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    David Rosenboom – Invisible Gold

    David Rosenboom - Invisible Gold

    “David Rosenboom (born 1947) is an American composer and a pioneer in the use of neurofeedback, cross-cultural collaborations and compositional algorithms. He studied composition, performance, and electronic music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with Salvatore Martirano, Lejaren Hiller, Kenneth Gaburo and others. Working with Don Buchla in the 1960s, he was one of the first composers to use a digital synthesizer. He has taught at a whole mess of colleges since the ’70s, and is currently Professor of Music and Dean of the School of Music at CalArts.”—Wikipedia

    Released in 2000, the Invisible Gold CD reissues three extended works that were released on vinyl back in the ’70s, featuring the human brain’s electrical activity transferred directly into electronic music. “Portable Gold and Philosophers’ Stones (Music From Brains in Fours)” (1972) is comprised of some minimal, static, synth drones supporting glimmering percolations that hark back to the prime material—”the original substance of the universe.” We’re talking pure timeless and spaceless experience via the grey matter of four members of the group Biome recorded at the legendary ICES event in London back in ’72.

    “On Being Invisible Part I” (1976-77) throws a “perceiving, interacting entity” (also known as a human) into the middle of a self-organizing dynamical system. In other words, more brains interacting with and influencing electronically-produced sound forms. It reminds me a lot of old school garbled electronics straight out of the 1950s—i.e. one huge, squealing, chattering, twittering, chugging mess that starts out slow and sparse, then speeds up and gets pretty hectic toward the end. Part 2 adds a few touches of Tibetan finger cymbals, snake charmer’s horn, monkey drum and voice into the mix, although you’d never know unless you read the liner notes. Any way you look at it or listen to it, Invisible Gold is a pretty weird phenomenon, and perfect for fans of John Cage and David Tudor’s earlier electronic efforts.

    Label: Pogus Catalog Number: P21022-2 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 3 Total Time: 64:07 Country: United States Released: 2000 More: Martine Bellen, CalArts, Discogs, Official, Pogus

    Text ©2013 Arcane Candy

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