From soundslike's musicophilia thread but I thought it would be more appropriate to carry on here.
BareBones said:
no probs man, loving the whole 'le tour du monde' thing a lot. That moondog track is just incredible, hadn't heard it before. My fav moondog tune was probably 'enough about human rights' but now, i think, it's this.
soundslike1981 said:
The album of canons or rounds from which that track comes wears out its welcome if listened to in one sitting (if I recall, it has something like 20 tracks) but in bursts of a few songs, it's incredibly charming and rather unique and timeless in terms of production execution. I already loved Moondog from the earlier lo-fi stuff and later orchestral stuff, but hearing that album was the clincher. On the whole it's a burst of sunshine sort of album, but the few darker tracks are also really something. Glad I could help tune you in!
Not from the same era at all but I like the album Elpmas he recorded in 1991 with Andi Toma, later of Mouse On Mars. More canons, lots of marimba (sampled it seems!). It's a blinder actually.
This disk is largely a protest against our treatment of aboriginese people, against our treatment of nature, plants and animals, also against the idea that "we discovered the New World", when it is as old or older than ours.
WESTWARD HO!, an 8-part canon for gambas is depicting the western migration from Europe to the New World.
The first part features the one-year old MAX ALSMANN who sang the highest G flat on the piano, something no soprano could do!
"Up so high? Like a lark you sing your song to the sky!"
His father, GÖTZ ALSMANN played a one hundred year old banjo on THE OREGON TRAIL in a 2-part canon with ANDI TOMA on guitar.
If some of my music sounds like Jazz of the "Swing" era, it is because Swing is North American in origin, coming right out of the drum beats and highly syncopated melodies of the Plains Indians, from the Arapaho to the Sioux. Their running-walking-running beats on the tomtom are fundamental to Jazz of the Swing era. I heard it for the first time, having been introduced to Arapaho Sun Dance music in Wyoming. I was about five years old. Chief Yellow Calf sat me on his lap and let me beat the buffalo-skin tomtom, an experience I never forgot. The Sun Dance drum beat stayed with me to the present day. I call it the Powwow beat. Later, in 1949, the Blackfoot Indians of Idaho let me beat their tomtom at the Sun Dance and invited me to play flute obligato to the chorus.
Those fast-slow-fast beats are to be heard on tracks 1 and 3, where the running beat goes right into the walking beat and vice versa.
My bass drum is hexagonal, my own design, sounding much like the tomtom.
The sampler is ideal for my kind of music which is mostly contrapuntal, specifically canonic. With the sampler I can be sure that all the voices will be faithfully reproduced, as many times as I require, without the chance of a mistake, here or there, which can never be avoided when working with live musicians.
The reason I used the marimba so much is because it sounds so realistic, due to its being so percussive.
The bass notes were sampled in from a balaphone. Another sample I could use was the koto (Fujiyama).
The small bells are from India. In the low and high solos in SEASCAPE OF THE WHALES I used a goard in unison with the sound of a lure, clapping the hand over the mouthpiece, plus the marimba doubling at the octave below.
The FOUR ELPMAS BANDS in this CD are the MARIMBA BAND, the GAMBA BAND, the OBOE BAND and the OVERTONE BAND.
http://www.moondogscorner.de/disco/rec22.htm