Grm Tools Version 1.0 by Hugues Vinet, Olivier Koechlin, Didier Brisson (review)

Two LPs reissued on one compact disc (ReR NFBCD/ReR 008). News from Babelwas Chris Cutler's second "songs" project after the three "Art Bears" albums, also written for singer Dagmar Krause. The music was written by Lindsay Cooper, who worked with both Krause and Cutler for many years in the group Henry Cow. Zeena Parkins completes the group. This was her first project playing harp (Chris Cutler first met her working with a circus in Holland , where she played accordion, a bear and a TV set). Letters Home is sung mostly by Robert Wyatt, joined variously by Dagmar Krause, improvisor Phil Minton and film director Sally Potter. Both LPs are included in full on the CD reissue. News from Babel: Sirens and Silences /Work Resumed on the Tower expresses the tendency to silence after Auschwitz and in the postmodern Babel of information overload, as well as the intimations of hope that might cut through it. Letters Home are just that: reports from the front. No World (Trio) Improvisations 0.0. Discs, 502 Anton St., Bridgeport, CT, U.S.A., 1993. Compact disc #4. Alvin Curran, electronics; Shelley Hirsch, voice; Malcolm Goldstein, violin ; Mor Thiam, Mrican drums; Adam Plack, didgeridoo;Jin Hi Kim, komungo and electric komungo;Joseph Celli, double reeds. Ground 0.0. Discs, 502 Anton St., Bridgeport, CT, U.S.A., 1993. Compact disc #9. The first CD by composerJerry Hunt, using various idiophonic device arrays and keyed violin. SOFTWARE GRM TOOLS VERSION 1.0 Designers: Hugues Vinet, assisted by Olivier Koechlin and Didier Brisson. INA/GRM, Maison de Radio France, 116 avenue du President-Kennedy, F-75016 Paris, France. Fax: 33-1-42-30-49-88. Reviewed by Marc Battier, IRCAM, 31,rue Saint-Merri, F-75004 Paris, France. E-mail: . This program can be traced back to the late 1970s. At that time, the technology of microprocessors was very recent and had just led to the design of personal computers, which were to effect profound changes in the accessibility of computing. Microprocessing technology was quickly adopted by innovative music designers: starting in 1976, several digital synthesizers were conceived by Sydney Alonso and CameronJones (the Synclavier),James Beauchamp, Peter Samson, Giuseppe Di Giugno and, at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) in Paris,Jean-Franl,;ois Allouis, whose early design of a real-time digital synthesizer was published that very same year. This design led to the realization of a digital audio-processing machine called Syter. The machine was placed under the control of a small external computer. As the hardware became available, it required software in order to fully become an instrument. The solution came in the form of a programming language that composers could use to design their own processing algorithms, which came to be known as software "instruments." Several of these instruments were in turn based on algorithms developed by GRM staff designers for the digital studio they set up in the late 1970s, which used differed-time software , such as MUSIC V, or specially designed programs. GRM is an offspring of the seminal work done by Pierre Schaeffer as early as 1948 in the field of sound composition , which came to be known as musique concrete. Due to its long and rich history, the center's composers and researchers were extremely sensitive to the quality of sound processing; all the programs installed on Syter were remarkably clean and effective. Several types of filters were designed, as well as sound-editing and various kinds of other processing algorithms. In addition , an interface enabled composers to modifY program data in a graphical manner, which was useful for live performances . The only drawback of Syter could have been its price, which placed it beyond the reach of home studios. With the recent advent of sound-processing boards for personal computers, it has been feasible for a musician to acquire a personal digital audio system; such systems are now capable of professional -quality sound work. The reviewed software, GRM Tools, is designed to drive such systems: the concept for this software takes advantage of the arrival of digital signal processing (DSP) boards in the world of personal computers. The DSP boards now available accept external audio signals...