UNHQ goes green

Inhabitat » UNITED NATIONS HQ GOES GREEN
If there ever were a building in the world that should be as green as possible, the United Nations Headquarters in New York would probably be it. The good news: the UN seems to agree. The almost-60-year-old building, one of the most influential and iconic buildings on the Manhattan skyline, will be undergoing extensive renovations that will transform the building into a model of energy efficiency for all to follow.

Photos from last night’s concert

Ottmar Liebert in concert 082507 – a photoset on Flickr
Photos by Russell Frost, who is behind the Prius Owners Group blog and wrote this about the concert:

I saw him and his ensemble, Luna Negra on Saturday, at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg and they were, in a single word, fantastic. Ottmar’s passionate guitar playing is incredible. Seeing an artist like this is in a small venue, with a talented ensemble like Luna Negra is something not to be missed.

My own comments about the evening:

We usually carry chairs for Stephen and myself, but since we flew to the East Coast we are using chairs provided by the venues. Last night I used a black chair that turned out to be a cello-chair for the orchestra, meaning it is slightly pitched forward. My back was in pain and I had trouble concentrating. We switched chairs for the second half, and I was much more comfortable.

Harrisburg

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What’s in my bag?
What's in your bag?
Click on the photo to read the notes.

Fritz Files – conclusion

Fritz
Recording with Fritz was memorable! Musicians almost never record without headphones. There are many reasons to use headphones when recording a group. Some instruments are louder and it is hard to hear the soft instruments without headphones. Distances between musicians – necessary to balance the loudness of different instruments for recording purposes – can result in delays that make it much harder to achieve a serious groove. Our brain computes the direction of sound using the delay that is produced by the distance between our ears. In other words a sound originating from the left side will take milliseconds longer to reach the right ear. That allows the brain to identify the location of the sound. If the musicians sit more than a few feet apart the soundwaves may take several milliseconds to reach the ears and the delay will make it difficult to play in time. Luckily this is the hardest grooving band I have ever had and we were able to mentally compensate for the distances.

Taking a walk on Tuesday afternoon, after recording for several hours, I noticed that my mind was hyper-sensitive to the location of sounds. During recording sessions – and on stage while performing – my brain enters a different state, where pitch and time become enlarged. It’s like experiencing an aural version of slow-motion. In this state the smallest change in pitch or rhythm becomes very obvious. Working with Fritz and recording without headphones my mind became really sensitized to the location of sounds. And during my walk I kept noticing the location of sounds around me in such clear detail! A bird flapping his wings, a plane overhead, birds singing, the wind in the leaves, a truck in the distance… I mentioned this to he others yesterday and they all had the same experience.

We recorded one song with my old and slightly noisy video-camera in the studio room. Stevo will help me match up Fritz’s audio with the video we shot. That will make it possible to watch our performance in the studio while hearing exactly what Fritz heard – if you listen with headphones. You will see me circling Fritz at one point – not an easy feat to play guitar while moving around if you don’t use a strap – and Davo moving around while playing shaker. I will announce when the video will be available for your viewing/listening pleasure.

For some recordings we moved quite a bit. Sometimes Stevo and I would both be moving around, to balance softer and louder playing and to create some interesting aural movement. We decided against doing any overdubs or edits and hope to present the album in our ListeningLounge – now also accessible from listeninglounge.org – very soon.