Showy McShowface with Jim the Poet: Playlist from December 2, 2021

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Upcoming events:

Thu. Dec 26th, 1:30pm - 6pm: Jim the Poet fills in for Pseu and Fabio

Fri. Jan 3rd, 2025, 6pm - 7pm: Jim the Poet fills in for Bucci

(* = new)

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Year	Format	Comments	Images	New	Approx. start time
William Basinski	DLP 6   → "DLP 6" by "William Basinski"	The Disintegration Loops IV			MP3	For a collection of music built around the poignant inevitability of decay, there has been a great many hopeful and inspired words devoted to William Basinski's The Disintegration Loops: stunning, ethereal, majestic, transfixing, life-affirming… and for good reason. From its 20-year gestation period to its infamously fateful completion, The Disintegration Loops is one of the most powerful manifestations of the inevitable cycle of life ever committed to tape, even as it documents the inevitable decay of all that is committed to tape. The very passage of time is its most effective instrument. Not only lauded by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Pitchfork, NPR and dozens more, The Disintegration Loops have become considered by many to be “one of the most pre-eminent American artistic statements of the 21st Century.”			0:00:00 (Pop-up)
Neil Leonard	Sonance for the Precession I   → "Sonance for the Precession I" by "Neil Leonard"	Sonance for the Precession	Williams College Museum of Art		Vinyl	The electroacoustic composition Sonance for the Precession was commissioned by Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA). The piece furthers Leonard's practice in large scale sound installation, with recent commissions by documenta, Venice Biennale, and Fujiko Nakaya of Experiments in Art at Technology. The original composition, created for the quad adjacent to WCMA, played from the dome of the historic Hopkins Observatory, the oldest working astronomical observatory in the United States. The durational work explored ancient ideas connecting the precession, or movement, of the equinox with the harmonic series. Each day, the music began just a minute or two earlier than the previous day—mirroring the disappearing sunlight as day turned to night and autumn shifted to winter. 30 minutes of the composition played daily. The composition provided a context to reflect on how Hindu and Greek theories of astronomy and acoustics developed through intercultural exchange as far back as prehistoric times. Working closely with WCMA and producer/engineer Joe Branciforte, Leonard remixed Sonance for the Precession specially for LP and stereo listening. The result is a stunning long form composition that brings the sense of contemplation, cosmic motion and intimate timbral nuance of the installation to your living room, headphones and/or car stereo. LINER NOTES In the early days of fall when the air was warm and the Williams campus was abuzz with activity, an other-worldly sound could be heard mixing with the cacophony of students hanging out nearby, trucks rumbling along Massachusetts Route 2, the constant reverberations from a facilities power plant to the south, and the daily ringing of belIs at Thompson Memorial Chapel to the north. Sonance for the Precession, an electroacoustic composition created by Neil Leonard specifically for the quad adjacent to the Williams College Museum of Art, played for 30 minutes each day half an hour before sunset from September to December 2019. The installation highlighted the historic Hopkins Observatory, the oldest extant astronomical observatory in the United States, constructed by Williams Professor Albert Hopkins and his students from 1636-8. The durational work explored ancient ideas connecting the precession, or movement, of the equinox with the harmonic series. Each day the music began just a minute or two earlier than the previous day, mirroring the disappearing sunlight as day turned to night and autumn shifted to winter. It began in September with the final 30 minutes of the hour-long composition and ended in December with the first 30 minutes. Over the course of 12 weeks, each 30 minute increment shifted 20 seconds earlier in the composition­ just as the sun set incrementally earlier-allowing for 20 seconds of new material to be heard each day. The entire 60 minute piece could only be heard over all 84 daily listenings. The composition, remixed here in two sections of 19 minutes each, provides a context to reflect on how Hindu and Greek theories of astronomy and acoustics developed through intercultural exchange as far back as prehistoric times. Leonard was originally invited in 2018 to Williams College to participate with musician Miguel Nunez and artist Nestor Sire in the annual Plonkser Family Lecture, which celebrated its 25th anniversary that year with a performance program and conversation about artistic practice inside and outside of Cuba. Leonard's visit rekindled a longtime friendship with composer and Williams professor of music, Ileana Perez Velazquez, and sparked plans for future collaborations. He returned to Williams a year later as the Arthur Levitt, Jr. '52 Artist-in-Residence, an annual fellowship that promotes new perspectives and cooperative endeavors among the arts. He and Velazquez co-taught a course on electronic music. Their curriculum focused on sharing the breadth of electronic music as a means of articulating narratives from various cultures; bridging artistic mediums, such as music, dance, video and installation art; and pointing to new artistic modes of practice for the 21st century. The residency also occasioned the commission of Sonance for the Precession. As the project came into being, Jay Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Hopkins Observatory, advised on the placement of the speakers on the landmark observatory building. He brought his Astronomy 101 students to experience the installation, and invited Leonard to the class where together they discussed precession with the students. In his textbook, The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium, Pasachoff describes precession as a result of the Earth's spinning like a top, with a wobble that has a period of 26,000 years. The Earth's axis now points close to a middling-bright star, Polaris (actually