Seven Years of Crazy Love Music From the Center for Contemporary Music 1969-1976 Assembled and Mixed by Bob Sheff, Jan. 1977

The Center for Contemporary Music is a public-access, non-profit facility with studios located at Mills College, Oakland, California, U.S.A. The Center also provides courses for graduate and undergraduate students. The music included in this mix consists of excerpts from works produced by the graduate students and staff produced during the years 1969-1976. The mix was begun in response to a request from the Centre Georges Ponpidou in Paris for material representing the work of our studio.

Additionally, there have been hundreds of users of this public-access facility (jazz and rock bands, artists in radio, television, and theatre, people requiring copies of recorded material, people wanting to learn electronic music instruments, filmmakers, electronic music instrument designers...) as well as invited composers and artists, and free-to-the-public concert series. No particular style of music or hierarchy of behavior is demanded at the Center, and, consequently, a friendly, competent and co-operative atmosphere exists here for the continual making of music.

There are three tapes in this mix, and are available in 4-channel "Quad" and 2-channel "Stereo." They are designed to be played in sequence as a whole, but may be played one at a time.

Seven Years of Crazy Love Music From the Center for Contemporary Music 1969-1976 Mills College, Oakland, California, U.S.A. Mixed and Assembled by Bob Sheff, January, 1977

TAPE 1

JACQUES BEARKART: EXCERPTS FROM THE "KING KONG" RADIO SHOW OF INTERVIEWS WITH THE C.C.M. STAFF (1973) Broadcast on Radio Belgium. Background music: BOB SHEFF: MUSIC FOR "BLACK FOREST TRADING POST" a film by Andrew Lugg (1976, Canada), Instruments: RMI/an electronic keyboard, Electric Guitar/Ana Perexz, and the Chamberlin/a keyboard-controlled instrument with 1200 sounds available on tape loops, designed by the Chamberlin Co., in Oakland, Ca.

ROBERT ASHLEY: INTERLUDE FROM "THAT MORNING THING" (OPERA) (1967) Performance at Mills College, November, 1969. Piano: Bob Sheff. Recording Engineer: Nick Bertoni. An opera for voices with elecronics and women's chorus, about a "state of mind in which a pathological dependence upon language and a pathological awareness of physical self are both present." The element of repetition is "the physical dimension of music."

THE STAR-SPANGLED MIX: Includes the following works --

POINT BLANK SILENCE at the Intercollegiate Jazz Festival. Point Blank Silence was 22 composers from the Center having a "free jazz" session organized by E. Jedidiah Denman for the Intercollegiate Jazz Festival at Heller Lounge, University of California, Berkeley, in April, 1974. They let us play only 15 of the "guaranteed" 30 minutes before pulling the plug. But the audience had a good time.

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER, realized by MARC GRAFE, JOHN BISCHOFF, PAUL DEMARINIS on the Moog Synthesizer (1972). The National Anthem of the U.S. which is based on the 18th century English drinking song "To Anacreon in Heaven." Anacreon was an ancient Greek poet renowned for his gay (homosexual) love poetry.

MEGAN ROBERTS: I COULD SIT HERE ALL DAY (Aug. 1976) Performed at the Cabrillo Festival by Megan Roberts, Phil Loarie and a percussion ensemble. Megan's other recent work includes theater pieces having to do with investigations of violence and ego, such as "AS I LIKE IT."

DANNY SOFER: I'M READY (1976). Moog Synthesizer. Danny's other work with rock bands and synthesizers was premiered at his thesis concert entitled "DANNY! DANNY! DANNY!"

ROBERT GONSALVES; SPACE TALK, SECOND SEGMENT, Dec. 1976. Recordings of space-to-earth communications processed through a delay setup. Bob's other recent work has been music produced by digital logic boxes of his own design..

PETER GORDON: IF I TRUST YOU THE REVOLUTION WILL HAPPEN (1975), words by THE BLACK TARANTULA. Paul Dresher, guitars, Craig Hazen, bass, Gene Reffkin, percussion, "Blue" Gene Tyranny, keyboards, vocal, Clay Fear, vocal. Conversationalists: Peter Gordon, Bob Ashley. Recorded March, 1975.

PETER GORDON: GREETINGS FROM THE S.L.A. PART 1, MAY, 1974 Voices: Peg Ahrens, Jill Kroesen, Kathy Acker, Denise Sporer, Bob Sheff, Paul Robinson, John Bischoff, Patty Hearst (Symbionese Liberation Army's Communique #8).

