Uncertainty Theory #27
About the Waterphone by Richard Waters and his GAEB band plus dark music by Salva Alambre and David Lynch.
Audio
01. Gravity Adjusters Expansion Band - Amerizenitation (track 5 of the dico One (1973))
02. Gravity Adjusters Expansion Band - Birds Return to Hollywood (track 6 of the album One (1973))
03. Salva Alambre - Faraday (track 3 of the album Electromagnestismo (2020))
04. David Lynch - So Glad (track 3 from the album Crazy Clown Time(2011))
05. David Lynch - Noah's Ark (track 4 from the album Crazy Clown Time (2011))
06. David Lynch - Station (track from the album The Air Is On Fire (2007))
07. Gravity Adjusters Expansion Band - One (track 1 of the dico One (1973))
About Gravity Adjusters Expansion Band (GAEB)
It was born in 1967 and to this day remains one of those lost and underestimated groups that explored both in the area of sound sculptures and improvisation, experimental music and free jazz.
From the San Francisco Bay Area, he ended up recording his first LP in Los Angeles.
It is in this abstract universe where the most important GAEBusing the invented instruments by Richard Watersmany of whose percussion and bowed instruments incorporate resonators. filled with water to bend and sharpen the sound. Although many other improvisers of the time, such as AMM, MEV, Probe and Taj Mahal Travelers made extensive use of homemade and adapted instruments, the GAEBs were making their own unmistakable identity. Their first LP "One" appeared in 1973 on Nocturne Records, a small Californian label. It was the first of their 2 LPs, and the second came out about 8 years later.
Waterphone
A Waterphone is a type of acoustic and atonal musical instrument consisting of a stainless steel resonator container or pan with a cylindrical brass neck that is surrounded by rods of different lengths and diameters. In addition, the resonator contains a small amount of water, hence the name Waterphone, which gives it a vibrant ethereal sound that has often appeared on horror movie soundtracks, as well as on music albums and live performances.
This instrument was created and developed by the British musician and composer Richard Waterswho, after graduating from California College of the Arts in 1965, was introduced to an unusual instrument called the Tibetan Water Drum, which was a round drum with water inside, slightly flattened, made of bronze and with an opening at the top center.
It had been designed in such a way that it would sway slightly each time its surface was struck. with the hands thus moving the small amount of internal water that created pre-echoes and doubled the tone.
Years later, in 1968, during a stop in Haight Ashbury, he heard the Kalimba instrument, a small African piano played with the thumbs. So he began to make what he called "American Thumb Piano": cans with brass rods soldered around the edge that rattled when spun by rubbing against each other. He described them as disposable and primitive instruments, since in the end the cans and rods always ended up breaking.
After several attempts, he ended up assembling the resonators of enameled hubcaps and saddles by changing the technique.
in which this new instrument, now beaten with mallets, was played.
It was at that time that he mentions teaching it to his friend Lee Charlton, a jazz drummer.
In their study, they put a small amount of water in the resonator surrounded by rods. This was the first
Waterphone from which Richard Waters begins the whole process of patenting his invention.
Links:
https://repetidor-shop.bandcamp.com/album/electromagnetismo
https://gravityadjustersexpansionband.bandcamp.com/
https://instrumentosmusicales10.net/waterphone-instrumento-aterrador
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