Olindo Mercier

Monday, 21.7., 3 pm

presented by Sergio Messina

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Olindo Mercier is the nickname given to my oldest sampler (a glorious 1985 Ensoniq Mirage) that, when under extreme temperature conditions, stops obeying the player's commands and starts producing music on its own (obviously not a malfunction but a spontaneous "artistic outburst"). The music is ever changing (as far as melody and patterns) while it keeps a steady beat, and very creative by minimal iterative music standards. During the past 8 years I recorded several hours of this music: the idea is to put out a CD that features basically Olindo's music (each track should be featured on slower versions as well, as it is in the demo, to let the subtler melodies come to surface) plus a couple of tracks done using exclusively samples from his material (wich will never be as interesting as the straight stuff).  As in some of my work this CD has no copyright, meaning that while each composition is protected, the sounds are free for sampling (granted the full mention of the source). The liner notes will be written by Giordano Montecchi (who teaches History of Music at the Parma Conservatory and usually writes liner notes for Deutsche Grammophon).  My main references in the making of it are "Metal Machine Music" by Lou Reed (1975) and "Songs of the Humpback Whale" (1971), besides my lifetime favorite "The House of Eternal Music" (1969, and too long out of print...) by LaMonte Young.