night (original masters) [BHR AE 012]
1. night [remaster] (19:10)
night is a fixed media 'computer music' composition completed around 2001. Somewhat influenced by the then novel lowercase aesthetic, the piece is meant to be listened to at moderate to quiet volumes. The lowercase aesthetic is slowly abandoned as the work progresses and eventually reaches full volume in the second half of the track (beware)!
2. Xmass '99 [remaster] (23:37)
Xmass '99 is a fixed media 'computer music' phonography composition. Phonography was (is) as an approach to field recording that, like lowercase music, had a strong presence online in the late '90s and early 2000s. It championed a non-theoretical approach to field recording that sought to bring attention to the understated 'everyday' sounds in our lives as much as the extraordinary 'exotic' sounds often featured in nature recordings at that time.
While Phonography often emphasized a 'pure' approach to field recording where little editing was involved, some artists such as myself processed our recordings into more abstract compositions.
Xmass '99 is an example of this - made from recordings using a minidisc recorder and cheap Sony stereo microphone duck taped to a porch support post during a rainstorm in El Paso, Texas in 1999.
An edit of this track appeared on Phonography.org: Compositions Using Field Recordings 2
www.discogs.com/release/435567-Various-Phonographyorg-Compositions-Using-Field-Recordings-2
summer [remaster] (1:18:57)
This was an accidental track recorded around 2003. It was created one afternoon when I was preparing for a solo live electronics performance at Austin's Ceremony Hall. When I returned from break I heard a very quiet sound playing in the background and realized that I had inadvertently left my equipment running and it was mixing various random sounds in and out of sync with each other. This is a recording of that event. More of a 'found installation' it is best listened to at just above the ambient noise level of your listening situation (as it was in 2003).
All tracks composed by Bill Thompson (1999-2003)
Originally mastered at Cave Studios and Loft Studios, Austin Texas (1999 - 2003); Remastered by Bill Thompson (2024) at Rearview Studios, London.
Album design by Bill Thompson (2024)
© 2024 Burning Harpsichord Records
www.burningharpsichordrecords.com
www.billthompson.org
released May 2, 2024