They Were Dreaming They Were Stones
Editorial Reviews history: patrick mcginley (born 1975) is an american born musician and theatre artist who has lived and worked in europe since 1996. from august 1996 until september 1998 he lived in paris, where he studied theatre and began his sound experiments in the context of those studies. moving to london in november of 1998, he began a collection of found sounds and field recordings that would become the basis of all his work. soon after, he began creating compositions with the minimal technical set-up of an analogue 4-track and 3 guitar effects pedals. he has composed works for several theatre performances, including the works of his own company, as well as performing live soundworks for others. his work concentrates on the framing of sounds from our environment which normally pass through our ears unnoticed and unremarked, but which out of context become unrecognisable, alien and extraordinary: crackling charcoal, a squeaking escalator, a buzzing insect, or one's own breath. current projects: patrick's fourth cd as murmer has just been released by the american record label ground fault. This follows releases for bake records (netherlands), s'agita recordings (italy), and absurd (greece). he is also currently working with multiple performance companies for upcoming productions, and has spent much of the last year touring a recent work with the parisian company urba in france, england, and denmark. He is a co-founder and chairman of framework, an organisation that produces a biweekly radio show on london's resonance104.4fm and organises and promotes live events for artists working in the realm of field recording and phonography. he is constantly developing new material, solo and in collaboration with other sound, visual and performance artists including rotozaza, urba, joel stern, jonathan coleclough and michael northam. murmer discography: they were dreaming they were stones (cd on ground fault) track info: prologue (06:42): car seat massager, telephones, the brooklyn bridge all source recordings made between 1999 and 2003 composed 2002/2003 using minidisc, 8-track and effects "Murmer is Patrick McGinley. The list of (altered) sound sources used as base material is intriguing: car seat massager, gas meter, elevator shaft, ringtone, airplane cabin, Turkish football celebrations, etc. Not that many of these are at all recognizable, because they generally aren't, but the most successful portions of his disc occur when the environmental and/or industrial elements creep in relatively unadapted. McGinley claims inspiration from devices such as rhythms generated by the old gas meter in his basement and, indeed, "Part One" fairly chugs along with a rough and insistent beat augmented by a whistling drone (the massager?) and several other layers of ephemera. The final, longest track, clocking in at 43 minutes, achieves a very nice blend of open, spatial sounds with tense, discomforting needles of noise. Strident telephone tones, stuttering static glitches and metallic whines interact in a manner that will either fascinate or entirely off-put, depending on the listener's taste and tolerances. While I have no problem with its shriller aspects, I did find myself resenting the occasional burbles of tonal notes, sounding a bit like someone noodling on an old Casio. Gradually, the piece coalesces into a drone that indeed has some of the characteristics of an airline interior, an airy, tubal hum. It's embroidered with choir-like wafts and faraway urban rumbles but oddly flits in and out of interest, sometimes compelling, other times just…there. "they were dreaming they were stones" certainly has its dreamy facets and about half of its hour plus is quite stimulating. I'm curious to hear where McGinley goes from here." Biran Olewnik "Slowly Murmer builts an interesting body of work based on field recordings. This must be his first real CD after a couple of interesting CDR releases for Bake, Absurd and S'Agita. Murmer, aka Patrick McGinley, records sounds in his environment and puts them on his four track recorder and builts sound collages out of that. Rather than investigating and processing the sounds he uses the sounds as they are. While mixing these seperate sound sources, he adds a little bit of sound effects, but not much. His sources include a car seat massager, telephones, airplane cabin, a 600 gallon galvanized steel water tank but also the brooklyn bridge. For some reason this CD has three tracks, one is called 'Prologue', one is 'Part One' and the final track, the longest, is 'Part Two, Three & Four'. In 'Part One', McGinley even manages to get a very minimalist rhythm out of
They Were Dreaming They Were Stones, Music, Murmer
About the Artist
m u r m e r
elements (3" cd on ground fault)
definition (cd on absurd)
eyes like a fish (cd on s'agita recordings)
. m u r m e r (self-titled cd on bake records)
phonography.org 4 (compilation cd on p.org): buzzing intercom, gospel oak
phonography.org composers 2 (compilation cd on p.org): liquid solid (compressed)
phonography.org 3 (compilation cd on p.org): burning charcoal
phonography.org 2 (compilation cd on p.org): escalator at Pimlico tube station
chaleur (compilation lp on gmbh): ash, like falling snow
Album Description
