60X60 (2006-2007)

Description

60x60 CD (2006-2007) 60x60 is a project containing 60 compositions from 60 different composers, where each composition is 60 seconds (or less) in duration. The goal of this project is to highlight the work of a great many composers. The project presents a cross-section of contemporary music, including the various styles, aesthetics and techniques being used by the composers of today. 60x60 is a circle of sound, the 60 pieces represent a slice of the contemporary music scene. The works in this 2 CD volume of the 60x60 project represent the submissions received for the years 2006 and 2007. The mission of the 60x60 project and it's presenter, Vox Novus, is to expose the greatest number of composers and their works to the largest audience possible. 60x60 combines grassroots ideology with cutting-edge methods of presentation and distribution. Each year the project grows in artistic and distributive scope. Achieving it's initiative, the 60x60 promotes contemporary composition across the globe. 2006 1) Neutron Ivan Zavada Neutron uses his original audio looping software systematically to mirror the present socio-cultural and economical context where repetition is privileged on several levels of structure. The isolation of a neutral sonorous particle provokes an elastic chain reaction that evokes organized chaos. While a loop is a sort of neutral sonic kernel, it attracts humans more and more, and the musical whirlwind siphons their mind! 2) Tobio CDZabu (collective) CDZabu (formerly known as ~chromatik_d_zabu. Tmp) is an international collective of musicians who collaborate via the Internet. Pieces are composed sequentially, through the continual addition of musical strata by different participants of all stripes (academic, self-taught, electronica, rock, classical) who operate under mysterious pseudonyms. The pieces are then mixed and published for free on the collective's web site. Come visit and join the fun, new members are welcome! Tobio was composed by Snvl, Dr Chnolles, b.p.-y.m. and Marsmalade 3) Amerika Ist Nun Erwackt David Hahn David Hahn creates diverse styles of music ranging from processed electric guitar to musique concrète sound collages to more traditional settings for instrument and voice. 4) Whitecap Scott Smallwood Scott Smallwood was born in Dallas, Texas, and grew up at 10,000 feet in elevation in the Colorado Rockies. Currently based in New Jersey, his work ranges from sonic photographs, abstracted studio pieces, improvisations, and composed structures, encompassing real and abstracted sound textures based on a practice of listening, improvisation, and phonography. 5) Gamaka Christopher Cook Gamaka is largely comprised of samples from a voice, cello, and drum. The samples are woven into a raga-like pattern complete with a quasi-vocal line. 6) 60X3 Maggi Payne 60X3, stems from a coincidence. It is her third entry for the 60X60 project (:60 faucet for the first project and :60 Fizz for the second) and it uses three modified sources: a faulty valve in a sink's faucet, a tiny motor, and a floor furnace. 7) De and Reconstruction Balie Todd De and Reconstruction began as ambience for a short film. Samples of low moans and growls were run through a spectral EQ, as though a door was opening into something new. The percussive jabber is a two minute long chorus sampled with sixteenth notes cut and played one after the other. 8) Phase 59 Arthur Gottschalk Gottschalk created Phase 59 as a companion to Phase 58, using samples from his analog composition Strange Loops, and an out-take from a recording of his flute piece Contrary Variants. In Phase 59 he strives to evoke a soundscape never before heard and yet... strangely familiar. 9) Ashi Cheryl Leonard Ashi is the Japanese word for foot, pace, or gait. All sounds were made by wobbling amplified pieces of granite and volcanic tuff. Stones were gently nudged into motion, then allowed to settle back to a state of rest. 10) Jonty's Acousmatic Tube Ride Sam Pluta Jonty's Acousmatic Tube Ride, a riff on plastic straws, is written in honor of BEAST leader Jonty Harrison. 11) Number 4 from 10 Etudes for Balloon Aaron Drake 10 Etudes for Balloon explores virtuosic balloon playing techniques. Like other Etudes, each balloon etude employs at least one technical or compositional gimmick. Etudes may be performed on any balloon, regardless of size or color. 12) diner Stephen Betts Inspired by DonSiegel's 1974 movie 'Charley Varrick', diner is based on the opening robbery sequence, where Charley escapes with gang member Harmon and his fatally wounded getaway-driver-wife, Nadine. A Dickensian Parallel as well: Charley's small time bank job nets nearly a million from a Mob drop box and, like Pip in Great Expectations, his inheritance derived from a convict's exertions, Charley will be a rich man if he can disconnect his fortune from it's criminal past. I've reflected this in the meal: a very Victorian combination of fried egg on a pork chop. 13) program note by Henry Cowell B Alan Shockley A few years before his death, composer Henry Cowell recorded several of his early piano works along with a brief set of audio notes for each. Cowell gets the last word in this "beta" version of a longer tape piece. 14) Analogy Asha Srinivasan Analogy's analogy is probably pretty clear and doesn't need much more explanation. 15) Remembering Home Laurie Spiegel 'Remembering Home' for electric banjo with digital signal processing was composed after returning to man-made New York City from a recent visit home to the ravines of northern Illinois, a glimpse of a completely different life that might have been, and a family that will never again be what it was. 16) Thanks for that Bruce Paul Burnell "Thanks for that Bruce" is dedicated to two Bruces. One famous, the other - regrettably and thankfully - not famous. 17) Pieces Aaron Acosta pieces is composed of sound effects, cell phone ringers, excerpts from the news, granular synthesis, and a piano track (performed by himself) combine to create a feeling of information overload. 18) Nature is Cindy Cox Nature is features text by John Campion. 19) 60,000,000,000 David Shannon David Ben Shannon is an English composer, working predominantly in film and theatre. He is a music graduate of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. He is twenty-one and lives in Merseyside, England. 20) Kissing a Woman Polly Moller Kissing a Woman features the voice of photographer Shiloh Burton, emphatically spurning the composer's hypothetical bi-curious advances as part of their duo project in the San Francisco Fling exhibit. 21) Rain James Bohn James Bohn has served as a guest artist at the 7-11 festival in Urbana, Illinois, and at Most Significant Bytes 2002 in Akron, Ohio. James has received commissions from the Bonk Festival, the University of Illinois School of Music, The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and the Boston and Chicago Chapters of the American Composer's Forum. His book on Lejaren Hiller is available on Edwin Mellen Press. 22) Flash! Joan La Barbara "Flash!" was composed for violinist Ariana Kim and premiered at Juilliard's Paul Hall in 2005. Flash! Begins with a deer-caught-in-the-headlights gasp and hurtles forward at breakneck speed, fingers flying through flashing runs until the final strum and rapid snap pizz. Allan Kozinn of The New York Times wrote, "Flash! Had the spirit of an animated monologue." 23) What you don't want to hear Nicole Kim What you don't want to hear is a musical attempt to represent the ever-present battle between the good and evil. 24) Sul C Ronald Keith Parks Sul C is an exploration of the sound possibilities that exist along the C string of the cello. 25) Calling G.B Jennifer Griffith Calling G.B. is a nod to the work of George Brunner, who Griffith studied with at Brooklyn College. Musical strategies used here in creating mood are explored further in her electronic work, Who is Miranda (part of The Tempest Project, forthcoming on Pogus), which combine