Red Wharf

[Traeth]

The musical compositions of Graham Bowers take the form of a complete theatrical experience.A radical alternative in musical composition, crossing the genres of contemporary, classical, experimental, avant-garde, incorporating all the elements to evoke a dramatic and sensitive response from the listener.
Visit www.red-wharf.com to listen to excerpts and read what the reviewers have to say.

Tune in to BBC Radio 3... ''Mixing it''...10.15pm August 5th to hear a section of Graham's fourth full length work ~ ''Pilgrim''

Tune into ''The Garden of Earthly Delights''... www.gardenofearthlydelights.com 10.00pm July 29th to listen to Shane Quentin's 'special mix' of Graham's music
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[mosc]

Traeth, good to have you here.

Interesting web site. I listened to the excerpts - too short to get any real impressions about the music though - lots of good reviews though.

Are you Graham Bowers?

[johnsystecore]

That's very interesting music, though I agree with the previous post. I would like to hear more.

-john, Friend
www.myspace.com/friend

[Traeth]

Hello johnsystecore

There is a one hour feature/compilation on-line of Graham's music, the compilation is made up of sections taken from the following works
Of Mary's Blood, Transgression and Eternal Ghosts. Log on to www.totallyradio.com "Crooked Stylus" show, unfortunately it costs, but only one English pound, its great value for the money...if you decide to give it a listen.....I would be interested to hear your response.

[johnsystecore]

To Graham:

I'm listening to it (crooked stylus show) right now.
The sounds at the beginning were just really relaxing and other-worldly; and before I realize it, I'm listening to really intense guitar noise, and what sounds like screaming.

My friends in the room just said, "what are you listening to? Can you turn it off?" So I put on the headphones. Don't worry about them, they're playing a football (american) video game.

The silence that comes in after the noisy guitar part is well-placed, because at that point I'm just about to get uncomfortable. But I didn't.

I have to be honest with you; it took a little patience to get through the voice part. I kept thinking it was going to end, and it didn't. It was a bit torturous at times. But coming out of it sounded all the more beautiful because of that.

The stuff that comes after that...sounds like a far away factory and a clock, with a couple random spurts of heavy distortion, is very nice. I'm really glad I'm not on drugs at this point, because the voices are a little creepy. Again it's becoming torturous, but like a drug trip, the torture subsides...for a while.

I kind of zoned out during the next quiet part. The choir sounds in the background that come in are very nice. It's absolutely beautiful and intense here, especially with the low tone underneath. Is that you singing?

After that, it starts sounding like Star Trek IV. Really.

For a short period there, I really liked the low, thumping rhythm, but it went away. Sounds like a train ran over a clarinet player. The samples I really enjoy. I can't understand a word of what they are saying, but the music makes them sound much more important than they probably are.

The tones that fade in after the demonic voice are piercing, but wonderful. The sounds that appeared suddenly at the end of that passage really gave me a start. Perfectly executed. A second earlier and it wouldn't have been nearly as effective.

The piano sounds great. I feel like this whole thing is becoming more and more sparse. You do a good job of affecting your instruments in such a way that I can't tell what it is you're playing. I can't tell if you're strumming a guitar or playing a piano...I think it's a piano...and is that a saxophone in the background? You must have a lot of instruments.

For some reason I keep picturing this music being played.

The percussion sounds that come in 51 minutes in are great. They really make this part of the song easier for me to listen to. The guitars sound very nice here as well. I suppose, like a lot of people, it's easier for me to get into something if it has a lot of exciting rhythm in it.

I'm really enjoying this. Well, I don't know about the power chords. That's a little over the top.

I liked the ending.

Now, where some pieces of music will take you to a different place, this thing took me right back to reality. Every day, when you walk out the door, or turn on the news, you are confronted with the ugliness, beauty, fear, hilarity, and boredom all at once. What I hear here is emotions going up and down and left and right...I feel crazy listening to it. I almost couldn't make it through some passages, because they made me feel like I was trapped beneath the earth in a coffin...other parts made me happy, and want to listen to it again. The world does the same thing to me. I don't know what is going through your mind here, but I commend you for convincing me to listen to the music. I'm glad I did.

