Babel, introduction
par Roger Doyle |sido_003-0001|
[traduction française non disponible]
Babel is a large-scale musical
structure making use of many technologies and music languages, with each
piece of music being thought of as a “room” or place within an
enormous tower city.
In the main section are 3 CDs where each track corresponds to a virtual
architecture. The pieces are divided into two kinds: aural representations of
actual spaces (e.g. The Dressing Room,
The Stairwell, Mr. Brady’s
Room), and internalised dream spaces (e.g. The Room of
Rhetoric, Mall Fountain, the
Spirit Levels, the
Mansard childhood memory
room). Listeners can navigate their way differently through this CD building
at each hearing if they so wish. The instrumental solos in some of these
‘chamber musics’ evolved in collaboration with the musicians and
would not have been possible without the unique approach and talent of each
performer.
As a Babel ‘supplement’
are the 2 CDs of KBBL - the Tower’s fictitious radio station. Each of
its 4 ‘shows’ has its own style and atmosphere. Collaborating
with DJs, actors, writers and singers, KBBL is made to sound like a
real radio station with ads, traffic reports, phone-ins etc. There are also
‘live’ circus and nightclub recordings associated with KBBL in
this supplement and in the main section.
As an example of the many connections and links within Babel, two routes can be
taken. The first is an architectural one: the saxophonist in the off-stage
dressing room is rehearsing for her solo in the concert-hall (heard in
Pagoda Charm) as is Mr.
Brady, whose room is somewhere off the stairwell, where the sounds of piano
lessons and apartment life can be heard. The Squat is another apartment off
the stairwell. KBBL can be overheard in the stairwell, the squat, Mr.
Brady’s room, the room of rhetoric and in the temple rehearsal space.
There are other more hidden connections waiting to be discovered (e.g. the
Movie theme is buried in
a Dark Scenery and an
Entry Level).
The second connections route is a musical one, at a molecular level.
The Iron Language
Alphabet (one of the six Temple Musics from six unspecified religions) is
a sound alphabet containing tiny fragments of sound representing letters or
characters of an alien alphabet. At the start of this piece, after an
heraldic trumpet solo, letters are introduced one by one slowly and then sped
up. This sound alphabet can be heard scattered through other pieces like:
The Room of
Rhetoric, Pagoda Charm, Entry Level I and in
KBBL in Johnny’s Body
at 002 and Navigatio.
Other molecular scatterings can be found in Cantilena where two songs
sung by Elena Lopez in KBBL are exploded and re-arranged to form new
entities, and in the Leisure Pursuits
Show from KBBL three pieces from its Morning Show are
cannibalised in Senanbru
Vendanswi.
There is also convergence - the Entry Levels are like overtures, openings
or peepholes and contain material from all parts of the Tower.
Other than these connections, and others not mentioned, Babel celebrates language (a
slight variation on the Biblical morality tale) and musical expression in all
its variety.
Roger Doyle, 1990-99
(main section); 1988-1999 with short excursions into the early eighties
(KBBL)
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