The AE Blog

It was nearly 4 a.m. when the phone rang, and I feared the worst.  I was long past the phase in my life when drunken college buddies or ex-girlfriends called in the wee hours of the morning.  These days, if the phone rings after 10pm, it’s usually because someone is dead.  Or worse.

I fumbled to turn on the lamp, knocking over a glass of water and waking my wife.  ”What’s wrong?” she slurred, rubbing her eyes.  “I don’t know,” I responded, worried about whatever horrific news awaited me.  My voice warbled slightly as I gave a soft greeting of “hello”.  There was a long pause on the other end of the line

Finally a husky, heavily accented female voice (Russian? German?) responded back:  “Eez deez Jhay Blon-kard?” she hissed.

“Yes,” I responded, “yes this Jay Blanchard.  Who is this?”

“Deez eez Sahrin.  I handles all meedya affair for ze lee doo oh.  Meestah Lee Doo would likes to meet wif yoo for your eenterview immediately.  We will sendza cah.  Come ahlone.”

The phone clicked.  My hands still shaking, I hung up the receiver and stood up.  ”I….I have to go,” I whispered to my wife, and grabbed the pre-packed duffel bag that leaned against the doorframe to our bedroom.  She nodded, knowingly, as I rushed out the door.

Less than five minutes later, a black limousine pulled up to my house.  It was long enough to take up the entire driveway and then some, the back doors spilling out over the curb and into the street.  I entered through these doors, and realized that the driver and myself were the only inhabitants.

“Uh, hi, I’m going to see Mister L……..”

The driver rolled up the electric back window and I rode the 45 minutes to The Le Duo compound in silent, nervous anticipation.  It was only at this point that I realized all of the windows had been blacked out.

We arrived as we left—in total darkness.  Almost immediately as the car came to a stop, I was pulled out into a large, cold, dark room (I can only assume it was an underground bunker of some sort) and blindfolded by a large, shadowy figure.  I stumbled awkwardly, my arms held on either side by a bent bicep that was larger than my waistline. After my encounter with the driver, I assumed it would be better to just remain silent and listen.  I can remember the sounds of echoing footsteps, the hum of a large industrial elevator, and then the heavy moan of a large hardwood door being opened (I can’t be sure, but I remember it smelled of mahogany).

Once the door was opened, I felt a blast of warmer, drier air & the sounds of a baroque score mingling with the scent of musk and tropical fruits attacked my senses.  The blindfold was removed and I found that I had been left, alone, in a palatial room adorned with the finest Louis XVI furniture in deep tones of maroon and purple, the color of congealed blood.

Within seconds, a well-dressed female assistant entered the room with an ornate silver tray, piled high with Almas caviar and Knipschildt truffles.  Without a word, she waved her arm to motion toward the back of the room where a well-stocked bar resided.  On its mirrored surface laid three large mounds of white powder, a couple razor blades, and a large stack of handrolled cigarettes.  I poured myself a liberal glass of 30-year old Macallan, but decided to forgo the powders, which contained secret pleasures of which I can only imagine.  Had to keep a straight head—I’d never get an interview opportunity like this in my lifetime again, that much was for sure.  I sank down in a plush armchair and lit one of the Cuban Cohibas, large as a baby’s forearm, that sat in a box to my right.

About an hour later, the huge entranceway to the room opened, and my stomach dropped.  The artist himself had entered the room and immediately drew to himself all of its energies. Draped in a flowing silk kimono, he exuded an extreme presence, yet still appeared to float gracefully above the proceedings, like a sedated swan. I knew immediately I was in the presence of a great artist—but also a very powerful and dangerous man.

What follows is my interview. At least what I remember of it. I mysterious blacked out at one point and woke up in a dark limousine, my tape recordings erased.

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How did the idea for the le duo project come about?

-after my former band, nest material, broke up in 2006 i was looking for a musical outlet.  i envisioned a project that was completely free and that would allow me to play whatever i wanted- however loud or fast or rock&roll like or jazzy or whatever.

What are the greatest challenges and rewards in making improvisational music?

- well, the obvious answer is this:  the greatest challenge is getting everybody on the same page and creating something good.  the reward is that moment when everything comes together & everyone is cooking.  you kinda look around and think ‘yeah man, this is it’

It seems like the le duo is somewhat of a “supergroup” (incorporating top musicians from several bands) which in music history have been notorious failures.  What is different about the le duo that makes it work?

