MP3 Fibuletur - ELECTRONIC: Soundscapes

Electronic with blues, jazz and classical influences. Experimental, primal and elemental.

14 MP3 Songs
ELECTRONIC: Soundscapes, BLUES: Rhythm & Blues



Details:
"Fibuletur" statement on the inside of CD cover:
Maybe a "Fibuletur" could be any musical device or sound, instrument or voice, even ones we have not heard before, or could imagine hearing. Any musical sign or sound can quickly trick most of us, even momentarily, into a whole state of being. You might even make a musical wish silently, that you could stay there. Is that not your own primal silence answering the call?

My name is Colm Folan and I was born in Dublin, Ireland. I grew up listening to traditional music, song, stories, and poetry in Gaelic and English. The Pop revolution hit around 1966 for me, and after that I listened to more rock, jazz, and blues especially from America. It felt like this was a particular time for music, a kind of giddy renaissance, with all kind of changes and movement in different directions. A cross-fertilisation and fusion happening in different genres, and new genres appearing and disappearing especially in the realms of pop music.

As a child I explored all kinds of percussion instruments and home made instruments. Gazoo's using a comb and silver paper were very popular, or you could drive everyone crazy with a piece of grass stretched between two parallel thumbs, and blown into at different angles using the hands as a sonic chamber(very strong sound!). Banging on biscuit tins, oil cans and big drums, all kinds of bottles and jam jars, and you could make simple rattlers and shakers by putting anything from peas to small stones inside. I could play steel gates and bicycle wheels with a stick or any other available object. Card board, plastic and metal tubes were very desirable for blowing into, singing into with a megaphone and/or reverb effect, or trying to imitate sounds like a saxophone or flute. Plastic and metal drain pipes were great for percussion and echo chambers. You could make a flute from an empty biro cartridge for hours of fun. Toy harmonicas and flutes of all kinds were prize possessions. Slapping puddles and water could be very musical, wet clay(muck) had great suction effects and splattering effects on impact with other things. Engine and maschine noises could be fascinating and powerful, beautiful and even humorous. An older car could be temporarily converted into a "sort of musical instrument" by inserting a potatoe onto the end of the exhaust pipe. This gave an extended start up time, during which an engine would groan, splutter and cough itself into life. Then it would lurch, heave and rattle, in first and second gear, till it finally blew the offending spud out on the road, with a bang and cloud of smoke.

We had a large old straight back piano at home that I could happily tinkle on for hours, it had all the character and quirks of an antique instrument past its prime. I loved its largeness, solidity and weight, and that old world sound that seemed timeless and infinite. In 1972 I started taking private lessons in classical guitar and music composition, this continued over a period of 3 years. I continued to play guitar privately over the next twenty years for my own pleasure and entertainment. I spent a lot of time up on the bass strings improvising runs, and loved to play and arrange all kinds of rhythms and melodies, using different kinds of chord arrangements.

The marriage of art and technology has always interested me in its history and applications. As a sculptor(I studied art and design)working for the past twenty years, I have enjoyed using a diverse range of media and tools in my own work. Some advanced tools and mediums, and also very simple ones. In 1979 I started to explore with taped sounds from different environments, these would include human sounds, animals, natural phenomena, industrial/domestic objects and contexts. Later I explored with wind driven sound sculptures using a variety of media including glass, steel, wood, tin, ceramic and wire.

In 1995 I started to explore and develop ideas using digital tools and instruments(real and virtual) in music, sound creation, text and graphics. My first computer was a mac Duo 230, with a 33mhz processor and a 120mb hard drive. I use a wide range of source material and methods, from conventional to novel ways. Generally starting off simple and building up a developed form over time. I think my strongest music source is from listening to nature, and there is music in what we observe and reflect on, in what we read and write, in what we feel, think, say and do.

Some philosophical snippets:

Being a lover of music, song and poetry, I think these are amongst the most elevated of human creations. We invite some songs into the core of our being and feel the power of rebirth. As a child I imagined that every field had its own particular song, and this is not a practical belief for an adult, but the feeling still lingers.

Music is a truer and finer sense of time, we know this intuitively and our own innate wisdom knows this in a very immediate sense. We are musical beings, and it is really our first and authentic primal language.

Sometimes our literal problems and projections just need to melt down into musical solutions. In that sense music is like the ground of our being.

Music is a powerful expression of natural dream culture, which is universal and there for all.

Music can be helpful in remembering soul place and your own place in that reality, which is not divided up by language and/or propaganda, time or politics.


Some of my favourite composers, musicians, singers and songwriters are:

Contemporary composers: Steve reich, Terge Rydal, Pierre Boulez, Phillip Glass, Kaija Saariaho, Akin Euba, Thomas Ades, Mike Oldfield, Karl Heinz Stockhausen,Toru Takemitsu, Brian Eno, Sakamoto Ryuichi.

guitarists/musicians: Michael Hedges, John McGlaughlin, Jimi Hendrix, John Mayall, Rory Gallagher, Arty McGlynn, John Williams, Johnny Lee Hooker, Robert Fripp, Larry Coryell, Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Ali Farke Toure, Ry Cooder, John Renbourn, Joni Mitchell.
Jaco Pastorious, Miles Davis, Yoyo Ma, Joe Zawinul, Billy Cobham, Herbie Hancock, Ronan Guilfoyle.

Contemporary experimental composers: Kronos Quartet, Bang on a Can, Fergus Kelly, Andrew Stenhouse, Michael Nyman, Kyle Gann, Laurie Anderson, Gavin Bryars, John Zorn, John Cage, Gabriel Jared.

Irish Traditional Composers and musicians: Sean O Riada, The Chieftains, Nollaig Casey, Lasairfhiona Ni Chonaola, Planxty, The Bothy Band, Donal Lunny, Micheal O Suilleabhain, Turlough O Carolan.


Bands: Durutti Column, B52's, Captain Beefheart, Massive Attack, Portishead, Pink Floyd, Virgin Prunes, Leftfield, Weather Report, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Beatles.

Singer/songwriters: Robert Wyatt, Randy Newman, Luke Kelly, John Herald, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell.