Larry Kucharz - 'Electrochoral Dreams' (International Audiochrome):

Systematic Musicology

... is the study of the various systems that function in music. It is a relatively new academic discipline in the U.S., whose emergence is due, in part, to a growing awareness that a wide variety of factors combine to influence the way that music is composed, performed, percieved, and learned. The principle goal of systematic musicology is the aquisition of knowledge of these various theories of music - music of the different eras and of different cultures. The typical systematic musicologist is a person of considerable musical background combined with strong interests in such areas as acoustics, psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology, aesthetics, therapy, theories of music instruction, and/or human physiology, and who possess an inquisitive mind and a thirst for knowledge.

~James C. Carlsen
 
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LISTEN

Noise barriers are getting a facelift thanks to acoustic engineers at France's Scientific and Technical Building Center who are using new mathematical modeling software allows them to predict how objects with complex geometric shapes absorb or reflect sound. The software also calculates the acoustic properties of different kinds of barrier material, the ground it will be erected on, and even the highly complex "behavior" of possible sounds to be blocked. The results will then give designer/architects the ability to please the eye as well as the ear.
Directives: French Technology Press Office @ 312.222.1235.

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EULOGY

> Dusty Springfield, 60's British popstar, 59
> Stanley Kubrick, master film maker, 70
> Yehudi Menuhin, German classical violinist, 82
> Bidu Sayao, Brazilian opera star, 94

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MANIFESTO

Anarcho-Auralists use whatever strategies needed to detonate the vague stockpile of expired sound that threatens suffocation in a music security-state. Call these techniques non-music, anti-music, un-music, de-music, re-music, and dis-music. These are processes that reveal how the willfully eccentric and purposefully misinterpreted creative gesture can be commercially auspicious and privately meaningful. Anarcho-Aurality means more ear people who function as sound makers, more sound makers who function as musicians, more musicians who function as designers, and more designers who function as hackers - hackers working outside the dominant domain, questioning its authority, and creating truer alternatives.

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TOOLS

Empeg's Empeg car stereo is capable of storing up to 480 hours of music in MP3 format, or about 7,000 singles. It can also surf the Web, send email, and store dates and addresses @ http://www.empeg.com.

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FACTOID

"Poet" derives from an Aramaic word that denotes the sound
of water flowing over pebbles.

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SCI

Cellular Automata Music
Eduardo Reck Miranda

Music has always been an interesting domain for the application of new scientific discoveries inviting composers to combine artistic creativity with scientific methods. Today, it is becoming increasingly common for the composer to turn to the sciences to supplement his or her compositional models. By the same token, scientists also seem to show interest in the organizational principles to be found in music.

Scientific models carry an important component of human thought, namely formal abstraction, which can be very inspiring for music composition. Eduardo Reck Miranda, a researcher working at Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris, is investigating whether evolutionary modelling techniques from the field of Artificial Life can be used both to model the origins of musical forms and to control the evolution of complex synthesised sound.

For a close-up of Miranda's world of cellular automata, granular synthesis, and the Chaosynth, connect @ http://website.lineone.net/~edandalex/celautom.htm#intro

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ESPRIT

Have a zen day @ http://www.dailyzen.com/homey.html

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EVESDROPPER

'Aqua Bassino' (aka Jason Robertson): At the cutting-edge of deep mellow house as the only Brit signed to French DJ Larent Garnier's thriving label 'F Communications' @ http://www.france-techno.fr/F-Comm/

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CIRCUIT BENDER
By Reed Ghazala

Circuit-bending is full of paradox. Full of tumbling concepts. An anti-theory portal into a world of alien music to explore. These instruments and their backing concepts have launched hundreds of people into circuit-bending's orbit. For the person tired of the music store, the radio, the record shop, and for the person who simply would enjoy traveling a new sonic frontier, this art offers solace. I hope to continue to open these strange doors to people just as they were opened to me. It's the most exciting and fruitful way I know of to inspire new musical thought, uncover unique sounds as well as build a truly singular personal orchestra. I hope everyone will try.
 
