i . f r e q
| this page: | gray folded | elektrax | hifi |  |
plunderphonic
Gray Folded
(Swell/Artifact 1969-94, Canada)
When Oswald had finished Transitive Axis -disk one of the the Grayfolded project- he decided it would be interesting to try mapping it out visually. There were some records of particular themes Oswald had been incorporating into this hour-long work. However, it required the staff of Mystery Lab to examine the composition second-by-second and match the content of each moment with the corresponding source recordings from 40-odd hours of Vault tapes. Heads with an ear for detail may discover uncharted sona in this set of CDs... but the maps are very comprehensive and include information that would be most challenging to determine purely by aural means.
Here is the result:
This is a reduced-inverse image of the 5"X20" booklet fold-out time-map of Transitive Axis. On the reverse, there is a similar map of Mirror Ashes. Both feature a graphic representation of the audio waveform as a time-line with text indicating sources (concert date, location, and featured performer) as they appear in the compositional miasma.
| this page: | gray folded | elektrax | hifi | |
plunderphonic Elektrax (Rubaiyat, Elektra PRCD 8247-2, 1991, USA)
Oswald was commissioned by Elektra to plunder some of their artists for an aniversary release. Although Oswald preferred the title "Elektrax", Elektra elected to go with the title, "Rubáiyát". Using Oswald's original artwork as a "sketch", they redid the cover and failed to grasp some key elements of the original design. John's cover opend "down" in order to accomodate his design and is much more interesting than the Elektra version. See for yourself. The original is on the left and Elextra's facsimile is on the right.