Don't take it the wrong way when I say that some of the parts I couldn't listen to because they felt far too long. The voice part near the beginning, where it comes in and out, in different pitches and volumes, and it drives me nuts. But you know what, it reminds me of my friend over there playing his football video game. He just keeps playing these games over and over for 6 hours at a time; not learning anything, not gaining any skills, not cultivating himself, not engaging with the other people in the room (it doesn't matter because they're all playing different video games)...and I see him interacting with this game, getting frustrated, suddenly happy...and it's almost 2 am and he's still not going to bed, and since I am in the process of moving to a different city, I'm sleeping on his couch...so I have to wait for him to finish. Every time he does anything in the game, I cringe, or feel anxious...I just want it to be over. That's how I felt during some of those passages in the music. But like life, sometimes, you just have to wait it out. And it's comforting to me to know that it reflects my life in that way.

There's also the ugliness and the beauty, which I'm not going to go into...I'm getting really tired. But by ugliness, I mean torturous. It sounds great. It just hurts the ears and scares me. And of course there are beautiful tones throughout, which the ugly parts just empasize.

This is just what I picked out of it. Like life, it was something I had to ENDURE, rather than experience. It was definitely worth listening to.

Our band, Friend, has a few ambient and noise sections in our songs...you might like it, although I have no ambient stuff to show you.

Thanks for the music, really
John, Friend
www.myspace.com/friend

[ZZZZZZ]

You´re welcome!!!
Could´nt listen to the stuff right know but after reading johnsystecore review it sounds to be very interesting!

[Traeth]

Hello johnsystecore

I enjoyed reading your review of the “Crooked Stylus” broadcast....I have to admit to feeling very uncomfortable about replying in this very public arena, but because details of my work have been placed here in an attempt to bring it to a wider public and you have taken the time to listen and respond. I must override my reservations and enter into the “spirit of things”....so here goes.

The first thing that I must say is that what you listened to on the on-line broadcast was a compilation taken from a trilogy of work, “Of Mary’s Blood”, “Transgression” and “Eternal Ghosts”. I was asked if I would put together sixty minutes of music featuring sections from each piece of work, as all three pieces are a continuous track (approx fifty minutes) without any breaks this proved to be difficult, coupled with the fact that, as I have already mentioned, each work is part of a trilogy, and most definitely has its’ own identity in terms of what I am attempting to say through music. The difficulty of this exercise was exacerbated by the fact that I know each piece so well that I had to fight my instincts when placing unrelated sections next to each other. It was however a rewarding exercise and I felt that the final result was an acceptable compilation.

You make some interesting observations; but I find it impossible to respond with short articulate replies and responses (if I could I would be a writer) and I am already aware that this post is ‘getting long winded’....so I will generalise. I am a ‘reasonably’ good ‘player’ of several instruments and have a ‘reasonably’ good knowledge of reading and writing scores but when it comes to working on my own work, I have no natural desire to play, or indeed wish to play any conventional tune or melody on any instrument. I achieve the sounds that I am looking for by playing acoustic instruments, whether it be wind, string or percussion, in my own way and on a deeply personal emotive level, and generally speaking I very rarely do more than one take in the recording process as I feel that whatever sounds were produced have a value relative to that moment in time and therefore have a credible voice within the piece. On almost all of the recorded sounds there is extensive manipulation and modification, but I don’t use a sampler and synthesisers have a minimal contribution. A vague analogy to how I work would be similar to the way Jackson Pollack painted his pictures - an intuitive knowledge and feel for the quality, viscosity, texture and colour of the paint and its application and place within the canvas, in my case, these sensitivities are applicable to sound rather than paint. The layering and balancing of the sounds and their identities/personalities and their place within the overall stereophonic perspective is a vital part of my composition, as it is in any conventional approach, but there the similarities end. Generally speaking there are no melodic themes (perhaps the odd re-occurring motif) to explore or extemporise upon and no conventional, and consistent time based rhythmical structures. I am, in brief, attempting to create some form of musical experience that is akin to an ever changing emotive organic living journey, - a form of audio theatre. (If mosc is reading this, he is probably thinking I have read this already !!!)

