The Living Earth Show
High Art
innova 863

1. Samuel Carl Adams: Tension Study 1. 10:14
2. Timo Andres: You Broke It, You Bought It. 6:59
3. Adrian Knight: Family Man: 16:48
4. Jon Russell: Repetitive Stress. 7:02
5. Samuel Carl Adams: Tension Study 2. 12:14




Tension Studies: Samuel Carl Adams, 2011


I composed Tension Studies between the fall of 2010 and spring of 2011 in Brooklyn, NY. They came as a request from my friends Andy and Travis not too long after they decided to create The Living Earth Show. I said 'yes' because I admire their nimble, curious musical minds.

Both studies employ superficial narratives of tension: soft to loud, slow to fast. Within this rigid framework I explore other tensions. Some are concrete: between the strings and tuning pegs of the guitar, equal temperament and microtonality. Some are more abstract: between ambition and failure, awkwardness and extroversion.

I designated the pieces 'studies' because their goals are musical and, particularly in the first study, technical.

I wrote the electronics with a software called Max/MSP. They function primarily to highlight the overtones of the guitar and to transform several samples.

I would like to communicate a special thanks to Wally Scharold for his beautiful work on the mixes.



You broke it, you bought it: Timo Andres, 2011

You broke it, you bought it is an exercise in dogfooding.

The piece takes three bars of my own re-composition of Mozart’s Coronation concerto and stretches, elaborates, reharmonizes, and otherwise melds them into an athletic duo featuring lots of hockets.

Family Man: Adrian Knight, 2012
I was thrown into a state of grand confusion when I started writing Family Man in 2011. As always, a few tidbits of an idea hinted at a larger picture, but the more I worked on it, the less cohesive it seemed. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to recreate a mood that was at once luxurious and foreboding. As I dig through my notes for the piece, I discover the following: 

1. The title came first. 2. The piece is in technicolor, like Dick Tracy's world. 3. The piece is about an age when love was powerful and beautiful and not just an asset. 4. I was considering buying a battery driven fan. 5. One of the sections was originally titled "Home For Dinner." 6. Another section was titled "Dark Swedish Room." 7. The piece opens "majestically" and goes "downhill from there." 8. The last movement of the piece is modeled after Messiaen's Apparition De L'Église Éternelle. 9. A slide projector was used for the interludes. 10. "Is this even music?" and "It has potential but I doubt it will come to fruition." 

In hindsight, I think the piece is somehow about (and certainly a product of) the comforts of Living In The Western World. It's about surface value. When Jim Jones shows up, he just uncovers all the bad stuff that's been lying there waiting all along. 

I want to thank Andy and Travis for making this piece "come to fruition," and making it their own, because indeed, with their help, I rewrote much of the percussion part (in order to make it as difficult as possible) and finally learned the true meaning of "ffffff possibile."

Repetitive Stress: Jon Russell, 2012
Repetitive Stress channels the raw power and aggression of heavy metal music through meticulous post-minimalist rhythmic structures, creating intricately off-kilter grooves with unpredictable twists and turns. It was premiered by The Living Earth Show at the 2012 Switchboard Music Festival in San Francisco.