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A Ritual Which is Incomprehensible (to the smile of Pauline Oliveros) - Claudio Parodi | |||||||||||||||||||||
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 The second in an ongoing series of conceptual works by Claudio Parodi sourcing and manipulating music from Tiziano Milano's Suoni CD (2005), not so much to remix but as staple material for processing in the studio. This time as with the last, the album is dedicated to a well known sound artist, and Pauline Oliveros is the chosen one on this occasion. The album entitled A Ritual Incomprehensible (to the smile of Pauline Oliveros) is in reference to the affect Oliveros' smile had on Parodi as he attended one of her concerts. It is a dedication that if slightly sentimental, sets the scene for what is a gentle and engaging listening experience. Scored for tape and two Turkish clarinets performed by Parodi, the three compositions move through a stasis of harmony, discord and unison in a kind of reptilian entwinement, underscored by fragments of noise from tape. The inspiration and content for the tape parts come from an interview with Alvin Lucier, who was the subject of Parodi's last album dedication, Horizontal Mover (reviewed in Furthernoise June 07). Parodi describes the process as chance operations, transcribing the interview into the pitches for the lower eleven tones of the first clarinet, whilst the second clarinet occupies a half tone either higher or lower in pitch than the first. Consisting of three sections of twenty four bars and a coda following the same melody, Parodi furthers the three compositions indeterminacy by allocating differing values of time to each part and shuffling the sequence of bars they contain. The tape arrangements are made up of eight parts of original files from Tiziano Milano's Suoni piece, which are then compressed at different bit rates and sequenced in different orders. These parts are then panned in an evolving hard left, right and centre formation and treated with an increasing amount of reverb, which gradually submerges them under the clarinet parts at the end. The use of silence is also very effective, giving rise to a sense of considered placement of time and structure, allowing for what Pauline Oliveros herself said in an interview with Brandon LaBelle as 'listening to listening'. As with Horizontal Mover Parodi's processes are interesting, even if at times possibly in danger of overshadowing the simplicity of the compositions themselves. Without being aware or even understanding these processes, you will never the less be treated to three very similar yet distinct collages of imaginative music and sound. Claudio Parodi might have set himself a hard task in cultivating a dynamic that will remain as constant throughout his planned seven album series, but I look forward to listening to him try. Reference: LaBelle, B, (2006) Background Noise: Perspectives in Sound Art (Interview with Pauline Oliveros), New York:Continuum. Review by
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