Digital Music
Durations: 25:30 ; 15:09 ; 11:54 ; 13:56. Mode: 21." (viewed Jul. 16, 2009). "Mode Records: mode 28/29 (on container back: mode 28/9) The 1st work (for speaker, Irish musicians and 62-track tape) is a radio play made up of selected lines from Joyce's Finnegans wake and electronically manipulated recorded sounds mentioned in the novel ; 2nd work is a conversation on Roaratorio ; 3rd work is a reading of the text of Roaratorio. Vocal portions of the 1st work performed in English or Gaelic. In the 1st work: John Cage, speaker ; Joe Heaney, singer ; Seamus Ennis, uillean pipes ; Paddy Glackin, fiddle ; Matt Malloy, flute ; Peadher Mercier, Mell Mercier, bodhran. In the 2nd: John Cage, Klaus Schöning, speakers. In the 3rd: John Cage, speaker. The 1st work originally broadcast Oct. 22, 1979, WDR3-Hörspielstudio ; 2nd work originally recorded in Paris, Aug. 13-15, 1979. Compact discs. Durations: 60:30; 30:55; 59:39. Program notes and text of 2nd work, in English with partial French and German translations ([76] p. : ill.), and text of Roaratorio/Writing ([40] p. : ill.) in container.
1. Rings (1989) 25:30
2. Rozart (1989) 15:09
Incorporating the voice of Enrico Caruso
3. Structures II (1988) 11:54
4. Short Waves 1985 (1985) 13:56
For the dance Fabrications by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company
The recorded debut of electro-acoustic compositions by Brazilian born composer Pimenta, who now live is Lisbon, Portugal. Pimenta’s unique style and dense weavings of sound is evident in each composition here; repeated listenings will reveal new layers of sound. Pimenta identifies these works as “Digital Music” because they are composed as graphic scores with the aid of computers and random generators. The sources for the works are natural sounds: metallic objects ringing in Rings, the voice of Caruso in Rozart, a collection of short-wave radio transmissions from all over the world to South America in Short Waves 1985.
John Cage was very impressed by Pimenta’s compositions and sound, commissioning him to score dances for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and bringing him to the attention of Mode Records.
Reviews
“Pimenta, who is also an architect and photographer, has a passion for geometric patterns, and for space. Thus his compositions create broad, air soundscapes. The fourth piece, Structures II, is the most ambient of the lot; a low, shadowy atmosphere of complex but very subtle details, suggesting the grandeur and awe of a Gothic cathedral.”
—John Baxter, Option Magazine
“Pimenta’s is a rare, graceful, and with no particularly elaborate stretch of the willing listener’s willingness to sail, mythical sensibility. I generalize, of course, from a single CD’s evidence; these are world-premiere recordings, according to Mode, as well as my first taste of Pimenta’s craft. But I do like what I hear!”
—Mike Silverton, Fanfare
“Incorporating the voice of Enrico Caruso translated by mathematical systems and performed by a computer, Rozart is full of deep loops of sound that produce some of the most eerie music I’ve ever heard. Digital Music is not for the weak at heart. The sculpture of its design is transporting, and repeated listenings will reveal the boundlessness of Pimenta’s frontiers.”
—Furnitures Magazine
“This fine Mode release presents four works which certainly stand on their own independent of any theoretical or technical considerations. Music heard from inside and out of us has the power to transform. Listen to this and mutate…at ease.”
—R.I.P. Hayman, Ear Magazine
“Pimenta is a splendidly obsessive composer, given to developing gritty but minimal ideas over long time spans. It’s best played loud, but when you know the neighbors are out. This is fascinating stuff–probably not for the faint-hearted.”
—ABC Radio (Australia)