Interview: http://www.furious.com/perfect/emi/reedghazala.html
Instruments: http://207.137.50.71/sound.html
Reviews: http://207.137.50.71/reviews/

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CELLULOID

UK drum 'n' bass-man Goldie has been cast as Bull, a mean, metal-toothed chauffeur in the next 007 flick @ http://www.ministryofsound.co.uk/hot

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VIDEOSYNCRASY

'All the Mornings of the World (Tous les Matins du Monde)' is a unforgettable story of the life of 17th-century composer Sainte Colombe and his protege Marin Marais. Starring Jean-Pierre Marielle, Gerard Depardieu, and his son Guillaume Depardieu in his film acting debut. A smash hit in France, where it won seven Cesar awards. 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6303042457/

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INSTRUMENT

The dousongonni is an African stringed instrument made out of a long curved stick (the neck) with a gourd (the echo chamber) about 2/3rds of the way down it. It can be bowed, plucked & struck with a separate handpiece. Heard on records ranging from Don Cherry to the Headhunters to traditional African recordings, it's an exotic instrument of many voices.

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FLOWSCAPES

The concept of Flow answers many questions about the nature and significance of music that have frustrated thinkers for centuries. First among these is the significance of music. Why does music exist? Why is it that music matters so much to human beings that every culture we know, past and present, has something we would reasonably recognize as "music"?

'Music Matters', the new book by Dr. David J. Elliott, Professor & Coordinator of Music Education at the University of Toronto, offers a new "praxial" (and "postmodern") philosophy of music that explains the primary values of musical practices and musical works in terms of self-growth, self-esteem and Flow. In addition, 'Music Matters' proposes a philosophy of music education and curriculum development that puts Flow at the center of music teaching and learning for music makers and listeners of all kinds and levels.

http://www.utoronto.ca/musicmat
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/019509171X/aauriceelofaucu

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ULTRAMEDIA

Intersonics, Inc., of Northbrook, Illinois uses sound to levitate objects. Four acoustic transducers, emitting ultrasound waves, are arranged so that they direct narrow beams to a central spot. Where the beams intersect, an invisible stockade is created in which small objects can be lifted indefinitely.

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NOISE

In Information Theory, noise is information. Noise is defined as the unpredictability of a signal. Sometimes the word 'random' is used, but that's not always accurate. Because a signal is unpredictable, it contains a huge volume of information. To some noise is not "disposable matter." It has information that evokes emotion and reaction @ http://www.noiselabs.com/

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FUNKSHWAY

Gyorgy Doczi's 'Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art, and Architecture' is a fascinating interdisciplinary venture into the no-man's land of scientific-artistic philosophy that explores "dinergy", the universal pattern-creating process operating within strict limits to create limitless varieties of shapes and harmonies. Shambhala (ISBN 0-7773-193-4) @ http://www.shambhala.com

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AUDIOPHILIA

L.A. Audio File is an electronic bulletin for South Californian audio buffs @ http://users.aol.com/laaudio

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CONCERTO

Orbital @ House of Blues - French Quarter, New Orleans, LA
Hear the originative electronica sounds of the brothers Orbital. Feel the energy glide in this combustible, expectedly sinuous, live overture @ http://www.hob.com/live/events/

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ACOUTREMENTS

Swatch has invented a universal timeclock for Internauts by trandscending the 24-hour timekeeper, dividing days into 1,000 beats instead. Now net-time dwellers will make online dates with Swatch.beats no matter where they're at in fleshspace. Six models to choose from, all complete with a Y2K countdown @ http://www.swatch.com/

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OUTLET

Based out of a top-secret bunker in upstate NY, Cadence is a radical source for jazz of all kinds - from free improv to dixieland. They also publish the ace monthly, 'Cadence', and run two labels, CIMP and Cadence Recordings. If it's in-print non-major label jazz you want, immerse yourself @ http://www.cadencebuilding.com

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NETCASTER

aminoRadio pumps DJ-mixed techtronic sounds around the clock, including Solid Steel, a top-rated weekly radio program from British groovemasters Coldcut, who, along with show regulars like Strictly Kev, DC, and the DJ Food collective, take you deep into funkdified electronic bliss. Get it all at http://www.aminoradio.com

amino is the creation of The Eclectic Radio Company, LLC, of Boulder, CO, producers of EarDrum World Music Radio Station, GoGaGa Brand Radio(freeform eclectic) and Radio M, whose Playback features unique live performances this month from Mixmaster Morris and Transglobal Underground. Dig in @ http://www.eclecticradio.com/

