sounding out north yorkshire moors

 

The first stop for this trip was Lastingham. A beautiful village with a splendid church, opening onto the North Yorkshire moors.

The exploration of this church started with the usual meditation: A timely break from the summer heat, enjoying the fresh and quiet space. The meditation was both gentle and strong. Constructive.

From the first notes, the space reveals its understated richness. the dome and arches gently roll the sound into a perfect resonating sustain. never overwhelming, always enriching each phrase, inspiring pastoral calm and devotional entrain with a certain degree of adventurous reverence. ’tis just poetry for the jazzer’s ears.

Lost in sound and in rapture of the moment, i spend over an hour improvising along the accidental local birds, the punctuation of quarterly bells and the whispers of stones who have lived long.

 

After some time along the coast, drawing inspiration from the tides and the sea breeze, the journey continues onto another location i had visited a long time ago. Here also, it is this first time i connect to this place with the alto saxophone, and the latest addition to my panoply of instruments, some home made shakuhachi.

Lady Chapel is in a wonderful remote location overlooking the valley. Tucked in the trees and greenery, it is an intensely quiet place. Always open and welcoming, the remoteness of the place, it’s short reverb time, seem to inspire more intense playing. Something like the spirit of gospel, in the tradition of John Coltrane’s stream, a breathless flow of spirited harmony.

What i mean is that with no less reverence to the place, here i feel i can experiment more and move away from a traditional harmonic approach. A perfect opportunity to try out structural playing. Merging symmetrical harmonic shapes which flow into a self-generating narrative, always moving, always morphing.

For the last few minutes, i enjoy another moment of suspended quiet. An opportunity to try out some shakuhachi i made, gradually tweaking and tuning the bamboo until i find the right balance. I seem to be close now, although the instruments respond differently outdoors than at home.

Here, the 2.85 feels a little rough, and some of the notes catch a little. However, both the latter and the smaller 2.1 are sounding pretty good. And some phrases, listening back to the recordings, sound like the real thing. On one track, i even venture some multiphonics and high overtones – which are quite difficult to hold on the shakuhachi. Little by little, and every time i record something, i feel i made a little progress. It is difficult to put the saxophone down at times, but with more practice and more dedication on carrying the shaks, i probably could come up with some interesting exploration of natural acoustics in the near future.

In the meantime, you will find below tracks recorded in the two places described above. I hope you enjoy listening to those documents, as much as i enjoyed listening to the stories of the places i visit.

.
.
.

 

topography of moor lands
alto saxophone, 17 june 2017
lastingham church

.
.
.

dome and arches
alto saxophone, 17 june 2017
lastingham church

.
.
.

summer sun on the moors
alto saxophone, 17 june 2017
lastingham church

.
.
.

refuge in the coolness of the crypt
alto saxophone, 17 june 2017
lastingham church

.
.
.

stellar scalene
alto saxophone, 19 june 2017
lastingham church

.
.
.

acute pastoralis
alto saxophone, 19 june 2017
lastingham church

.
.
.

coastal path
2.85 shakuhachi, 19 june 2017
lastingham church

.
.
.

coming tide
2.85 shakuhachi, 19 june 2017
lastingham church

.
.
.

returning
2.1 shakuhachi, 19 june 2017
lastingham church

.
.
.

impact – new release by pan y rosas discos

 

impact

is a concept album based around a simple approach: work around peripheral sounds and extended techniques, extract the most unusual and unheard from my instrument using close miking techniques.

 

after many years of dedicating all my attention to the saxophone, i decided to revisit some of the techniques i used when playing prepared electric guitar, this time using the strict limitation of dry acoustic guitar. the architecture of the instrument is altered using props strategically placed along the strings. the instrument sounds radically different, and placing it flat on the ground makes the physical relationship completely new.

turned percussive, harmonic contents augmented, resonance shifted, the guitar sound is barely recognisable. the conventional effects and textures are abstracted and this allows for a new range of soundscapes and dynamics. the mike positioning deliberately picks up every sound, every detail in a raw and intimate way that makes this recording unforgiving and intensely present.

 

in a similar way, the soprano saxophone is explored from the inside and exploded with precise positioning of mikes in order to concentrate on fragments of sounds usually unheard. for the whole of this recording, not a single note is played, nor the instrument approached in a traditional way. instead, i focus on the tiny percussive sound of keys and bursts of air around the body of the saxophone. the harmonic contents is purely structural, and modulates in microvariations according to the air flow.

another type of sound here is drawing harmonics hidden in the white noise of full blow air through the saxophone tube. the sax is mostly played without mouthpiece.

in both instances, the close miking technique takes you inside the instrument, and the spatial arrangement expands the physicality of the instruments beyond our experience of their sound, into the acousmatic listening. i strongly recommend using headphones for the full spectral and spatial experience.

 

the composition is full of details and sonic events carefully placed, so that the listening experience is fully immersive, very physical and quite intense at times.

as expressed above, this piece is raw and unforgiving. i made a deliberate aesthetic choice to present known instruments in a very challenging way, highlighting sounds which are mostly never heard. to this, i added some field recordings that augment the already rich palette of textures and gestures. the very tactile and sensual quality of field recordings add another dimension of sonic experience. and yet, here again, our sense of comfort is thwarted by altering recognisable natural sounds through the use of digital processing, positioning and perspective.

 

while in the process of making this album, i came across a documentary film about the horrors of war in the current form of colonialism. this raw and deeply upsetting revelation somehow connected to the close affect and impact i was looking for in the sounds i was creating. so i decided to add some of the devastating accounts and interviews from the film in the form of samples.

 

this work was made in 2011. for years i focused on being creative and producing a large amount of compositions and recordings. i am now in the process of making public some of these. so i am very pleased that the net label pan y rosas has kindly agreed to publish this one.

you can hear and download the full album from pan y rosas:

http://www.panyrosasdiscos.net/pyr217-herve-perez-impact/

 

 

touch base

 

 

 

 

.

.

.