine Tone Study' (1967); 'Open Closing' (1968), created through speed alterations of 'Holy 1+2';
'Seven Organism Study' (1968); 'Negative Sound Study' (1969) and 'Timbral for Pran Nath' (1970).
Late night electronic sonorities created on the Buchlas 100 & 200 systems available at the New
York University Intermedia Centre.
All compositions previously unreleased. 3-folded digipak cover with original photos and liner notes
written by the composer."