Classical Music Tape 6 Items

Ben Glas (b. 1992) is an experiential composer based in Berlin. Through ephemeral compositions Glas' work questions preconceived notions between the acts of passive hearing and active listening. In seeking to discover open ended forms of music and pragmatic listening perspectives, Glas' compositions focus on the realms of subjective perception and cognition, via the use of acoustics, psychoacoustics and space as tools for sonic composition. His work has been exhibited and performed internationally, including the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (pica), Glasgow's Radiophrenia Festival, the Soundwave Biennial (sf) and the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (cica). He is currently receiving his M.A. in Sonic Studies at the UdK.
Ben Glas writes… "Anonymous Sextet for Perverted Piano is a conceptual performance piece that combines a traditional grand piano, six long-distance remote controlled vaginal/anal vibrators and the prolonged use of the piano's sustainer pedal.
The six vibrators were strategically (and preparedly) placed atop of the strings of a various grand pianos (and one harpsichord), while random strangers around the globe connected to and operated the sex toys remotely. After the random and unwitting performers had befriended and synced-up with a catfishing account linked to the six individual vibrators and controlled by three different smartphones, they then sent vibrational patterns and pulses to stimulate their assumed target. The then-kinetic vibrators bounced, slid and bopped aleatorically through the tonal possibilities that the piano and piano's soundboard itself permits. The piano's sustain pedal was held down throughout the performance, elongating the triggered notes and the good vibrations.
All tracks on side A are performed by those unwitting performers, while side B's single track was performed with (more than) a little help from my friends (Anonymous (1), Genesis Victoria, Harry Hudson-Taylor and Hayden Dean)." – Ben Glas, Berlin, 16 February 2023.

Styx is the debut solo release from Frankie. There is beauty in the drone; love, loss, hope and desolation hidden in the overtones. There is intimacy and there is open space. The drone can explore tender closeness and it can experience painful, longing distance. Styx is bookended by hypnotic samples of racing cars tearing around a track, all meticulous planning and scientific, mechanical control, fighting for supremacy against reckless human abandon and the chase of pure adrenalin. These sounds fade into meditative, harmonic-drenched strings which in turn, on opener Sappho, give way to Frankie’s staggeringly beautiful, soft vocals. Across the next five tracks, including a cover of Frankie Sparo’s 2003 track ‘This Lie,’ Frankie pulls us through her soul laid bare. She wields the harmonies and melodies on her cello as part of the narrative, a resonant and patinated counterpart for her gentle, pure voice tones. Frankie performs with restraint and absolute finesse throughout, allowing her vocals to bear the brunt of the substantial emotional weight. Frankie seems to discover life, or the purest optimism, hiding in the harmonics that live between the loops and notes. After almost thirty minutes of deep, raw intimacy, Frankie finds all the tear-jerking hope, space and breath as if looking out at an iridescent pink and blue sunrise, washing away the rest of the mini-album’s desperate soul-seeking sleepless night. And here are those cars again, around the track they go, haunting us like phantom harmonics. Frankie is on tour with Senyawa across the UK in April About Frankie Frankie (Franziska Aigner) works at the intersection of music, philosophy and performance. She studied at P.A.R.T.S., the school of choreography and dance in Brussels directed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and has performed her own work at theatres and festivals across Europe. Frankie worked with the artist Anne Imhof on the performances Deal (2015), Rage (2015), and Angst (2017), as well as Faust (2017), which was awarded the Golden Lion at the 2017 Venice Biennale. She performed and co-wrote the music to Faust, which was released as a LP on PAN in 2019. In 2019 she joined Holly Herndon’s vocal ensemble, performing the album 'proto' around the world. Frankie continues to work and perform with Anne Imhof, and with artists such as the choreographer William Forsythe and the filmmaker Austin Jack Lynch. In 2020 she completed her PhD at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (crmep), London on the topic of Kant and Technics. She is currently an instructor in philosophy at the New Centre for Research and Practice.

This collection of electroacoustic vocal and piano improvisations was recorded in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico in the midst of the hottest month in recorded Puerto Rican history (it has since been replaced by a more recent date). While it is certainly not traditional piano and vocal improvisational performance by the strictest definition, in many ways this series of recordings acts as a return to fundamentals in spontaneous sonic exploration with very minimal processing in post-production. With piano and voice being the first instruments learned by the artist as a child, much of these improvisations act as a vehicle of a positive form of musical regression. The challenge at hand is to create a sound as full and textural as that of a fully electronic production across tens of channels, but only through three: piano, voice, and granular synthesis. This is a series of improvisations surrounding the topic of 21st century austerity, focusing specifically on the liberatory nature of certain technological innovations that most in the Global North now take for granted. How can you create art when you're worried about whether the food in your fridge will remain fresh past the evening when the power has been out all day? How can you remain in constant contact with your family and friends when all communications providers are at capacity in the midst of a Hurricane or other natural disasters? As there is no telling how long the power grid is going to remain functional in the oldest colony on the planet, it’s crucial that digital art and performance be produced here and now with the tools available, right up to the very point when they no longer are. Pianovoz Electroacústica places this nowness front and center, it can speak for itself as creative music, but illustrates the need to continue working even as the safety nets surrounding you begin to crumble all the more. More importantly, this series of improvisations acts as a warning: the Global North will only be able to ignore these realities up until the point at which they arrive at their doorstep. The time to make prepar