Friday, November 10, 2006

November 10, 2006: Glockenspiel

November 10, 2006: Glockenspiel

I first played Glockenspiel on the 6th episode of Some Assembly Required (in February, 1999). I played them again on the 29th show, and then waited almost two years to play them again in episode 120 (which is this week's podcast). We'll get into all the nitty gritty about why, along with the who, what, where and when, below...

***

Glockenspiel

This week's feature is on an artist with only two tracks in the SAR library! Read on for the SAR Q&A with Glockenspiel's David Jordan, who of course has done much more than just those two tracks as Glockenspiel. Jordan is a musician who's been in a number of bands including Beatless, Polycarp and Micro-East Collective. He is currently involved with a rock trio called Cantwell Gomez & Jordan.

He's also a founding member of the North Carolina collective known as Wifflefist. That group is known for lots of experimental projects, including the three he was involved with, Glockenspiel, Beatless and Polycarp, not to mention Silica Gel, Laso Halo, Magwheels, Buttfinger and plenty of others like Catnip, Friend Side Monkey, Banana Twins, Renelvis and A/V Geeks.

When I say I only have two tracks by Glockenspiel, what I mean is that for the first three years of the show I only had one! When contacting him to do this feature, I asked him if he had anything else I could play, and he sent me the 2nd track - which should be featured at some point this coming year. So that's something to look forward to! In the meantime, here's the SAR Q&A with David Jordan of Glockenspiel...


*Name: Glockenspiel

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: No, except I got miscredited as "Glock 2" on the RRR 500 lock groove compilation.

*Members: solo (side) project of David Jordan

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: I'd classify Glockenspiel broadly as "experimental" with a lower case e. My earlier stuff definitely fits the tape manipulation / turntable creations mold, depending more on which piece you're looking at. Lately I've turned more to live improv using electrified percussion and controlled electronic feedback. Some digital deconstruction is certainly in Glockenspiel's future, but I haven't really had the right toys to pursue that much. I suppose what ties it all together in my head is a sense that it's solo as opposed to whatever else I've got going on at the moment playing with other people, and that it's textural as opposed to structural music. Appropriation certainly plays a part in what I do to make the textures, but it's not as critical for defining what I do as Glockenspiel.

*Location: I've spent most of the last 20+ years in the Raleigh / Durham / Chapel Hill area of NC, where I've been making noise in any number of bands for about as long.

*What is your creative/artistic background: Founding member of Wifflefist, was in Beatless and Polycarp, Micro-East Collective (large improv orchestra), current rock trio is called Cantwell Gomez & Jordan.

*History: Been around as Glockenspiel since early 1990s. Been around as myself since 1968, born in Detroit if that helps plot my astrology chart, but grew up mainly in Lubbock, TX before moving east.

*Born: Detroit, 1968

*Motivations/Philosophy: I seem to have a compulsion to make this stuff, although it's a compulsion I only rarely have spare time to indulge in. In general, I think that to make and engage in and try to appreciate the difficult and unfamiliar stuff (music, art, whatever), makes us smarter and better and occasionally happier people.

*Web address: Perhaps coming to myspace very soon. There's an incomplete discography at: http://www.cantwellgomezandjordan.com/jordan.html where you can see other things I've been up to as well.

***

Thanks to David Jordan of Glockenspiel for being our featured artist this week. Check out this week's podcast to hear the infamous Glockenspiel track, "When the record goes around."

If you find out about our weekly podcast at mnartists.org, then you may have seen their recent feature, with MN Stories' Chuck Olsen. I was the focus of that feature, and instead of being all shy about it, I'm going to tell you to go take a look! I'll be having an art exhibition with Ruben Nusz in December, at Rosalux Gallery, and the video touches just a bit on my work as a visual artist, so... check it out and see what you think. You can also see my and Ruben's work at Rosalux Gallery's website, or at our individual pages at mnartists.org:
Ruben Nusz at mnartists.org
Jonathan Nelson at mnartists.org

Thanks for checking it out. Until next week, thanks for listening!
Jon Nelson

www.some-assembly-required.net

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home