-well, i think lack of ego is a main difference.  everyone i play with is only in it to play, ya know?  its an opportunity for the musicians to get together with people they maybe havent played with before and have some fun.  you can basically bring whatever instruments or noise makers you want and just go.  its a great environment for creativity

Where do you feel the le duo fits in with the whole of the Burlington music scene?  What other acts, if any, are exploring the same type of sonic territory?

-i dont really know if this kind of music has a place here in burlington.  other than ensemble V (arthur brooks and michael chorneys free improv group) i cant think of any other groups doing this thing.  nest material used to bring a kinda free/experimental rock sound, and at the time there were a few like minded groups around, like aquadora & magic sparkle, but i’m not sure any more.

What were your influences for the le duo?  This can be musical or other sources.

- american and european free jazz from the 60’s and early 70’s are a big influence, especially later coltrane, don cherry, pharoah sanders, han bennink & peter brotzman & misha mengleberg, the black artists group etc etc.  also things like the dead and frank zappa and fusion miles, and CAN and on and on

If you could play with any musician, living or dead, who would it be and why?

- i would love to play drums with elvin jones.  he was powerful and subtle and dynamic and just a really beautiful player.

Do you consider the le duo to be a “jazz” project? Is jazz really “dead” in your opinion?

-  i would say no, we are not a jazz group.  i for one do not have the chops to be considered a jazz player and most of the rest of the musicians come from an experimental and drone place. wheter jazz is dead or not, i’m not sure.  seems like nothing really new has come around since the mid 70’s but maybe i’m biased

The musicians you work with come from many different musical backgrounds and genres, ranging from jazz to rock to harsh noise to drone.  How does this melding of musical ideas help or hinder the creative process in the le duo?

-  having people from different backgrounds is what the le duo is all about.  taking people away from what they are used to and throwing them into this messy musical stew is great- maybe you try something you’ve never thought of before, maybe it works, maybe it doesnt, but you tried it and thats awesome.

Where does the name of your EP come from?

-  i was reading alot of doestoevsky this past winter and i think its a quote from ‘notes from the underground’

Translating a live improve piece to a physical recording can be difficult.  What is your personal philosophy on recordings?  Is the goal to capture the live performance “as is” or create a sound of how you think it “should be”?

-  how it is IS how i think it should be.  the changes we made to the recordings werent made cause i wasnt happy about the uncut live show, they were made to just try different things out.  maybe my next ep i’ll just release as is, no editing.

What are your future goals for the le duo project?

-  i’d like to continue to play 3 or 4 gigs a year with as many different people as possible.  next time, tho, i dont think i’m gonna play the full drum set, maybe i’ll just throw my bag of small percussion instruments on the floor and just go to town

Before heading out to the west coast to spend the summer WOOFing SP Koeller and Toby Aronson sat down with AE for a morning coffee and talked about Inspiration, admiration, composition, discordance “Art Porno” and their favorite colors.

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AE: From where do you derive your inspiration?

Sara-Paule, I get my inspiration from the actual instruments I’m using – I wouldn’t use a double reed instrument for a plucking sound, or a guitar for a drone,

AE: But you can use guitars for drones, correct?

Sp: Toby does -

Toby: Yeah, well – I use a bow – I think what Sarapaule’s saying is that her inspiration is the natural sound of an instrument, like SP’s piece in the stairwell, is about the natural sound produced by shakers, bass drums, and cymbals.

SP: I think, how does this instrument sound best, what is the natural sound of this – and with shakers and bass drums, I wanted to create a piece where they could be allowed to completely resonate and surround you.

Toby: What I like about Sara’s piece [with shakers / bass drums] is that they’re usually a small part of an orchestra, but here they’re allowed to exist on their own, and be appreciated.

SP: Like with the piano piece, I could have written a more complicated piece – first of all, I wouldn’t be able to play it, because i’m a terrible piano player [laughs] – but it’s so simple, you listen to the piano, you never realize how much it resonates, how long the decay lasts -

Toby: You know your ears have thousands more neuro-connections than you eyes? There is way more complexity to how we hear than see – when you close your eyes, and listen – it’s not like a movie frame, or scene, it’s this completely three dimensional field, not that I prefer one to the other [laughs] but I think vision can be more direct where as sound is so much more abstract, subtle. That it has the ability to create such emotions, just by hearing a sound…

AE: What do you think about the sounds you hear, just when you walk out your door in the morning?

