Jon Gibson: Visitations I and II + Thirties
(New Tone, CD #67472)
Visitations I & II, Thirties;
Reissue of 1972 Chatham Sq. LP plus previously unreleased performance of Thirties.
JON GIBSON: bamboo flutes, bells, cymbals, gong, claves, vocal drumming, synthesizer, effects. JOHN FULLEMANN: ocean recording, technical assistance. TINA GIROUARD: maracas. RICHARD PECK: woodblock. KURT MUNKASCI: recording engineer, effects.
Reissue of 1972 Chatham Sq. LP plus previously unreleased performance of Thirties.
JON GIBSON: bamboo flutes, bells, cymbals, gong, claves, vocal drumming, synthesizer, effects. JOHN FULLEMANN: ocean recording, technical assistance. TINA GIROUARD: maracas. RICHARD PECK: woodblock. KURT MUNKASCI: recording engineer, effects.
Performers on Thirties:
JON GIBSON, Keyboard; GAVIN BRYARS, percussion; MlCHAEL PARSONS, percussion; CHRISTOPHER HOBBS, percussion; DAVID ROSENBOOM, electronic violin; STANLEY LUNETTA, percussion; ARTHUR WOODBURY, keyboard; KURT BISCHOFF, percussion; KEN HORTON, percussion; JEFF KARL, percussion; PETER SUTHERLAND, percussion; EVA SCALLA, percussion Performed "live" on August 19, 1972 at the ICES Festival, London, England.
JON GIBSON, Keyboard; GAVIN BRYARS, percussion; MlCHAEL PARSONS, percussion; CHRISTOPHER HOBBS, percussion; DAVID ROSENBOOM, electronic violin; STANLEY LUNETTA, percussion; ARTHUR WOODBURY, keyboard; KURT BISCHOFF, percussion; KEN HORTON, percussion; JEFF KARL, percussion; PETER SUTHERLAND, percussion; EVA SCALLA, percussion Performed "live" on August 19, 1972 at the ICES Festival, London, England.
Notes by Jon Gibson
This is is a CD reissue of my first Chatham Square LP entitled Visitations, which was originally issued in 1973. It was self-produced and 2,000 copies were made and was the first of two Gibson LPs on this label. The second LP is called Jon Gibson / Two Solo Pieces and is also a part of this New Tone project. Chatham Square Records was started by Philip Glass and Klaus Kertess and is where Glass' first recordings appeared {Music in Changing Parts, Music in Similar Motion etc.). Music by Richard Landry, Arthur Russell and Michael Snow also appears on Chatham Square.
At the time Landry and myself were both performing with the Glass Ensemble and also active performing our own music. Basically, everyone was responsible for financing their own LP projects. Visitations is subtitled "a 16-Track Multi-Textured Environmental Soundscape" and refers to a series of tape mixes which culminate in the two mixes found on the CD. Other pieces from this period include Single Stroke Rolland Fluid Drive, along with a lot of attempts at in-field recordings of streams, oceans, wind, etc. They combine various continuous sounds in different ways.
The sounds are generally unpitched, ambient, textural and inspired by nature and Carlos Casteneda books. Chronologically, Thirtiescomes on the heels of Visitations and represents an expansion of my composing vocabulary to also include works dealing with structure and pitch, and it is the first of many pieces composed in the 1970s using an overiding structure as the underpinning for the other elements in a piece.
Thirties is basically a structure, or skeleton, on which many different things have been done over the years. It has had many performances by different groups around the world and also is the basis for visual graphics and a computer animated videotape. It is open ended in terms of number of performers and kinds of instruments used as well as time length of a performance. The progression of the structure is built around even divisions of the number 30 (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, 30) contained within an ongoing 32 beat cycle.
This is the first performance of Thirties and it was done at the Roundhouse in London at the ICES Festival in 1972. This festival went on for a week and included performances and events by many different experimental groups and individuals.
