Musique Mécanique limited edition (box set) info here

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Musique Mécanique
 liner notes 

Musique Mécanique is the result of two types of research I have been pursuing during the last few years.

First , while working on some “drone” based tracks for another project, I got tired of the usual synth sustained low note as a drone, and all the tweaking, processing and morphing required to give some life to those dull plastic twangs. Being a bassist, it was a natural alternative to pick up my upright bass and try some bowed sustained notes. How much easier was now to add life to that! Not just by means of dynamics and playing techniques, but also manipulating and processing that acoustic “live” sound.  So I started building some basic tracks that I called “organic drones”, they were just drones performed in acoustic instruments and even objects, noises and sounds, then processing and morphing those mixed tracks to achieve an original, unreal yet warm and lively sound. Those organic drones started to get more and more complex and weird as I kept pushing the limits of my postulate: “Just noises produced by mechanical means”.

In the bonus CD of the Special Edition of Musique Mécanique you’ll find the very first track I recorded for this project using this concept: “Recitativo”, is one of my complex organic drones going on for more than 8 minutes, mutating and evolving  as I just solo on top of it my with my electric guitar. Some other tracks using this drone techniques made it to the final cut of Musique Mécanique, most notably “Metallic Drone” and “Drone Mécanique” and “Solstice”, but glimpses of these methods impregnated the whole project in the background of each track.

Then I started a second type of research, exploring the possibilities (and fun) of playing around with delays and echoes.  The random counterpoints, brilliant accidents and unexpected harmonies provided by these delayed signals (usually with particularly high decay/feedback times) proved to be quite addictive, and it took the best part of the album, its bonus tracks and extended to many other projects like “lärmkunst”. The bonus CD includes some compositions I recorded for other projects using the very same “Delays Mécaniques” concept.

The culmination of this echo-drenched research and the idea of using delays as a composition technique, ended up in a collection called “Auto-Counterpoints”, but that will be a different project, as those tracks are more focused, rigorously planned, standard compositions.

Musique Mécanique shows the research process, its unexpected results and delightful accidents.  In a way this is the ultimate ”experimental” album for me: a recording of my experimentations with sound and composition,  a pure “research” project, where I found the charm of starting a track without knowing exactly where it would lead me, without any plot or plan. Then, in post production the composition process continued, giving these recordings a more coherent, achieved structure and sound.

Hopefully some of you will appreciate the results of this process that took 2 years of passionate work. Thanks for making it happen, thanks for listening.

Love:

          dd, Paris October 2010

Musique Mécanique:

“electronic” sounding music (and music inspired by electronica) performed using instruments and objects that produce sounds by mechanical means.

absolutely no synthesizers or samplers used.

produced and composed by daniel diaz.

performed & recorded by daniel diaz in paris, villa gessel and buenos aires during 2008-2009. mixed and edited in paris 2009-2010.

artwork:  sergio@sur.sud.studio, paris.

instruments & objects used:
acoustic piano,
upright bass (bowed and pizz),
acoustic and electric guitars and basses,
hand percussion,
bamboo flutes,
harmonica,
knives,
bamboo drums,
metal trash lid, stainless steel thermos,
wine glasses
and other objects.

fx, processing & treatments:
digital and analogue delays, echo, filters, reverb, wah-wah pedal, distortion pedal.

Release made possible thanks of Cezame Music Agency's support.

thanks: françoise marchesseau, frédéric leibovitz, vicoria+paloma+alexis, sergio “pittbull” pittaluga, karlheinz stockhausen, ryuichi sakamoto, gustavo lopez, glenn krieg, and steve reich.

Track list:

CD Musique Mecanique Standard Edition 

01/ solo piano 1  /  3:48
acoustic piano performance, recorded live to stereo d.a.t. in buenos aires, and then transferred to computer multi-track in paris, chopped down to several tracks with different echoes and delays. these delayed signals have been passed through wah-wah and filter pedals. Some bites from the original recording have been reversed.

02/ metallic drone  /  3:36
knives & metallic thermos (drone), Stratocaster distorted guitar, trash lid, bowed contrabass effects.

03/ duo 1  /  3:07
acoustic piano + upright bass. Delays and filters.

04/ drone mecanique  /  6:03
upright bass (pizz), 7 different bowed contrabasses, harmonica x2, electric bass drone,  knives & metallic thermos (drone).

05/ bamboos  /  3:19
three different bamboo drums (Teponaztle or tun), Delays and WahWah.

06/ jesse (al arco)  /  2:50
three electric guitars (Stratocaster/tapping),  3x acoustic bass guitar harmonics, four bowed (rhythmic) contrabasses.

07/ duo 2  /  3:28
acoustic guitar + upright bass

08/ guitars tappin’  /  4:05
four hi pitch bowed contrabasses (nappe), electric guitars (Stratocaster/tapping), solo epiphone el.guitar, contrabass, trash lid hit (mallet) w/infinite decayed delay.

09/ solo piano 2  /  4:55
acoustic piano performance, same procedures as solo piano 1 (track 1)

10/ tension (part I 1:10  part II 0:59)  /  2:08
acoustic piano, pizz. contrabass, wine glasses, metallic thermos, trash lid (fingered and hit with brushes), talking drum, bowed contrabass effects.

11/ frantic prelude (sirènes)  /  1:53
seven bowed contrabasses.

12/ frantic (techno)   /  3:03
eight bowed contrabasses.

13/ fierros  /  3:58
knives, metallic thermos, fingered and sticks hit trash lid (inox), el.bass, epiphone casino el.guitar (w/volume pedal)

14/ solstice  /  4:16
charango, pizz. contrabass, two harmonicas, five bowed contrabasses

Total length                                        50:35

all tracks composed by daniel diaz (c)&(p) 2010 by DedeLand Music Co./BMI

limited edition (box set) track list  here