The [Un]Observed, Issue No. 8

Joe Frawley's track In paradisium (Black lipstick) has been chosen for Issue 8 of The [Un]Observed radio magazine:
   http://theunobserved.com/music/in_paradisium/

The track is from the album Speak of this to no one.,  which you can download here for free:
   http://joefrawley.bandcamp.com/album/speak-of-this-to-no-one

Article in local press (New London Day, June 24, 2011)

The Day - Joe Frawley's soundtrack to the subconscious | News from southeastern Connecticut

"Carnival" - New Joe Frawley music

http://joefrawley.bandcamp.com/album/carnival

available as name-your-price download or limited edition Compact Disc

Interview published on "exh:b:t:on of words and sounds"

http://steponnopets.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/joe-frawley-the-david-lynch-of-all-sounds/

The beautiful Emøke Csoma was kind of enough to publish an interview with me that we did over email in the fall of 2010. The site also features interviews by Frank Bretschneider, Rudi Arapahoe, and some other cool experimental artists you may have heard of. Here's the link and the text of the interview. One note, while I like being compared to David Lynch, I think his art is scarier than mine. A lot scarier.

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Joe Frawley, the David Lynch of all sounds
April 12, 2011
tags: ambient, experimental, modern classical, musique concrète, piano
by Emøke

How did you get in touch with music?
~I stumbled in the dark for most of my life. I knew I wanted a relationship with sound, but I didn’t know what that relationship wanted to be, until I was around 35 when I figured it out. Initially it was piano lessons as a kid, then 80s metal, then synth rock, all kinds of pop and rock, then classical, then jazz. A big long mess.~

What would you do if there wouldn’t be music, starting with tomorrow?
~Take photographs.~

…and what if you had to produce in a different music genre? What would that be?
~I struggled with this question for a long time before I figured out the problem. The problem is with "had to" and "genre". If I get locked into either one of those at this point, it’s pretty much game over.~

What’s your (original) profession?
~I’m a librarian.~

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
~The mixture of sounds and voices. Layer a certain spoken phrase over a certain sound and the ground just opens up beneath you.~

What’s your next plan music-wise?
~I am currently shaping and trying to make sense of a work-in-progress. No, make "sense" is the wrong word. Trying to make it convincing. It can be convincing without making sense.~

Who would you like to collaborate with the most and why?
~No one specific, but someone in another art form. A film maker, a poet, a choreographer.~

Is there a band/music genre you can’t stand listening to?
~I could probably name a hundred of them, but that wouldn’t be any fun, and I’d just be depressed at the end of the list.~

Is there some music you like – but ashamed to admit it?
~No. I admit to listening to all kinds of crap.~

The beauty of silence or the chaos of noises?
~The noises of beauty.~

What’s your favourite album ever?
~Kate Bush. The Hounds of Love.~

…and your favourite album cover?
~Kate Bush. The Dreaming.~

If you could be a rock star, who would you be?
~I am terrified of being on stage and of being observed performing, so it would have to be someone in a mask. But not a scary mask. Maybe Laurie Anderson in the Sharkey’s Day video? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPbv2uVY6AY)~

Do you have a role model?
~I look up to any confident artist who sticks to his or her vision, regardless of public opinion.~

Who would you like to meet the most?
~I like the guy who said "myself at 14".~

What are your favourite movies?
~Un Coeur en Hiver, Last Year at Marienbad, the first 20 minutes of Prospero’s Books, the 1992 Dracula with Winona Ryder, Zoolander.~

If you had to direct your own movie, how would it look like?
~There would be a beautiful young female protagonist. She’d be put through some sort of ordeal. Some inner turmoil rooted in past events would overwhelm her and lead to a host of strange imaginings. This would be conveyed through a series of video loops of varying durations, repeated in irregular sequences, with very soft transitions- fade to blur, fade to black- interspersed with sudden jarring quick cuts. I’d like to make a silent film.~

Which language would you like to speak most and why?
~Probably French, for obvious reasons.~

How would you describe yourself in 5 words?
~Obsessive, tenacious, absorbed, sensitive, outsider.~

