- Red-shifted Harmonies

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- SPCTR

play hifi lofi, license, BUY

- Sferica

play hifi lofi, license, BUY

- The Mechanism of Starlight

play hifi lofi, license, BUY

- The sea and the sky

play hifi lofi, license, BUY

- Within This Space

play hifi lofi, license, BUY

I have always had trouble describing my work.

The problem is partly due to the fact that no easy 'pigeonhole' seems to exist for the music that I create. Some have tried to call it 'New Age'...but often it has too many abrasive elements, dark tones, and sometimes actual noise to fit that. Others have considered it 'Space Music'...which is a bit closer, although I'm not exactly sure what space my work would be describing. 'Ambient' therefore seems to fit best, as it does tend to be music that's suitable for a 'backdrop'...but at the same time, music that also describes a certain 'ambiance'. Music that's a snapshot of sorts of places, feelings, sensations, states of mind, and the like.

Years and years ago, around the same time I was first learning piano as a small child, I also encountered the shortwave radio. It fascinated me...this box of strange sounds, pulsations, voices from other places phasing in and out. And then later in the 1960s, I heard the first stirrings of the Moog synthesizer...and others as well, as I attended a concert given by David Rosenboom while still in the second grade, with him performing his meditative style of electronics on a massive ARP 2500 rig. I suppose it was that formative experience that cemented what I was to try and do in my life.

As the 1970s progressed, I encountered a number of important musical 'signposts'...the work of Eno, Stockhausen, Cage, the music of the 'Krautrock' and punk scenes, and so on. All of these were, I think, important musical influences because they were not so much music that I only listened to, but music that made me want to try and do what I was hearing in it. I banged around some with some industrial/noise ideas, worked some in the early phases of the punk scene in Nashville (and yes, we did have one there), but it was also during this same period, around 1979-1980, that I started tinkering with tapes, delays, simple synths and sometimes just raw electronics. Everything that goes up to now seems to stem from there.

I studied composition at Middle Tennessee State, under Dr. Thom Hutcheson, to whom I'm forever indebted because he allowed me a massive amount of rein to experiment in the electronic music studios there...as well as the commercial studios which were very much on par with typical industry-standard facilities of the day. These were critical times, with Hutch allowing me to try as much as I could, making important mistakes alongside successes. Later on, I studied under John Anthony Lennon at Tennessee, then with Salvatore Martirano at Illinois...both while I was in attendance there, and then off and on privately after a little 'falling-out' I had over some aesthetic differences with the rest of the composition faculty there. Sal taught me one thing that's been important...trust instinct and a belief in yourself and in your music. And from the early 1990s on, I have. Very much so.

I went on from there, gradually building up a studio from a room-corner pile of gear into what I have now, which is requiring the complete remodeling of the walk-up attic of our rural home. In a decade's time, it grew like topsy. As did my music, as I explored deeper and deeper introspections in my 'ambient' work, and I explored the ranges of rhythmic expression in early IDM-style techno. But throughout both, there was and still is a strain of sound that owes its origins to the avant-garde. I have never really gotten away from it, and I don't think it would be in my best interests to try. It's the little bit of cayenne pepper that adds a 'zing' to what would otherwise be a typical dish. And given that I like spicy things, well...

In the past few years, I also was privileged to study with Karlheinz Stockhausen, at his Courses for New Music in Germany. It was not so much an experience of learning basics, but an affirmation that I was pursuing the right directions. Everything that he said or discussed, I already believed or had arrived at a similar conclusion myself. It was very liberating, I said at the time, and from those days on, I've felt a freedom to take what I feel, hear, envision, and set this down as best I can, following instinct, capturing the immediate 'now' of a work.

And it's that 'now'...that is the key here. Framing the 'now', following a sense of the true nature of things, relying on instinct and a fluid mind...all of these things are my guideposts, along with so many things I've heard and experienced. Works that capture a certain 'now', such as "Mendota" and its impression of sunset colors sliding across a vast frozen lake and snowscape...or "SPCTR", which attempts to magnify the 'world inside a single tone'...these and so many other 'nows' are the ones I try to paint as best as I can in the sounds that I use. And perhaps the results evoke other things, as everyone's experience of something as fundamentally communicating as music is colored by their own experiences in so many ways.

