PROBES. Auxiliaries
In this auxiliary Western forms, in their hunt for timbre - and sometimes meaning - raid, amongst others, the musical resources of Australia, China, Mexico, The Alps, Turkey, Japan, Brasil, Korea, Peru, and Armenia.
In this auxiliary Chris Cutler meets more repurposed African instruments in several fields, and takes one glimpse at the reverse traffic. Interestingly, for the first time, there’s hardly any adoption in contemporary classical circles. Answers on a postcard, please.
In this auxilliary, bachelor pad hi-fi stereo exotica whips off its kitschy disguise to reveal a revolutionary core, abandoning boring documentation for a hyperreal exploration of novel timbres, impossible spatialities and radical fragmentation. This is where recording technology finally becomes aware of itself as an aesthetic rather than as a purely technical medium.
In this new auxiliary Chris Cutler follows the gamelan, falls into further experiments with percussion and slides inexorably into exotic appropriation.
In PROBES #16.2, we wonder how far you can go with banjos, mandolins, balalaikas, jew’s harps and ensembles of folk instruments. And it’s pretty far.