almost a degree away), but in ten thousand years or so it will be pointing to Vega. In about 26,000 years, it will be back to pointing near Polaris again. In reflecting on the project, Pasachoff said, "Every day, the orientation of the sky overhead is slightly different, one of the things Leonard celebrates in his installation. His timing also notes that the Earth's view of the stars is from a slightly different viewpoint every day, as the Earth orbits the Sun in 365 ¼ days, meaning that the same stars rise about 4 minutes earlier every day;' Whether they sought it out, happened upon it, or were subjected to ii, music, science, and art students, those who lived in the adjacent dorms, and those who simply traversed the quad on the way to the dining hall, as well as museum visitors and community passersby of all ages, brought their own stories and embodied experiences to the work. The din of everyday life blended with the sonic intervention, creating a wholly new acoustic experience with each encounter. As the work drew to a close, students vacated campus for the winter holiday and darkness began falling as early as 3:50 pm. Snow blanketed the ground and hushed much of the external noise, allowing Leonard's ethereal com position to linger heavy in the air. Sound washed over any intrepid, hopefully well-bundled, listener who was willing to brave the elements for a half hour trip from Williamstown to Polaris and from 2019 back to the time of Pythagoras. As this record comes out, a year after the installation, the world has changed. While we adjust to living, learning, teaching, and experiencing art at a distance, this recording both documents the original work and provides an entirely different kind of encounter, one well-suited to this moment of separation and solitude: defined by the intimacy of listening from home, the physicality of slipping the vinyl from its cardboard sleeve, placing it on the turntable, and being transported to wherever and whenever the music takes you. Lisa Dorin, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, Williams College Museum of Art credits released July 3, 2021		*	0:40:14 (Pop-up)
Seiji Morimoto	Ring + Balance   → "Ring + Balance" by "Seiji Morimoto"	Ring + Balance / Solo With Background	Edition Telemark		Vinyl	The Festival Experimentelle Musik is a music festival in Munich, organized by Stephan Wunderlich and Edith Rom, that has been held annually in December since 1983. One of the festival's unique characteristics is the way the performances are organized: Each is limited to 20 to 25 minutes and all take place in direct succession without pauses, on previously set-up small stages. In 2017, Seiji Morimoto and Yan Jun performed after each other. Seiji's piece was called "Ring + Balance", he used small speakers, microphones and amplifiers on a table to create feedback rings that were eventually distorted by alarm clocks. Yan performed "Solo With Background" in which he sat on a chair making vocal and body gestures and had two audience members announce the elapsed time every three or five minutes, respectively, according to their own inner clocks. As a spectator, Edition Telemark felt that the two performances had something in common. Their very quiet and experimental nature -- in the sense that it was impossible to anticipate what would happen and when, if at all -- made the audience listen not only to the sounds but also to the situation that had been evoked. When the label met Seiji a few weeks later in Berlin, it turned out that he had a similar feeling. Edition Telemark asked Yan and the idea was born to make a split LP of both recordings. The performances were recorded by Albert Dambeck and carefully mastered for vinyl by Werner Dafeldecker. Audience noises are an intended part of the recordings. Seiji Morimoto (b. 1971) is a Japanese sound artist and performer living in Berlin. He is interested in uncertain acoustic appearances between usual objects. Yan Jun (b. 1973) is a Chinese musician and poet based in Beijing. He works with field recordings, electronics, voice, body movement etc.: sometimes funny --always simple. Edition of 300.		*	1:00:50 (Pop-up)
Yan Jun	Solo With Background   → "Solo With Background" by "Yan Jun"	Ring + Balance / Solo With Background	Edition Telemark		Vinyl			*	1:29:29 (Pop-up)
Eli Keszler	Northern Stair Projection (installation) [excerpt]   → "Northern Stair Projection (installation) [excerpt...	Northern Stair Projection				Northern Stair Projection was installed at Boston City Hall on November 18th, 2016. The installation used long strands of piano wire to transmit recordings from the boiler and security room of Boston into the massive brutalist space. The wires ran hundreds of feet upward from the floor, terminating at various levels of height in the buildings connecting different administrative levels. Previously unreleased, track one is an extended recording of the installation.			1:50:33 (Pop-up)
Yoshi Wada	The Appointed Cloud   → "The Appointed Cloud" by "Yoshi Wada"	The Appointed Cloud			MP3	Saltern present a remastered edition of Yoshi Wada’s The Appointed Cloud (1987), a work which Wada has often said is his favorite of his own. Staged at the Great Hall of the New York Hall of Science, The Appointed Cloud was Wada’s first large-scale, interactive installation and featured a custom pipe organ, among other homemade instruments, controlled by a computer equipped with a customized interface and software designed by engineer David Rayna, known for his work with La Monte Young. This recording captures the opening performance for which Wada brought together four musicians on bagpipes (Wada, Bob Dombrowski, and Wayne Hankin) and percussion (Michael Pugliese) to perform with the installation, operated by David Rayna. In Wada’s own words: “This performance [of The Appointed Cloud] was one of the most memorable performances I've done. The space itself—the Great Hall of the New York Hall of Science—was incredible. The building was designed for the 1964-65 World’s Fair and had spaceships hanging from the ceiling so people felt like they were traveling in outer space. It was an amazing experience with the sound of the pipe organ, sheet metal, pipe gong, and bagpipes all together. 60 minutes may seem like a long duration, but it didn't feel like it.”			1:58:50 (Pop-up)