“Musical processes can give one a direct control with the impersonal and also a kind of complete control … by this I mean: by running this material through that process I completely control all that results but I also accept all that results without changes.”
Steve Reich
Music For 18 Musicians, Steve Reich
“Even when all the cards are on the table there are still enough mysteries to satisfy all. These mysteries are the unintended psychoacoustic by-products of the intended process. These might include submelodies heard within a repeating melodic pattern, irregularities in performance, harmonics, difference tones, etc.”
Steve Reich
“We’d hold a chord for three hours if we could.”
John Cale
“If it has more than three chords, it’s jazz.”
Lou Reed
“Duck and Sally inside
They’re cooking for the down five
Who’re staring at Miss Rayon
Who’s busy licking up her big man
I’m searching for my mainline
I said I couldn’t hit it sideways
I said I couldn’t hit it sideways
Ah, it’s just like Sister Ray saysRosy and Miss Rayon
They’re busy waiting for her booster
Who just got back from Carolina
She said she didn’t like the weather
They’re busy waiting for her Sailor
Who said he’s just as big as ever
He’s just here from Alabama
He wants to know a way to earn a dollar
I’m searching for my mainline
I couldn’t hit it sideways
Ah, just like Sister Ray saidCecil’s got his new piece
He cocks and shoots between three and four
He aims it at the Sailor
Shoots him down dead on the floor
Oh, you shouldn’t do that
Don’t you know you’ll stain the carpet
Don’t you know you’ll stain the carpet
And by the way man, have you got a dollar
Oh no man, I haven’t got the time time
Too busy sucking on a ding dong
She’s too busy sucking on my ding dong
Oh, she does it just like Sister Ray said
I’m searching for my mainline
I said I couldn’t hit it sideways
I couldn’t hit it sideways
Oh, just like, just like Sister Ray saysNow, who’s that knocking
Who’s that knocking on my chamber door
Now could it be the police
They’ve come to take me for a ride ride
Oh, but I haven’t got the time time
Too busy sucking on my ding dong
She’s too busy sucking on my ding dong
Oh, now, just like Sister Ray said
I’m searching on my mainline
I couldn’t hit it sideways
I couldn’t hit it sideways
Oh now, just like, just like, just like…..
Sister Ray says”Sister Ray, Lou Reed
Serving suggestion: Start each video in turn to play simultaneously. Adjust volume, pause, stop, start, restart to taste…
Sister Ray, Cale/Morrison/Tucker/Reed, Velvet Underground
Phase Patterns, Steve Reich
It’s Gonna Rain, Steve Reich
“How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein
“I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music.
To facilitate closely detailed listening a musical process should happen extremely gradually.
Performing and listening to a gradual musical process resembles:
pulling back a swing, releasing it, and observing it gradually come to rest;
turning over an hour glass and watching the sand slowly run through the bottom;
placing your feet in the sand by the ocean’s edge and watching, feeling, and listening to the waves gradually bury them.”Steve Reich
“Winter was cold and the clothing was thin
But the gentle shepherd calls the tune
Oh dear mother what shall I do
First please your eyes and then your ears Jenny
Exchanging love tokens say goodnightLay down my dear sister
Won’t you lay and take your rest
Won’t you lay your head upon your saviours breast
And I love you but Jesus loves you the best
And I bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight,
And I bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
One of these mornings bright and early and fine.
Goodnight, goodnight
Not a cricket not a spirit going to shout me on
Goodnight, goodnight
I go walking in the valley of the shadow of death
Goodnight, goodnight
And his rod and his staff shall comfort me
Goodnight, goodnight
Oh John the wine he saw the sign
Goodnight, goodnight
Oh John say I seen a number of signs
Goodnight, goodnight
Tell A for the ark that wonderful boat
Goodnight, goodnight
You know they built it on the land getting water to float
Goodnight, goodnight
Tell B for the beast at the ending of the wood
Goodnight, goodnight
You know it ate all the children when they wouldn’t be good
Goodnight, goodnight
I remember quite well, I remember quite well
Goodnight, goodnight
I was walking in Jerusalem just like John
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.Who would lose and who would bruise
Or who would live quite prettily?
And who would love what comes along
And fill the air with joyous songWho would go and who would come
Or who would simply linger
And who would hide behind your chair
And steal your crystallised gingerNebulous nearnesses cry to me
At this timeless moment
Someone dear to me wants me near, makes me high
I can hear vibrations fly
Through mangoes, pomegranates and planes
All the same
When it reaches me and teaches me
To sighWho would mouse and who would lion
Or who would be the tamer
And who would hear directions clear
From the unnameable namerWho would skip and who would plod
Or who would lie quite stilly
And who would ride backwards on a giraffe
Stopping every so often to laughAmoebas are very small
Oh ah ee oo there’s absolutely no strife
Living the timeless life
I don’t need a wife
Living the timeless life
If I need a friend I just give a wriggle
Split right down the middle
And when I look there’s two of me
Both as handsome as can be
Oh here we go slithering, here we go slithering and squelching on
Oh here we go slithering, here we go slithering and squelching on
Oh ah ee oo there’s absolutely no strife
Living the timeless lifeBlack hair brown hair feather and scale
Seed and stamen and all unnamed lives that live
Turn your quivering nerves in my direction
Turn your quivering nerves in my direction
Feel the energy projection of my cells
Wishes you well.May the long time sun shine upon you
All love surround you
And the pure light within you
Guide you all the way on.”Mike Heron, A Very Cellular Song
A Very Cellular Song, The Incredible String Band, 1968
“You’ll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You’ll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we walk in fields of goldSo she took her love
For to gaze awhile
Upon the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Among the fields of goldWill you stay with me, will you be my love
Among the fields of barley
We’ll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we lie in fields of goldSee the west wind move like a lover so
Upon the fields of barley
Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth
Among the fields of goldI never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I’ve broken
But I swear in the days still left
We’ll walk in fields of gold
We’ll walk in fields of goldMany years have passed since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
Among the fields of goldYou’ll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold”Sting, Fields of Gold
Fields of Gold (Lute), Sting and Edin Karamazov
“Walk me out in the morning dew, my honey.
