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"HAL'S JUST ALRIGHT"
In this Cubase experiment I extracted the introductory drum phrase from "Jesus is Just Alright with Me" by the Doobie Brothers, and layered some old Tangerine Dream in with some of the soundtrack from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
http://snd.sc/ieA6kJ
"TRILOBITE"
This "classic" science-rap song was recorded in Boulder, Colorado in 1995, after I'd been contacted by "trilobite consciousness" while climbing Sis Naajini, "the home of the sky people" in the Sangre de Christos.
http://snd.sc/nGkvTU
"AQUATEAROA DREAMING"
This piece was recorded by music wizard Ian McAllister in Christchurch, New Zealand in February of 2010. I played Yamaha 7-foot grand piano, acoustic guitar, and real drums. This song also constitutes the beginning and ending portions of the soundtrack to our film "Te Waiwaia Dreaming" which can be watched from the link below.
http://snd.sc/qOUitd"Te Waiwaia Dreaming" (video)
http://www.regainyourbrain.org/regain_video/tewaiwaia-dreaming.html
These are tracks and remixes I did with the brilliant and very doctor of recording Ian McAllister in Christchurh NZ. These recordings are the most diverse I've ever done in the sense of how many different instruments I played, including a Les Paul electric guitar with a full 'Marshall stack' and array of effects; Korg synth; and an array of percussion instruments. All takes are first; I'd do a track, listen back to it once, then do another track."Coming Forth by Day" (dedicated to my mom and dad)http://www.mediafire.com/?vtqynzn"The Day the Sky Stood Down"http://www.mediafire.com/?nzyrj32zntl"The Day the Sky Stood Down" (Oscillate your plasma column remix)http://www.mediafire.com/?zohozzjnjyh"The Day the Sky Stood Down" (Colossus remix)http://www.mediafire.com/?ibdnz4dmzmw[note: the computer voice is from a film called Colossus, based on the excellent sci-fi trilogy by D.F. Jones]"Beyond the Eschaton" (Back to Whaledreaming remix)http://www.mediafire.com/?yrnyubvoqeg[note: this one has sounds from orcas and other cetaceans mixed in with my voice progressively slowing down into total acoustic entropy...Ian's handiwork!]"The Day the Sky Stood Down" (Permanent Brain Damage remix)http://www.mediafire.com/?zztjkynazz5[note: that's the voice of geoscientist Leuren Moret...later on you'll hear Dr. Tedd Weyman talking about the health effects of depleted uranium; in the beginning you'll also hear hints of the theme from The Twilight Zone and also Godzilla...]To learn more about Ian McAllister go to www.audio-centric.com
These are my earliest recordings, from "Threshold/Infotoxin", which is my first multi-tracking experiment, to "Sanskrit Fourier Operator", done on the then brand-new NED Synclavier, to "science rap" tune "Trilobite", to "Frat Yak", which has a drum&bass beat at 180bpm!1) Interview, Jeff Phillips & Andrew Haig, PBS-FM, Melbourne, June 2001 (part 1)http://www.mediafire.com/?n1n2tdmjjtt2) Sound Collage (Mickey Hart/Fiorella Terrenzi/humpback whales)http://www.mediafire.com/?p1l1yyluilz3) Interview, Jeff Phillips & Andrew Haig, PBS-FM, Melbourne, June 2001 (part 2)http://www.mediafire.com/?m0jdqtimx2m4) "Threshold/Infotoxin" (1985)http://www.mediafire.com/?4ty2whn2jki5) "Einstein's Brain" (1985)http://www.mediafire.com/?myzwmng5izm6) "SDI" (lyrics by Carl Sagan) (1985)http://www.mediafire.com/?kdoo1c1mduu7) "Air-borne Plutonium" (1989)http://www.mediafire.com/?thzg2n44xqn8) "Sanskrit Fourier Operator" (1987)http://www.mediafire.com/?22nzo4ydwf29) "American Lullaby" (1995)http://www.mediafire.com/?2q3yymxdhmn10) "Kybernetes" (1991)http://www.mediafire.com/?ft3kidnwzlz11) "Trilobite" (1995)http://www.mediafire.com/?kqgryi130iw12) "Return of the Lorax" (1995)http://www.mediafire.com/?mn52zkjoqgj13) "Frat Yak" (1989)http://www.mediafire.com/?zwdzqwqwz2d
PIANO EXPERIMENTS1) "Walking in Beauty"...the opening track from a jam we did in Christchurch in May of 2002 at Duke Dixon's studio near Oxford, which became the "First Ancestor" cd. Ian McAllister, who co-engineered and produced, had recommended Dukes because he had the nicest grand piano, a 100+ year old Steinway grand, and around $50,000 worth of mikes. I invited sax player and vocalist Carmel Courtney, and drummer Redford Grennel (now of Shapeshifter); none of us had ever played together before. Later I added in the simple bass part (in later tracks James Wilkinson put in some 6-string fretless) and some spoken word by south island metaphysician Barry Brailsford. The phrase "walking in beauty" is an English translation of a Hopi word I once knew but cannot remember...but to have one word that meant that is very cool eh?2) "George Winston on Acid" Once a friend of mine in the states was listening to me play piano and he said "Jeff, you sound just like George Winston on Acid." I knew exactly what he meant...George Winston was/is a very popular sort of "new age" pianist who was one of the first artists to be released on the Windham Hill label. My piano playing that my friend heard, which was quite mellow, like George's, was significantly more abstract than Winston's...hence the "on acid" part. When I recorded my first cd of grand piano improvisations in 1998 ("The White Electric Dog Transmissions"), I was sure to record a piece by this name. it's quite melodic...thanks George for the inspiration!3) "Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere/Charlie Brown goes to Proxima Centauri" This jam was the fourth track of the Proxigean Solstice Session I did in Atlanta in December of 1999 with drummer Zach Velmer of Sector 9. I was imagining seeing the stars of the southern hemisphere for the first time (although it was to be several months until I actually saw them) come out at dusk, then taking off on a journey out among them. The piano theme I came up with in this jam reminded me of the Peanuts theme, hence the name. Proxima Centauri is actually the closest star to the Earth/Sun. It's not very bright, but is a part of the trinary system we see as Alpha Centauri, one of the "pointers" in the southern sky...4) through 7) These are piano improvisations from my first cd, "The White Electric Dog Transmissions" I just sat at the piano and thought of tornadoes (on this one I told the engineer to go crazy with effects...", stars, and water, and the "insignificance of humanity" in the grand scheme...do we matter to anyone other than ourselves? Do we even matter to ourselves???8) "Return to Aotearolan Jam/Beak of Time (Sep Tepi premix)" This is the last track of the "First Ancestor" cd...it's a 16 minute recapitulation of the whole previous jam. At around the 14 minute mark, after James Wilkinson's freaky bass glissando, it takes a turn for deep space...and ends up with time-stretched humpback whale sounds! check it out...("Sep Tepi" is the original world in the ancient history of the Egyptians...the "golden age" or "garden of Eden"...)
GUITAR/JAMS1) "Vladischlock Chase" and 2) " Brink Anthem" These tracks were part of the "Frankenspine/Volcano Session" done in Wellington NZ in May of 2005, with drummer Glenn Fletcher. I was playing a Yamaha 7 foot grand piano and a Roland D-70 synth at the same time.3) This is a nicely recorded guitar improvisation done at Harry Williamson's studio in Melbourne in 2004. 4) through 7) "GAT-earoa Session" These are guitar over-dubbing experiments done again at Ian McAllister's studio in Chch in September of 2005...my first attempts at guitar over-dubbing. I used a Peter Stephen classical guitar, a Takamine 12 string, and my modified Crafter six-string...8) "Mountain Summer Jam" This is a jam between me on grand piano and my friend Dave Bredel from New Jersey...we recorded this on his mobile tape deck in a practice room of the music dept. at CU in Boulder in the summer of 19899) "Night of the Electric Schmetterling Jam" This is a 4 minute excerpt from a jam done in Wellington NZ with me on grand piano and acoustic guitar, Takumi Motokawa on piano, percussion and pipe organ, and Tristan Carter on electric violin.10) through 13) "Berry Bunch Jam" a jam at my friend Helm Ruifrock's place in Christchurch...I was sitting in with Helm and his group which I called the "Berry Bunch" because Berry was the lead singer and female sex icon! On these tracks I was playing either drum kit or percussion.14) "Man was in the Forest" This is really my first 'symphonic' composition, done on Cubase at pre-hacking levels while living on the base of an active volcano in Chile last winter. I was somehow inspired to layer together the following: samples of the Ligeti composition "Atmospheres" from the soundtrack from 2001: A Space Odyssey; Fiorella Terenzi's galaxy sounds (she's an essential ingredient for any serious space-sounding experiment!); I think some David Dunn might be in there; some didge tracks mutated in various ways; and the voice is Bambi's mom, from the original movie. There had been a disturbance in the forest, and in a moment of complete silence, Bambi asked his mom what was wrong. She replied, "Man...was in the forest."
