From jzitt@metatronpress.com Tue Jan 26 19:55:51 1999 Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 16:35:33 -0500 (EST) From: Joseph Zitt To: comma@metatronpress.com Cc: comma-announce@metatronpress.com Subject: [comma] Comma News #1 Good morning (or whatever it is in your timezone)! I guess this is the inaugural posting for the Comma list (now that we're done tapping on it and saying "Is this thing on?"). We have a lot of things happening. First, the Metatron Press website is up, in a rudimentary form, at http://www.metatronpress.com/ Most of our effort has gone into getting MP3 sound files online. We now have 12 files up, including the two group improvisations from our CD, (voices), and clips from three concerts. We've recorded almost all our concerts since the Ruthless Grip performance on June 25th on DAT or direct to CD, so the archival material is in pretty good shape (and will get even better as we learn to work with the sound-handling technologies.) The earlier material was recorded to analog cassette or videotape, but we're pleased with the performances, so we're putting them up. To listen to the MP3s, you'll need appropriate software, such as - For MSWindows, WinAmp (from http://www.winamp.com/ ) - For Macintosh, MacAmp (from http://www.macamp.com/ ) - For Linux/X11, X11Amp (from http://www.x11amp.org/ ) We'd love to be able to stream these files on demand. Does anyone know of a good way to do this from a Sparc Linux system? On January 9th, we recorded the audio sections of what will probably be out next CD, "feldMorph", in collaboration with three additional wonderful singers, Linh Kauffman, Dawn Culbertson, and Caroline Lowndes Smith. In our pursuit of simplicity and economy in creating our music, we recorded the piece to DAT with the six of us seated at a table around a good stereo microphone. The resulting, quite intimate recording is rather like having six people surrounding you murmuring in your ears. We're pleased, and think you will be too. (We hope to post the five-minute test version of the piece, as well as the score, in the near future.) We plan for the project to be an Enhanced CD, with additional computer-only material including scores, MP3 recordings, graphics, and the like. We don't have any Comma concerts per se planned in the immediate future, though we're continuing to rehearse and will soon be taping an improvisation for video for PoetryVideo.com. Tom and I will be participating in UnCaged 3, the third in a roughly-annual series of concerts of John Cage's music being organized in Baltimore by Dawn Culbertson, on Sunday, February 21st. More info as it's nailed down. One thing we're interesting in pursuing is day-long events, involving our leading workshops in a morning and afternoon and performing in the evening, with the members of the workshops performing with us in part of the concert. Any leads as to getting this to happen would be quite appreciated. We've also had some very tentative discussions re: performances overseas. We continue to be on the lookout for appropriate scores from outside composers. If anyone knows of music that might be up our alley, let us know! That's it for now... Discuss among yourselves! [ To be reminded how to subscribe, unsubscribe, etc: ] [ email majordomo@metatronpress.com with the text "info comma" ] [ Comma Web site: http://www.artswire.org/comma/ ]