Roger Kleier
The Night Has Many
Hours
Innova 685
1) The Night Has Many
Hours 4:22
2) What is the Price of
Iron? I 4:58
3) What is the Price of
Iron? II 3:24
4) What is the Price of
Iron? III 4:00
5) Knuckleduster
3:20
6) Deluge: Devil Take
the Most 5:17
7) Interlude (So Long
Shea) 0:57
8) Generator 2:12
9) Anyway... 4:40
10) Dark Matter 5:28
11) Hyperplane 6:30
ROGER
KLEIER: ALL GUITARS AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS
JOAN
JEANRENAUD: CELLO
ANNIE
GOSFIELD: ORGAN
This
CD is the final third of a trilogy that includes my previous two releases
"KlangenBang"
and "Deep Night, Deep Autumn".
The entire trilogy has been a while in the making, but, at last, here it is...
I
have always enjoyed the works of fiction writers who have main characters that
reappear in sequential novels, especially noir masters like Raymond Chandler,
Walter Moseley, and William Gibson. For these three CDs, I have thought of my
own guitar playing and the sound world it occupies as a "character"
who shows up repeatedly in a myriad of musical situations, with each variation
somehow related to the last one.
For
the first part of the trilogy, "KlangenBang", my musical character dealt with concert
performance, improvisation, and song form. In "Deep Night..." this character explored a dark world of
electronic manipulations and sinister development. For this final episode, the
guitar player character investigates the concept of variations in ambience.
These ambiences might include those found in urban chaos, cold and icy winters,
deserted alleyways, dark subway tunnels, rolling California hillsides, or even
an occasional quiet pool of beauty...
In
2004, I composed "What is the Price of
Iron?" for American cellist Joan Jeanrenaud,
known for her tenure in the Kronos Quartet, who was
assembling material for a solo concert program. I knew that Joan was adept at
performing with electronic backing, and that she was an excellent improviser,
so I wanted to incorporate both of these elements into the piece.
The
electronic background of "Iron"
is comprised of a combination of digitally altered and manipulated electric
guitars and Joan playing cello, which I recorded while in I was in residence at
Mills College in Oakland, California. The sound files were then manipulated
with Ableton Live and Bias Peak, and then imported
into Pro Tools for final shaping. I wanted to create a background that
functioned in live performance like a virtual phantom collaboration, with
plenty of space for a performer to improvise.
The
title of the work is inspired by a Bertolt Brecht
poem. This poem is a very wry and dark commentary of the German occupation of
Czechoslovakia in 1938, which the Nazis wanted to possess for the nation's
weapons-grade iron and steel manufacturing. I found this poem appropriate for
my own country's imperial adventuring in Iraq and the Persian Gulf region.
--RK
Produced by Roger Kleier.
Mastered by Myles Boisen at The Headless
Buddha Mastering Lab.
Supported in part by a grant from the New York State Music Fund,
established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy
Advisors.
Innova director, design: Philip
Blackburn.
Operations manager: Chris Campbell.
www.innova.mu
Recorded at Master Element Studio, NYC.
Engineered by Roger Kleier, except ÒWhat is the Price
of Iron?Ó, which was engineered by Myles Boisen at Guerilla Recording in Oakland, CA, and mixed by
RK at Master Element. Additional cello samples recorded at the CCM Recording
Studios at Mills College, Oakland, engineered by Matt Volla.
Software used for this recording include: Digidesign
Pro Tools LE, Ableton Live, Bias Peak, and Wave Arts
Plug-ins, all residing on Apple MacIntosh Computers.
Special thanks to: Annie, Joan, Philip
Blackburn, and Rob Martino at Wave Arts.