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Charlemagne Palestine (b. 1945) Back to Charlemagne Palestine on UbuWeb Sound Holy 1 / Holy 2 / Holy 1+2 (1967-68) Holy 1, 20:04 Electronics [Oscillators], Noises [White Noise] – Charlemagne Palestine Holy 2, 10:52 Electronics [Oscillators], Noises [White Noise] – Charlemagne Palestine Alloy, 22:30 Chimes, Conch – Bob Feldman Drone [The Long String Drone] – Tony Conrad Idiophone [Alumonium], Vocals, Chimes, Percussion – Charlemagne Palestine Vocals, Chimes – Deborah Glaser Tracks 1 & 2 recorded in New York City N.Y.U. Intermedia Center (1967). Track 3 recorded live at Free Music Store, radio station WBAI, New York City (1969). Holy1 and Holy2 were both recorded in NYC in 1967. Charlemagne Palestine was listening to a lot of ethnic world music; he was also immersed in the late night New York soundscape, absorbing the spatial sound diversity and beauty that such a big city could only express very late at night. He also worked at night building up a sound, oscillator by oscillator; then adding tiny increments of white noise that would gradually make the sounds thicker and thicker until they were immense sacred machines humming like gargantuan Tibetan bees. The sounds were played very, very loud, making all the objects in the room resonate, while outside all was quiet and sleeping. Holy1 & Holy2 were done this way. Then, in 1969, Tony Conrad asked Charlemagne Palestine to make some carillon music for his film Coming Attractions. They were seeing each other regularly when the Free Music Store of radio station WBAI asked Palestine to create a piece for an event they were preparing to broadcast live on radio. So he asked Tony, his saxophonist Bob Feldman and his then-wife and soprano Deborah Glaser to collaborate on a work that he would organize around an instrument that he invented at that time called an Alumonium. Tony Conrad played an instrument that he invented, the Long String Drone, that was a long string attached to a long wooden structure and amplified. Bob played the chimes and a conch. Deborah sang and played chimes and Charlemagne sang, also played the chimes and some percussion instruments that they found lying around the hall where they played. The piece became Alloy and the sound used as an all-electronic background continuum, played through loudspeakers in the hall, were Holy1+2 from 1968. -- Forced Exposure RELATED RESOURCES: Charlemagne Palestine in UbuWeb Film UbuWeb Sound | UbuWeb