Label: Farpoint Recordings

アート系コレクターは是非!!カナダの大ベテラン前衛音楽家による超プリミティブ音源集!!オノ・ヨーコの[Secret Piece]の実践録音や、同国の物理学者、楽器ビルダー"ヒュー・ル・ケイン"の音源監修、その他ケージ、ジェームズ・テニー、オリヴェロスの演奏及び作品ライナーなども担当して来た作曲家ゲイル・ヤング。1980年に発表したLP[According]がアート系コレクターの間では知られていますが、非常に寡作な作家であり、漸く真骨頂と言って良い待望の音源が2CDフォーマットで登場。ジャケットを見ての通り本作の主役は海岸で拾った"石"であり、ラップ・スティール・ギター上に並べ、ベルで叩いたり、指や六角ボルトを転がして弦の上で弾ませる。その他ビーバーの巣から拾ったスティックや自作の弦楽器も演奏し、今回の共演者である電子音楽家ジェームズ・ハーレーの繊細な信号処理が加わるというもの。あらゆる方に激推ししたい素朴で美しい音源集。











Lithophonica is a collaborative album by Gayle Young & James Harley featuring 35 tracks across two CD's. Includes unlimited streaming of Lithophonica via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download. Please note Bandcamp may add taxes at check-out.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Line up the stones on the lap steel, play them with bells, bounce them on the strings with fingers or rolling hex bolt heads.

Drag washers across the row of stones, slide the stones sideways along the strings, rock them back and forth.

BEDROCK RESONANCE
Stones, the instruments featured on this album, are joined by sounds of bells, sticks and Young’s stringed instruments as Harley expands their resonance, shaping sounds through granulation, layering, trans- position, delays, and spatialization. Bells resonate with stones, stones rock on strings, and resonant sticks bounce on strings.

Young’s collection of resonant stones from the shores of Newfoundland, resonant sticks from abandoned beaver lodges in Ontario, played with bells and assorted hardware, are combined with stringed instruments she designed and built.

As hex-bolts are rolled over stones resting on strings, their vibrations cause the strings to sound. Signal processing simultaneously expands the depth and frequency range, adding complexity through layering and subtle shifts over time.

When Young walks along a beach she watches for flat stones, usually rounded by waves. She tests each stone for tone, tapping it with another stone while holding it at its nodes to let it vibrate. Stones can play each other and can be set on strings so that both the strings and the stones are heard.


All compositions by James Harley and Gayle Young
Recorded at the ADAPPS studio, University of Guelph
Mastered by William Blakeney at Grant Avenue Studio
Produced by James Harley, Gayle Young & William Blakeney for ARS SUBTILIOR
Photographs: Reinhard Reitzenstein
Graphic Design: Stephen Seto

JAMES HARLEY
James Harley is a Canadian composer working at the University of Guelph. He obtained his doctorate at McGill in 1994, after six years (1982-88) in Europe (London, Paris, Warsaw). His music has been awarded prizes in Canada and internationally, and has been performed and broadcast around the world. Harley has written extensively on contemporary music, including two books on the music of Iannis Xenakis. As a performer, Harley has a background in jazz, and works as an interactive computer musician, with a special interest in immersive soundscape music.