In Zen disciplines, one hears of the concept of 'samu'...work as meditation or practice. And I view what I do, when I'm creating or performing, or even tweaking the settings on an existing work...as a manner of that same practice. But it's a practice with an open mind, receptive, waiting for something to sound from beyond the fundamental self and not merely 'just doing something, no matter what'. Creativity within a mindful state, and continuously trying to seize the 'now' in a work...it's not the easiest way I can think of to work, nor the easiest way that I have worked over the years. But it is the right way for me, as trying to be a 'New Music star' only ever led to a lot of ego-driven angst and annoyance. That's not who I am, not my nature, not my music.

Where from here, then? Who can say? Not me. None of those 'nows' have happened yet, so I suppose I'll simply have to wait for them so that I can encounter each one. I encourage you to wait and see what happens, as well.

Interview with Steve Sande, San Francisco Chronicle.
Reprinted by permission.

1. What is the origin and meaning of the name DAC Crowell? Give some information about yourself, age, where you reside, how long have you been a musician, is this your sole occupation?

Well, it's just my name. Nothing too significant there. The "DAC" is actually a contraction/acronym made up of my first three initials, and I've used it since the late 1980s because it seems to stick in peoples' minds better.

I'm 41, and grew up in Nashville...which might sound a little odd for someone who's doing electroacoustic work like myself, but one has to keep in mind that Nashville is an amazingly rich environment, both in creativity and in music technology. It's hardly as 'countrified' as many seem to think. There were numerous occasions, for example, when I would be working with something that was prototypical technology, because it was easier to test something of that sort out in Nashville's then-relaxed creative atmosphere.

These days, I live in rural Illinois, about 90 minutes south of Chicago, with my Significant Other of some 13 years and also my technical assistant. It's quiet here; previously, I lived in Champaign and the town just grew less and less conducive to a creative mindset, so we moved to the country, to a century-old farmhouse in a little village of about 450 people. It's quiet at night, and when you go outside and look up, you can see the stars. You can't say that for living and creating in an urban environment. It's also less expensive when one has to get larger property; right now, we're heading toward the completion of a new studio for my work, converting this house's 3rd floor walkup attic into a workspace of some 600-700 sqft, which will be more than ample for my purposes for the conceivable future.

I began my training at age 3, in piano, and I studied that until I was about 16 or so, when I switched to composition. I did my undergrad in that, taking a couple of years off in the middle of that course of study to get some 'real world' experience in the Nashville studios and other parts of the industry. Then I did gradwork at Tennessee and Illinois. I quit Illinois partway into my doctoral work; they were stuck in the old academic 'ivory tower' aesthetics, and I really chafed at that, since the type of music I work in today was already fairly well-formed within my style, and that just didn't fit in someplace where people were still kissing up to the likes of Xenakis or Babbitt. I left, but continued study off and on with one of the great 'bad boys' of New Music, Salvatore Martirano, until several months before his death in 1995. Technically, I don't consider my study to have ended, either. I've attended postgrad work under Karlheinz Stockhausen at his Kurse f?e Musik held each summer in K? Germany...I was there in 2001 and 2002. And as far as I'm concerned, I'm not likely to stop my 'training' until I'm taking a dirt nap somewhere.

Nor can I state that I'm informed solely by musical education. In the past few years, I've converted to Buddhism...specifically, the Nishi Hongwanji branch of the Jodo Shinshu sect...and it's caused me to examine carefully the causes and motivations in my life and work. Previous to this, I would fall into the trap of creating music due to intents of ego, fame, money...and these were against both my own nature as well as that of the music I create. Now, I recognize these pitfalls for what they are, and hopefully my work is becoming better because of this. At the very least, I at least feel I'm becoming truer to my work, which is perhaps equally if not more beneficial.

And no, this is not my sole occupation. I also work as a broadcast engineer for the local NPR outlet, WILL radio, in Urbana. I wish it could be, as it would allow me to better concentrate on my work, but there seems to be a mindset in this country that's been around since the early 80s that art isn't as important and/or enriching as going to the mall. So, I have to do what I have to do to keep things going. To that end, I'm certainly indebted to the managerial skills of my business manager, Dr. Les Savage, who's done an astounding job at making things stay afloat even through incredible adversity. What I do would be impossible without his support.

2. Please describe the music you make to our readers, who may know very little about ambient electronic sounds. Include your influences, inspiration etc. Do you make all your music with machines, or do you incorporate traditional instruments?

Oh...I hate that question. It always comes up. I even go into that a bit in my blurb for Magnatune. I'm not sure how you would describe it, other than the fact that it seems to evoke experiences, places, states of mind and so forth for most everyone who listens to it. So I tend to call it 'ambient' as a default, because it suggests certain 'ambiances'; if I could get away with calling it nothing whatsoever, I'd much prefer that, but that approach doesn't tend to work.

