[Release] "Floating Indetermination (For Morton Feldman)"

 

 

 Dear friends,

I would like to share with you my new musical project, “Floating Indetermination (For Morton Feldman).”

It is a continuation of my previous work, a form of ambient music evolving towards contemporary, minimalist chamber music.

This album is a tribute to Morton Feldman, the American composer (1926-1987) whose instrumental work has been a source of inspiration for many ambient musicians, including Brian Eno.

Characterized by slowness, silence, and melodic sketches interspersed with sound objects that are echoed in different listening planes, “Floating Indetermination” seeks to explore new musical territories using electronic instrumentation, and in a way, blur the boundaries between ambient and contemporary and minimalist classical music.

The album contains over 90 minutes of music, including a 27 minutes extended version.

In the hope of sharing it as widely as possible, I am offering this album on my Bandcamp page on a “name your price” basis, thanking you in advance for your generosity if you wish to contribute...

QUIET EVENINGS

(BRIAN ENO - OBLIQUE STRATEGIES)

 

I remember

those quiet evenings

the song of swallows crossing the sky

the coolness of the air

the halo of my lamp

my fingers on the keyboard

the first notes carved into the silence

my eyes closed

a dream of music awakens

 

https://christianwittman.bandcamp.com/album/twilight 

GIORGIO III

 

So, when can we expect the VST version?

More seriously, this extraordinary modular synthesizer inspires several thoughts...

 

First, of course, hats off to the designers, Yves Usson and Pierre-Jean Tardiveau, for this extraordinary achievement...

 

We can only hope that this prototype will give Syntesla and French expertise in hardware synthesizer design maximum visibility... and perhaps pave the way for a range of instruments accessible to ordinary musicians...

 

We can also applaud the educational value of such a synthesizer for teaching the basics of sound synthesis...

 

But...

 

What are the uses of such a gigantic device?

 

We can obviously understand its appeal on stage, as a backdrop for Hans Zimmer's concerts. Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream's walls of synthesizers are ridiculously small in comparison... It's also the polar opposite of Kraftwerk's minimalist yet high-tech stage set up.

So Giorgio III is undoubtedly a hyperbolic and breathtaking stage device...

 

It won't be suitable for all concert halls, but Hans Zimmer doesn't seem to be aiming for the intimate atmosphere of jazz clubs at the moment.

 

How many operators are needed to manipulate such an ensemble live? One or two in front of each rack?

 

On the other hand, the real question is undoubtedly that of sonic and musical potential. Where is the added value? In the production of a “big sound” superimposing oscillators? In the possibility of programming completely new and never heard sequences and rhythms? How does it differ from the best existing hardware synthesizers, vintage or contemporary, or even from the most sophisticated virtual emulations?

 

In other words, beyond its sheer size, what is its potential for sonic and musical innovation?

 

It is undoubtedly too early to tell, as the few video clips of Zimmer's current concerts do not allow us to judge...

 

Will Giorgio III significantly change Zimmer's future soundtracks? Basses that make the walls and seats of multiplexes theaters shake? Layers and sequences like we've never heard before?

 

Is there still something to be invented in the sound and musical potential of large modular systems, after more than fifty years of experimentation in all directions, with Moogs, ARPs, Rolands, PPGs, and others?

 

Ultimately, we might question this maximalist temptation to always go bigger, more powerful, and beyond the norm, which runs counter to another current trend toward minimalism and simplicity, as well as the specialization of sound tools for innovative uses.

 

Does the future of electronic music lie in hyperbole, in always more (bigger, more powerful, etc.), or in subtraction, refinement, and simplicity?

 

Does the future lie in ever more massive and thunderous walls of sound produced by ever more excessive walls of synthesizers, or in innovation in terms of composition and musical structures, regardless of the instruments used?

 

Beyond its spectacular appearance, which makes it the ultimate fantasy of any musician who uses (or used) modular synthesizers, Giorgio III invites us to reflect on the evolution of electronic music and its potential for creative renewal.

 

Once again, we can't help but be impressed by the expertise and creative imagination of the designers of this system. There's no doubt that Hans Zimmer will make the best use of it in his concerts and future soundtracks!

GIVE AWAY: FREE DOWNLOAD CODES FOR "WINDY LANDS"

 

"Windy Lands" is the third opus of a climatic and ambient series started with the albums "Misty Lands" and "Frozen Lands".

This musical trilogy explores new aesthetic and sonic directions, inspired by the minimalist and neoclassical current represented by composers such as Ólafur Arnalds or Nils Frahm, but also by certain atmospheres of the ECM label.

With the contribution of string instruments and, on two tracks, of an electric guitar, "Windy Lands" would like to approach the expressivity of a small hybrid or mixed chamber music ensemble, between electronic soundscapes and acoustic sounds, thus reviving the experiments that we carried out in Lightwave, notably with the album "Bleue comme une orange". 

Original release:  January 11, 2023.
https://christianwittman.bandcamp.com/album/windy-lands
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REVIEW

“Windy Lands”  is an album that builds. Again, all cosmic, and this time more predominantly electronic, it starts very minimally, then, as the tracks progress, so the sonic canvas spreads out and stretches across the horizons, to reveal new textures, new layers and give the music more strength and depth, as it progresses, almost “orchestral”, in a minimal sense, on the final couple of tracks...."

ANDY GARIBALDI, Inkeys (UK)  

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To redeem here:   https://christianwittman.bandcamp.com/yum

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TIME / DURATION

 

"In Zen they say: If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, try it for eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and so on. Eventually one discovers that it's not boring at all but very interesting"

 

John Cage, quoted by Kay Larson, Where the Heart Beats.  John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists, The Penguin Press (2012), p. 385.  

KEEPING THINGS MYSTERIOUS (JOHN CAGE)

"I think it was Steve Reich who said it was clear I was  involved in process, but it was a process the audience didn't participate in because they couldn't understand it. I'm on the side of keeping things mysterious, and I have never enjoyed understanding things. If I understand something, I have no further use for it. So I try to make a music which I don't understand and which will be difficult for other people to understand too." 

 

John Cage, quoted by Kay Larson, Where the Heart Beats. John Cage, Zen Buddhism and the Inner Life of Artists, The Penguin Press, 2012. 

ABOUT EXPERIMENTAL (AND AMBIENT) MUSIC

"It seems now that what started as an esoteric bubble at the very edges of music had become transmuted into a mainstream"

 

 

BRIAN ENO (quoted by Michael Nyman, Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (Cambridge University Press 1974/1999, p. xiii)