SP: There are a lot of times when I’m just at home with the windows open and listening. There was a long time when I wasn’t listening to much “music” and I was much more interested in just listening to the subtle sounds from outside – it was even nicer in the winter, because their was even less going on. I think that environmental soundscapes are facilitating, there is just so much detail -

AE: The level of detail in the sound is infinitely complex-

SP: exactly, and you can choose how closely or generally you want to listen. If you wanna pick something out, or listen to it as a whole… the world is infinitely complex, and i’m way into it.

[Bob Dylan comes on over the radio... Toby and SP talk a bit about how great the song is.]

SP: It’s kind of visual in a way – how you can direct your ears, like you direct your eyes – and focus on one little sound out of it all.

Toby: Hearing has such a dual quality to it – there’s sort of passive hearing and then directed hearing, if you’re not deaf than you have to hear all the time – and I think that exploring that voluntary part of listening is to sound, and composing for both aspects, could be considered kind of pretentious and elitist. But I’d like to make music that could be listened on both levels -

SP: I like the idea of making music that brings the parts of the sound that’s in the back to the foreground, that, that has multiple levels, and while it’s music for deep listening, you can also listen to it lightly and get the full experience…

[In the background Dylan sings “I was thinking bout diamonds...”]

AE: Good pop music has that quality – instantly enjoyable, but when you listen in headphones or over time…

SP: Yeah – I remember going back and listening to Aqualung after I got the 33 1/3 book on the album. And listening to it again I remember thinking, “oh my god this album is a fucking work of art….”

Toby: I have a lot of respect for people like that – There’s always the cats that go along with the times and then there’s the ones like Dylan and the Band living out in the woods dressing like their from the civil war, meanwhile everyone else is all “marshmallow sunshine”. [pause] I personally have my own aesthetic when I perform, with what I perform – and I try to have a more positive outlook, stay away from too much negativity you know – and I guess someone might call me a stupid piece of shit hippy but whatever man, we all create our worlds – I want mine to be more positive.

SP: That’s the total joy of living in the world we do – where we have so many options and chances to create our world – I mean, it’s all fantasy so can either choose one or make one or have one chosen for you. We can choose who we are, how we are, how we want to dress, we can find people that want to live in this fantasy world with us! [laughs]

Toby: Totally – and I want to create joyous music to bring people together, I want to put as much positivity out there as I can. I think there’s a lot of negativity out there in the music world, and not that anything wrong with that, or that their shouldn’t be that. There’s a whole spectrum of feelings, it’s a messed up world – I don’t deny it.– but for me, I want people to walk away and feel optimistic.

AE: WHO rather than what, inspires you – composers, writers, film makers etc?

SP: Akira Kurosawa – Charlemagne Palestine, James Tenney and Pauline Oliveros – Charlemagne Palestine, wow. He ws a really interesting figure he had this obsession with stuffed animals – he created these giant bear kings with seven heads and he played piano and sang and when he’d play he’d put all of his stuffed animals in the piano – I dedicated my first two piano peaces [in noon music] to him – he just let the piano vibrate on its own, and he would focus on the overtones, these constantly evolving changing, repetitious overtones. It would put him in a trance state and he’d do it for hours – I mean, I only did it for five minutes, but if I had the strength… [laughs] I wish I could do it longer. He would play until his hands bled.

Toby: He wrote a piece that actually said, “Bang on top of piano until hands bleed”

SP: He would get wasted before he performed that one. [laughs]

AE: I bet that helped.

SP: James Tenney was more of an academic composer / music theorist, he starred in this film called “Fuses” by, Carolee Schneeman, which was this “Art Porno” and you get to see his Schlong [laughs]

Toby: Yeah, if anyone wants to see James Tenney’s peenee…

[laughs]

Toby: he was great – he kind of went against the grain at the time and said music shouldn’t be about all this complicated chromatic bullshit, it should be about sound and working towards a new form of listening… he wrote this piece that was basically just a drum-roll going from quiet to loud, and that was basically away to hear and instrument, naturally, but like it’s never been heard before.

SP: His big thing was like, up until now – with western music, with tone and pitch, what key your in, how they relate to other keys, what chord progression – that’s been the basis of all the music that’s been written, but what about writing about music that’s about changes in texture, changes in timbre, changes in pitch…

Toby: it’s hard to say where it all started – John Cage was a big one.

