robbie basho and the paramusical ensemble

ok grey day (so far). bbc weather said sun. but then it is, to mix superstitions, friday 13th in a monkey year.



so horsemouth has discovered yet another basho collaborator lurking in the basho archive - allain ribback - drone guitarist (and enthusiast for paramusic) who basho met in new york whilst preparing for his first album seal of the blue lotus (by going on a huge roadtrip).

'from toronto, robbie took a bus to new york and spent three days and nights, sleepless, looking for a place to stay. finally, he was rescued by a fraction of French painters who traded him bed for board. robbie worked the basket houses in the village until he was fired for being non-commercial. at the same time he fell in with allain ribback who was working with paramusic. 

a short and perhaps unjust description of the idea behind the music is: a group of nonprofessional musicians intensively play together until they achieve a music which is expressive of the group as a whole. robbie did some work with allain and the black lotus - hymn to fugen was recorded during this period.... The financial assistance gotten from ribback kept robbie alive for two weeks and enabled him to return to the west coast. '
(from robbie basho archive -http://www.robbiebasho-archives.info/en/rb_spots.html)

as basho writes in his sleeve notes for  seal of the blue lotus;

‘ black lotus - hymn to fugen a blackwash painting of tonalities in the realm of the black lotus. I am aided by wodden organ, drums and templebells. I am also very indebted to allain ribback on drone guitar. he made these pieces possible. fugen is the goddess of the lotus sutra, of charity, of gentleness. this is a hymn of deep spiritual passion rising and falling and finally rolling on the carpet of the clear with the aid of sweet bhikshu bells.'

here paramusic is the name of a movement rather than the usual use in musicology as part of paramusical describing the connotations etc. of music (the things involved in music that are not directly music).

horsemouth has found out little about this movement so far - he has unearthed a performance by the paramusical ensemble comprising of four severely motor-impaired patients (significantly some ex-musicians) and a string quartet at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, London, on 17 July 2015 using brain monitoring equipment to participate in a piece for a string quartet designed by eduardo reck miranda.

Paramusical Ensemble from cinema iloobia on Vimeo.


interestingly his researches (a few poorly thought out google searches) also threw up a most attali like book the sense of sound: musical meaning in france, 1260-1330 by emma dillon, focusing on charivari and carnival - music/ noise making as protest (following bakhtin) - in this it is more like michael channan’s work than attali’s.