music at a distance 190

by snwv

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1.	Blue Abyss 11:23	buy track
2.	The Door Opens Slowly 11:14	buy track
3.	Third Reality 10:01	buy track
4.	Silence of Meaning 09:24	buy track
5.	Water Shadow 09:03	buy track
6.	Language of the Rain 06:16	buy track
7.	Shape of Light 09:46	buy track
8.	Golden Forest 18:34	buy track

about

This week, the pedal steel wanted to be heard. There are reed timbres here, like accordion and bassoon, and some very low tones. This one seemed quite dense at times and felt very present. There's an underwater quality, but what's in this water is very close. As I've listened back to it, it takes up space, and when it's over, it seems like it's leaving after a brief visit. The audience remained textually silent until the end of the performance, and I think they sensed that while sometimes the music needs encouragement, sometimes it needs silent space in which to come into being. (And the encouragement at the end was helpful to me as well!)

I had to wrestle this one into existence--I'd gone into it with back trouble (thankfully now resolving itself), and I had to be careful about posture as I played, which created a different physical relationship to the instrument. It was worth the effort.

This performance is dedicated to the work of Katsumi Hayakawa. Thank you for listening!

credits

released November 30, 2023

Maurice Rickard: Guitar, programming

Instrument: 1970s 10-string pedal steel guitar in modified E9 tuning (F# C# E F# G# B E G# D# F#), played with fingers, thumb pick, and eBow. Slides: Dunlop tonebar, Taylor ebony.

Signal chain: pedal steel > Balls Effects KWB > Vox Wah > Dunlop Uni-Vibe > Moyo Volume > Max/MSP eight-delay patch with FFT pitch shift, tremolo, convolution reverb, Arturia Tape MELLO-Fi.

Impulses: Inchindown Oil Tanks, St. Paul's Huddersfield, Huddersfield Town Hall (Near), Fort Worden Cistern

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about

snwv Pittsburgh

Maurice Rickard is a musician, sound artist, and Deep Listening Certificate holder based in Pittsburgh. snwv is his project to create ambient environments from finely tuned oscillators and other sound sources as well (guitar, microphones, feedback). Some patches use mostly oscillators, some use delays, some use controlled amounts of randomness. Results range from gentle ambience to chaos. ... more

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