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DESERT VOICES
Label: MLC Publications (DVD)
Release year: 2014
Performers: Jonathan Aceto, Zeta Violin
Commissioned by Jonathan Aceto for his Zeta five-stringed midi violin, and performed through a Yahama SPX-1000 digital processor, the midi-violin becomes a choir of sounds, fading in and out of the recorded music. Recorded Navajo voices: Evaline Yazzi and poet Malcolm Benally. Priscilla McLean was photographer of the desert slides converted here to video.
DESERT VOICES is a song (24:10) of many tongues, and the listener will hear the song as one would see the western American desert: the vast flat windy dry plain spreading to the horizon, with sharp jagged events— bluffs, cactus spikes, giant rocks bursting upon one's vision as in a dream... Aceto performs with a variety of desert birds, gopher snake, crickets, didgeridu, recorded electronic music by McLean, and ghostly chants of resident Navajos and eternal wind.
Further information: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/McLean_MAXMSP/Main_page.html
Buy online: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/mcleanmix/McLean_DVDs.html
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PETER'S PEOPLE — CREATING THE DREAM
Label: MLC Publications (DVD)
Release year: 2012
Performers: Donald Lindsay, bagpipes. Terry Lamphere, bass guitar and the Hill Hollow Band. Athena Burke, vocals. Charlie Tokarz, woodwinds.
This is a film about eight special artists and musicians working and living in the composers' hometown of Petersburgh, NY, a small mountain village on the border of Massachusetts and Vermont. Each artist is profiled with specific works being created, as the artist describes the process of creation and dreams to come. The natural beauty of the countryside is a great influence, and the accompanying music by Barton McLean is whimsical and lively, with recorded songs and riffs by the musicians, somewhat altered electronically. The film is 38 minutes.
Further information: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/McLean_MAXMSP/Main_page.html
Buy online: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/mcleanmix/McLean_DVDs.html
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MUSIC FROM THE SOUNDS OF THE EARTH
Label: Centaur CRC 3249
Release year: 2012
Performers: Xakaalawe/Flowing: Priscilla McLean,soprano. Charlie Tokarz, various woodwinds and Colorado elk voices.
The Eye of Spring: Priscilla McLean, choir of voices, and electronics
This recording is shared with Karl Korte's "Fire" and "Water", both electronic works.
"Xakaalawe/Flowing by Priscilla McLean is a tribute to the waters of Rocky Mountain National Park, and uses the voices of native elk, native American words entoned and sung by Priscilla McLean, all about water, and Charlie Tokarz's great performance on the clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, and flute. This is the music to the other album listed below, which is a DVD art video of the RMNP mountains and waters by the composer. Priscilla McLean was an Artist in Residence at RMNP in 2002, when the images and sounds were originally recorded. This work was a staple of the McLean Mix's last touring seasons, from 2008-2013.
"The Eye of Spring", from Symphony of Seasons by Priscilla McLean, is also in DVD form, its original medium. This is a playful erotic song celebrating spring flowers and the dream quality of a sunny Northeastern U.S. spring day.
Further information: www.centaurrecords.com
Buy online: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/mcleanmix/McLean_CDs_1.html
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ELECTRONIC LANDSCAPES
Label: EM Records (CD - Japan)
Release year: 2009
Performers: Electroacoustic Tape Music
Seven Works by the McLeans: Priscilla McLean, "INVISIBLE CHARIOTS - "Voices of the Invisible", "Archangels", and "Chariots" (1975-77). ANGELS OF DELIRIUM (2001)
From the introduction: "...This album is unique in that it is the first one to present, on one CD, such a broad and comprehensive picture of their purely electronic music, spanning 1975 through 2001. Interestingly, although their materials and equipment have changed, their ideas of musical composition are still basically the same, creating a unity throughout the CD."
The 21-page booklet, in English and Japanese, includes detailed program notes and photos for each piece, plus historical notes, and an excerpt from Priscilla McLean's autobiographical book "HANGING OFF THE EDGE", Revelations of a Modern Troubadour".
Further information: www.emrecords.net
Buy online: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/mcleanmix/McLean_CDs_1.html
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SYMPHONY OF SEASONS
Label: MLC Publications (DVD)
Release year: 2009
Performers: Priscilla McLean, vocals and myriad instruments plus processing. Barton McLean, MAX/MSP Processing bicycle wheel and various instruments plus electronic background sequences
This is the first set of Priscilla McLean's compositions to include video, and spans a five-year period, from the first filming of ice formations in January 1998 ("Jewels of January") to the last music created for "July Dance" in the autumn of 2003. The focus is the variety of seasons in her home area of eastern New York State, the Adirondack Mountains, and Baxter Park in northern Maine. The electroacoustic music and video forms one combined entity expressing each season's mood and images.
