maggi payne - ahh-ahh (download)

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Root Strata gets into the reissue melee with this collection of Maggi Payne's digital electroacoustic compositions for Ed Tannenbaum's multimedia performances from the mid 80's. DX7, sampling, digital effects and computer-based composition are thus the order and these are some rare sides if that's your thing: a mix of ambient textures, electroacoustic treatments and some meticulous sequencing. Opener "Flights of Fancy" shows the instruments at work: punchy percussive sequences interlocked with crystalline digital tones and lit by bright textures. The following "Gamelan" is a feat of early digital sequencing, with scalloping patterns moving all over the stereo field. "Shimmer" and "Hikari" really showcase Payne's craft with emerging digital tools, bright with DX7 timbres, manipulated FX and slow movements where Tannenbaum's performances found space, and today's listener finds that same space. - Billy Gomberg, Experimedia

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The music on this LP was originally composed by Maggi Payne from 1984 - 1987 for the performance group Technological Feets. Formed by video artist Ed Tannenbaum in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1981, the group combines dance, live video processing & music. This is the first time these recordings have ever been released on vinyl, and aside from the track Ahh-Ahh (Ver 2.1), the first time any of it has ever been officially released. Composed on an Apple II computer & various early sampling devices, Payne's compositions are a vibrant response to the call from the moving body. Populated with buoyant pulses, graceful analogue swells, dense fog-like drones and cascading rhythms that shift in space, AHH-AHH is a vital document of not only these early collaborations, but of computer based music as well.

Originally trained as a flutist, Payne was exposed to electronic music while studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana and later at the then newly established MFA in electronic music and recording media program at Mills where she is now co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music. She studied with many greats in the field, including Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley & David Berhman (who's composition 'On The Other Ocean' features her on flute) . Her musical career is extensive, stretching back over 30 years in both solo works & various collaborations.