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ASSOCIATE

H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers) is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the real dangers of repeated exposure to excessive noise levels which can lead to permanent, and sometime debilitating, hearing loss and tinnitus. Founded in 1988 by Executive Director Kathy Peck, MD., H.E.A.R. is closely tied to the music world and the medical community. Hearnet is their interactive, online publication providing information and resources on tinnitus, hearing loss, hearing evaluation referrals, hearing protection, hearing aids, and assitive listening devices, as well as a referral service for H.E.A.R. affiliates and entertainment links @ http://www.hearnet.com/

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ASSETS

Musicworks, published tri-annually, in a magazine-and-CD format, celebrates the excitement of creative engagement in sound exploration. Supplying readers with artists' perspectives on the exploration of new and possible music and sound, Musicworks cover topics from music's relationship to society, through discussion of musical creators, to commentaries on sonic phenomena.

In the current issue, James Harley's "The New Nihilism: l'Objet sonore and the Music of Richard Barrett" covers one of the foremost exponents of "the new complexity". Barrett's negativity and deliberate alienation from traditional musical values has led him to address the fundamental basis of music and to develop an aesthetic of questioning and failure.
http://www.musicworks-mag.com
(http://www.elision.org.au/composers/barrett.html)

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TEKSHOP

Drumtrax 3.0 is an update on Vamtech's drum library featuring Standard MIDI files of over 25,000 measures of drum-percussion grooves unquantized and recorded by real drummers in 14 style genres @ http://www.drumtrax.com

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EARGAZM

As a cyclical phenomenon, Groovology involves the consideration of the element or force called time, thus, all things synchronous - leading to synchronicity, in which flow is a common catalyst. Yet, there is an important distinction, synchronistic events, achieved in a flow state are, in a fuzzy sense, an act of manifestation. This manifest impulse is prevalently sub or unconscious - it is spawned or activated in the intuitive dimension or reality.

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DATUM

According to research done last month by audience measurement firm Arbitron, 13 percent of all Americans have listened to audio broadcasts delivered over the net, up from 6 percent just six months ago.

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CLUBIOSPHERE

Fresh cut flowers. Warm ambi-scapes. Aromatherpay oil and scented candles. Interactive performances. Experimental films. Conversation vibing. It's all in motion @ Kentra (0171 436 1066) and Chakra (0171 482 7166), two London chill-in spots for those over big-time clubbing.

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THE LISTENING ROOM

Pre-listening relaxation 0.2: candles.

When you come home from a stressful day at your digitally enhanced interactive multimedia office, you want entertainment and want to be renewed. That means you want pleasure, mystery, and sensuality - all of the timeless emotions and experience that replenish the human spirit.

Your listening room is a cathedral because your audio systems create a musical space that is an analog of the space in which the Great Music dwells. Understanding the aesthetics of this room is an essential pre-condition for escalating the achievement of optimal music moods. Thus, the lighting of your listening chamber with candles is key to the ceremony, ritual, or gestalt of your listening experience. Burning candles has powerful metaphoric value; it is a symbolic gesture signifying transformation and creates a radiant aura throughout the room.

The color of candles you choose is important. Use the color that is best for whatever music you are using and the purpose you seek to achieve. Music of peace and balance: blue. Sounds of lively energy: yellows or reds. Tones of fertile abundance: green. Strains of psychic awareness: purple. A color is very personal so you pick whatever feels good to you.
Other lighting options: oil lamps, lanterns, fireplaces, tea lights and Elektrik Sky's 'Candela' candlesticks, coming in free-standing, wall-mountable and mini desk versions (tel: 32.51 2673 76)

Next month: Pre-listening 0.3 - the finishing touches.

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FLASHTRAX

With the reissue of pioneering electronic music artist Synergy's (http://www.synergy-emusic.com./) recordings from the Chronicles label, composer Larry Fast returns to the spotlight. Read Amazon.com's interview with the creator of Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra, Sequencer, Cords, Semi-Conductor, and more @ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/music/recs/artists-picks/fast-larry-pick.html/002-2 408886-5466459

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INSITE

Are you ready to Orbit Online @ http://www.williamorbit.com/online.html?