As for the sound of my own work, it often employs sounds that change _very_ slowly over time. So there are a lot of drone-type elements, things which appear to repeat, and the like...but the real fact is that there are very slow permutations going on, usually at a rate slower than most listeners' perceptions. I also like a very 'immersive' sound, something which surrounds and envelops the listener. At first, this might seem like I'm trying to do something 'New Age', but I don't think the term applies at all because I often like to add 'noisy' elements to my works, or use an overall feel that's darker than the average fluffy New Age sound.

Influences? Numerous. Very numerous, and they come from a lot of different directions. There's certainly a good bit from the 'avant-garde' side of things, such as Stockhausen, Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier, Gyorgi Ligeti. Then there's a hefty dose of the 'minimalists', notably John Adams, Gavin Bryars, LaMonte Young and Terry Riley. After that, you get into the whole 'Krautrock' set: Cluster, NEU!, Can, Ash Ra Tempel, Kraftwerk, Harmonia, Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. Eno's work, of course, is also critical to this.

But less noticeable, and no less important, is punk...I played in and worked with a few punk bands back in the late 70s and early 80s around Nashville, and the DIY ethos of that movement has had a lot to do with my attitude of self-reliance in my own work. Industrial music, also...up to the point it turned into dance-pop-with-noise, so then you'd be talking about Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, SPK and so on. Jazz, also...particularly the 'New Thing' period from the 1960s. Then there's a lot of ethnic directions...Japanese, Balinese, Javanese, Indian, Arabic...

I think it's probably safe to say that there are SO MANY influences that come to bear on me and my work that there is no one prominent one that emerges from the collection. And these days, that shouldn't be that surprising, since we now live in a time where anything from ancient music to the most modern stuff you can find, to things cut across town or halfway around the world, can all be accessed in some way, somehow. And in such a rich environment, inspiration and influence can come to me from almost any direction, anytime.

As for 'inspiration'...well, that gets more nebulous. I'm often inspired by random events, encounters, and the like. Sometimes something very fleeting or subtle can sound a sympathetic chord in me and set the creative wheels in motion. As an example, my work "Mendota" is derived from impressions I had of sunset light on the ice and snow on Lake Mendota, in Madison, WI, not long after a blizzard in February of 1993. There were all sorts of shifting colors, growing richer and darker at once, shadows would lengthen and forms would become more nebulous as darkness fell. And this experience sort of sat in the back of my mind until I started composing the piece some 2 1/2 years later, when I was reminded of it by the way a long, drawn-out synth sequence was playing against itself through a few delay lines. It's perhaps not the most logical and straightforward way to come up with things, but it's very reliant on intuition and direct gestures, and as such it's a very pliable and capable method of working. In a sense, that aspect of my work is very influenced by Stockhausen's experiments in the 1960s and early 70s in 'intuitive music'...trying to create an immediate form of music based on, in his case, texts which ostensibly directed players to play through intuitive reactions to them. The 'texts' I use, however, are obviously a lot more ephemeral.

Do I use 'machines' or 'traditional instruments'?

Look at it this way: what you refer to as 'traditional instruments' are technically machines in of themselves. The only 'instrument' that's not would likely be the human voice, or perhaps also sounds in nature. I see no difference between a synthesizer, a wind instrument, percussion, guitar, or what have you. They are all equally valid tools for creating and performing music.

That being said, I do largely work in electroacoustic media...synthesizers, computers, processors, and so forth. But I have used a great deal of other instrumentation over the years, and will certainly continue to do so; at present I have a work in progress, slated to be premiered in February, that's for an ensemble that includes cello, alto flute, english horn, synth, vibes, and piano, for example.

So, I think the best way I could answer this is to say that I make my music with my ears. Whatever they dictate will work in a certain situation is what I use.

3. What is the role of ambient music? Is it background music, meditative, music for office workers?

Should it even have a 'role'? I think that's a valid question.

You're approaching this music as if it were some sort of 'gebrauchsmusik'...music for a purpose. Music need not always have a purpose. This question is something akin to asking, say, Picasso "what is the role of cubism?"

Ambient music is perhaps the best purposeless music ever created. It is a blank slate; it could appear anywhere, for any reason. It is not defined by the criteria of the concert hall...yet concerts can be performed of it. It is not necessarily background music, since a great deal of it holds up under what might be termed 'active listening'. It is just as suitable for a single person listening on headphones as it is for whole roomfuls of people. It is not bound by strictures of tradition, performance methods, or much of the other conceptual baggage of Western music up through very recent times.

