2LP – Sofa Music

mind is moving (IV) presents four conceptual scores by Michael Pisaro-Liu, written in 1996 and performed by the contrabassist Michael Francis Duchte in 2019. Here, a total of 60 sounds for double bass are inserted. Each execution of the score can include a minimum of 30 to all 60 sounds, without the performer having to respect a precise order. The tempo is one sound per minute, the dynamics are pizzicato and generally piano. After playing the sound, the performer should hold their position for as long as possible before playing the next sound. In addition to being a composer, the maestro is also a pianist, a member of the Wandelweiser collective, and the director of composition and experimental music at the California Institute of the Arts. This piece is inspired by a koan on the different perceptions that one can have of the same phenomenon, on how the mind can give rise to misunderstandings and incorrect or partial interpretations. The question to ask is: what are we listening to? The bass, the decay of the reproduced sounds, or the background noise? It is the mind that moves and between the attack and the decay of each sound is an empty space, what in Zen philosophy is referred to as ‘ma’, one of the concepts of Japanese culture that has most fascinated and actively involved different generations of contemporary artists, musicians and experimenters. The empty space is considered as important as the full space and the ‘ma’ element is constitutive of fundamental reflections in many other practices of the Buddhist and Taoist tradition (for example haiku poetry, painting and calligraphy, martial arts and ikebana, Noh theatre and the tea ceremony). Although it is one of Pisaro-Liu’s first projects, mind is moving (IV) is rarely performed. For this recording, Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim was chosen, which is also the birthplace and residence of Michael Francis Duch. As already mentioned, a precise flow is not foreseen for this composition; instead, everything is combined in a random way by choosing which sound to emit, thus creating an every changing iteration. The piece was recorded in one take at around midnight and – by default, therefore – an hour of sound inside the cathedral was also documented.

 

Michael Francis Duch – mind is moving (IV) by Michael Pisaro​-​Liu