DR.OX
Natasha Barrett and Tanja Orning
When it comes to hearing DR.OX, the mysterious self-titled release of cellist Tanja Orning and composer Natasha Barrett on c74 records is a good place to train the imagination; it's a reference to the one of Jules Verne's off-the-beaten-paths stories that, once read, stays with you.
Unlike the Verne tale, Natasha and Tanja's names and works will probably be as familiar to anyone who observes music in the new century as Captain Nemo or Phileas Fogg. Natasha Barrett's extensive and diverse catalog of electroacoustic/acousmatic composition and installation work has always been concerned with revealing the evocative potential of aural detail. Tanja Orning's career as a cellist has been about reuniting the long-sundered relationship between the roles of composer and performer in a dizzying array of contexts, from the concert hall to work with the rock band Wunderkammer and the Christian Wallumrod ensemble.
The Doctor Ox of the Jules Verne tale descends on the sleepy and conventional Flemish hamlet of Quiquenone for surreptitious experiments that involve using the village gas lamps to distribute a mysterious gas (later revealed to be Oxygen) whose effect on the population is decidedly enervating. Tanja and Natasha, in the guise of creating a compelling listening experience, also have something else in mind -- using Natasha's Max/MSP patching to combine the rigor and focus of the compositional process with the immediacy and virtuosity of Tanja's improvisation. The result is no experiment at all, but an elevated listening experience.
Cover photo donated by JV.Gilead.org.il, dedicated to the memory of Gilead. Artist Photo by Sara E. S. Orning.
Click here for an interview with Natasha Barrett.
Tanja Orning on MySpaceNatasha Barrett's website
Track Listing and MP3 Samples
- Toothrin 3:27, Excerpt (911 KB)
- Myelin 2:25
- Polycomb 2:30
- Anchor Synthesis 8:09
- Zinc Finger 3:17
- Motif of Myo1p 6:00, Excerpt (876 KB)
- GFP-fusion 5:15
- Axial Budding 10:29
- Beta Receptor 3:20
- Axial Landmark 3:25, Excerpt (821 KB)
- Meiotic Recombination 3:30
- Cellobiohydrolase 4:07, Excerpt (779 KB)
- Homolog 1 5:14
This and the other C74 Music CDs can be purchased from our online store.
Click here to see a list of the C74 one-sheets.
Copyright © 2009 Cycling '74. All rights reserved.
Artist Interviews
Visit the interviews section where you will find discussions with some of the c74 music label artists as well as other people who use our software. We're not as interested in having them extol the virtues of our software as we are in finding out about their approach to whatever it is they're doing with the software, whether it's music, engineering, art, industrial process control, or some combination thereof.
We hope these conversations will stimulate you to think about new approaches to electronic media, and will encourage you to check out the work of the artists if you're not already familiar with them. We've peppered the interviews with links that you can use to explore their work in more detail.