Browse by Artist: PATTERSON, BEN

Artist:	PATTERSON, BEN
Title:	Early Works
Label:	ALGA MARGHEN (ITALY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	ALGA 028CD

"Alga Marghen proudly presents the first record ever produced by Ben Patterson: 'This is not only my first CD, but also the first recordings of these works available to the general public.' Starting as a virtuoso double-bass performer of classical music, Ben Patterson was one of the very first founders of the Fluxus Group in Wiesban. This digipak CD will introduce you to some American neo-avantgarde music classics, a crossover between John Cage exploding influences and the experimental art atmosphere of the early 1960s in Europe. The compact disc program includes two essential 1961 documents: 'Duo For Voice And A String Instrument' and 'Variations for Double-bass,' both recorded in concert at the Galerie Parnass in 1962; this event has special historic significance in that it included the first public presentation by George Maciunas of his Fluxus manifesto and plans for the Wiesbaden Fluxus Festival. 'Duo' was Patterson's most ambitious and lost attempt to combine graphic notation and chance operations for the realization of a performance score, while 'Variations' represents the moment when, unexpectedly, out of some unknown place, something new entered the process -- humor! The other three tracks were recorded in Milano especially for this release; for this purpose a collaboration was asked to Philip Corner, Walter Marchetti, Davide Mosconi and a few more friends. These newly recorded pieces include 'A Simple Opera' (1995), a repetitive hommage to Emmett Willons on his 70th birthday; 'Paper Piece' (1960), the work that cut the umbilical cord to all of the author's previous classical and contemporary musical training and experience, and 'Pond' (1961), a piece that reminds of Richard Maxfield's electronic music with voice collage. The edition includes a fold-out 16 page insert with original scores and photos."

Artist:	PATTERSON, BEN
Title:	A Fluxus Elegy
Label:	ALGA MARGHEN (ITALY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$26.00
Catalog #:	ALGA 061LP

One-sided LP in an edition of 345 copies. "The new Ben Patterson piece, issued on Alga Marghen's VocSon series, is based on the basic principles of the polyphonic music of the Bantu tribes of West and Central Africa. First principle: the practice of interlocking individual pitches or tones performed by one person into spaces between other pitches or tones performed by another person, thus alternating pitches or tones of one part with those of another part to create a whole. Second principle: use of cyclical and open-ended forms involving one or more ostinato melodic/rhythmic pattern as a foundation. Third principle: community participation...non-specialists are encouraged to join in long performances with much repetition. Fourth principle: rhythmic complexity with the juxtaposition of double and triple patterns, multiple layering of different patterns, and interaction between a core foundation and improvised parts. And, most important, the family 'ownership' of a specific tone: in the musical culture of these tribes, each ancestral family 'owns' and is responsible for one or more specific tones, which must be sounded at specific points, sequencing with the many other specific tones 'owned' by other families, to create a seamless melody. Ben Patterson made a music based on this information by taking the initials of artists listed in Fluxus: The Most Radical and Experimental Art Movement of the Sixties and encoding them in basic International Morse Code. These 'dots and dashes' were then performed on a Yamaha DJX keyboard (voice pattern setting), connected to a Digitech JamMan Looper (over-dub setting), connected to an Eurorack MX 602A mixer. Front cover reproducing the original score."

Artist:	PATTERSON, BEN
Title:	Liverpool Soundworks - Volume One
Label:	AUDIO RESEARCH EDITIONS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	ARE 203CD

2 limited edition CDs on Fluxus artist Ben Patterson's own label, distributed by Alga Marghen. "'The Liverpool Song Lines' (22'57"): for many year Ben Patterson has been fascinated by the so-called 'song lines' of the Australian Aborigine. Musically, these songs for solo voice, sometimes accompanied by 'beating-sticks,' are not especially stirring for Western ears. Rather, for the artist, it is the concept underlying the text which is remarkable. These songs describe flora, fauna and places which are sacred in the mythology of the Aborigine. But these birds and trees and rivers and rocks are not imaginary or mythological inventions. Thus, if the set of songs is sung in the correct sequence, they link a series of landmarks in such a way as to provide an aural map, guiding the traveller from here to there in a trackless Australian 'out-back.' 'The River Mersey' (23'14"): from Ellesmere Port to Bootle; or, from Bootle to Ellesmere Port; or, in both directions in the same time. The graphic score of this piece is a site-inspired, adaptation of Ben Patterson's early work, 'Duo-1961, for Voice and String Player' (issued by Alga Marghen in Ben Patteron Early Works CD) for the performance with the Frakture Big Band at the Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool, Tuesday 29 October 2002. Compact disc packaged in mini-LP style card sleeve and full colour inner wallet."

Artist:	PATTERSON, BEN
Title:	Liverpool Soundworks - Volume Two
Label:	AUDIO RESEARCH EDITIONS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	ARE 204CD

"'Surveying Western Philosophy using China Tools' (33'45"): Western philosophy is thought to have begun along the Ionian coast of Asia Minor in the sixth century B.C. Chinese astrology is thought to have begun in China in the thirtieth century B.C. Would a survey using the tools of an ancient Chinese imperial science give us new and fresh reading of Western philosophy? The year in which a person was born is of singular importance in Chinese astrology as each year is governed by an animal sign. In total there are twelve such animal signs, beginning with the Rat and ending with the Pig. 'Art as Thinking - Thinking as Art' (37'26"): a lecture by Ben Patterson at Liverpool School of Art and Design, 25 November 2003."

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