SP: There’s been a lot of baby steps along the way – lots of people through the years that helped build up to those big names, like [Eric] Satie.

Toby: Like when Debussy heard the Gamelan band.

SP: Not to mention the world wars themselves, helped to shatter the way people listened to music and sound, and their traditions. I think it inspired people to write really minimalist pieces, cause the world felt so desolate.

AE: could you say that much of our modern dissonant, atonal music, Noise, industrial, were born out of the 20th centuries mechanized wars, from the destruction, or say modern minimalism from the silence after the fact?

SP: Totally – serialism, 12 tone, atonal things like that – seemed to develop alot after WW2 – it was afterwords with the Germans; they started blossoming with atonal music.

Toby: It’s just amazing to think about how like – art and music really do reflect the times even if the people that are making it aren’t seemingly conscious of it.

AE: The power of the unconscious?

Toby: It’s amazing.

SP: For instance, experiential music – versus music that is dictated to you – music that you get inside of, music that you experience – is a movement that is going on now, modern environmentalism is helping people get into the the environment as music.

AE: Reminds me of an NPR story about a man that “tunes” household appliances, so that they produce tonally harmonic drones, instead of dissonance.

SP: Cool…

[friends approach the table, apparently they left a tomato at the radio bean the night previous]

Toby: that’s an interesting – there’s that balance, someone like cage, would say – all sound is equal, nothing is better or worse than anything else.

SP: Yeah, i disagree with John Cage – just because of the simple mathematics of it – you take a tone, well – say consonant tones, sound consonant because they’re mathematically simple, and that’s a specific sound. It’s easier for your ear to process.

AE: Like a prime number or math without a remainder?

SP: I always prefer mathematically consonant sounds over dissonance.

Toby: the thing about that is – i do enjoy alot of Noise music – its loud and “hard to listen to” – but i don’t see noise music as an invasion, when i listen i don’t feel particularly “assaulted” by sound – though i think some people feel that way, artists and listeners alike.

SP: I don’t associate dissonance with negativity – it’s just just more “difficult”

Toby: I agree.

AE: Interesting – I think something i like about being human is our ability to enjoy music on different levels, on a basic visceral level, on a emotional level, an academic, or aesthetic level – same applies to film or anything else… noise, or violence, say in a film i can appreciate murder and chaos on a visceral level, or maybe it’s an intellectual level, maybe it’s more animal – the same thing with noise, it may not be pretty but it resonates with something in me.

Toby: It’s an interesting world – and it’s interesting to wonder why people make “noise” or music that is discordant and dissonant – and how we’re supposed to or how we do, react to it – if we’re supposed to like it or not, if you do like it does it mean you “like” negativity or violence? I don’t know… But personally i don’t see noise as violent, i just think of it as some really cool sounds.

SP: But i think it is [violent] for alot of the people that make the music – there not doing it for just “sound” they’re doing it to invade your head-space with really loud music – they’re doing it to be aggressive and be offensive…

Toby: There is an aspect to that culture that bugs me a bit – i mean, we’ve played alot of shows with these folks and hung out and i love the fact that they’re doing something outside of the norm, but there’s definitely alot of misogyny, male dominated… just very kind of weird things that go on in that scene that trouble me… but at the same time, there’s some great things that come out of the scene, so it’s a double edged sword i guess.

AE: That’s a pretty complex issue right there.

Toby: yeah it is.

AE: That the violence in the music is cathartic and can be a safe outlet…

SP: It also can feel really good to be behind such a large powerhouse – it feels like you’re riding a giant chariot!

Toby: Me and SP talk about it alot – I don’t think we are that into alot of violent content in music, but i’m not gonna tell someone that they’re wrong to do that, but for me i have a hard time with it, in media in music, in everything, not that i deny it’s existence in the world.

AE: Ok, one more question, What are your favorite colors?

SP: Oh man, that’s a hard one… “Golden” well ok, red green and gold.

Toby: Dark brown, dark green, and like bright yellow.

AE: You both picked similar colors.

SP: Toby let me guess – you picked Brown for the earth, green, the most important color, for life? and gold for the sun – red for life?

Toby: Green is the color of life i guess –

SP: Even us with our “red” have “green” to thank;

Toby: What’s your favorite color man?

AE: Hunter green. burnt orange.

SP: You know – i have way more favorite colors now than i used too… i wonder what that means?

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SP’s latest release “Noon Music” can be downloaded for free from the Label Section.