Sound Piece 1 & 2

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Sound Piece #1 - 8:28
Sound Piece #2 - 31:15

19 September 1980 - OU Synthesizer Studio - Norman, Oklahoma
Pupaum - Modular Synthesizer
Digitally Remastered - Chicago - 24 November 2009

These were my very first two recording in a synthesizer studio. No keyboard playing was employed. These pieces were created wholly from tweaking knobs to manipulate the oscillators and envelopes.

I think there are some very interesting parallels, sound wise, between this work and "Early Electronics" created over 6 years earlier and under very different circumstances.

How this work came to be...

I had been making good progress developing my skills as a video artist, but I was using audio from LPs and felt strongly that I wanted to create my own electronic music to score my video art.

The University of Oklahoma School Of Music had a synthesizer studio, however the electronic music classes were only available to advanced music majors.

Joe Hobbs, the Dean of The School of Art, was an extremely important mentor in my art career at OU. I had come to his attention as an extremely focused, disciplined and self-motivated art student and was one day summoned to his office, where he took me under his wing and arranged for me to have 24-hour access to the art school so I could work at anytime of the day or night.

When I learned of my ineligibility to take an electronic music class I went to Joe Hobbs with my dilemma and he arranged with the Dean of The School of Music to make an exception in my case and I was allowed to enroll in The Fundamentals Of Electronic Music, my final semester at OU.

This was a critical and pivotal point in my art career and I relished in this new environment.

Audio As Experience

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Audio As Experience - 32:05

21 May 1980 - Stark Studio - Norman, Oklahoma
Kevin Stark - Music Boxes & Synth Control
Pupaum - Loop, Voice, Harmonica & Synthesizer
Digitally Remastered - Chicago - 23 November 2009

Although, I had experimented with several synthesizers since 1977, this was my first recording session using one. Kevin worked the knobs, creating the sounds while I played the keyboard. Kevin and I have always had great chemistry playing off one another. Additionally, Kevin plays several music boxes, while I performed voice, harmonica and audio loop system.

It was the previous year, 1979, when I created the concept of "Art Of Experience" and adapted Eno's audio loop system to video and began creating my own audio loop works.

Art Of Experience was a concept born from the perception of being consumed within an action, unaware of time and space verses self-consciousness of self and the varying degrees of self-awareness to the point of hyper-self-awareness when one becomes aware that they are aware that they are aware that they are aware, and so on...

This concept was realized by repeating and adding to the phrase "You are experiencing an experience which is based upon previous experiences. You are now experiencing the experience of experiencing an experience which is based upon previous experiences. You are now experiencing the experience of experiencing the experience of experiencing an experience which is based upon previous experiences." and so on...

Kevin and I met at The University of Oklahoma School of Art and became good friends. Kevin is a very talented artist and musician and it was with Kevin I began creating, performng and recording music on a regular basis.

Early Electronics

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Early Electronics (1974)

1. Inno 0:09
2. Turn On, Tune In 9:13
3. News 4:07
4. Morie’s Orchestra Rides Again 9:57
5. Final Wave 3:20

Morie's Orchestra is Todd & Morie and Ricky MacAfee in the background.

Created with Calculator & AM Stereo Receiver
Recorded with Lo-Fi Cassette Recorder & Tape
Tulsa 1974

Digitally Mastered & Edited by Pupaum
Chicago 17-18 November 2009

Art by Stevo In Yr Studio
18 November 2009

These are my earliest electronic music recordings and are quite historic for me for several reasons.
It illustrates my roots as a multimedia artist and my knack for exploring and discovering things not at all obvious from a fairly early age.

My brother Todd and I had my parent's old console stereo in our bedroom. Additionally, my father was a merchandise manager with Dillard's Brown-Dunkin in Tulsa and went on frequent buying trips to Asia. He brought home some of the very first battery powered portable calculators available to consumers and gave one to everyone in the family.

Somehow, I discovered that mistuning the AM receiver between stations, then moving the calculator around the tuner and pushing the buttons produced electronic tones and varying sounds based on distance to the receiver.

I have no clue what possessed me to even try such a thing, but that's me!!

Under very primitive conditions, using a very lo-fi cassette recorder near the stereo speaker and cheap tape, I recorded about 30 minutes of this electronic music.

It's important to note, this is over six years before I began to study electronic music formally in college and discovered who Karlheinz Stockhausen was. At the time of these recordings, John Lennon's Revolution 9 may have been the most experimental audio I had ever heard.

I think it is also interesting to note. I did this work before Kraftwerk released Radio-Activity or Computer World with Pocket Calculator! I find that a very interesting parallel of the foremost electronic music band!

Atomic Stockhausen

Created 16 November 2009
Inspired by Karlheinz Stockhausen

Contains samples and clips from:
Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution (2008)
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Kontakte Op. 12 (1958-60)
Atomic Alert (1951)
All heavily modified for Art's Sake!