The Roving Musicologist

Drunkaholism (Budapest)

Some people have a drinking problem, but I seem to be addicted to drunks.  They cry out to be recorded, because all their gestures seem so grand to them at the time.  Religion provides the other pole, presenting itself as grand even when completely sober, and most things posted here reflect the practiced channels it facilitates or the undirected and novel energy of someone that has forgotten what they were so worried about before they started drinking.  If it’s a good day maybe they mix.

Atheist Church Bells (Prague)

   The park on the hill is the best place to listen to the bells of the many churches of Prague.  The Czech republic is also the most atheistic nation on Earth, so there’s no need to feel like it means anything else besides a sound.

While few keys are required to move around Prague, the Door to the House of God is often Locked.

Travel Post #28: Running the God Drill (Latakia, Syria)

Travel Post #25: Where are the knobs on those cricket Frogs? (Nan, Thailand)

These frogs are like an organic version of an earlier post, Gorf Freaks Out.  I have recorded many insects and frogs at night on the trip, but this one is probably the best and the only one good enough to post.

This was recorded out of the window of the oxcart room I stayed in for two weeks in the north of Thailand.

Travel Post #24: Mekong Boatmen Chaos Chorus (Luang Prabang, Laos)

An example of the boats that the singers live on.

There was nothing to do in Luang Prabang most nights, unless you went to the markets.  But the markets were dead most of the time and so Jacques and I ended up down by the river, for lack of money and ideas. 

At the river, boatmen sat in a circle and moaned in a musical way.  Some would  yell and leave, then sometimes come back and join together.  Various instruments took their turns; first a guitar, then an accordion, and finally a keyboard softly pumping out a generic beat.  But all of them were punctuated by the put-put of riverboat engines, as long craft in the dark made their way to points I would never see - except across the river, where the silhouette of a large boat settled in and let a car off onto the far shore of houses and temples, and maybe other things that were now just lights floating across the water mixed with the heavy haze in the air.

Jacques said the smoke was because the farmers were burning forest, which they always did, but for some reason it was worse today.  The smoke burned my eyes and scratched my throat, but it was too nice to leave here yet.  Lights, fluorescent, were nailed to the trees up on the bank, but they left the grand staircase down to the beach unlit, making the lights from the banana shaped boats seem much stronger. 

Hanging in the boats were pots and pans, the organization of lives shining in the light, radios with digital screens, and maybe a lantern here and there.  So many boats were moored here and yet the river was supposed to be too low for them to go anywhere.

Jacques talked about Egypt…the Mekong reminded him of places by the Red Sea.  It was like this, he said, people living like this. 

Travel Post #23: Party in the USA (Portland, Oregon Again)

Ending where I began the trip, this recording is a sampling of the country I almost left behind. 

On this recording there is a street performer and two different conversations, one of which was just one person.  While I can’t say where exactly they were recorded, the picture below was taken nearby one of them:

The storefront was blank except for soda bottles from bankrupt ventures.

Having recovered from the shock of being swathed once again in the language that not so long ago was reserved for the inside of my head, I have been able to put this together.  More recordings from outside of the US will be posted when they can be identified.

Miley also welcomed me home when I caught a ride in a gleaming SUV.  Photo courtesy of fisherwy.blogspot.com

Goatskin Sack Music was dominant at Alberta St.

And for those of you that came here in error:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M11SvDtPBhA

Travel Post #20: Modern Day Angkor Living Loop Children. They surrounded me in the taxi and I let them go. Everything you hear is for sale, including the drums and stringed instruments.

Travel Post #19: Angkor Wat Echo Chamber

If you hit yourself on the chest while against the wall in this chamber you will turn into a Buddhist Gong.  Towards the end of this track I tried to make the sound through other methods.  It didn’t work.  Strangely enough, my first two recordings of this chamber refuse to play.  If you look for this chamber at Angkor Wat, it is located in the northwest doorway that looks out onto the library.  Stand against any wall and beat yourself severely.  Then tap your chest lightly and listen for the sound.

The Chinese Buses arrive at 8am so come early to avoid a line.

Travel Post #18: Bells, Dogs, Crows (Mumbai)

Travel Post #16: Thailand Sun Making a Man Slowly Give Up

There’s always a fair in Thailand…little bamboo and thatch huts that sit
in a little lawn and sell things.  Everywhere I go I bump into some kind
of market or festival.  For some reason, the Thai way is to have a guy
going around with a portable microphone and talk about whatever comes into
his head.  On this day, I sat in the shade of an abandoned stall, sweating the whole time, and watched this guy.

The music for the festival was the drone like sounds
you hear, which was completely blown out by the guy’s voice.  No one was
really listening to him, as there was hardly anyone at the fair in the
first place.  The way he said “eah” with the sun coming down on him, carrying his battery pack around, seemed so much a product of the heat coming down. The drone of the Buddhist music in the background gave the fair the feeling that everything was happening automatically, indifferent to how much effort was exerted.

The Nan ethnic fair did not host the Princess of Thailand

Travel Post #14: Radio Chant Outside the Ashram (Pune, India)

The Small Machine made the noise, drawing power from the socket.

Travel Post #13: Mumbai Conveyor Belt Torture Technique

First, Take a night flight from Istanbul

Second, Make sure there is at least one crying baby on the flight.  Find another crying baby to make a chorus of painful situations.

Third, go through customs.

Fourth, Wait for your bag

Fifth, make sure it is 4am in the morning.

Sixth, The conveyor belt welcomes you to India.

Mumbai is much like this sound, only slower.  The city is an assault of everything at once.  An explosion that rolls like a ball.  Then again, sounds like this aren’t for everyone.

Waiting is actually quite easy.

Travel Post #12: Istanbul Asian Side Ferry Station

People like it when things beep

This is an example of the most common cosmic concept.

And this is another goddamn tourist:

Tourism is Terrorism. Note ferry in background, which gives the picture relevance to the topic.

Travel Post #9: Selling Bread on the Streets of Istanbul

It’s not easy to get noticed when you’re selling bread.  There are many people in Istanbul rolling around carts full of a bread that is in the shape of a ring.  You can hear the calls all over the city, and where I was sleeping was on this guy’s particular route.  Towards the end of the track, you can hear another guy with a completely different call coming into the street just as the first merchant was leaving.

Another, Inscrutable, Language

Sometimes it may be better to not understand what is being said.  When recording sounds and noises, the actual meaning of the words might get in the way of the plaintive tones of the voice.  Maybe this would be the case for a listener that understands Turkish.

I never read the plaques explaining the silent green sarcophagi, because they had some strange effect on me that was outside of their historical context.  It wasn’t intentional to avoid the information, but later I linked the them to the tones of the man selling bread.

Travel Post #8: Mystery Beast of Midyat

Behold the door of the Beast (Midyat, Turkey)

Never have I heard an animal like this.  I couldn’t see what it was, but then again I wasn’t so sure I wanted to.