Re: music (new alchemical thingies)

[Jon Durant <74074.1316@compuserve.com>]

Sean writes:
>Ok, you've got my atention - any more you can tell us about the Manring
>project?  

Well, it's underway, most of the material is written/recorded. Michael's
extremely busy as a sideman just now (surprise?) and hasn't had much time
to finish. The latest projection is that we'll mix in November, probably
won't see the light of retail before February. But: it's an intensely cool
record, with Michael doing mostly everything. Much funkier than any of his
previous recordings, trippier, not so much metal as Thonk, not so delicate
as his other Windham Hell recordings. Perhaps I could say that it is to
Manring what "What Means Solid, Traveller?" is to Torn. 

Right, that said I also need to mention the nearly finished William Camire
record as the experience will perhaps sound oddly similar to many on the
list. "Fourteen Years" is an album of material originaly created fourteen
years ago. It was then reassembled, reinvigorated, reinvented with today's
mindset and technological capabilities. (Though I need to point out that
it's still heavy on analog synths and lo-fi approaches to sound sources:
apart from the jamman, there's no "sampling" on the record.) It's an
"ambient" album, perhaps harkening back to Eno's Ambient 4, though I've not
listened to that record in many years, so I really don't know whether that
connection really stands up. Anyway, the point is this: while working on
this record, we've found that after a couple hours of intense work on it,
our minds are completely turned into jello. It's draining our creativity in
a really painful way. Yet, listening back to the rough mixes (a day later),
it's a beautiful, relaxing record. Anyone else go through this?

later,
jd