 |
|
Get
it from BandCamp |
|
David First
/ The World Casio Quartet
The Complete Gramavision
Session (1989)
Pogus Productions is proud to release The
Complete Gramavision Session by The
World Casio Quartet, composer David First’s 1980s
microtonal group. I had the opportunity to see them perform
once or twice back then, and it was indeed a magical and
mind-bending thing to experience. Now, finally, with this
release, everyone can have a listen as well.
Here’s what others said about the World
Casio Quartet:
First’s World Casio
Quartet paints the air with sweet-sour chordal splashes
that dissolve slowly into transparent harmonics. First
describes these pieces as “justly intoned compositions
that are not tied to any one tonal center,” but others may
call them Martian traffic jams, and tuneful ones at that—Mark Dery/Keyboard Magazine
Feb ‘88
David First writes for “lovingly restored” Casios, but the
microtones, hair-raising pitch-bendings, and scintillating
rhythms he wrenches from them are earning him a reputation
as one of New York’s most innovative composers—Kyle
Gann/Village Voice 11/13/91
This was something unexpected and truly different: pulsing
electronic textures that derived their rhythm from the
beating patterns of closely-tune pitches – as if Alvin
Lucier and Philip Glass had gone on a blind date to
CBGBs…David put the beat in beating patterns—composer
Nic Collins on the WCQ in his liners notes to First’s
“Privacy Issues” CD
Their pre-concert tuneup sounds like a hearing test, their
live performance is an exercise in visual stasis, and when
they’re really in the groove the inanimate objects in the
room vibrate to a near-shattering point, but the audience
remains as still as if it was modeling for an oil
painting. Yet, the World Casio Quartet is garnering a
reputation as one of the more exciting ensembles on the
cutting edge of “new music”—Stanley
Mieses/NY Post 5/14/89
David First’s Gramavision
Session Liner Notes:
The WCQ was born out of a misunderstanding. In 1986 I
purchased a Casio CZ1000 digital synthesizer in order to
further my ongoing experiments with microtonal drones. Prior
to this I had been using an old Heathkit tone generator,
overdubbing pitches on a Tascam Portastudio. Using an
electronic tuner to measure deviations, I would transcribe
my results and have them realized by members of my ensemble
at the time, The Flatland Oscillators. Yearning for a more
elegant workflow, I began using the Casio for this same
purpose. At first, I used the pitch control on the Tascam to
bend things toward the relationships I was looking for. But
then a better solution revealed itself. As with most
synthesizers, it was possible on the CZ1000 to detune one
oscillator against a second oscillator to create chorusing
effects. Which meant less than nothing to me until, fiddling
around one day, I figured out a way to shut off the main
oscillator’s amplitude envelope, leaving the detunable
oscillator, with its 61 discrete steps per ½ step (or 732
pitches per octave), all alone and available for microtonal
duties.
I was now able to create repeatable results—with precise
detune rates assigned to each pitch. The first work I made I
called Four Casios
(an homage to Steve Reich’s Four
Organs), and I began including it on demos I sent
to potential performance spaces, on grant applications, etc,
with the cheeky appellation “The World Casio Quartet”. I
probably should have known that people would not realize
that it was a bit of a send-up and, indeed, that was exactly
what happened—not long after the first batch went out I
received a request from a space that was interested in
arranging a performance by The World Casio Quartet.
Luckily, I was already beginning to think in this direction
anyway. I was growing weary of asking people to interpret my
scores on instruments not truly designed for such things.
And since these CZ1000s were fairly inexpensive ($259 as I
recall) and so ubiquitous at the time, it was easy to find
three other members of my ensemble that already had one. And
thus the work (and fun) began.
From 1987 to 1991, the WCQ was my main compositional outlet.
We played live quite often both around NYC and out of town,
working through various procedures I’d developed. For the
most part this consisted of using the instrument’s keys as
triggers rather than as pianistic, melody/harmony
manipulators—we rarely used more than one at a time. The
real action would be happening in the program banks where,
for each particular piece, there would be dozens of
iterations of the same exact sound differing in the detune
rate only (from 0-60). These program banks became the
playing arena and the virtuosity was in switching patch
buttons smoothly between each new event. There was also
real-time use of the detune function itself, whereby one
would be asked to execute glissandos between two given
values, as well as glacially slow rocking of the good ol’
pitchbend wheel. I would often use this last device as a
wildcard to subvert and enhance more deliberate,
predetermined elements. This was important, as I was always
on the hunt for unique flaws in a room during sound check—a
window, air duct, or heating pipe that I could get to rattle
sympathetically with a particular frequency. Inevitable
apologies from the sound person would follow, but I had
found just what I was looking for.
