ambiances to the music by erik satie
(for chamber music scene,
drone–piano, voice and vocoder)
(Slow walking (in)to))) Pièces froides
’ Il y a tout de même à réaliser une
musique d'ameublement,
c'est-à-dire une musique
qui ferait partie des bruits ambiants,
qui en tiendrait compte
Je la suppose mélodieuse,
elle adoucirait le bruit des cou¬teaux,
des fourchettes sans les dominer, sans s'imposer
Elle meublerait les silences
pesant parfois entre les convives
Elle leur épargnerait les banalités courantes
Elle neutraliserait, en même temps,
les bruits de la rue
qui entrent dans le jeu sans discrétion ’
a dominant (yet not detuned) grand piano
due to frequent preparations
is rained upon discursively
into the rickety piano keys
’ into which the blue fingers plunge
neither in extension on the inside
they tighten up
and over them colourful sounds tremble’
((( endless falling into a blurred sound vortex by
extending indefinitely )))
( ’ de manière à obtenir un creux’)
a deep line precedes the chord entry
and leaks
’ balanced phrases expand endlessly across the empty
room
whose walls are built of parallel mirrors’
conducting rain into rain
| | | |||| || ||| | |||| || | ||| | ||||||| || | |s|m|||e|||a|r|e|d|| | |
||s||c|o|r|e|s| || |||u||n||d||e|r||n||e|a|t|h| || |||| | |
the fragment takes on the meaning of the whole
(((at intervals)))
in tremble
(without a clef and time signatures)
walking by his language
from the sound outcome towards the act of
performing
’ where the sound acquires the status
of that act’s consequence ’
an attempt at walking along the invertedly toned
score of walking
upon the same sample at equidistance
w a l k i n g b y h i s l a n g u a g e
h o w t o a d a p t t h e t e x t t o
w a l k i n g ?
f r o m t h e s o u n d o u t c o m e t o w a r d s
t h e a c t o f p e r f o r m i n g
’ w h e r e t h e s o u n d a c q u i r e s t h e
s t a t u s o f t h a t a c t ’ s c o n s e q u e n c e ’
’ I t h a s c r o s s e d m y m i n d t o g e t
m y s e l f i n t o t h e s t a t e o f
d e r a n g m e n t ,
a n a t t e m p t a t w a l k i n g
a l o n g t h e i n v e r t e d l y t o n e d
f i n g e r – c o u n t i n g s l o w l y f r o m o n e
t o t w o h u n d r e d
a n d s i x t y t h o u s a n d ’
s c o r e o f w a l k i n g
u p o n t h e s a m e s a m p l e
a t e q u i d i s t a n c e
( t h e r e d u c e d m u s i c a l s e q u e n c e
r e p e a t e d i t s e l f
a n d t h e r e p e t i t i o n r e p e a t e d i t s e l f )
l e a k e d
it’s midnight
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||r||||a||||i||||n|||||||||||
the midnight was already long gone
for a long time not a drop of rain
’ But where did I leave my umbrella?’
’ All night long the sound kept
coming back
and again ’
the tongue of a plash strewn with water lilies
(’ être visible un moment’)
in the puddles along
the dimly lit street inscribed concentric circles
( progressions follow up elliptically
giving a sense of bareness
almost hallucinatory in its distance )
different inscriptions along Pièces froides
(contemporary piano performers
tend to bring the piano closer to the harpsicord)
in puddles by disappearing
the circles are interrupted
not by disappearing,
by ephemeral discontinuity continuity
’ In order to write my Pièces froides I used
a kaleidophone for registering
It took me only seven minutes’
(’ Très luisant’)
a couple of years ago
(’ avec un grand oubli du présent’)
to step into ))) his footsteps
along steep streets paved with endless
tone monologues (’ Du bout de la pensée’)
inaudible walk paints whitenesses paints
areas of white coordinates
he took to trudge inaudibly to arcueil
at a particular pace
under a halbcylinder hat under an umbrella
out of that ’ de(ep)dicated’ walk
came his-her treatment of the piano
rewalking his walk
slowing down determining temporality
of what I imagine to be his walk
walk is an ’ ostinato’ line
is a sound range is repeated is a repeated figure
which is an interval
’ which is a difference, a delay , a suspension’
walk
(’ It is not a question of (his) relevance He’)
is indisPACEable!
to dislocate oneself from one elusive ambiance
(’ Airs à faire fuir’) and insert into another
t o w r i t e ( o r c h e s t r a t i o n )
t h r o u g h h i s w r i t i n g s
r a i n i n d e s c e n t
i n ( a n ) o t h e r e l u s i v e a m b i a n c e
i t i s a n e n o r m o u s
w a l l i n a s c e n s i o n
((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( TO STAND MOTIONLESS IN
THE RESONANCE GARDEN ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
and ’ r e p e a t i f d e s i r e d ’
r e p e a t r e p r i s e s
t h a t w i l l s u f f i c e f o r a l i b r e t t o
c i t i n g p r e c i o u s m o m e n t s
a t l e a s t , a r e c i t a t i v e
a l w a y s a n e w
a l w a y s f r o m t h e b e g i n n i n g
modelled upon melancholic voice modulations
t h e m u s i c a l c o n d u c t
o f f i g u r e s ( ’ très étonné’)
t h e r e c o n s t r u c t i o n
o f d e c o r a t i v e m o v e m e n t s
( ’encore étonné’)
towards the aspects of performance and language of
performative
the piano is closed during the performance
Dances preparedly
Stumbles towards metamorphoses
embodied ’ into encompassing
the surroundings of sound
propagation in music as furniture’
perchance what is needed is going back to old notes
sound–filled with static semitones
(if they are) underneath the layers
of changed meaning
(’ Chapitres tournés en tous sens’)
on the way home
silence all the more kept shutting itself
on the way home
make a note of every step’s pitter–patter
every rain’s pitter–patter in the score
only during the
performance
’ Fortunately, the umbrella
wasn’t particularly expensive ’
a couple of years ago to step into the footsteps )))
into the rain ))) sometimes deep–frozen
so that the step is half a foot shorter than the footprint
and synchronized at the ninth foot
((( in the ’ Vortex of the Text’)
in the overtakings in the walk by alternating
upon the same sample at equidistance
(the broken chords) in the left hand
(the footstep becomes equated with the step)
(as by repetition
as a return
to repetition
at certain places a new theme altogether is a
contrast to the sequence of performing the old one
which, affected by the method of mapping
(of difference?)