The fourth piece, "Autumn Requiem", is a musical collaboration and live-performance McLean Mix piece, created in 2001 and a solemn soliloquy to 9/11, along with the writings of Henry David Thoreau and the melancholy season of autumn. Words and music contrast with the stunning beauty of a Northeastern fall. The longest work, it is 26 minutes.
Further information: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/McLean_MAXMSP/Main_page.html
Buy online: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/mcleanmix/McLean_CDs_1.html
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McLEAN MIX LIVE!
Label: MLC Publications (DVD)
Release year: 2009
Performers: Priscilla McLean, Vocals and Various Instruments
Barton McLean, MAX/MSP through Electronic Keyboards, other instruments
These four works are the epitome of the McLean Mix concert experience, featuring three which were performed and recorded at Engine 27, New York City, on June 7, 2000, and the fourth, "Magic at Xanadu", recorded live at Knickerbocker Theatre, Holland, Michigan on April 10, 2008.
This album ranges from virtuosic experimental vocal techniques with live music and video processing against a backdrop of recorded vocal sounds and ocean video ("IN THE BEGINNING"), to Chaplinesque clownlike humor of "HAPPY DAYS" using party horns, music boxes, lively synth sounds and cavorting soprano, to a more recent tour de force using MAX MSP programming, performed and created by Barton McLean. The fourth work, "WILDERNESS", has Priscilla McLean acting and singing the seven verses by Carl Sandburg, accompanied occasionally by Barton McLean on the flexatone, with recorded bird and animal sounds and composed electronic music.
Further information: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/McLean_MAXMSP/Main_page.html
Buy online: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/mcleanmix/McLean_DVDs.html
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THE McLEANS MIX THREE - COLLABORATIONS
Label: MLC Publications (DVD)
Release year: 2009
Performers: Priscilla McLean, Vocals, violin, saw blades and various instruments plus processing.
Barton McLean: Bicycle wheel and various instruments processed through MAX/MSP
The McLeans are well-known for their collaborations, and three styles are given here. In MILLing in the ENNIUM, a tribute to the Millennium, Priscilla McLean created the video collage taken from world art and music performance over the centuries, while Barton McLean, in the same spirit, put together a collage of world musics. JAMBORI RIMBA means "jungle jambouree" in Bahasan (Malaysia), and is a portrait of the Iban jungle people on the Ai River. Here the surreal art video was created by Hasnul Jamal Saidon (Malaysia), while the McLeans contributed the dreamy, evocative music, some live-performed, some from tribal dances and scenes, and some with bird and animal sounds. NATURAL ENERGY is another intense collaboration, in which Barton and Priscilla together improvised and created the lively dance-style music, while the video, created by Priscilla McLean, uses tribal and modern dance, scarves, fingers, pool water, body parts all in joyous movement.
Further information: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/McLean_MAXMSP/Main_page.html
Buy online: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/mcleanmix/McLean_DVDs.html
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FANTASIES FOR ADULTS AND OTHER CHILDREN
Label: Capstone Records (Parma) CPS-8663
Release year: 1999
Performers: Nancy Hill, Priscilla McLean, soprano. Barton McLean, live vocal processing and flexatone. Mark Saya, John Ferguson, Susan Aceto, piano.
"Fantasies for Adults and Other Children" (tracks 1-8): Eight songs with poetry by e.e. cummings. Whimsical, surreal, childlike, the songs are delightfully unique and excellently performed by Nancy Hill and pianists Mark Saya and John Ferguson.
"In the Beginning" has excerpts from ancient religions on Creation myths. A vocal tour de force of new vocal techniques and live electronic processing performed by Priscilla and Barton McLean, it was a staple of The McLean Mix for many years. Also included live video (on the DVD label).
"Wilderness", poem by Carl Sandburg, depicts seven different verses, each describing an animal or bird that lies within all of us. Sung and acted by Priscilla McLean, with flexatone accompaniment in verses 3 and 4 by Barton McLean. Performed on McLean Mix concerts for decades.
"Sage Songs of Life and Thyme" are six light-hearted songs about the meaning of life. Priscilla McLean, soprano, Susan Aceto, piano.
Further information: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/McLean_MAXMSP/Main_page.html
Buy online: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/mcleanmix/McLean_CDs_2.html
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THE McLEAN MIX & THE GOLDEN AGE OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC
Label: Composers Recordings Inc. (New World Records), CD 764
Release year: 1997
Performers: Electroacoustic Tape
DANCE OF DAWN and INVISIBLE CHARIOTS were the first two major all-electronic works by Priscilla McLean, created in 1974-5, and 1976-77 respectively, and staples of the earliest McLean Mix concerts, along with NIGHT IMAGES, a short chamber all-electronic work created in 1973. DANCE OF DAWN was created on a Synthi-100 analog synthesizer using nature as a template for the sounds. INVISIBLE CHARIOTS was a hybrid of the Synthi Digital-to-Analog Sequencer and McLean's home electronic equipment. NIGHT IMAGES used the little Synthi AKS synthesizer, forerunner of the large Synthi-100.
