Track By Track: Museumgoer - Museumgoer 19
Musuemgoer's series of ambient EPs reaches number 19
by Ancient Champion, Columnist
first published: January, 2022
first published: January, 2022
I fell in love with those two repeated piano chords and thought, That can't be enough...
The opportunity for a Track By Track from an artist feels like the most amazing privilege. The endless creativity of Baton Rouge's Museumgoer, fashioning music from whispers or whirrings, from promises, from wood and wires and from something not heard the way you or I might hear it, is just so profound. Then to hear Museumgoer talk about it, these private musings, like notes from a journal, feels like we're on a studio break, dead calm and balmy on the porch, getting some air and imbuing the night, pondering what we've just heard. Here's how the Museumgoer tells it, Track by Track, for the latest EP, Museumgoer 19.
Our Metronome Hearts
I rearranged the studio over the Christmas break and was doing a system check where you play a metronome into the room and record it. This made me think about the late Alvin Lucier who famously did the same with his own voice until it dissolved into the room's natural resonances. Mr. Lucier once replied to my email request for an interview by saying instead of asking him questions, I should do the work. As it went on, the metronomes became heartbeats overlaying each other like they do in sadness and joy and in those certain moments, a sort of harmony.
Better Sunset
I wanted to do a "sunset" song, short but vibrant. In playback, I liked what I did but thought "you can do a better sunset." So I did a second one. Take that, nature!
Your Spaceship's Here
I fell in love with those two repeated piano chords and thought, That can't be enough, so I added the guitar line and a little sequencer, still thinking that can't be enough. I let it loop for about an hour until I was in its trance and it felt like silver aliens had arrived to transport me to the Next Level, so that's when I knew it was enough.
Prowlers' Waltz
At band practice, we noticed we were picking up the air conditioner in the PA and someone said, "That'll probably end up on the next Museumgoer EP." I secretly recorded the air conditioner and cut it up for the beat for this song on the (then) next Museumgoer EP.
I rearranged the studio over the Christmas break and was doing a system check where you play a metronome into the room and record it. This made me think about the late Alvin Lucier who famously did the same with his own voice until it dissolved into the room's natural resonances. Mr. Lucier once replied to my email request for an interview by saying instead of asking him questions, I should do the work. As it went on, the metronomes became heartbeats overlaying each other like they do in sadness and joy and in those certain moments, a sort of harmony.
Better Sunset
I wanted to do a "sunset" song, short but vibrant. In playback, I liked what I did but thought "you can do a better sunset." So I did a second one. Take that, nature!
Your Spaceship's Here
I fell in love with those two repeated piano chords and thought, That can't be enough, so I added the guitar line and a little sequencer, still thinking that can't be enough. I let it loop for about an hour until I was in its trance and it felt like silver aliens had arrived to transport me to the Next Level, so that's when I knew it was enough.
Prowlers' Waltz
At band practice, we noticed we were picking up the air conditioner in the PA and someone said, "That'll probably end up on the next Museumgoer EP." I secretly recorded the air conditioner and cut it up for the beat for this song on the (then) next Museumgoer EP.
Museumgoer 19 and all previous Museumgoer EPs are available on Bandcamp, Can't wait for the Box Set.
Essential Info
Listen to Museumgoer 19 on Bandcamp here
released January 21, 2022
Alex V. Cook - Rhodes piano, Hammond organ, Theremin, acoustic guitar, pedal steel, accordion, electric guitar, synthesizer, drum programming, field recording
Photo: Venetian blinds on office stool
Alex V. Cook - Rhodes piano, Hammond organ, Theremin, acoustic guitar, pedal steel, accordion, electric guitar, synthesizer, drum programming, field recording
Photo: Venetian blinds on office stool
Ancient Champion
Columnist
Ancient Champion writes for OUTSIDELEFT, relentlessly records instrumental easy listening tracks, and is always completing the short story collection, Six Stories About Motoring Nowhere. More info at AncientChampion.com
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I fell in love with those two repeated piano chords and thought, That can't be enough...
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