The recordings here were done in a single one-day visit to
Gramavision Studios in lower Manhattan. Only one piece was
released prior, and since the masters were on 2” reels, I
hadn’t heard the rest till the fall of 2015 when I went with
my friend, Garry Rindfuss, to his old stomping grounds,
Avatar Studios (née The Power Station), to have them
digitally transferred. Listening to the stuff now, I’m
struck by how free it all sounds—I had yet to really dive
into any microtonal or just-intonation tuning theory and was
merely following my ear and intuition. I miss that innocence
sometimes… |
|
|
| Cat.# |
:: |
Composer(s) |
|
|
|
21090
|
:: |
Enzo Minarelli |
21089
|
:: |
Aliona Yurtsevich |
21088
|
:: |
Yiorgis Sakellariou |
21087
|
:: |
id m theft able |
21086
|
:: |
Kasper T. Toeplitz |
21085
|
:: |
Tom Hamilton |
21084
|
:: |
David First |
21083
|
:: |
Tomomi Adachi / Jaap Blonk / Owen F. Smith / Duane
Ingalls |
21082
|
:: |
Marta Sainz &
If, Bwana |
| 21081 |
:: |
Aliona Yurtsevich |
21080
|
:: |
If, Bwana |
21079
|
:: |
Ulrich Krieger |
21078
|
:: |
Triple Point |
21077
|
:: |
Robin Hayward |
21076
|
:: |
Ron Nagorcka |
21075
|
:: |
Secluded Bronte |
21074
|
:: |
David Rosenboom |
21073
|
:: |
Peter Batchelor |
| 21072 |
:: |
Alvin Lucier |
| 21071 |
:: |
Lou Cohen |
| 21070 |
:: |
Brian Chase |
| 21069 |
:: |
Jerry Hunt |
| 21068 |
:: |
If, Bwana |
| 21067 |
:: |
Jorge Antunes |
| 21066 |
:: |
Enzo Minarelli |
| 21065 |
:: |
Tensions At The Vanguard |
| 21064 |
:: |
Frances White |
| 21063 |
:: |
Noah Creshevsky |
| 21062 |
:: |
If,Bwana/Trio Scordatura |
| 21061 |
:: |
Nate Wooley |
| 21060 |
:: |
Leo Kupper |
| 21059 |
:: |
Pauline Oliveros/ Francisco López/Doug Van Nort/Jonas
Braasch |
| 21058 |
:: |
Philip Corner |
| 21057 |
:: |
Alvin Lucier |
| 21056 |
:: |
Dimitri Voudouris |
| 21055 |
:: |
Birds + Machines |
| 21054 |
:: |
Kiva |
| 21053 |
:: |
César Bolaños |
| 21052 |
:: |
Lionel Marchetti & Olivier Capparos |
| 21051 |
:: |
Tom Hamilton/
Bruce Eisenbeil |
| 21050 |
:: |
Source Records 1-6 |
| 21049 |
:: |
Noah Creshevsky/ If,Bwana |
| 21048 |
:: |
Simon Wickham-Smith |
| 21047 |
:: |
Kenneth Gaburo |
| 21046 |
:: |
If, Bwana (Al Margolis) |
| 21045 |
:: |
Annea Lockwood |
| 21044 |
:: |
Felix Werder |
| 21043 |
:: |
Dimitri Voudouris |
| 21042 |
:: |
Nick Didkovsky |
| 21041 |
:: |
Montreal Sound Matter |
| 21040 |
:: |
Anla Courtis |
| 21039 |
:: |
Crawling with Tarts |
| 21038 |
:: |
If, Bwana (Al Margolis) |
| 21037 |
:: |
Hans Otte |
| 21036 |
:: |
DIY Canons |
| 21035 |
:: |
Band/Myers |
| 21034 |
:: |
Chris Brown |
| 21033 |
:: |
Tom Johnson |
| 21032 |
:: |
Roger Reynolds |
| 21031 |
:: |
Trios - Collaboration |
| 21030 |
:: |
Beth Anderson |
| 21029 |
:: |
Hamilton, Silverton, Margolis |
| 21028 |
:: |
Warren Burt |
| 21027 |
:: |
Jorge Antunes |
| 21026 |
:: |
David Dunn |
| 21025 |
:: |
Roger Reynolds |
| 21024 |
:: |
If, Bwana (Al Margolis) |
| 21023 |
:: |
Pauline Oliveros |
| 21022 |
:: |
David Rosenboom |
| 21021 |
:: |
Ross Bolleter |
| 21020 |
:: |
Kenneth Gaburo |
| 21019 |
:: |
If, Bwana (Al Margolis) |
| 21018 |
:: |
Leo Kupper |
| 21017 |
:: |
Robert Rutman |
| 21016 |
:: |
Matthew Ostrowski |
| 21015 |
:: |
various |
| 21014 |
:: |
Rune Linblad |
| 21013 |
:: |
If, Bwana (Al Margolis) |
| 21012 |
:: |
Pauline Oliveros |
| 21011 |
:: |
Rune Linblad |
| 21010 |
:: |
If, Bwana (Al Margolis) |
| 21009 |
:: |
Leo Kupper |
| 21008 |
:: |
various |
| 21007 |
:: |
If, Bwana (Al Margolis) |
| 21006 |
:: |
Trigger |
| 21005 |
:: |
Big City Orchestra |
|
| IB |
:: |
If,Bwana |
| FPM |
:: |
Frog Peak Music |
| CUE |
:: |
C.U.E. Records |
| SOP |
:: |
Sound of Pig Cassettes |
| ANTS |
:: |
Ants (Italian Label) |
| ANIMUL |
:: |
Ned Rothenberg |
| HOMLER |
:: |
Anna Homler |
| OAKSMUS |
:: |
oaksmus (German Label) |
| GD STEREO |
:: |
Geoff Dugan |
| ANOMALOUS |
:: |
Anomalous Records |
| NONSEQUITUR |
:: |
Nonsequitur |
|
|