SONG OF THE NAHUATL by Barton McLean, influenced by Pre-Columbian Nahuatl poetry, was created in 1976 and a staple of McLean Mix concerts for years. ETUNYTUDE, a short chamber work created by Barton McLean on the first Fairlight Digital Music System in America (from Australia) was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with digital composing for McLean, and has been cited in books for its musicality.
Further information: http://www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/McLean_MAXMSP/Main_page.html
Buy online: http://www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/mcleanmix/McLean_CDs_2.html
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THE ELECTRIC PERFORMER
Label: Capstone (Parma) CPS-8637 CD
Release year: 1997
Performers: Priscilla McLean, amplified piano. Gerald Farmer, Bb clarinet. David Burge, piano. Barton McLean, soprano recorder, hybrid clarinet/recorder (clariflute). Albert Regni, alto saxophone.
THE INNER UNIVERSE by Priscilla McLean is a set of five pieces for amplified piano and recorded sounds plus three interludes with just amplified piano. Musical portraits of David Scharf's magical electron-microscope slides, the pieces are:"Landscape of a Coleus", "Sweet Alyssom/Victoria Spring", "Mosquitoscape", "Flower Power" and "Salt Canyons", performed by the composer on McLean Mix concerts for several years. WHERE THE WILD GEESE GO by Priscilla McLean is a jazzy romp for Bb clarinet and recorded wild geese, bald eagles, and other birds, performed here by Gerald Farmer, clarinettist. DIMENSIONS II for piano keyboard and stereo tape by Barton McLean is performed by David Burge. DAWN CHORUS by Barton McLean for soprano recorder and clariflute (hybrid recorder/clarinet) with digital processing and stereo tape, performed by the composer, is an ethereal dreamy work. DIMENSIONS III for alto saxophone and stereo tape is a jazzy romp performed by Albert Regni.
Further information: http://www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/McLean_MAXMSP/Main_page.html
Buy online: http://www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/mcleanmix/McLean_CDs_2.html
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THE McLEAN MIX: GODS, DEMONS, AND THE EARTH
Label: Capstone (Parma) CPS 8622-CD
Release year: 1995
Performers: Priscilla McLean and Barton McLean
WILDERNESS by Priscilla McLean uses extended vocal techniques (Priscilla) and percussion (Barton McLean on flexatone) along with a menagerie of bird, animal, and instrument sounds on CD. Poetry by Carl Sandburg.
DANCE OF SHIVA by Priscilla McLean is an electroacoustic piece using multiple vocal, insect, instrumental sounds, recorded music of Hildegard von Bingen and Buddhist chant, in a tribute to the dance of life and death.
VISIONS OF A SUMMER NIGHT by Barton McLean has four movements: 1. Visions of a Summer Night 2. Demons of the Night 3. Valley of Lost Dreams 4. Fireflies. Electroacoustic music using FM synthesis and sampling techniques on stereo tape.
EARTH MUSIC by Barton McLean. The composer on keyboards, clariflute, digital synths, samplers, and digital processors. Priscilla McLean on voice, ancient glacial rocks struck with mallets, ocarinas, and stereo tape. Text by Cedric Wright ("Words of the Earth").
Further information: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/McLean_MAXMSP/Main_page.html
Buy online: www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/mcleanmix/McLean_CDs_1.html
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RAINFOREST IMAGES
Label: Capstone (Parma) CPS-8617 CD
Release year: 1993
Performers: Priscilla McLean, soprano, recorder, violin; Barton McLean, amplified bicycle wheel, recorder, clariflute; Panaiotis, tenor; Brendan Dickie, didgeridoo; Ivana Troselj and Kerne Ryan, singers.
RAINFOREST IMAGES by Priscilla and Barton McLean: 48-minute tour de force of live and recorded performance, with nature sounds and electronics. Source music recorded at the Canberra Institute of the Arts (Australia), studio of Panaiotis (Kingston, NY), tenor, and the McLean studio, Petersburgh, NY.
ON WINGS OF SONG by Priscilla McLean: extended vocal techniques, with live voice (during concert) over recorded voice and mosquito. Barton McLean on amplified bicycle wheel and electronic processing. Text by Stewart Edward White.
HIMALAYAN FANTASY by Barton McLean: Tibetan mountain songs mixed with original electroacoustic music.
Further information: http://www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/McLean_MAXMSP/Main_page.html
Buy online: http://www.fairpoint.net/~rainfor1/mcleanmix/McLean_CDs_1.html
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