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| 2026 For volume control use Google Chrome |
For
Stereo Speakers (Use earbuds, headphones or large
system) Total duration = 12'14" |
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Churn Works, Seven
(2026) is based on seven improvisations using a rusty butter
churn/egg beater as seen in the banner above. An aunt of mine made her
butter from such a device attached to a jar full of cream on a remote Minnesota
farm where she raised pigs, sheep, crops and one
Holstein cow used for all their dairy needs. Just outside her kitchen
door, there was on a bell on a pole with a rope to call her eight kids
in for meals, or bedtime... When I spotted this churn
at a thrift store in Watertown, I grabbed it giving it a hesitant spin
and was transported back to the 1950s and 60s where favorite cousins
tried
teaching me to ride a boar, a massive squeeling pig, that scared hell
out of
me. But I deeply loved this rugged home, it impacting my aesthetics to
this very day.
The rugged sounds of these improvisations, are dedicated to all my cousins, their mother, and my indomitable Anny Vanny who often worked one handed while reading any book she could find with the other. This is my second experience with 32-bit float technology having recently purchased such a recording device. Like my first experience, recorded in a highly specialized isolation booth doubling as a guest room closet, I found recording AND post production different from any previous related experience. The improvisitional strategies applied (see RKM Interview) to this incorrigible object were limited to turning the rusty rotating parts, these also sensitive to the angle the object was held. Had I oiled the crank and blades, I feared, it could've lost it's crankiness—steady, slow turning was impossible. Unlike the found instruments presented in Flat Works (2024), where the object's topography guided the performance, the rusty restraints forced jerky stop-start-stop-start gestures lacked finesse but were often engaging. Related works: Four Floaters '26, Jello Mold '26, Uličnická Galerie '25, Flat Works '24, Tin Pan Salvo '2 |
Attenuate tracks individually. Seven Moveable Works One Two Three Four Five Six Seven The above tracks were improvised in the order presented. I mention this because the first two are probably the weakest and as I became familiar with the churn, the tracks are increasingly nuanced. It even occurred to me to omit these "training" tracks but even this simple observation alone is worth while in part because, with found instrument performance, I consider rehearsal, past level setting, a mistake. It leaves too much room for mastery and cliche development. And yet while using this 32bit float technology, setting levels the old way is generally unnecessary. And so, the first improv is pretty much me performing soon after purchasing the churn from St Vinny's. The second isn't much bettter. From then on, it's OK. |
Performance Strategy One
CWS may be performed sequentially, 1-7, with a brief silence between sections, as given in the middle column here. The sequence may be changed willy nilly. Any number of the works may be presented alone or combined with other sections. They may be presented as a stereo-quad work, a quad work with one section played over the front speakers, another over the back speakers simultaneously or interwoven gradually. The sections may be interspersed between other compositions on a concert or used as dance accompaniment. Performance Strategy Two 1. Lower the volume by 50% or more for all works using the Google Chrome browser. 2. Choose two tracks and subtract the shorter file length from longer. 3. Start the longer file frist and then the shorter by the time difference calculated just above enabling the tracks to end about the same time. 4. Sit back, have a few sips and see how it sounds. while determining the combination of files that work best together. Contact the composer at rakutoo (at) icloud dot com for the high quality 32-bit float .wav concert performance versions. DS041026 Dan
Senn (Prague-Watertown) is an
intermedia artist working in music composition and production, kinetic
sound sculpture, experimental and documentary film. He has been a
professor of music and art in the United States and Australia and
travels internationally as a lecturer, performer, producer and installation
artist. He lives in Prague where he directs the Echofluxx festivals,
and Watertown, Wisconsin, the USA, with his partner-collaborator,
Caroline. Dan's work moves freely between expressive extremes and
languages depending on the aesthetic joust at hand. He is cofounder
of Roulette Intermedium of New York
Cty (Brooklyn), Cascadia Composers of
Portland Oregon, and the Echofluxx
media
festivals in Prague. (read more)
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