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FOURPLAY
By Mixmaster Flow

1. Various: 'Real Ibiza' (React)
The original home of the quality 'Cafe Del Mar' albums introduces a new title which continues the sun-chill Balearic theme. Compiled with love by A Man Called Adam, Chris Coco and DJ Bruno Lepretre, this Ibiza is the sound of surreal summer dreams; an outlandishly mature double disc of rich trips into softt-rimmed whims. A moodnotic must-have guaranteed @ http://www.react-music.co.uk

2. Pepe Bradock: 'Synthese' (Versatile)
You want chunky soul-baked Pariso-disiac dance deepness so thick and creamy it bleeds well-being? Scream in glee and feel this feast like countless midnight parades and swelling jaded cornocopians of bliss-disco cinema. Primed for eminence. Wide ears come alive with razor sharp amour propre.

3. Baby Mammoth: 'One...Two...Freak' (Pork)
Get found in a gracious swarm of broad beat complexities and mind-mellow realms of carefully manipulated groove and texture. For an atmospheric fantasia on the techno-earotic theme, this is sumptuous sonic sanity @ http://www.pork.com

4. Larry Heard: 'Ice Castles' (Mecca)
Heard's genius for smoothed, idealistic mood-dance comes rushing to the fore on this repackaging, perhaps his most compelling exhibit of instru-mentalism. Sound colors move and pulsate, shapes stretch, collide, vibrate, and recede in exciting succession where the eyes hear and the ears see.

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ASK DR. TECHNOLOVE

Q. What is a mind map?
A. Inspired from 'The Mind Map Book' by Tony Buzan (Penguin), a mind map consists of a central word or concept, around the central word you draw the 5 to 10 main ideas that relate to that word. You then take each of those child words and again draw the 5 to 10 main ideas that relate to each of those words. In this way an exponential number of related ideas can quickly be produced with virtually no mental effort. The concept of 'writers block' is hard to understand once you have grasped the use of this simple technique!

Q. What can you do with a mind map?
A. Note taking for one. As a means of taking notes mind maps have several advantages over other systems: You can place each new idea in the right place, regardless of the order of presentation. It encourages the reduction of each concept to a single word. The resultant mind map can be 'seen' by the eye and memorized by your visual memory which has been shown to be almost perfect. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0452273226/aauriceelofaucu
 
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OVERTONE

To define music merely as sounds would have been unthinkable a few years ago, though today it is the more exclusive definitions that are proving unacceptable. Little by little throughout the twentieth century, all the conventional definitions of music have been exploded by the abundant activities of musicians themselves...Today all sounds belong to a continuous field of possibilities lying within the comprehensive dominion of music. Behold the new orchestra; the sonic universe! And the musicians: anyone/anything that sounds!

~R. Murray Schafer, from 'The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World' @ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0892814551/aauricleelofaucu

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( ( ( a ) ) )

A U R I C L E : epicurean guide to sonological living

Auricle is your sonic probe and clone-free experiment-station benefacting sound-escapes for ear people outside the system. An exobiological distillery created by and for victims of hyperinformation, Auricle is upheld monthly from the sovereign flow-labs of Auricle Communications, Chicago, Illinois. Soniferous Gardener: Mark Christopher Riva, who having reasoned with himself, set out to vaporize and condense the omnipresent transmission of tonicity so that some glimmer of truth may be released.

Coordinates:
w~ http://www.auricle.cc
e~ flow@auricle.cc

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CONTRIBUTORS

R. Murray Schafer, John Beckmann, Ram Samudrala, Robert Jourdain, Jeff Mills, Mixmaster Flow, Dr. David J. Elliott, Eduardo Reck Miranda, DJ Kensho, James C. Carlsen, QR Ghazala, Nick Danger, Jon Katz, Harvey 'Gizmo' Rosenberg, Dr. Technolove.

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REVIEW POLICY

Deliver virtual information to: flow@auricle.cc
Send visceral media to: 1915 Clinton Ave., Berwyn, IL 60402.

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COMMUNICATE

Auricle is a two-way street, so let's connect. Your intelligence and inklings from obscure spaces are always welcome at our new email location: flow@auricle.cc

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PHILOSOPHY

Operating far from the commercial radar of Rolling Stone, the spin-masters at Geffen, and the politicians of the eye at MTV, Auricle has emerged from the electropolitan subnetwork to give torque to the daily groove of those aural-edge individuals and organizations who are changing how music is made and what it stands for, and whose ideas, operating practices, and business models offer lessons that everyone can learn from.

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PHILOSOPHY

Copyright (c) 1999 Auricle Communications. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without written permission is prohibited. Linking to this site is not considered reproduction. We invite you to link to this or any of our pages.

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Volume 0.4 droppin' the science 4:99