(EVOX "Electronic/Vocals")1) and 3) interview with me and Andrew Haig on a radio show he was doing called "Future Static" on PBS-FM in Melbourne. I was involved in communication work with dolphins using music in the early 80's...2) Sound Collage composed of three audio tracks playing simultaneously...no planned synchronizations...Mickey Hart, "Drumming at the Edge of Magic"; Fiorella Terenzi galaxy sounds; and songs of the humpback whale recorded by Roger Payne. This was done during intermission of a concert by a Boulder band called Midnight Kitchen. I was doing visuals for them, and at the break I had three cd players going into the board...I just started them one after the other...I let it run for all of the break, the whole thing is about 20-30 minutes long...4) "Threshold/Infotoxin" These are the first songs that I ever multi-tracked, playing Emulator "Drumulator" drum machine (that's a sample of John Bonham of Zeppelin on kick!), Prophet 5 synth, strat, and vocals. Engineer Rick Chapman played lead guitar on "infotoxin." It was meant to be a piss-take, an advert for 'infotoxin' = bullshit in mass-media! 5) "Einstein's Brain"...the true story of how they saved Einstein's brain in a jar, against his will! This song was recorded at Rick Chapman's Harmonic Labs in 1985; this and "Threshold/Infotoxin" got played on several college radio stations and enabled me to get to meet Frank Zappa in Berkeley in 1985.6) "SDI" or "Strategic Defense Initiative"...based on the Reagan administrations plan to build "weapons in space"...to fulfill Hitler's vision of military dominance from space. I did this using a Korg Poly 6 synth and a Yamaha drum machine...this was 1985 when drum machines were just coming out. The lyrics are from a Carl Sagan pamphlet on the implications of nuclear war.7) "Airborne Plutonium" This one was recorded only to a re-used cheap cassette on a Roland D-50 in the basement of a friend's apartment in Boulder CO in the summer of 1989. Rocky Flats, a plutonium processing facility, was located only 30 miles to the north and "airborne plutonium" had been a recent item appearing in various Boulder news media8) "Sanskrit Fourier Operator" All I have of this was recorded on a cassette, hence the shitty sound. But the original was a brilliant digital recording done using an at that time brand new Synclavier with a Roland D-50 midied to it...my friend Scott was working at a studio called Prosonus in LA and he invited me to come and check out the new Synclavier...I just sat down at it and started dialing up some sounds. first the shaker part, then the bass/synth part...then the percussion, then the strings from the D-50. Because the Synclav was new and the sound samples were hot, he refused to give me the song in digital format. This was a great pity...by the time I made it back to LA Scott was in Berkeley...9) "Earthquake Jam" This jam was a very special occurrence...I had met Carl Malone at the recording studio of Michael Boddicker in LA, at an Emulator party. He worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena working on I believe it was space probe power systems. He was a killer flute player and also had built his own digital reverb unit. He invited me up to his place for a jam. He played flute and I played his synth, using a bunch of his own samples/sounds, through his new reverb system. It was a KILLER jam. After we stopped playing, we sat on the veranda on the nice southern California September evening. We both noted that the crickets and bugs sounded unusually loud. Next morning, when I was on-lab at JPL nearby, a 6.2 earthquake happened. We figured that the insects somehow sensed that it was coming and were letting us know...and hence the name of the jam.10) "Trilobite" This and track (11) were done at Daktaris Sound in Boulder in May-June of 1995. I played keyboard drums and synths, as well as vocals. I had just done a trek onto Blanca Peak in southern Colorado, one of the four sacred mountains of the Navajo, their name being "Sis Naajini", "the home of the sky people." After hiking on that mountain, all I could think about was trilobites. It was like trilobite consciousness hit me out of the blue. I was inspired to read up on them and do this song...they were nature's first use of the eye...a compound eye, like an insect.11) "Return of the Lorax" After my visit to Sis Naajini, I also was inspired to write a poem called "Return of the Lorax", picking up where Dr. Seuss' s book leaves off. I did this at Daktaris studio; I played Doctor Dan Burns' 1964 Strat, keyboard bass and drum programming.12) "I am aware" might be the freakiest thing I have ever done. It was inspired by a dream I had in which Jimi Hendrix showed me some stuff on guitar. I took his Woodstock performance of "The Star Spangled Banner", recorded it, then reversed it, all on one track. Next track was all of this but slowed down. Then we (I was working with Ian McAllister on the winter solstice of 2002 in Christchurch) added in some dialogue from an excellent film called Judgment at Nuremberg, which is a re-enactment of the trial of four Nazi judges for their part in the Third Reich. Then I recorded my own voice, pitch-shifted one octave lower and one octave higher, saying the words "Freedom and democracy...greedom and dumbocracy..." Then, near the end, I recite the words to "The Scar-Strangled Banter"...my piss-take version of Amerika's "transnational anathema."13) "Frat Yak" This was done during an impromptu visit to Steve Koppe's RedDoor Audio studio in Boulder in the summer of 1989. I had written the lyrics ahead of time...again, a piss-take on the partying scene in Boulder, based on my experience of being in a fraternity in college...I lovingly refer to it now as "Phry Krappa Trou"...a social group in which people were free to eat acid and shit themselves! My live-in experiment in primate social psychology lasted a year...but I will always remember "frat yakking"!
