a r t i s t : Barton & Priscilla McLean
t i t l e : Electronic Landscapes
d a t e : 2006
l a b e l : EM (EM1060CD)
g e n r e : Electronic
r l s. d a t e : Oct/2006
t r a c k s : 07
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 101,9 MB
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Although Barton and his wife Priscilla McLean have had a long
and distinguished history of LP and compact disc albums
throughout their professional composer/performer career, this
album is unique in that it is the first one to present, on one
CD, such a broad and comprehensive picture of their purely
electronic music, spanning 1975 through 2001. Interestingly,
although their materials and equipment have changed, their
ideas of musical composition are still basically the same,
creating a unity throughout the CD.
Regarding the graphic score of "Song of the Nahuatl" which
comprises the cover of this CD, Barton McLean and graphic
artist Gary Pyle felt a need to explore the subconscious
visual domain suggested by the sounds. The artistic rendering
preserves dynamics, timing, relative high and low pitch areas,
and textural/timbral aspects, while presenting a truly
artistic expression in its own right.
To impart a sense of the meaning and composition of these
works, along with offering a glimpse into the milieu in which
they were created, the following excerpts are quoted here from
Priscilla McLean's new autobiography "Hanging off the Edge
:Revelations of a Modern Troubadour", published by iUniverse
(New York, Lincoln, NE, Shanghai) and also available with
corresponding CD, featuring excerpts of her music described in
the book, at: <http://members.cisbec.net/mclmix/hanging.html>
Throughout the time span of the works on this album, Priscilla
McLean kept detailed journals of her experiences, forming the
basis of her autobiography. These excerpts, abridged and
slightly altered, are imbedded in the more specific program
notes on each work below.
Book Excerpt: from HANGING OFF THE EDGE, pp. 149 - 159
1973 -1978: South Bend, Indiana to Austin, Texas:
In 1973, Indiana University at South Bend (where Barton McLean
taught) ordered from the EMS Studios in London a Synthi-100
synthesizer and digital 256 sequencer, which comprised the
first commercial digital sequencing capability in the USA. ╥By
1971 we had also begun our own home studio, purchasing a new
Arp 2600 Synthesizer and three reel-to-reel tape recorders:
two two-channel half-track Revoxes and a four-channel quarter
-track Sony, and borrowing from the college a small Synthi AKS
Synthesizer-an update of the EMS Putney, with a ribbon
keyboard and 256-note real-time sequencer.
When Bart introduced me to the new studio with the Synthi-100,
I stared unbelievingly here was a huge synthesizer, along a
whole wall, with hundreds of push-pins (a matrix setup for
connecting sounds, rather than the old patch cords), and
twenty-two oscillators! The Synthi-256 Digital Sequencer was a
full-sized keyboard, standing alone diagonally to the analog
synthesizer, but connected internally. In that studio with the
giant machines, one raced from one end of the room to another
to play and record the sounds, never sitting down, and in
removing unwanted noise or editing out a recorded section, the
composer had to take a metal splicing block and sharp razor
blade, and pressing down very hard, cut through the 1-inch
wide acetate tape in two places, remove the unwanted time
segment, and rejoin the two remaining ends with special
splicing tape╔So we three╨Bruce, Bart, and I╨worked all our
spare time, alternating with each other, in the I.U.S.B.
Studio. I spent whole days there, sometimes 22 hours long,
working and working to get just the right sound-combinations
and record them
The McLean Mix
[NOTE: The McLean Mix, composing/performing duo of Barton and
Priscilla McLean, has toured worldwide since 1974, and
annually since 1983.]
The McLean Mix was born on September 19, 1974, in our World
Premiere concert at St. Mary╒s College, Notre Dame, Indiana.
The faculty, of which I was an adjunct professor, was
delighted when I offered to perform with Bart our new
electronic music, consisting of Gone Bananas by Bart, as he
soloed on the Arp 2600. This was a light piece, and ended with
Bart, having set the synthesizer to play the music by itself
on its sample and hold controller, sitting on the edge of the
stage eating a banana! Second was my Night Images six-minute
stereo tape work. Next came my "Dance of Dawn", 22 minutes
long. We finished the evening with a jazzy piece by Bart
called Groove, which had us jamming on two synthesizers the
Arp 2600 for me, and Bart on the Synthi AKS. These early live
-performance compositions suffered the demise of all such
pieces of the period, but fascinated the audience at the time
they who had never heard any live electronic music. The works
for stereo tape lived on, however.
"During the halcyon days of the 70's, when all electronic
music was enthusiastically received and the audiences large
and eager, an album produced out of this concert (CRI SD 335
with Priscilla's "Dance of Dawn" and Barton's "Spirals")
garnered a dozen reviews from all over America, and the
composers were looked upon as courageous explorers into a vast
musical continent unknown and beckoning.
In August of 1976 we moved to Austin, Texas. After the Synthi
-100 was removed from the Indiana University, South Bend
Electronic Music Studio in 1974, we were left with its digital
sequencer, a small ElectroComp 101 Synthesizer, the mini-
synthesizer Synthi AKS, and the tape recorders and mixer. This
wasn╒t enough to continue any quality work, so we added our
own home studio equipment, and turned back to manipulating
found sounds╤steak knives bouncing on violin strings, tennis
balls on the piano harp, banging pots and pans, etc. All of
these sounds in addition to ones from the synthesizers and
sequencer I used in my next major electronic piece, Invisible
Chariots. Because of the unwieldiness of the musique concrete
(recorded, not synthesized, sounds) medium, composing the
piece was glacially slow.
For instance, the first sound is a scrape up a bass piano
string with a metal bar. I wanted the echo from the piano to
last over thirty seconds, so I had to record it onto a master
tape, then re-record the echo from this tape to each of four
channels of another tape recorder, recording each successive
one a few seconds ahead of the last one, over and over, until
thirty seconds evolved. Then I combined the beginning piano
flourish, recorded at home, with a similar keyboard flourish
created on the Arp 2600 Synthesizer and performed, playing
(forwards and backwards) on the Synthi 256 Sequencer. Much
more was involved to complete this complex beginning sound,
and two months of time-for thirty seconds of music!
After lying low since our performance in the old UT electronic
music studio a few weeks after we arrived in Austin in 1976,
The McLean Mix was revived and had several engagements the
spring of 1979. This included Bart's new electronic piece Song
of the Nahuatl, finishing with my Invisible Chariots, with all
three movements. This varied according to the audience and
schedule.
http://www.emrecords.net/records/00075.html
http://members.cisbec.net/mclmix/slowindex.html
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01-Priscilla McLean - Invisible Chariots: Voices of the [06:20]
Invisible
02-Priscilla McLean - Invisible Chariots: Archangels [08:39]
03-Priscilla McLean - Invisible Chariots: Chariots [06:52]
04-Barton McLean - Song of the Nahuatl [17:03]
05-Barton McLean - Valley of Lost Dreams [09:30]
06-Barton McLean - Journey on a Long String [11:48]
07-Priscilla McLean - Angels of Delirium [13:34]
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73:46 min