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when mountains aren't mountains

from solitaires 2011 by Rick Tarquinio

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"wmam" is an accidental stonaphone piece built of 2 short improvisations "naturally phasing" as they repeat. this technique grew from steve reich's use of phasing in "drumming" and the "phase pieces". but whereas his compositions phase in very precise, metrical fashion, natural phasing is just the result of one loop or phrase being shorter or longer than another. hence their relationship changes in unpredictable and random ways each time they repeat. this technique is common to most of my accidental music.

the title is taken from my favorite spiritual autobiography "long quiet highway" by natalie goldberg. she recounts an episode where her zen teacher lectured on how in the beginning mountains are mountains, in the middle they are no longer mountains, and at the end, mountains are mountains again. she asks what were they when they weren't mountains, and gets rebuked by the other students. i like the question myself... the instrument i use on this piece has bars made of recycled roofing slate. i like to think that they were on someone's house for 100 years or so as i play it. then one day it dawned on me that before that they were part of a mountain somewhere for who knows how long. it's as if i'm playing on creation itself. so one answer to natalie's question might be, "they were a stonaphone". one i am lucky enough to play on.

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from solitaires 2011, released May 27, 2011
RT: stonaphone

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Rick Tarquinio New Jersey

My music is created very simply using improvisation, chance procedures or accidental means. I also do a lot of field recording and sound experiments using natural forces to create sound. I used to be a singer/songwriter in a past life, but every caterpillar has its day...

You can check out more of my work below
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