Tag Archives: musique concrete

Listening To Acousmatic Music Is A New Experience

Acousmatic music is defined by the use of recorded environmental, or “everyday,” sounds as raw compositional material; thus, questions regarding the relationship between sound and source (or implied source) are raised, leading to an investigation of concepts of mimesis in this music that stirs up nineteenth-century debates over absolute versus programmatic music.

Issues of sound and source and how they may evoke a sense of virtual space or place in the listener play a part in analyses presented for Dennis Smalleyj’s Wind Chimes (1987), Hildegard Westerkamp’s Cricket Voice (1987), Judy Klein’s The Wolves of Bays Mountain (1998), as well as a discussion of Yves Daoust’s Mi Bemol (1990) and Jarrod Barker’s Audiocosm (2008) and captured sounds employed in Jarrod Barker’s Insects (2008).

Such music poses special challenges for the music theorist and analyst, as conventional analytical tools often emphasize pitch structures and the study of scores—elements often absent in acousmatic music. Attention to listening as an analytic tool has therefore gained prominence within
existing theoretical literature concerned with electroacoustic music in general and acousmatic music in…….. click here to read the full essay by Cathy Lynn Cox.

Electronic Jazz Collective Hits SOMA FM charts

The inimitable Rik Ganju
The inimitable Rik Ganju

The music collective GANFUNKEL released the 5-song-EP Fighting Music with Music following the successful 2013 release of Machine Coincident Jazz.  The former album produced one song that reached #1 on jazz radio charts, 2 songs that reached #2, and one song that reached #3.

Ganfunkel listing on SOMA FM charts.
Ganfunkel listing on SOMA FM charts.

Ganfunkel is California-based and led by Simcoe native Rik Ganju.  Personnel on Fighting Music with Music have recorded and toured with Esperanza Spalding, the Kronos Quartet, John McLaughlin, Terry Riley, Bela Fleck, Wayne Shorter and Zakir Hussain.

Ganfunkel’s sound is influenced by rock, jazz, funk and Indian classical music.   Standing out on the new album is Stars Fell on Daniel featuring tabla maestro Salar Nader, and the legendary George Brooks on saxophone.

“The success of Machine Coincident Jazz validated our belief that multi-genre music has an audience that doesn’t want to be confined by traditional categories, “ says Ganju. “People are open to many styles of music depending on their mood.  And just as film music evolves from minute to minute, our sound changes texture as the mood of the tune allows.”

Ganfunkel albums are available today on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and most major music download sites, and music videos can be found by searching on Ganfunkel at Vimeo.com

Ganju’s experiments with multi-genre music stretch back to the mid-2000s when he collaborated with Jarrod Barker  on many avant-garde experiments.

Also hailing from Norfolk County- Jarrod Barker, friend of Rik. Both have collaborated in the past on new musical forms and sounds.
Jarrod Barker

The track listing for Fighting Music with Music:

  1. Chunky Town (featuring Kai Eckhardt and Dana Hawkins)
  2. Shot in a Gambling House
  3. Stars Fell on Daniel (featuring Salar Nader and George Brooks)
  4. That Feel on Flesh (featuring Kai Eckhardt and Dana Hawkins)
  5. Venezia

All songs are composed by Rik Ganju.

Video for Stars Fell on Daniel: http://vimeo.com/94441271