M. Geddes Gengras — Threads of Asclepius
DIGITAL ALBUM
CATALOG UR118 — Released November 2019
Recorded, mixed and mastered by M. Geddes Gengras at home in Hudson, NY.
Artwork by Daniel Castrejón.
TRACKLIST / 44 minutes
01. Untitled Improvisation
in 3 takes (recorded 6.7.19) Buchla Music Easel
02. 10 Voices (recorded 10.28.18) Eurorack Synthesizer & Roland D-05
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Threads of Asclepius is the
fifth album released through Umor Rex by composer M. Geddes Gengras, poet
of the modular synth and master of analog sequences. Close in its nature to Two Variations (Umor Rex 2016), these
two improvisations —with overdubs— were both recorded in two different
single-day sessions, originally intended as part of a meditative practice for
producing music simply for the listening pleasure of the composer, a practice
conceptually close to the avant-garde habit of Conrad Schnitzler's Zodiak Free Arts Lab.
M. Geddes Gengras always
manages to achieve a high sense of drama in his works, freely sculpting sounds
that are accompanied, transformed and completed by epic harmonies. A chilling
beauty is the signature of his work, where a single thread of music is laid
down and then elements built around it to accentuate its form. Simple ideas are
inspired by the sounds of the machines that they are made with. "10 Voices"
is dedicated to Meredith Monk and the pursuit of a more human music.
"Untitled Improvisation in 3 takes" is a documentation of M. Geddes'
very first experiments with the music easel and is an attempt to pull as many
interesting sounds and textures as possible out of a strange machine.
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