What are your vices?
~I don’t discuss them.~

The best moment in your life?
~I’m sure most people could answer this question quickly, but I just keep staring at it until the words blur up.~

What does beauty mean to you?
~Beauty should make you suffer a little, or else it’s not truly beautiful.~

What would you do today if the world would end tomorrow?
~I want to be playing the piano while the world blows up.~

Which places you love the most?
~Eyes closed, headphones. That place.~

What’s your favourite food?
~I don’t think I have one.~

What’s your favourite flavour?
~Taste is not a big sense with me.~

Three things you could never get rid of?
~I try not to get attached to things.~

Your three favourite websites?
~freesound.org, last.fm, bandcamp.com~

What is the question you always would have liked to be asked but nobody ever did?
~I wish people would make recordings of their own voices and send them to me. I know that’s not a question, but I wanted to put that in there.~

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Sneak peek at cover art for Carnival

Front photo, Melanie Skriabine, (France). Back photo, Anita Bretschneider (Germany). Design, James Robert Creative (U.S.A.)

A sleepwalker's vocabulary

A sleepwalker's vocabulary by joefrawley
Advance single from the album Carnival, release date April 2011.

I think it was

Music video from the album Carnival by Joe Frawley (release date: April, 2011). Thanks to Anita Bretschneider for photography.

Upcoming feature on Websynradio

Coming January 13th - 20th, my work will be featured on Websynradio, a project of Droit de Cités magazine (France). Here's the link: http://droitdecites.org/websynradio/

Left Cincinnati reviewed in Sound Projector No. 19

Fan fiction: A narrative interpretation of 'Speak of this to no one.'

A listener sent me the following text that I thought some people would enjoy reading. I am extremely flattered and honored to have my sounds personalized and interpreted in this way. My heartfelt thanks to John and everyone else who has gotten in touch and shared their impressions with me. -JF

**********************************************

“Speak of this to no one.” is the latest album by Connecticut-based artist Joe Frawley. When I first heard the album I was surprised by my reaction to it. The first track, The Kiss reminded me of a very specific period in my childhood which is almost impossible to describe since it is really just based on feelings. I started to visualize a story to go with it which was partly based on these feelings and also on my memories of a fever I had when I was fourteen. I tried to write a review of this album but I was unable to put anything much into words. So instead I decided to write the story that I had invented, told from the point of view of the protagonist, a little girl.


Speak of this to no one.

I am sitting on the couch. I like this couch. It's so soft. But I'm cold. I hate being cold. Someone is playing a piano. It's nice. Mother is in the kitchen, as usual. I wish she would come and sit with me. I want to kiss her. Yesterday I was seven and it was sunny but no one came to my party. Now it's cloudy and I don't feel well.

I fell asleep and in my dream there was a big girl. She looked like mother but she was nice and kind. She kept saying the same things over and over again. Then she was talking about putting on make-up. When I grow up I will have make-up too. I want all black make-up not like mother's horrible pink and red. I want black make-up and black dresses. I think I am getting flu or something. I dreamed I answered the phone and there was a lady and I couldn't understand what she was saying, but she comes from a place that gets a lot of snow.

I am asleep again and now everything is safe and orange. I think I am upside-down. Mother is screaming. I am moving and there is a bright light. Someone is hitting me. I start to scream. They are going to call me Emily.

Mother is in the room. I feel so cold but everyone is saying I'm too hot. They say it's not flu and they are going to call the doctor. They keep asking me if I want things; more blankets, a drink, a teddy bear. I say yes to all of it because I don't really know where I am. Mother wants to help me get undressed. She wants me to get into bed. Everything is spinning and so bright that it hurts my eyes.

I had another dream but I was not really asleep. There were mirrors everywhere I looked and I could see myself in them. Some of them were darker and I was older in those ones. Some of them were so dark that I couldn't see what was in them but I think it was something bad.

Now I think I am awake but I'm not sure. The doctor is here and he smells of medicine. His hands are so cold. Now they are taking me outside and I am in a big white car. They are taking me down a long winding road. I can hear a bird singing and it is making me feel sad. I am afraid.

