So-Unb-und-ound.

When reading Reich and Miller I couldn't help but to think how different their thought processes were. At least from their writing, it seems that Reich prefers a step by step approach, recognizing problems, pondering solutions, and implementing them. While Miller does the same thing, he draws a hundred parallels, compares them to his problem, and from them draws his own solution. This is a reflection of their times, and with that, their approach to music. Reich the innovator, finding ideas and thinking of solutions, and Miller the sampler, plundering and borrowing to create his own masterpieces.

One thing that bothered me when doing the readings was with what decisiveness and brevity Reich spoke. It was almost as if his reaction to writing an introduction was that he expressed about writing for the opera, "No. I didn't have any sympathy for..."
However when reading chapter two I was unsure as to whether I'd found relief in reading someone that appears to be ecstatic about the subject, or dumbfounded with the speed at which Miller jumps from one thing to another, to draw the readers' attention to details he probably knows, and make his answers set an example for sampling itself. After reading I was glad to have done so, and see where he was going although I admit having to reread quite a few sentences throughout the chapter to ease my confusion as to what he was getting at.

I particularly enjoyed the comparison to architecture Miller employed, that buildings "are nothing but correspondences between relationships... from...ideas drawn people working, living, and breathing together to create a structure." By quoting Sullivan's famous detail concerning architecture, "form should follow function," adding to that Goethe and Shelling's "architecture is nothing but frozen music," to reveal epiphany-like that if reverse-engineered, music is liquid architecture, and thus sound becomes unbound. In that brief portion of a paragraph (although he built on it for over a page before), Miller has presented us with something we're familiar with; buildings, and architecture, has sampled other ideas; FTP servers, Sullivan, Goethe and Shelling's, and drawn out a simple, quintessential conclusion: there are no limits to what you can do with sound, and nothing should limit you. A conclusion people may take for granted, but it is not the conclusion alone which makes this section so excellent, is the fact that on the way Miller has showed his audience how to do it.

Brakhage, Matmos, Autechre, Miller, and a Remix

For the listening assignment, I listened to "The Civil War" and the remix of Bjork's "Triumph of the Heart" by Matmos, as well as "Wissensee" by Autechre. It was interesting to me that the visuals paired with the work related to images from Art History: an Escher-inspired animation for "Wissensee," and a woman in pearls for the Bjork piece who is reminiscent of a Klimt painting. I also viewed several of the films of Stan Brakhage's, including "Mothlight"and "Water for Maya," which were like beautiful layers of abstract paintings seen in rapid succession. All this reflects Paul Miller/DJ Spooky's talk about the interrelationship of art forms, and how those participating in digital culture mine all of cultural history for elements of newly crafted work. As an illustration of this theme, below is my favorite remix using the movie "Hook," deftly edited into a soundtrack and video.