They Were Dreaming They Were Stones (GF030): This piece was composed very slowly over the course of the last two years; part one came first - inspired by the hypnotic rhythm of the ancient gas meter in my basement - and was then left alone for about a year. Finally, with a desire to reuse some old telephone feedback recordings that had been made for a composition that I hadn't been happy with, the prologue came into existence, and then, much later, the longer conglomeration of parts two, three and four. I mastered these as a single track as, while they are three distinct parts, they do not have distinct transitions, blending slowly from one into the next. The piece shares many of its elements with the live soundtrack to the show K.A.., which I have been performing over the past year with the French performance company Urba. The earlier parts were completed when rehearsals began, and were integrated into the show, and much of the latter work came directly out of the rehearsal process. - Patrick McGinley
part one (11:39): gas meter, feedback, car seat massager
parts two: hewitt's cove marina, elevator shaft three: ringtone
and four (43:03): airplane cabin, turkish football victory celebrations, 600 gallon galvanized steel water tank
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They Were Dreaming They Were Stones
Manufacturer: Ground Fault Recordings ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD  General
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ASIN: B0001NJ4OO Release Date: 2004-01-06 |
Album Description
They Were Dreaming They Were Stones (GF030): This piece was composed very slowly over the course of the last two years; part one came first - inspired by the hypnotic rhythm of the ancient gas meter in my basement - and was then left alone for about a year. Finally, with a desire to reuse some old telephone feedback recordings that had been made for a composition that I hadn't been happy with, the prologue came into existence, and then, much later, the longer conglomeration of parts two, three and four. I mastered these as a single track as, while they are three distinct parts, they do not have distinct transitions, blending slowly from one into the next. The piece shares many of its elements with the live soundtrack to the show K.A.., which I have been performing over the past year with the French performance company Urba. The earlier parts were completed when rehearsals began, and were integrated into the show, and much of the latter work came directly out of the rehearsal process. - Patrick McGinleytrack info:
prologue (06:42): car seat massager, telephones, the brooklyn bridge
part one (11:39): gas meter, feedback, car seat massager
parts two: hewitt's cove marina, elevator shaft three: ringtone
and four (43:03): airplane cabin, turkish football victory celebrations, 600 gallon galvanized steel water tank
all source recordings made between 1999 and 2003 composed 2002/2003 using minidisc, 8-track and effects
"Murmer is Patrick McGinley. The list of (altered) sound sources used as base material is intriguing: car seat massager, gas meter, elevator shaft, ringtone, airplane cabin, Turkish football celebrations, etc. Not that many of these are at all recognizable, because they generally aren't, but the most successful portions of his disc occur when the environmental and/or industrial elements creep in relatively unadapted. McGinley claims inspiration from devices such as rhythms generated by the old gas meter in his basement and, indeed, "Part One" fairly chugs along with a rough and insistent beat augmented by a whistling drone (the massager?) and several other layers of ephemera. The final, longest track, clocking in at 43 minutes, achieves a very nice blend of open, spatial sounds with tense, discomforting needles of noise. Strident telephone tones, stuttering static glitches and metallic whines interact in a manner that will either fascinate or entirely off-put, depending on the listener's taste and tolerances. While I have no problem with its shriller aspects, I did find myself resenting the occasional burbles of tonal notes, sounding a bit like someone noodling on an old Casio. Gradually, the piece coalesces into a drone that indeed has some of the characteristics of an airline interior, an airy, tubal hum. It's embroidered with choir-like wafts and faraway urban rumbles but oddly flits in and out of interest, sometimes compelling, other times just…there. "they were dreaming they were stones" certainly has its dreamy facets and about half of its hour plus is quite stimulating. I'm curious to hear where McGinley goes from here." Biran Olewnik
"Slowly Murmer builts an interesting body of work based on field recordings. This must be his first real CD after a couple of interesting CDR releases for Bake, Absurd and S'Agita. Murmer, aka Patrick McGinley, records sounds in his environment and puts them on his four track recorder and builts sound collages out of that. Rather than investigating and processing the sounds he uses the sounds as they are. While mixing these seperate sound sources, he adds a little bit of sound effects, but not much. His sources include a car seat massager, telephones, airplane cabin, a 600 gallon galvanized steel water tank but also the brooklyn bridge. For some reason this CD has three tracks, one is called 'Prologue', one is 'Part One' and the final track, the longest, is 'Part Two, Three & Four'. In 'Part One', McGinley even manages to get a very minimalist rhythm out of
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