They have put a needle in my arm. There is something warm going through it. I feel calm and peaceful. I am not afraid anymore. I can hear a lady talking but I don't think she is real.

I was asleep but they woke me up with their talking. They were talking about the flowers. I'm dying and mother is talking about the flowers. I can see them and they are not even nice flowers. They are grey and withered just like me. But I think she loves them. Now nothing seems real. It's as if this is all happening on television.

Mother is by the bed. She is warm. I can feel her hand on my head. I think she is sad. I am not sad. I can feel that she loves me but I am not really there any more. Mother is crying because it was her fault that I died. It was because she did something wrong when she made my dinner. Please, speak of this to no one.


-John Croudy, October, 2010

New release: Speak of this to no one.

http://joefrawley.bandcamp.com/album/speak-of-this-to-no-one


http://joefrawley.bandcamp.com/album/speak-of-this-to-no-one

The Avenue of the Secret Fur

New video featuring unreleased music.

Youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1erVERXJao

Download from Internet Archive:
http://www.archive.org/details/TheAvenueOfTheSecretFur

Left Cincinnati reviewed at Leonard's Lair

http://leonardslair.wordpress.com/2010/05/28/review-joe-frawley-left-cincinatti/
Note: This is a thoughtful review, but I must disagree with his suggestion "all sorts of bad things happen to this lady". At least not in my mind they don't. -JF

****
Review text:
With a clever use of voice samples and piano melodies, Joe Frawley’s music is often beautifully evocative. Frawley himself calls these pieces short stories but it’s really up to the listener to interpret what tales are being told. ‘Left Cincinatti’ is based on the memories and dreams of an identity-shifting female.

‘Left Cincinatti’ uses a repeated refrain from a girl who “didn’t like high school” but the surrounding shimmer of noise drifting in and out of the speakers suggests all kinds of bad things happened to this young lady. ‘Secretary In Slowmo’ cuts up phone tones and white noise. On ‘Vanishing Point’ there’s an impression of a woman being suffocated, not necessarily in the literal sense but trapped in a cycle of life; the morbid piano melody only adding to the chilly, austere air. ‘The Girl On The Quay’ contains mutterings of the “birds and the bees down by the sea” set to strings and seagull cries whilst at other times women giggle and sigh for reasons unknown.

The messages in ‘Left Cincinatti’ are all too vague to truly know what’s going on but they’re undeniably hypnotic. Moreover, Frawley’s compositions have steadily taken on an increasingly darker hue and you wonder how far he will go next time around.

Fan video

So honored by this simple yet beautiful fan video: http://dopolamorte.blogspot.com/2010/04/joe-frawley.html




The piece is "The City (Map 2)", from The Hypnotist : http://joefrawley.bandcamp.com/track/the-city-map-2

(also available on the A Book of Dreams CD)

Sound Projector reviews Left Cincinnati

http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2010/05/01/memory-cold-and-raw/

Left Cincinnatti (JOE FRAWLEY MUSIC JFM-CD08) is the new release from Joe Frawley, the Connecticut pianist and sound-collagist. Continuing preoccupations manifested most strongly on his last release Emperor Of Daffodils, this release is full of voices, taken from a variety of sources – cut-up voices, prepared texts read by actresses, sounds sourced from YouTube and dialect recordings, and so forth. Along with the shimmering and stirring electronic music, tape workings and nostalgic piano work, Frawley once again tells stories, building his fragmented and overlaid narratives out of fleeting moments, impressions and traces. For what it’s worth, I seem to hear at least one narrative thread on here that is full of the sadness of a wasted life, thwarted ambitions and the tedium of a compromised job. The career girl who didn’t like high school ends up working as a secretary in a soulless bureaucratic establishment, where the very ring of a telephone strikes a chord of existential despair. As is customary, all of this is woven together with Frawley’s characteristic dream-like and ambiguous soft-focus manner, leaving a very open-ended yet incredibly dense text for the listener to revisit. Despair and loneliness are kept at arm’s length via rich and beautiful art.