To me, the important criteria of 'ambient music' is that it evoke a particular ambiance of some sort or that it can become a component in an ambiance. That, plus the ability to 'transmit' that ambiance to the listener...in whatever form of evocative experience they might get out of it. While that might sound very open-ended, it's not. It's true that most any other sort of music created can do this...but this sort of music is, to me, expressly created for this purpose.

4. What is the difference between ambient and new age?

By 'New Age', I take it you mean the usual stuff that I refer to sometimes as 'C Jam Snooze'. SOME music that's been pegged as 'New Age', often due to the marketplace's rabid need for categories, is interesting. But the stuff that's been done with the express intent of being 'New Age' largely bores me to tears.

'New Age' music is music that usually suggests to the listener that they can turn OFF their mind. Good ambient work, however, is more likely to open a space for thought. It therefore does the exact _opposite_, and that, to me, is the most significant difference. It's not 'melodic background clutter'; if you were to translate these two musics into the 'look' of a room, the 'New Age' one would be chockablock with all sorts of trinkets and what-not of a suitably commercially-mystical nature. The ambient one, however, would be more like a white-walled gallery...sparse, open, but capable of holding and exhibiting any and everything equally well.

5. Describe your relationship with Magnatune.

It's good. The leeway I'm given with them is very refreshing. Most labels would object strongly to 'their property' doing things for another concern, but I also have work coming out at the same time on a label based in Edinburgh, Scotland, called Suilven Recordings...and Magnatune doesn't object one whit. And an arrangement like this is wonderful for creativity, since you don't have the company leaning over your shoulder and prodding you for the next big hit. You're free to entertain a lot of different ideas, and some may work for Magnatune, some may work for other labels, and you're not stuck in a rut of making a certain label's 'product' for them.

They also have some serious cojones in putting out work like this, with the vastly extended lengths of works that I tend to compose. A typical mainstream label wouldn't generally consider works of 20-30 or more minutes as being 'viable', especially if it develops very slowly and doesn't have anything in the way of a 'hook'. But Magnatune isn't bound by the problems of the entire manufacturing process and the overhead it requires, so they can take artistic chances with less risk. And because of this, Magnatune...and labels like them, as I'm sure there eventually will be more of them...will be at the forefront of new musical ideas, because they'll be open to artistic risks much moreso than the majority of 'physical' labels out there.

This will be the place where the continuation of the future of music emerges. I'm glad...and honored...to be a part of it as it unfolds.

6. Can you tell me your thoughts on what Brian Eno terms "generative music." That is, software programs designed to generate music that, in fact, changes or evolves each time it is played.

Hmm...there's some validity to it, I suppose. The problem is that there seems to be a lower degree of 'the human factor' in processes that rely on automata. Less 'mistakes' and other things that make music human and interesting. This doesn't mean that you can't create music that accounts for this in this manner...but the degree of skill and compositional discipline required to pull this off will, in the end, be just the same as if someone were sitting down with a pad of staff paper and a pencil and creating in this very traditional manner. Generative programs are no shortcut, and no substitute to musical capability and creativity.

7. Do you see the market for ambient music increasing, staying the same, or decreasing?

Increasing. But then, I see the market for most anything that isn't commercial crapola increasing. A lot of people are wrist-slittingly SICK of what's passed off by the major labels; this is certainly part of what's driving peoples' ire at the RIAA, at major media players such as ClearChannel, and so on. When people who've got even a gram of taste encounter many of these new directions in music, they gravitate right to it. This explains why things such as Sigur R?ell as well as they do when the music in question is very difficult to promote and/or radio-unfriendly as far as the usual 'alternative' formats go.

I also think people are looking for something that doesn't get in their face and challenge them. By that, I'm not saying that ambient music is unchallenging...but that it doesn't deal with the listener in a confrontational manner. I think a lot of what's in the commercial marketplace right now is starting to approach a point where it's trying to give their buying public the finger, much in the same way that avant-garde music during the 1950s and 60s also did. The end-result of that latter action is that people now associate that sort of confrontational attitude and clang-bangy music as being indicative of ALL New Music. And I think we're going to reach a point soon in pop music where it does the same thing, and then people will need somewhere else to turn for their music. "All Britney, all the time" is just as repellant as "all serialist, all the time", I should think.