unfolds more spontaneously (thus) leading
to the annulment of silences
(whereby) it problematises the relation in the
perception
(replacement)
Sound absentiaa = sounding (’ grandioso’)
(mute) protuberance of the tongue
(still,) capturing reflections
as much as it emerges from the reference frame of
the old
indentations in the (frozen) cove coast in perception
’ appears on the deserted coast
in the middle is a statue,
in the distance the sea’
walk before and behind and from one side
(the theme emerged
as an incomplete recording) (without an end)
’ attired in light lovat ’scottish tweed’
rain ( ’ avec étonnement’) enjoys his manifestation
replicates itself entrusted to the harps entrusted
to the trombones
’ I must have left the umbrella in the lift ’
makes all the surrounding murmurs stand firmer
(if concentrated) can break it down
into four tonics
(dissonant occasionally vexatious)
(if not) a single solitary tonic makes atonality
makes a harmonic structure
tautophonic performance of vibration (the piano
keys are entangled)
in the modulations of pitches
he tautophonically performs the downpour
’ the repetition of what we cannot recollect,
that is irrevocably lost, that is, like a haunting specter
of the disintegration of a subject’
the downpour performs it with tautophonic rain
’ re–citing
citing that precedes a series of acts,
which are implicitly contained within the given act,
by which every present act
is deprived of its present’
the rain|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||drips||||||||||||||||down||||||||||||
||||||||||||the rain|||||||||||||||||||||||||the rain|||||||||||||||||||||||drips
||||||||||the rain |||||||||||||||||||||||drips|||||||||||||||||||down||||||||||
|||the rain|||||||||||||||the rain||||||||drips|||||down||||||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||the rain|||||drips|||down||||||||||the rain||||
the rain|||||||||||| drips |down||||||||||||||the rain||||||||||||||||||||
(’ Chance proportion in my picture
of the world pelts down with the rain’)
the suite of miniature character pieces
of tonal sketches
from the incidental music prints
their remote destination point
(every shelved score conceals an obstacle because
half–construed incompletable conceals an obstacle)
’ My umbrella must be concerned that it has lost me ’
by being performed it directs to
in relation to the sound it introduces
readings of music as Text
( ’ I f o r b i d a n y o n e t o r e a d
t h e t e x t a l o u d
d u r i n g t h e m u s i c a l
p e r f o r m a n c e ’ )
that do not necessarily impart the sound content
that talk about their semantic constructs
about uninhabited places non–places
outside the music
outside the sound
interwoeven
(creating sacral pieces) within the sound
resonating chronometers
inserts into the body of
(the piano)
at a
pace of (the piano)
in the foyer
piano
fortex in two
lines
adapted to her peculiarities
s t e p s a r e
c h r o n o m e t e r s
’ allusions to the palace of Knossos
… the stage of the legend of A of ’
at the first meeting
the entering tones set so that
(the colours are filled
in inside contours and vice versa)
(’Sur la langue’)
placed in the unconscious long time ago
and the Music continues
(’ de manière à obtenir un creux’)
(all is It )
(modal cadences) repeatedrepeated
(it is All )
quietly imperceptibly
’ That night it rained again deep there
where the signs had recently been abandoned’
’ An entire torrent of signs falls
and by morning
the sun shines
He stays clear of such places’
(’ en y regardant àdeux fois’)
absent is the resound of orgasmic
downpours watering the Ocean
watering the downpours
not presaging how great the insertion is into)))
minimal sounscapes in ’ Hidden landscapes’
as an echo of his steps
liberated from larger interval skips
told in the perpetuity of the walkway / walk
’ 113 walking miles
between one shower of rain and the next ’
which reflects into infinity
not presaging how great the insertion is into)))
behind
( ) the isolated phrases which repeated themselves
’ as a wallpaper pattern’
the background as an atmosphere hypnotically
behind his–her pieces epiphanic stimmung
emerged from her–his treatment of the piano
e p i p h a n i c s c i n t i l l a t i o n s
estuary endings calmly until inexistence
in late–baroque splendour
again and again over one single book
of note sketches in invisible ink
moving through the microtonal patterns
moves through coordinates
within the narrow arctic circle
moves through Pièces froides
through the sound absentiaa of great glaciers
light illuminates the contours ’ statuary negative’
dedicated to the (designated) body which is absent
the recursive sounding of the House space )))
’ the furniture was singing,
each piece had its motif, its aria
which was imbedded into the overall consonance’
repearepeated repetitions of the beginning
estuary endings end in perception in perception
Invisible hypnotizing tonnneeeee
a dominant (yet not detuned)
Marko Paunović was born in 1984 in Smederevska Palanka, Yugoslavia. He has conducted several video and audio-visual works. Deals with the synthesis of electro-acoustic, drone and ambience. Performs own poetic-theoretical texts individually or with the project ANDAGAINANDAGAIN. Sporadically published. Currently working on the shaping of his first book.
