An Uncondemning Update: A Report to i.E.

Its been a while since we have actually updated what is going on with Thee Uncondemning Monk project (Thee UM). Well, first off... we are still planning to release an older project called The Broken Music Box and that is slated to be released sometime between now and summer. Also daily experiments continue. Recently we have been drawn to drum, bass, and horn combiniations, but are still working with noise and ambient sounds in our daily soundwerks.


For those unfamiliar, Thee UM engages in what are ideally daily experimental sound exercises. The basic idea is to create music in one take, from scratch, off the cuff, min. looping (looping optional, but must be create then not before), and most done in one take, or at least if there is a 2nd or 3rd take, its done in one shot through, each layer. After which there is sometime some play with filters and effect on each layer or the entire master, which is all encoded on the soundwerks original working title name. We take some of these, the ones we are smitten with, and put them onto soundcloud for people to enjoy, or use to create new works from. This is a hyienic practice, like brushing thee teeth, this is for the washing out all cosmic debris.

Besides that, we where recently on a new work by AIN23, Open Transmission 2012, which is the 2nd Open Transmission work put out by AIN23 or Autonomous Individual Nextwrok 23, which you can learn more about by visiting their website, here: http://www.ain23.com/




We really want to leave it to the page, the Open Transmission Bandcamp, to explain what is going on with the project, the purposes of the transmission, because many of the tracks, as you click on them, you will discover that they, each artist/band, tell a bit about why they did what they did for the compilation. Here is what The Uncondemning Monk had to say about their solo track, "Type Writer and Blue Tomorrows Yesterday" (Thee UM [Fr. 462] as has a Third Mind co-authored type track on the release, that track is with Professor Sonic [Fr. 402], and its entitled "Deep Seeded Tide"):

The soundwerk entitled, “Type Writer & Blue Tomorrows Yesterday,” by Thee Uncondemning Monk (UM), is part of a daily hygienic practice of soundwerk. We call these soundwerks because what Thee UM is interested in is not making music, per se, but rather the manipulation of sound as such. As such we have no commitment to any musical style, genera, form, etc., and are always experimenting with whatever comes our way. It is a hygienic practice, as such, because it at once is a practice aimed at clearing the mind (which is body, which is soul, all are one) of accumulated debris. We see this practice of soundwerking as a daily practice not unlike that of brushing one’s teeth. That is we hope to see soundwerkings done by everybody, which everybody, especially today with our increased access to the tools that make such endeavors possible, in this so-called digital age or our present state of technology via personal computers, are afforded. We are also inspired by David Lynch’s commitment to using digital instead of film, for very similar reasons. There is a great interview with Lynch on this subject included in the extended edition of his latest work, Inland Empires. Indeed, the title of the song is a reference to that film, in which they are making (a remake, of an unfinished) film, entitled, “Blue Tomorrows”. We work layer by layer, one take, off the cuff, each time, and each and every layer. As such, we started this track with a drum layer which, to us, sounded like a type writer, hence the first part of the title of our present soundwerk. We continued on adding layers, each done in one take, off the top of our head (off the cuff), which has a total of four layers; including the 1st drum track we worked from. Each layer changes the work, and as such, as we get into the work itself, it becomes a matter of acting and reacting to the work until we feel its full, complete, finished. We have been doing this long before we found out that David Lynch works in a very similar manner with his films, this process of once you have the idea, for us an initial track, that that work flows in this acting/reacting sort of way, until one calls it, ‘done.’ We hope our little exposé has illuminated you as to what we are striving for with our work. You can find out more about Thee UM, as project, buy visiting our blog site: theeuncondemningmonk.blogspot.com

credits

from Open Circuit Transmission 2012, released 21 December 2012
Thee Uncondemning Monk hails from New York.

So, we leave you with that as that is the last work put out by the project, but more is in store. Beside the release of The Broken Music Box Project, the missing letters (working title), we are also continuing with daily soundwerks and logging field recordings for the next AIN23 23 Seconds ov Time Audio Project, which is ratio zero, that means its open to all!!! Please join us, here: http://www.ain23.com/23sot.html

The Newest Project is number 6, and here is just a bit, before we say ado, about that, AIN23, project:

The 23 Seconds ov Time project was largely inspired by 2 literary concepts.. one is a poetic exercise called "An Exquisite Corpse" where poets write a line that follows line before it in a larger poem that is unseen by the participants until completion. and the 2nd was the Burroughs/Gysin "Cut Up Method" where a piece of literature is taken apart line by line with scissors, and then the lines are re-assembled randomly to form a new work... The 23SOT project tries to address these themes within the context of AUDIO submissions...both of these inspiring notions come from the literary creative world.. With this project we are trying to apply these creative literary strategies to sound art to see what sort of creative surprises await ...the cuts are submitted randomly by participants and placed in a larger file encompassing them all in the order they arrive..the completed assemblage includes each submission, one after the other..as one whole piece...as something new.




Please see the website for complete submission details for project number six: http://www.ain23.com/23sot.html

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