8. Do you perform your music live?

Yes, when I can get venues for it.

A problem I've run into is that there aren't suitable venues for ambient performances. Concert hall-type situations are OK...but then audiences feel bound by the old, staid 'recital etiquette'. Clubs don't like music that doesn't sell drinks...and people involved in engaged listening to ambient music aren't usually conducive to a party-hearty drink-em-up attitude. The periodback during the early to mid-90s when raves had chillspaces was nice, but as raves became less and less about the music and more and more about selling drugs, making money at the door, and a more-trendy-than-thou attitude, that wasn't very much fun anymore...besides the fact that raves, at least around this part of the country, stopped seeing the point in having anything worthwhile in their chill rooms, if they even had them at all. So it's hard to get to perform for a proper audience. Doing radio gigs is OK, because it at least has you 'out there without a net', but it's not the same as the give-and-take you find with audience interaction. I really love that, and the audiences I've had also enjoy watching the 'process' unfold in front of them, I think.

As interest in this and other, newer musical forms emerges, I'm sure we'll see more situations emerge that are suitable performance spaces for them, notably outside of major metro areas which at present might have one or two or so already in existence. Having venues ONLY in the couple of million-plus cities is not constructive; more needs to be going on outside of just these large urban scenes for there to be real vitality in developing musics.

9. What are your thoughts on the future of music on the Internet? Will CDs eventually be obsolete (lets hope so!)? Will artists rights to their music (and share of profits) be improved as music on the Internet grows.

10. Are music providers, like Magnatune, the answer, or will they be gobbled up by the big media corporations?

I'll tackle these together.

The future of music is gradually going to be placed in the hands of firms like Magnatune, as well as under greater artist-direct control. Now, what happens to the distribution channel itself, that's a cause for worry. If the Internet is eventually turned into the same sort of corporate sludgebucket as radio or retail currently is, then you could have a MILLION Magnatunes and they wouldn't make an iota of difference. A vision is dependant on a canvas on which to project it. Remove that metaphoric canvas, and you've got nothing, nada, zip.

As dinosaurs such as the RIAA-affiliated majors, with their conglomerate holdings and interlocking affiliations with other media, begin to realize that their fight over control of art in the marketplace is lost, they will likely turn next to some sort of control over the pipeline. You already see this with issues such as the AOL-Time/Warner merger...which, thankfully, is gradually losing a lot of its steam due to mismanagement and such. But this will not be the only nor the last attempt to come up with a mechanism for over-arching control of this sort.

The reason for this is simple: 'vested interests'. Just as the USA sees the oilfields in the Persian Gulf as 'vested interests' because of the development done on them over the decades by Western firms, the major media firms see their 'product' and the lengthy prodding of the audience's taste for it as something which they also have sunk a lot of time and money into. They will therefore always seek to control, and if not control, then to destroy. The latter is evinced by the RIAA's aimless, juggernaut-like approach to the intimidation of the filesharing community...scare 'em, sue 'em, and if that doesn't work, tar 'em with the stigma of the Great American Fear, pornography. The P2P technology which filesharers use COULD BE of great use to such firms, but they're all too willing to stamp it out in their zeal for control...just as they would've done to home VCRs, had the outcome of the 'Betamax case' not put an end to that notion back in the 1970s. Note that nowadays, that technology...which the MPAA (another big gun in the anti-filesharing fight) thought would bankrupt Hollywood due to piracy...is a mainstay of film studios' revenues, via the rental and home sales markets.

This sort of system is untenable and unsustainable, as if it were some gigantic Ponzi scheme. Eventually, things WILL come down to a situation where firms which offer 'fair play' to creators, and which are customer-friendly, will come to dominate. But I suspect the interim period, while the dinosaurs are still thrashing around in their death-throes, will be pretty ugly indeed. Firms such as Magnatune may well see a few of their kind either gobbled up by major-label deals, to be shunted off into some back-corner of the firm to die...or they may well be the victims of some ugly powerplay for Internet control, either by wrecking distribution methods or thru the mandate of some sort of moronic DRM scheme that's hostile to small indie players who might not be able to afford to implement such technology.

But you'll notice that these scary thoughts haven't stopped me from signing with Magnatune. I'm betting that people such as John Buckman...and others out there with a similar vision who see that artist control, fair play in funds disbursement, and treating the audiences with something much nicer than cold contempt...are going to win. This, and things like it that offer both artist and audience the greatest amounts of fairness, is going to be the future.

At least, I hope so.