Saturday 14 December 2013

Lou Reed: "I feel healed in The Drones!"

I have a fancy to bring The Drones to Istanbul. I have a further fancy to collaborate The Drones and my Göbeklştepe project. I have an even crazier thought about The Drones being performed at Göbeklitepe... ridiculous, unlikely, no way... but, I quickly took time out to paint the dream regardless.





There has long been a association between the electric guitar, rock music and ancient stone monuments. Among the most satirical and poignant is Spinal Tap and the hilariously under scaled model of Stonehenge. There is perhaps a deeper synergy between Göbeklitepe and The Drones which centres around frequency.

A lengthy session of guitar feedback is hardly my cup of tea. My long time friend Stewart Hurwood sent me information supplied by the gallery to visitors explaining his involvement with and why 4 guitars and amps were set up to 'drone' away in an art gallery:

In 1975 Lou Reed released Metal Machine Music.

Lou told me that he ostrich tuned his guitar, propped it against the speaker, set the whole thing into feedback and recorded it to tape. This was the armature for the album.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich_guitar

In 2008, Lou decided he wanted to take this concept and tour with it, in a live environment. I spent days determining how best to create and control guitar feedback. After extensive testing and tweaking Lou decided we should implement, at a minimum, a four-guitar and amp combination.

We set these amps feeding back thirty minutes before the MM3 concert commenced and watched the audiences get drawn into a meditative state. Lou named the guitar and amp feedback, "The Drones".

The Drones are the sonic platform from which the MM3 trio would springboard and freeform. Lou Reed fed on raw energy and loved to hear loud guitar amplifiers feeding back. During one session, Lou looked up at me and yelled,
"I feel healed in the Drones!"

Later, we discussed the idea of sonic massage; sound resonation in the body's cavities attenuating in the internal organs and healing.

The premise of this gallery installation is to introduce the audience to The Drones, which was integral in Lou's life. Lou would want me to resurrect The Drones, set the feedback and allow people to visit, meditate and connect with the raw energy he loved.

For some it will be loud and you are advised to protect your hearing; earplugs will be available at the gallery.

Back to me... some links found online:
http://www.newyorklivearts.org/event/live_ideas_noon_talks_lou_reed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EZZ90VSspM
https://www.facebook.com/LouReed/posts/10152109732150953
https://twitter.com/loureed/status/411231821024989184

A previous e-mail communication bewteen Stew and myself had broached the frequency of life, vibration, health, who are we, where we come from etc... and other stuff... Nikola Tesla was mentioned as was Eric Dollard e.g:
The Science of Music by Eric Dollard (3 of 12):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9N34dawm00

Some of the correspondence went along these lines:

Stew: .... do you know about Coral Castle and Ed Leedaskalnin? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naj8VzcDa-w

Ned: Yes. For example, Michael Telllinger mentions him here I think.... it's long. At some point he references ice cream cone shaped anti-gravity tools?! 2 boys allegedly spotted him unloading blocks of stone pointing the cones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ge7Xm-CfTY

Stew: ... I'm doing a sound installation tomorrow in Chelsea (New York) .....Three hours of guitar feedback!

Note: ... it is ironic that while the likes of US President Obama sanctions execution by drones, Lou Reed has left us with a concept suggesting healing and meditiation in The Drones; the difference between an artist and a politician?

Stew: Regarding the Telllinger film: The small stone resonates at Eb when tuned to A=430hz. The larger one is slightly sharp, however, I think he didn't hold, or strike it cleanly. Allegedly Jimi Hendrix tuned to Eb, although I believe he was using A=440hz.

IPhone Tuner app...you can set to various hz settings 440hz, 432hz etc. However, sometimes videos can change pitch through the downloading process. Like with everything we need to get the source to attain accuacy!

Ned: Ever tried maths? You do the same to both sides of the equation...
if       x = 0.9999recurring...
     10x = 9.9999r
10x - x = 9.9999r - 0.9999r
       9x = 9
         x = 1 !?
It doesn't appear to make sense.

Stew: I know we were taught math is actual... numbers don't lie, however, I think math is more plastic than we are lead to believe...math has to prove, or disprove theories. Your example shows that x is not a constant. the number is recurring and can be thought as building, like a wave. When you see the start of the wave its tiny, it grows 10x all the recurring .999999 rounds up now when you look at X at this point it has changed, therefore X in not consistent... I think they call that logarithmic?
Bankers and accountants use numbers... of course there are fudge areas!

Ned: As Dr. Rupert Sheldrake says, constants may not be constant. I wish our 'society', community, teachers, colleges, general mind set would consider possibilities rather than stick dogmatically to set positions.

Stew: Yes to most...Sheldrake: Oceans rise and fall, breath too. Energy resonates nothing is static... constants are man trying to grip nature, harness, understand and quantize it. Illusive, no black white just arrays of greys. We do need benchmarks and reference points but these do not need to be defended, when new information is presented we have to factor in these changes... if belief systems, or measurements no longer make sense, adjust and move on; this is evolution!

05.11.2015 - Press coverage from recent NYC Armory show with Laurie Anderson:
The artist collaborates with former Guantánamo prisoner Mohammed el Gharani via livestream in a refreshingly clear performance:
"Anderson’s late, longtime partner, Lou Reed. (Its realization here is supervised by Reed’s guitar collaborator, Stewart Hurwood.)"
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/03/laurie-anderson-habeas-corpus-review-guantanamo-omar-souleyman
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/monumental-musical-events-alex-ross
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/laurie-anderson-on-her-ambitious-guantanamo-meditation-habeas-corpus-20150930
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/isa-freeling/laurie-andersons-habeas-c_b_8242150.html
This one has some great pics!
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2015/10/pics_laurie_and.html
http://www.publicseminar.org/2015/10/the-guantanamo-saga-in-laurie-andersons-habeas-corpus/#.Vjl6Du0qP-k
http://www.dance-enthusiast.com/features/view/Laurie-Anderson-Park-Avenue-Armory

15.08.2016 - The Drones on the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p040mbvj?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_arts&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=scotland

by Ned Pamphilon