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Cassette
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IMPREC 521CS
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Duane Pitre's Varolii Patterns was made with an eight-voice synthesizer, tuned in Just Intonation. These consonant pieces explore shifting polyrhythms that slip in-and-out of rhythmic focus and "Common Rhythmic Pulses" carry over as the pattern evolves within a piece.
Artist statement: "While experimenting with microtonal electronics for a piece I was writing for Zinc & Copper, which would eventually be titled Pons, I came across a process-based technique that I was quite keen on. Although I wouldn't use this technique on the Zinc & Copper piece, I would later implement said process to make up some of the electronics on Omniscient Voices (IMPREC 501LP, 2021). During this time, I carried out dozens and dozens of instances of this process and recorded them all. Varolii Patterns is composed of a small collection of these recorded takes, ones I felt were standalone pieces on their own and that worked well together as a whole."
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LP
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IMPREC 501LP
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Duane Pitre returns to Important Records with Omniscient Voices, an articulate, intense and emotionally resonant set of five pieces for justly tuned piano and electronics. Omniscient Voices is a uniquely distinct work that follows Pitre's trilogy of releases which culminated with 2015's Bayou Electric (IMPREC 421CD/LP) and included the critically acclaimed Feel Free (2012) and Bridges (IMPREC 390CD/LP, 2013) albums. Where those albums were rooted in long form pieces, Omniscient Voices is a collection of shorter pieces, offering more harmonic variety than previous works, with a unique sound and feel that is still unmistakably the work of Duane Pitre. In 2019, after a five-year period where Pitre did not focus on outward facing music, but instead on his own personal practice, a small idea in the form of a question came to him: would the combination of his latest computer -- and electronic-based experiments, used in conjunction with justly tuned piano, produce interesting results; simply put, would it "work"? Concurrently, Pitre was studying a handful of Morton Feldman scores for their focus on tonal clusters, reading a book on Arvo Pärt's life and work, and contemplating the pulse-based rhythms of Steve Reich and Phillip Glass. In 2020, with no intention of making a new album, the composer tried to answer this question. The results would spawn five pieces that would become Omniscient Voices. On this new work, Pitre finds himself giving equal priority to both piano and electronics, utilizing his Max/MSP-based generative network to real-time convert precomposed piano motifs, into data, which is then used to communicate with two polyphonic, microtonal hardware synthesizers whose patches Pitre authored; this process generates the electronic component of the album. Pitre also utilizes controlled improvisation to interact with the piano-reactive electronics in a spontaneous and inspired manner, going back and forth between these two pianistic approaches. In all, this approach creates a "musical feedback loop" of sorts. Despite Omniscient Voices being the culmination of 15 years of hard work and inspiration, this beautiful album somehow materialized in a natural, intuitive and effortless way. Mastered and cut by Golden and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity.
Artist's statement: "When making the pieces that would become Omniscient Voices, I often viewed the piano as human action, a single note becoming a single gesture that has the potential to change the electronic environment, the electronics becoming the environment surrounding that human in the natural world, who then has the power to change their actions based on their surroundings. All actions have consequences. The interconnectedness of everything. Single actions making waves of change."
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CD
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IMPREC 421CD
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Bayou Electric is the final installment in an unplanned trilogy, with Feel Free (IMPREC 349CD, 2012) and Bridges (IMPREC 390CD/LP, 2013) making up the first and second installments in the series, respectively. All three works share similar characteristics, compositional processes, alternate tuning schemes, instrumentation, and a certain ethos that the composer views as cohesive whole. There is a progression toward refinement over the course of this trilogy, in the overall sound of the albums and in their dependence on other musicians to realize them (each less dependent than its predecessor). Bayou Electric, which contains a single, calming, and cathartic composition (of the same title), brings this cycle to a gentle and unhurried finale. Pitre captured the field recording utilized in Bayou Electric on a late night in August, 2010, at the edge of Four Mile Bayou, Louisiana, which has been in Pitre's family since January 14, 1922. Upon listening to what he'd captured, Pitre became enthralled by the fabric of sound that the wildlife on this waterway had created. It evoked many feelings, reminded him that his ancestors had lived among these same sounds and walked the same land, and created a powerful connection and a sense of timelessness. Pitre was set on finding a way to use this field recording in his music, but wanted to do so without simply adding it to a composition as just another layer of sound or by molding it (via processing) into something easier to work with. Instead, Pitre decided to start with the unaltered field recording and build the instrumentation around it, in a highly sympathetic manner, with the musical portion becoming accompaniment to the sounds of this remote land. This was the catalyst of Bayou Electric and of primary importance to him, as a way to artistically connect to his Cajun heritage. For synthesizers; sine tones; amplified violin, viola, and cello; field recording; and custom software. Written, recorded, reconfigured, and mixed from July through October of 2014 in New Orleans.
