Three Interviews with me that readers might enjoy

If you look at the right column of this page, you'll see a new category called "Interviews."  I've been interviewed by several people over the past couple of years, and I recently thought that these might be shared with those interested.  In October 2011, I was interviewed by UK writer Chris Meigh-Andrews on my work in video; Nina Sofo interviewed me about my work in improvisation in June 2011; and Tegan Nicholls interviewed me about my work with extended vocal techniques in October 2010.  I asked all of them for permission to put these interviews on my website, and happily, they all agreed.  Many thanks to Chris, Nina and Tegan for agreeing to do this.

To read the interview with Chris Meigh-Andrews on video, click here.

To read the interview with Nina Sofo on improvisation, click here.

To read the inteview with Tegan Nicholls on extended vocal techniques, click here.

I hope you enjoy them!

Performances in January - Gent, Los Angeles

I'm having 2 works performed in January by friends overseas.  The first one, already past, was a performance of my "Another Noisy Lullaby" by Decibel at the Logos Foundation in Gent, Belgium, on January 17.  Many thanks to Cat Hope and all the Logos Crew for including me in the program!

The second one, upcoming, on January 29, is a performance of my electronic piece "for Anne, who broke my heart" from 1974 as part of the Welcome Inn Time Machine performances.  Here's a description of the whole event:

The Society for the Activation of Social Space Through Art and Sound (SASSAS) transforms Eagle Rock’s Welcome Inn into a venue for live performances creating a free, six hour event featuring experimental music originating in Southern California, 1949 - 1977.  Micro concerts take place in individual rooms allowing key moments in sound and music history to be experienced simultaneously and sequentially in a single location.  (One of the featured events is a performance/re-creation of Arnold Schoenberg's 1949 "Draft of a String Quartet.")

The event I'm part of celebrates the Theater Vanguard's "Currents" series, which was curated by Barry Schrader from 1973-78.  Barry has put together a selection of pieces from that series and it will play as a 2 hour repeating program throughout the day.  Thanks, Barry, for including my work!

So if you're in Los Angeles this Sunday, you could do worse than to drop into the Welcome Inn at Eagle Rock.  If I were in LA on Sunday, that's where I would be!

Here's some links:

http://www.logosfoundation.org/concerts/concerts2012.html

http://www.sassas.org/welcomeinn/ (click on "Currents Series" for more information.)

Downloads from Pogus now available

I've been involved with Al Margolis, of Pogus Records, for many years now. He brought out my Harmonic Colour Fields CD a number of years ago, and since then I've been involved in various aspects of album production with him.  I recently received an email from him letting me know that my CD, and others I'd been involved with, were now available for purchase via download from Ganxy.  Here are the links:

Warren Burt: Harmonic Colour Fields: https://ganxy.com/i/22942

(A set of five very slowly moving pieces from the 90s exploring different tuning systems)

Felix Werder: The Tempest: https://ganxy.com/i/22546

(A collection of Felix's electronic music - three pieces from the 70s, and his only computer piece, from the early 90s.)

KIVA: https://ganxy.com/i/22512

(KIVA was the improvisation group of Keith Humble, Jean-Charles Francois, and John Silber - this 2 cd set is a selection from a number of their sessions from the late 80s and early 90s.

Kenneth Gaburo: Maledetto: http://www.pogus.com/g47.html

(Maledetto is Gaburo's masterful, fun, and slightly smutty celebration of the speaking voice - exploring innumberable facets of the word "screw" it's a masterpiece of extended vocal writing and sound poetry.)

So if you've been wondering where you can buy any of the above, now you know!

Virtual Versions of the Fokker Organ Pieces, at last

It took quite a while to get around to doing this, but I've finally made recordings of my interactive pieces for the Fokker Microtonal Organ that I'm satisfied with.  These weren't using the actual organ, but a virtual one - a patch, made by Ere Lievonen, for the Hauptwerk Virtual Organ which emulates the 31 tone tuning and registration of the actual organ.  These pieces are interactive improvisations with programs I set up in ArtWonk (with some assistance from Andrew Culver and John Cage's IC program), in which I hear what I'm playing and respond to it.  In most of the movements, the main control I have is over tempo and range (high and low notes) of the individual voices - I'm sculpting time and register of 31-tone organ music in real time.  Here are the recordings of the individual movements.  

Warren Burt: Three Movements for Fokker Organ - 1: Time Lock Puzzles in the Random Oracle Model

Warren Burt: Three Movements for Fokker Organ - 2: Guaranteed Repetition Free, or Double Your Drachmas Back

Warren Burt: Three Movements for Fokker Organ - 3: Being Generous With Those Genera

Warren Burt: Fokker Organ Wren

Each movement lasts about 3 and 1/2 minutes.  If you want to download them, for each movement you can click 1: HERE, 2: HERE, 3: HERE, and for the Fokker Organ Wren, HERE.  Enjoy!

A Thought for the New Year

No matter what they say about "nothing new under the sun,"

it is always possible to invent something original.

George Gershwin, 1930

Happy 2012 to all!