Search - Philip Krumm, Dan Cheslik, Gene Tyranny :: Philip Krumm: Formations

Interstellar space

Troy Curry | 04/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First time in any format, ONCE group composer Philip Krumm's original piano work entitled Formations, as originally recorded in 1968. Scored for piano, organ and ring modulator, it was realized by avant-garde composer "Blue" Gene Tyranny, and the piece has remained unheard for over thirty years. "Blue" Gene Tyranny is a fascinating margin walker who has roots deep in the avant garde. His association with the composer Philip Krumm goes back to the late 1950s/early 1960s when the pair organized an innovative series of new music performances in Texas including various Fluxus happenings. The performance on this CD combines material from a live performance on January 17, 1968, at the Everybody Wins Festival (held at the Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Michigan) as well as a studio recording from January 19 of that same year. Formations utilizes magnetic tape-recordings of universal micro-wave background noise from the South Galactic Pole, creating a turbulence that permeates the instrumentation throughout the performance. While the piano is the primary component of the piece, it is rendered into a strikingly vicious yet sublime work of sound. The result is a truly alien slice of Kosmiche music with industrial-scale klang matched with lumbering, iron-blue piano parts and the whirr of the galaxies. It not only observes the parallel sound worlds forged by Sun Ra's cosmic electronics but it foretells of a visceral realm that folks like The New Blocakders, Masami Akita (Merzbow) and Pita Rehberg would digitally elucidate some thirty years on. A stunning discovery. Fans of Max Neuhaus, Philip Corner,and Robert Ashley's "Wolfman" will find much to savior here."