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LP
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IMPREC 421LP
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LP version. Edition of 500. Bayou Electric is the final installment in an unplanned trilogy, with Feel Free (IMPREC 349CD, 2012) and Bridges (IMPREC 390CD/LP, 2013) making up the first and second installments in the series, respectively. All three works share similar characteristics, compositional processes, alternate tuning schemes, instrumentation, and a certain ethos that the composer views as cohesive whole. There is a progression toward refinement over the course of this trilogy, in the overall sound of the albums and in their dependence on other musicians to realize them (each less dependent than its predecessor). Bayou Electric, which contains a single, calming, and cathartic composition (of the same title), brings this cycle to a gentle and unhurried finale. Pitre captured the field recording utilized in Bayou Electric on a late night in August, 2010, at the edge of Four Mile Bayou, Louisiana, which has been in Pitre's family since January 14, 1922. Upon listening to what he'd captured, Pitre became enthralled by the fabric of sound that the wildlife on this waterway had created. It evoked many feelings, reminded him that his ancestors had lived among these same sounds and walked the same land, and created a powerful connection and a sense of timelessness. Pitre was set on finding a way to use this field recording in his music, but wanted to do so without simply adding it to a composition as just another layer of sound or by molding it (via processing) into something easier to work with. Instead, Pitre decided to start with the unaltered field recording and build the instrumentation around it, in a highly sympathetic manner, with the musical portion becoming accompaniment to the sounds of this remote land. This was the catalyst of Bayou Electric and of primary importance to him, as a way to artistically connect to his Cajun heritage. For synthesizers; sine tones; amplified violin, viola, and cello; field recording; and custom software. Written, recorded, reconfigured, and mixed from July through October of 2014 in New Orleans.
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LP
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IMPREC 391LP
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New lower pricing; originally released in 2013. "Beautiful ensemble performance of Duane Pitre's Feel Free, including James Blackshaw on hammered dulcimer. LP pressed in an audiophile grade edition of 1000 copies. Shortly after the release of Pitre's Feel Free, the composer set out for a 2012 solo tour in select European cities. To start off this tour he staged an ensemble performance of Feel Free, at London's renowned Cafe OTO. For his ensemble, Pitre chose to utilize only one veteran of a Feel Free performance (Jesse Sparhawk) and for the remainder of the group he used English musicians who'd not played the composition prior. The resulting performance sees Feel Free taking new shapes and producing different energies than the studio recording."
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CD
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IMPREC 390CD
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"Duane Pitre's Bridges, features two pieces taken from a suite of analogous compositions by the same name, and was composed by Pitre in 2012. The two pieces that comprise the album are meant to work together in sequence as a composite work; or they can be isolated and listened to on their own. The title derives its name from the original concept for this work, which was to bring together aspects of traditional Eastern music (such as compositional form and tuning) with Western musical traditions (such as in the church music of the Middle Ages and modern classical music). The result is an album that merges the ancient with the new, while creating a sound that is wholly its own."
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LP
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IMPREC 390LP
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CD
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IMPREC 349CD
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"The two major focal points in the creation of composer Duane Pitre's Feel Free, his new work for a unique sextet combination, were rhythm and melody. An open yet orderly system intended to produce potentially infinite variations of self-generating rhythm and melody was carefully created for this piece, allowing the sextet musicians to approach these factors in a freer manner. This 'musical system,' combined with the fixed elements of the composition, in turn, spawned a rich foundation of harmony & rhythm that sounds and feels exotic and new. The title, Feel Free, derives in part from one of the composition's instructions to its performers. It suggests that they should feel free to interact with (or ignore) one another, as well as with the random, real-time, computer generated patterns of guitar harmonics (the pillar of the work); therefore making intuitive yet rule-based decisions, in that moment of the piece, instead of relying on standard notation to dictate their every move. This approach creates a performance that is unique upon each occasion that it is performed; it is free from its own restraints. Pitre set out to compose a piece as a musical lattice-work that was rich with layers and interweaving rhythmic patterns, superimposing themselves upon each another in ways that would at times synchronize with and without intention. It is a system rooted in chaos that finds alignment in a myriad of ways."
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CD
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RS 068CD
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"Now available on CD in an edition of 500. The entirety of Origin's musical material is comprised of the vibrating strings of Pitre's ensemble of bowed 'harmonic-guitars,' which are unconventionally strung electric guitars (utilizing multi-unisons) tuned to intervals corresponding with the Harmonic Series, a.k.a. Just Intonation. No effects processing (pre or post) was used in this recording. All effect-like qualities result from the multi-unison strings (phasing), sympathetic vibrations, combination/difference tones (of the chosen just tuning), and natural acoustic phenomena as such."
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