I was particularly interested in your comments in the second part of your review, concerning your reactions and responses whilst listening, ie; reality, parts being too long and the relief when they finally finish, the ugliness and the beauty, endure rather than experience, and your reference to the whole gamut of emotions that we experience in life. I am so pleased that you felt and recognised all of those things, as that is the objective I aspire to achieve when making music.

In answer to your question “Is that you singing”.....on the part that you found “tortuous at times”...yes, and on the choral part that you found “absolutely beautiful and intense”...yes, but only on one of the harmonies all the other parts were sung by a good friend and excellent musician William Henshall.

Stay in touch, and thanks for your response....it was much appreciated.

Graham

[Traeth]

A quick response to previous postings.....the musical excerpts at the Red Wharf website, the home of Graham Bowers' music www.red-wharf.com have been extended from 15 seconds to 2 minutes. If the listening experience invokes a response...please post.

[mosc]

I am lucky enough to have received three of Graham Bower's CDs in the mail. They are Eternal Ghosts, Transgression and Pilgrim. All three CDs sound compositionally related, but are different in mood and texture. I would describe all of them as extended ambient soundscapes. For the most port they are slowly evolving textures of sound rather than episodic Western music, but at times this is refreshingly not the case.

This is very good music, highly recommended. To me, Eternal Ghosts made the biggest impression. It really sounds haunted. Listing to this is like taking a train right through the other side - the world where spirits reside - the underworld. I don't know if such a place really exists, but if it does it probably is similar to this. I found it very compelling - often disturbing - and always interesting.

Each of the CDs is one more or less continuous composition.

Excellent listening... Quite enjoyable...

[Traeth]

'...... Surealism is indeed, Bowers' modus operandi. The accompanying paintings are lumpy creations in the Dali school, all painted on black as if to signify images rising out of the subconscious. The music by association is already dealing with surrealist issues about the subconscious and about memory, before a note hits the score paper.......'Richard Cochrane ~ Avant

Tune into BBC 6 Music - Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/freakzone/ Sunday 18th Decemberto hear tracks of Graham Bowers' music.

Check out past but recent broadcasts
BBC Radio 3 - Mixing It
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/mixingit/pip/w6dnj/[/b]
Bent Strings http://www.live365.com/stations/martinherman
Borderline Extra http://www.borderline-extra.de/ 12/08/05
Black Channel http://www.blackchannelkarlsruhe.de/4903.html 7/12/05
WHYNOT JAZZ is now streamed 24/7 from http://c3r.ca/radio.html
14/12/2005
Garden of Earthly Delights http://www.gardenofearthlydelights.com/ for broadcast mix.
Totally Radio http://www.totallyradio.com/ to hear one hour length feature
.....and.....
Red Wharf website http://www.red-wharf.com
BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/music/sites/graham_bowers/pages/biography.shtml

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[Editor's note: cleaned up some links, --mosc]

[Traeth]

Book mark the forthcoming broadcast
ConcertZender ~ Hessel Veldman ~ 15:00 - 17:00 ~ 27th April 2006
www.concertzender.nl .
TRACK 1 Titel: Of Mary’s Blood Album: Of Mary’s Blood (CD) Tijd: 47:17
TRACK 2 Titel: Eternal Ghosts Album: Eternal Ghosts (CD) Tijd: 50:24
TRACK 3 Titel: Unconditional part 1, 2nd 3 Album: Pilgrim (CD) Tijd: 14:50

[Traeth]

You may find a recent article in 'Tokafi' ~ 'Mouvement Nouveau' by Tobias Fischer entitled '15 Questions to Graham Bowers' an interesting read.

"He's not a clasically trained musician, he dislikes overanalyzing his music, he doesn't consider himself to be a part of the music scene and even if he were, he has been away for many years. Graham Bowers caused quite a few jaws to drop when he published........." to read more, the interview is now online at:
http://www.tokafi.com/15questions/15-questions-to-graham-bowers/view