StuartEstell
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Posts posted by StuartEstell
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Here's a piece I recorded last night, entitled "One Row Two".
http://lachenaliamusic.bandcamp.com/album/one-row-two
The background drone is a held fifth on my trusty Hohner Pokerwork fed through all manner of gizmos, with the Jeffries duet taking on the main duties as usual.
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Sorry - my oversight. The instrument I referred to is Lachenal number 2000.
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Thanks for the pointer Derek - I hadn't heard of him, but that's really beautiful work.
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Wheatstone Aeola 58 key Macann duet, steel reeds, raised nickel ends, nickel buttons, eight fold bellows all in very good original condition. Serial number 32429 (1931) With original square leather case also in good condition. It is in concert pitch but tuned a tone down, so could be describes as a Bflat instrument. The reed shoe markings are consistent with it being it's original tuning. It comes with a receipt dated 1972 when it was sold for £80!
Interesting - number 2000 is also a Bb instrument owned by a member of this forum. I wonder how many of these things there are...
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Having that said, I guess I understand that you don't want to have your drony music sounding too busy, but there's still more then just modeling the harmonics, isn't it? So what would you say: is it exploring certain "worlds" of sound? a certain mood and ambience?
Yes, definitely - I think of these sort of pieces as places I can inhabit.
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I love Morrissey, I love concertinas and I loved this cover! Excellent!
Thanks! Much appreciated.
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Thanks Peter - it's interesting although maybe a bit busy for my liking
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And yes, Wolf, he often did the "adjacent three buttons" thing but some of his accompaniments have some quite surprising stuff in them!
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This works really nicely, Wolf - good stuff.
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He had his anglos modified to have additional drone buttons, which he could fix down by means of rotating metal clips. He was also a guitarist with quite a distinctive style and I think his anglo-playing has a lot in common with a kind of rhythm guitar approach - i.e. "strummed".
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His version of Nostradamus knocks the original into a cocked hat as far as I'm concerned.
But there's no beating his "On Board a '98" for me. That would go with me to the old desert island...
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Thank you Paul
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Ambient Jeffries duet? A contradiction in terms surely?
Seems to me that it fits with at least a couple of the definitions here.
Well, given the title and my own musical history and preferences, I expected to find it interesting but at least somewhat annoying.
I was wrong.
While I think that I would have difficulty focusing on that piece alone throughout its length, I did find it pleasant to listen to while doing various other things. Considering what I expected, I think that's a compliment, even if not a rave review.
Thanks Jim.
I take that in the same spirit as Morton Feldman, who used to say that it was perfectly alright with him if people fell asleep during his very long, very quiet pieces.
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Love it, Great performance Stuart.
A.
Thank you A, much appreciated. I've just fired up your "Indoors" album on Spotify and am really enjoying it.
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Apologies if this song is a bit political for this forum... but here is Morrissey's "Margaret on the Guillotine" repurposed for the UK's great eejit of an education secretary Michael Gove, and, thus, retitled "Michael on the Guillotine." It's not the most generous of songs in its overall sentiment
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but the ergonomics of the right-side cba and pa keyboards are such that the right side can be played much faster than the right side of a duet.
Also being a pianist and a lapsed piano accordion operator, I don't agree with this, I'm afraid. There's a large hurdle in terms of hours of practice to obtain fluidity, but it's perfectly possible to play a well set up duet keyboard at breakneck speed.
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On a C-core Jeffries Duet all the keys round the circle of fifths from Bb to E are manageable with practice in my experience. Outside of that it can be a bit horrific esp. if you go flatter, but really it's no harder to play outside the home keys of C/G/D and F than the Maccann. In some ways I find it easier to be honest.
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By the way Matthew and Eric, if you've got recording gear and fancy doing some sort of collaboration over the wires I'd be up for that. There surely can't be many recordings of Jeffries and Hayden duets on the same tracks for starters...
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Can I be a devil's advocate for a moment?
If you're an anglo player, it just might be worth looking at a Jeffries duet. On paper the Jeffries duet system looks insane but it's actually very playable (you only need to listen to Michael Hebbert for proof of this) and closely related to the anglo. It's a bit like an anglo that's been unfolded. On a c-core Jeffries duet you would find chord shapes for all the usual chords you'd play in C major on the anglo feel very familiar.
Availability is an issue, granted, but if one crops up it might be worth having a go.
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Thanks Eric and Matthew - much appreciated.
Matthew - I don't generally accompany the concertina with pre-sequenced electronics. My use of electronics is generally restricted to processing. I don't even use a looper - I recently sold mine as it was sitting there in the corner grinning at me!
What I do like is using effects that draw out harmonics - phasing and flanging work very well, as does harmonic synthesis - I use an EHX "HOG" (harmonic octave generator) for this. Tape delay (or an emulated tape delay) also works really well. I like to keep a clean signal in the mix, even if it's buried relatively low down, just to give some definition, so it can be a good idea to use an effect send from a small desk to enable that. When recording I use Logic's space designer a lot for reverb as it has some tremendously versatile "drone tone" effects built in which you can then customise.
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Thanks for your thoughtful comments Jody - for a general audience I take your point entirely. But it is intended to be as reductive/minimal and intensely repetitive as you suggest, which, as I said, I don't expect to be to everyone's taste. Changes are always gradual and small.
I see this as positioned in a similar sort of area to the likes of William Basinski, Sunn O))), Earth etc., and a continuation of what I do in my drone/doom tuba duo ORE. We've been known to end gigs playing a single note for several minutes just manipulating overtones (and our audiences expect no less
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Hounds of Love - what a great song. I think if I were doing it I might use "bellows strumming" to imitate the rhythm of the 'cello on the original, but that's certainly not a complaint...
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Cheers Wolf. I've been keen to incorporate concertinas into my more experimental music for some time. I don't expect it to be to everyone's taste, but I think there's a lot of scope for processing the sound of the instrument to bring overtones to the fore etc.
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Ambient Jeffries duet? A contradiction in terms surely?
I've released an EP of two long minimalist pieces for solo concertina entitled "Mr. Jeffries' Laptop" under my Lachenalia moniker. I adopted the name when I still had some Lachenal instruments, and the fact that "Lachenalia" is also the name of a rather pretty genus of South African bulbs rather appealed to me.
This is recorded live with digital post-processing, but no overdubs or editing - all done in one take. 26 minutes of music, which you can stream from Bandcamp; if you like it and want to download it, it's just £2.
https://lachenaliamusic.bandcamp.com/album/mr-jeffries-laptop
P.S. if anyone is interested in how I got these sounds I'm happy to discuss...
More Experimental Stuff For Processed Jeffries Duet & Melodeon
in Concertina Videos & Music
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Glad you enjoyed it Jody.
I like all of yours, not just the first section - the faster tune has a really nice circular quality. Have you ever thought of doing a longer version that returns to the pulseless feel at the end? That could be really effective.