Steve Roden - One Stone/And Arcs And Ears

This 7” comes from a Roden’s idea evolved from a soundtrack: 'Le Procès de Jeanne d'Arc', directed by Robert Bresson.
The tracks and even the titles have this reference.
The music was obtained removing all the dialogue from side one of the LP, only manipulating an audible instrument: a horn.
The result are two abstract drones with incidental noises and some undetectable words, all mixed with cracklings of the vinyl.
Moreover, the titles were created taking the letters respectively from “Robert Bresson” and the film’s name.
Roden says: “One stone” also refers to the rock thrown through Jeanne's window in the film… “And Arcs And Ears” also refers to the circular motion of the spinning record and the activity of listening....

Label: New Plastic Music
Cat. #: SR-544
Format: 7”, Vinyl, 33 ⅓ RPM,
Release date: 2007
Notes: Limited edition of 300 signed copies

Tracklisting:
A1 - One Stone (06:13)
B1 - And Arcs And Ears (06:04)

Steve Roden on this blog:

• Amnesia (Live In Berlin, 2004) (here)
• Dark Over Light Earth (w/ Jacob Danziger) (here)
• VV.AA. - Extract - Portraits Of Soundartists (here)
• Skoltz_Kolgen - Silent Room (here)

Links:
Steve Roden

Steve Roden w/ Jacob Danziger - Dark Over Light Earth

from Vital Weekly # 579:

It's been a while since I last heard something by Steve Roden. Perhaps he was too busy with his sound installations, but then much of his work was made with that intention anyway. Here he has one installation piece called 'Dark Over Light Earth' which he made for an exhibition of Mark Rothko's painting at the Museum Of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. And if we think 'Rothko + music' we think of course of Morty Feldman's 'Rothko Chapel', one of the contemporary highlights of modern classical music.
For his piece, Roden divided the eight paintings in various color sections and thus made a score, playing harmonium and glockenspiel. He asked his friend Jake to play the Feldman piece on a pair headphones, while attempting to play the piece on his violin.
Through layering and reorganizing Roden crafts a beautiful piece of music together, with a bare minimum of electronic sounds.
Slowly changing, with the violin in a leading part, this piece moves in various directions, yet at the same time it doesn't seem to move at all. It has the same contemplative beauty as Rothko's paintings, as well as Feldman's original piece. Overwhelming quietness. Great work.
(Frans de Waard)

Label: New Plastic Music
Cat. #:
Format: CD
Release date: 2007

Tracklisting:
01 - Dark Over Light Earth (34:09)

Links:
Steve Roden