Please walk me out in the morning dew, sometime.
Can’t walk you out in no morning dew. I’m sorry, I’m sorry.
Can’t walk you out in no morning dew.”Morning Dew, Dobson/Rose
Morning Dew, Jeff Beck Group featuring Rod Stewart
“Love me, love me, love me
Say you do
Let me fly away
With you
For my love is like
The wind
And wild is the wind
Wild is the windGive me more
Than one caress
Satisfy this
Hungriness
Let the wind
Blow through your heart
For wild is the wind
Wild is the windYou
Touch me
I hear the sound
Of mandolins
You
Kiss me
With your kiss
My life begins
You’re spring to me
All things
To meDon’t you know you’re
Life itselfLike a leaf clings
To the tree
Oh my darling,
Cling to me
For we’re like creatures
Of the wind
And wild is the wind
Wild is the wind.”Wild Is The Wind, Tiomkine/Washington
For Desirée…
Wild Is The Wind, David Bowie
“I saw her standin’ on her front lawn just twirlin’ her baton
Me and her went for a ride sir and ten innocent people diedFrom the town of Lincoln, Nebraska with a sawed off .410 on my lap
Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my pathI can’t say that I’m sorry for the things that we done
At least for a little while sir me and her we had us some funThe jury brought in a guilty verdict and the judge he sentenced me to death
Midnight in a prison storeroom with leather straps across my chestSheriff when the man pulls that switch sir and snaps my poor head back
You make sure my pretty baby is sittin’ right there on my lapThey declared me unfit to live said into that great void my soul’d be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did
Well sir I guess there’s just a meanness in this world.”Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska
Just an online conversation…
IT: “In 1967 I was sixteen and in love. Though mainly with myself…”
ALK: In 1967 I was running around naked in the cornfields of Nebraska catching bullfrogs.”
Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen
“Some velvet mornin’ when I’m straight
I’m gonna open up your gate
And maybe tell you ‘bout Phaedra
And how she gave me life
And how she made it end”Lee Hazlewood, Some Velvet Morning
“In Greek mythology, Hippolytus (Greek Ἱππόλυτος meaning “unleasher of horses”) was a son of Theseus and either Antiope or Hippolyte.”
Wikipedia
“Phaedra is best known for her role in Euripides’ play, the Hippolytus. The plot follows a pattern of sexual intrigue and betrayal that has parallels in ancient Mediterranean myths, mostly notably, the Biblical account of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife.
Phaedra married Theseus who has a son, Hippolytus, from a previous marriage to Antiope. The young Hippolytus, however, angered Aphrodite by shunning her worship and devoting himself entirely to Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt. To punish him, Aphrodite compels Phaedra to begin lusting after the young man. At first, she resisted, and sought magic cures for her passions, or at least a noble death. Hippolytus learns of Phaedra’s desire for him through Phaedra’s nurse and launches into a fierce denunciation of women — a locus classicus for misogyny.
Out of shame and guilt Phaedra hung herself, but not until she’d left a letter condemning him of trying to rape her. Hipploytus was trapped into silence because he had promised that whatever Phaedra’s nurse told him, he would never repeat. Therefore, when confronted by his father he was defenseless. Out of anger Theseus asked Poseidon to punish Hippolytus, which he did. Hippolytus died as Poseidon’s bull emerged from the sea frightened his horses. Unfortunately, after it was too late, Artemis revealed the truth to Theseus concerning his son and Phaedra.
In a typical Euripidean deus ex machina, the goddess Artemis is questioned as to why she stood by and allowed her devoted follower to be destroyed. She reminds the chorus that there is an agreement among the gods that the favorites of one divinity can be destroyed by another divinity at will. It is scant consolation that she promises that someday she’ll similarly destroy a mortal favorite of Aphrodite in revenge.”
Marsha Moore, Phaedra
“As flies are to wanton boys, are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport.”
William Shakespeare, King Lear
Some Velvet Morning, Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra
“Basically I am probably a painter without style … I shift about too much, I move too often. You see me here, and yet I have already changed, I’m already elsewhere. I never stay in one place and that’s why I have no style.”
“To copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself is pathetic.”
Picasso
“Three or four days ago, Picasso came to see me with a very pretty young woman. He could not have been more friendly, and he said that he would come back and have a lot of things to tell me. He hasn’t come back. he saw what he wanted to see – my works in cut paper, my new paintings, the painted door, etc. That’s all he wanted. He will put it all to good use in time.”
Matisse
Time After Time, Miles Davis, Montreux, 1988
My name is Ian Talbot and I am an artist and photographer living in London.
This blog is intended as an insight into the research, thinking and connections that precede the projects I undertake. I will also show new and experimental work. Naturally, not all of the work shown here will eventually make the cut. These are very much 'works in progress'...
You can see a complete collection of my work at my website:
Ian Talbot :: Objectively Speaking