News of Music: Access to Discussion and Information, Electronic Cottage: International Magazine ed. by Hal McGee (review)

III. Publications THEAERIAL: AJOURNAL IN SOUND Steve Peters, producer. Nonsequitur Foundation, P. 0.Box 2638, SantaFe, NM 87504,U.S.A. Revieured @AnthonyJ. Gnazzo, 3840 Elston St., Oakland, CA 94602, USA. TheAerial, as described in producereditor Steve Peters’sintroduction to Aerial 1, (AER1) is “ajournalin sound, an ongoing seriesof compilations to be published on a regular basis. ...A place where different kinds of sounds that seem to go nicely together can do SO”. Thejournal is published quarterly. The 32 selections in the first three volumes are, for the most part, original worksproduced, assembled,arranged or performed by their authors composers. The stylistic spectrum is broad with representativeexamples of textsound ,work for radio (Hiirspiel),minimal drone electronics,warped blues, collage, ‘start/stop’ 1950savantgarde , free improvisation,noise music (albeitmild), process pieces, documentarysound, sequencing,sampling and a couple of pieces that might be considered academic. The instrumental combinations (or should one refer to them as sound sources?)are not those typically encountered on the insert cards of a compact disc (CD).Included are sources as diverse as solo cricket (Westerkamp:AER2 ) ,komungo (a zither-likeKorean instrument) (Kim: AER2), long-stringinstrument (Fullman : AER3),trombone-propelled electronics (Collins:AER3),as well as dijeridoo,conch shells,gourds, synthesizersand the ever-presentdrum machine. As one might expect, a collection as broad ranging as Aerial is certain to present a major qualitycontrol challenge to the producer. Peters has done a goodjob of balancing the content of the individualvolumes. Malcolm Goldstein’s“querneraq; our breath asbones”and RichJensen’s “Folly”(AER1) stand out as works for solovoice. Both are virtuoso pieces even though they inhabit opposite ends of the stylistic spectrum. Goldstein’sis a tightlyorganized textsound work;Jensen’s, a stream of consciousnessimprovisation .Also notable in AER 1areJerry Hunt’s “Balabon (string)” and ChristineBaczewska’s “Dayof the Dead”.Other familiar names on this disc are author-composer Richard Kostelanetz,performance artist Stuart Sherman and poet Bern Porter. Even though LaDonna Smith and DaveyWilliams’s “GreenSong”(AER2) nearly continues too long, this parody of a warped blues vamp has a wonderful feel to it. Other familiar names on this disc are saxophonistJon Raskin, composersBob Davis,Jin Hi Kim and Annea Lockwood and environmental sound artist Hildegarde Westerkamp. The excerpt from Ellen Fullman’s “StaggeredStasis”(AER3) for her hybrid long-stringinstrument (wooden resonators fitted with long piano strings) is the most striking ‘minimal’ piece in the entire set of three CDs. A continuous drone, this piece restricts itself to an extremelynarrow range, yet successfully exploresa microworld of subtle nuance within this range. Another familiarname on this disc is composer NicolasCollins. Nonsequitur Foundation also publishes ?WhatNext?Recordings, a series of CDs and cassettesexploring environmental sound, interactive electronics , new instruments and improvisation . A 1-yearsubscription to TheAerial can be obtained from: Nonsequitur Foundation, P. 0.Box 2638, Santa Fe, NM 87504,U.S.A., for $40.00 (CD) or $30.00 (cassette),add $10.00 for overseas subscriptions. NEWS OF MUSIC: ACCESS TO DISCUSSION AND INFORMATION Music Program Zero, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson,New York 12504,U.S.A. ELECTRONIC COTTAGE: INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE Hal McGee,ed. P. 0.Box 3637, Apollo Beach,FL 33572,U.S.A. Reviewed Lany Polansky, Department of Music, Dartmouth Colhge,Hanover, NH 03755, U.S.A. When I was teaching at Mills College in Oakland, California, the graduate students used the wonderful term ‘musicheroes’ to refer to those among them who were alwaysputting on complicatedconcerts,schlepping equipment, organizing performers and electronicsfor others’works, and, in general, perpetually exhausted but strangelyhappy while killing themselvesfor the pure love of music. The publicationsNews o f Music and Ehctronic Cottagefully deserve to be referred to by this same term. the United Statesis full ofmusic heroes. William Billings,one of our first and greatest composers, published his own (highlyexperimental) works at his own expense. His New England Psalm Singeris said to be the first book of American music published in the United States (the paper was actually held up by the activities of the Boston Tea Party).Around the turn of the twentieth century,composer -activistArthur Farwell and his pioneering Wa-Wan Press presaged the guerillaactivitiesof future composer -publishing endeavorslike Cowell’s New Music Editions, Ives’s free ‘publicdomain’ issue of the...