This is a Journey into Sound
A short read
Esbjörn Svensson Trio, Inner City, City Limits from 301.
Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, Modul 36 from Stoa.
Portico Quartet, Line from Isla.
The Necks, Signal from Travel.
Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes, Boa from Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar.
60:29
Inner City, City Limits
It goes straight in
A stroke of a drum
A guitar string
(When out walking, I never hear the guitar come in. Never. I think it comes in much much later. It arrives and I notice later, I’m wrapped inside the other sounds I guess)
A piano
A creak of a leather seat?
A hum
Something high-pitched
A growl
Distortion
Electric guitar
Electric piano?
Pulse drone
A piano/bass strings?
A melody?
It’s all building
An undercurrent
More distinct piano, if not a little distorted, heavier
A voice at 6:38?
Rhythmical.
With a groove
That voice again, 7:20, yes, a voice. Into it, in the studio, playing.
7:54 Yes, fullness, I feel the fullness.
Fat distorted guitar strings and feedback
By 9:05 I realise the guitar has been there all along
11:51 The end
/
Modul 36
Resonating piano keys and space x four rounds
A high pitched sound, almost non-audible, or rather distinguishable
Resonating lighter, yet harsher piano keys x ten rounds
All spaced out
Repeated piano keys
A triangle
Repeated piano keys
This is the sound of one hand playing
Repeated piano keys
A percussion instrument
This is the sound of two hands playing, 3:58
A percussion instrument, bells?
Layers
A saxophone at 5:15?
Clarinet
6:02 Ups the gears.
6:20 A drum beat
Piano melody
6:58 A different song
Yes, the pulsing piano and marching groove drum
8:02 Speed
Clarinet and piano and drums
There’s been a bass in there too.
Where are they going?
Going with them
Shoulders swaying, head nodding, indian head nodding.
Eyes closed
That piano
12:00 still over three minutes to go
It swerves again
By the end I’m zoned in, I don’t realise it’s been (almost) all drum groove for the last while
15:10 The end
/
Line
How does someone play the hang for so long (no question mark)
Snare
Haunting saxophone
How does someone play the snare for so long (no question mark)
Too fast to march to. It’s a running through the forest rhythm
I notice the hang again
The snare ebbs and flows in the mix
Haunting saxophone
Yes Jack
(sounds like Jan Garberek or John Surman at about 4:16)
This is so good
Upright bass
A tin whistle?
The snare plays us out, fast, then
7:29 The end
/
Signal
Upright bass
Piano, bosh, then light
Drum, soft
Hammond
Moving around the kitchen like a cross between Tom Waits and
It’s all in the shoulders and the shuffle
The hammond at 4:52 like an animal call from the dark
It can’t go on for another 15 minutes like this, can it?
The hips
Pulling the bass strings loose and wide
7:13 My brain finds a different groove within
Knees
At 7:50 it’s something else, a sea shanty?
Piano, comforting
Denseness
A city, a favela
A river, flowing, meandering, forging
Floating
Piano
A deep under groove, the undertow
Oh, I’m wrapped in this
Six minutes still to play
Shoulders, waist, hips, knees, wrists
16:29 What’s that? Double bass? But it’s like a washboard. And a distorted heartbeat. And a pluck.
Anxious, don’t want it to end.
How will it end. Will it just let go?
20:51 The end
/
Boa
Repeated breathy saxophone
Click of fingers
Bass? A rich pull of a string
Overlaid saxophone
Bass, subtle
2:02 fat rhythmically spacious electronic beat
Up the sax
3:11 Oh, the scat that sounds like a drum and cymbal and percussion
Broody
Euphoric rising
Lift us up
Elevated
Worship sound worship
A monastic sound
A tease, I am still here
Gone
5:48 The end
/