Scenes and Seasons (1971-72) CD 02

Warren Burt

Scarlet Aardvark CD 02

Title: Sketches of Scenes and Seasons from Upstate New York (1971-72)

This is a set of three abstract electronic pieces from 1971-72. Two were made with a Buchla System in the University of California San Diego studios, and the third was made on the large Moog system at the State University of New York at Albany studio. Robert Erickson, in his “Sound Structure in Music” (University of California Press, 1975), describing “Moist Days in Mid-Winter” the second piece, writes “Blocks of sound coalesce and melt in slow procession, sometimes opening the dense broad-band texture toward an (embedded) polyphony.” These pieces feature the sounds and structures of classic early analog synthesizers. I was heavily influenced by the ideas of Constructivist sculptor George Rickey at the time, and these pieces, all of which have landscape titles, are the sound equivalent of the outdoor kinetic sculptures of the late 60s. 

Track List

1. Afternoon, late spring in the Taconics; between West Copake, N.Y. & Salisbury, Ct. (10:26)

2. Moist Days in Mid-Winter; the Helderbergs between Knox Cave and Thacher Park (8:39)

3. Rain at Dawn, Late Autumn; Saranac Lake (15:13)

Keywords:

analog synthesis

Buchla

Moog

historic synthesizers

algorithmic composition

automated synthesizer patches

interactive composition