JILL KROESEN; FAY SCHISM BEGAN IN THE HOME (3 EXCERPTS) Live performance, C.C.M., May 11, 1974. Fay: Jill Kroesen Me Star: Maggi Payne Dogs: Rich Gold, Peter Gordon, Marc Grafe, Paul Robinson, "Blue" Gene Tyranny Recording Engineers: Peg Ahrens, Marcia Mikulak Jill's other recent work includes theatre pieces investigation social archtypes and repressive images and "identity," such as her recent New York production of "WHO IS THE REAL MARLON BRANDO?"

KATHY ACKER: GREETINGS FROM THE S.L.A. PART 2, MAY, 1974. Recorded and mixed by Peter Gordon. Kathy Acker has published many works including THE CHILDLIKE LIFE OF THE BLACK TARANTULA, and is currently writing a movie script with Bob Ashley which is to be a saga about the midwestern U.S., of sorts, and the pathology of everyday living.

ROBERT SHEFF: WITHOUT WARNING (THE IDENTITY REGGAE) from NO JOB, NO WARM, NO NOTHING (THE PERSON/LANGUAGE CONFUSION) (1976). Performed at the "TRUST IN ROCK" show, University of California Art Museum, Berkeley, Ca. Nov. 6, 1976, with composers and engineers from the C.C.M. PATRICE MANGET/vocals PETER GORDON/saxes CARL YOUNG/saxes, winds PAUL DRESHER/guitar STEVE BARTEK/bass RICH GOLD/live mix eng. GENE REFFKIN/percussion JANET CUNIBERTI/keyboards "BLUE" GENE TYRANNY/keyboards MAGGI PAYNE/rec. eng.

An attempt to have the dynamical, social, intellectual, feelingful etc. aspects of music appear up-front, "equally". A matrix of boxes amplifying the Doppler Shift was designed for this piece by Chester Wood and Bob Sheff, but not available at the time of this performance. What was the "blues" before it was called "the blues."

BETH ANDERSON; VALID FOR LIFE (1973) Text by Beth's mother, which she then serialized as phonemes by a compositional procedure employing the Tarot cards.

NICK BERTONI: CHARLES MANSON'S TESTIMONY (1970) Testimony in court by so-called "cult" leader Charles Manson before his sentencing in 1970. In performance, the two loud-speakers are separated by the distance required for the sound to travel in space of the time interval of the tape delay.

PETER GORDON: I DON'T WANTCHA BLUES (1976), words by KATHY ACKER Performance at the "TRUST IN ROCK" show.

PHIL HARMONIC: Excerpt from THE THE ROLLING TONES RADIO HOUR (1976) (KENNETH WERNER) KPFA Radio, Berkeley, Ca., April 6, 1976. A 3-hour call-in program with music from different social events initiated by Phil. His arts consists of arranging places and times for direct human contact, putting people in touch with people and themselves. Some of the music heard in the "background" is from THE ROLLING TONES AT THE CO-OP FOOD STORE in Berkeley. Other sounds were recorded at the California seashore, and produced live on the SERGE/ a synthesizer built in kit form by Serge Tcherepnin in L.A.

JOHN BISCHOFF: PIANO SOCIAL (1976) A musical "installation." Short tape loops are continuously made of many sound sources (acoustic instruments and home appliances...) and played back, 4 at a time, through switching circuits designed by the composer. The switches are connected so that a signal present at switch #2 will open switch #1, a signal present at #3 will open #2, and so on. As the running loops change their juxtaposition, various parts of each loop are heard at the loudspeakers. People passing through the space of the installation help make the tape loops.

VIRGINIA QUESADA: PRETTY LADY IN A PURPLE CAGE (1975) A tape piece with the sounds and verbal habits required of employees in "comfortable" and repeatable public and private businesses. Other sounds include "mood" music of various sorts.

PETER GORDON; MACHOMUSIC (1973) Peter's piece about what "it really means to be a man. The music...it's not really what it seems." Performance at the "TRUST IN ROCK" show, Nov. 6, 1976.

ROBERT SHEFF; WITHOUT WARNING from NO JOB, NO WARM, NO NOTHING (1976) The last phase and cadences. Performance at "TRUST IN ROCK".

DAVID BERRY; VIETNAM HAMBURGER (1973) Live battle recordings mixed with feedback and Moog Synthesizer on multi-track recorder. One of many anti-war pieces produced by David during these years before the so-called "peace."

ANDREW ALDRICH: THE WORLD OF THE OPEN SKY (1973) A tape realization of "SYNERGETIC CYCLES" which has been realized in several different media by creating an assemblage of continuously reaccuring manifestations of cyclic motions (lights, sounds, etc.).

Typed by Cheryl Vega 3-22-95/4-13-95