Sold Date: September 26, 2022
Start Date: April 1, 2021
Final Price: $48.98 (USD)
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CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE 'Ffroggssichorddd' Double LP (Netherlands, Staalplaat, Catalogue #SSH03) Brand new/unplayed copy of limited year 2020 Staalplaat label special limited fur cover Double LP edition (edition of 200 copies only in several color variants - this one in cheeto orange as depicted in the photos above) of collaboration between architect (and, in this case, instrument builder) John Körmeling and minimalist/avant-garde composer/musician Charlemagne Palestine.

(NOTE: ALL RECORDS ARE PACKED AND SHIPPED IN PROFESSIONAL, SUPERIOR QUALITY RECTANGULAR SHAPED, CORNER PROTECTING CORRUGATED CARDBOARD RECORD MAILERS WITH FILLER PADS. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED!)

(NOTE: BRAND NEW/NON-FACTORY SEALED ITEM PACKED IN LIGHT PLASTIC SLIP-SLEEVE!)

(NOTE: SPECIAL LIMITED "FUR COVER" VINYL EDITION OF 200 COPIES ONLY! THIS COPY IS THE "LIGHT GREEN" FUR COLOR VARIATION!)

Double LP version. Limited fur cover edition (color varies).

Architect John Körmeling and maverick musician Charlemagne Palestine collaborate on a whole new system of music. A famous English conductor said that the harpsichord sounded like "two skeletons copulating on a tin roof". An instrument that was once the basis of every orchestra and chamber ensemble was long ago replaced by the stronger and, for some, sweeter sounding piano. Now the harpsichord is very much the preserve of specialists and early-music supporters and has seen very little progress in design. Enter architect and musical philosopher John Körmeling. In addition to designing utopian public spaces like the "Happy Street" which served as the Dutch pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010, and the "Straight Road" artwork which played with the mismatch between the curvature of the earth and our need to see life in two dimensions, Körmeling has devised a system of music that sets aside familiar Western tuning and is based instead on square roots, areas, and volumes. In order to realize this music, he turned back to the harpsichord and adapted its jangling sound to an intonation that literally plays Pythagorean ratios. Körmeling made it possible to hear ratios and proportions that we usually only encounter on the pages of a math book. Körmeling now had his instrument, but who would have the imagination and vision to play it. He turned to the veteran rule-breaker Charlemagne Palestine, pioneer of long-form improvisations on harpsichord, harmonium, and other neglected keyboard instruments. The idea of "playing a triangle" immediately appealed. Responding to the invitation from Körmeling, he said that "thiss Pythagoriann harpsichordd was just upp myy alley,,,,,,,,,". Palestine saw the new instrument and named it the Frogsichord after its color. This record documents performances on the Frogsichord made in Brussels, Rotterdam and in Cappadocia, Turkey. The sound is strange, perhaps even estranging, but Palestine has made it his own, and created a music that is rich and detailed, not simply "exotic". It's no longer a question of Western tonality colliding with non-European harmonic systems. Here is music that taps into the universal language of mathematics.

- Architect John Körmeling and maverick musician Charlemagne Palestine collaborate on a whole new system of music.
- Körmeling created an instrument that adapted the jangling sound of the harpsichord to an intonation that plays Pythagorean ratios.
- Named the "Frogsichord" by Palestine, the veteran rule-breaker explores the instrument and creates a music that is rich and detailed.
- Limited edition LP comes in hand-sewed green fur cover (color varies).

Tracks on this Double LP are as follows:

Notes

Side A recorded 22 & 23 December 2015 at the CharleWorld Studio Brussels.
Side B recorded 16 April 2015 at the Lantaren Venster Rotterdam.
Track C1 recorded 5 April 2019 at "De Tempel", Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen.
Tracks C2 to C6 recorded 22 & 23 December 2015 at the CharleWorld Studio Brussels.
Side D recorded 17 May 2015 at the Cappadox Festival in Cappadocia Turkey.

The Frogsichord is the name Charlemagne Palestine gave a green harpsichord in which the tones are based on the relationship between lengths that pass through similar spaces. Such a space can have any shape. Choose a shape, draw a line through it and choose a length somewhere on this line. Name this length 1. If the space changes in size, the selected length, surface area and volume of that space change. When the length becomes 2 times as long as length 1, the surface becomes 4 times as large and the volume 8 times as large. When the surface area becomes twice as large, the length becomes √2 times as long as length 1 and the volume becomes 2√2 times as large. When the volume becomes 2 times as large, the length becomes ∛2 times as long as length 1 and the surface area ∛4 times as large. To show this, I chose a potato and cut out a fries. This fries has length 1, the unit of measurement. If the potato has a surface area that is twice as large, the fries is √2 times as long. The potato with a 3 times larger surface area has a fries that is √3 times as long as the first fries. And if the area is twice as small the fries is 1/√2 times as short. If the potato is twice as large in volume the fries is ∛2 times as long. And with a volume that is 3 times larger ∛3 times as long. With a volume that is twice as small 1/∛2 times as short. The length ratios ...1/√4 1/2), 1/√3, 1/√2, 1, √2, √3, √4 2), √5, √6, √7, √8 2√2), √9 3) √10…. with respect to length 1, develop loosely in space. I call this method of measurement minimal measurement. I apply it in my buildings. For example, a diagonal through a space can be the width of something elsewhere in the building. Frogsichord has 2 keyboards, each with 55 tones. The tones of the upper keyboard originate from area related length series 1, √2, √3 ... up to √40 2√10) and 1/√2, 1/√3 ... up to 1/√16 1/4). The tones of the lower keyboard originate from volume related length series 1, ∛2, ∛3… up to ∛40 2∛5) and 1/∛2, 1/∛3… up to 1/∛16 1/2∛2). The string corresponding to length 1 can have any tone. For convenience, string 1 is tuned at 440Hz. Both on the upper keyboard and the lower keyboard. The √2 string is tuned at 440Hz : √2 ≈ 311,12698Hz. The √3 string at 440Hz : √3 ≈ 254,03412Hz. The √4 string at 440Hz : 2 = 220Hz. The 1/√2 string at 440Hz x √2 ≈ 622,25396Hz. The ∛2 string on the lower keyboard is tuned at 440Hz : ∛2 ≈ 349,22823Hz. The 1/∛2 string at 440Hz x ∛2 ≈ 554,36526Hz. And so on. The tones sound different than you are used to. You do hear that there is a connection between the tones. The next tone is predictable. Frogsichord was built during 2010 and 2011 by Martin Bezemer. John Körmeling, Eindhoven 2019.

Harpsichord, idea by John Körmeling, build by Martin Bezemer.
John Körmeling (b.1951, Amsterdam) studied architecture and is, like Le Corbusier, Melnikov and Rietveld, a free-thinker. He designs architecture at whose heart lies mobility and individual freedom. As a young artist seeking a foundation for his artistic choices, John Körmeling was inspired by numerical proportions such as the Golden Section. Fixed proportions of length and number became his fundamental aid when sketching and drawing up building plans. Like a contemporary, postmodern Pythagoras, he designed his own music (based on square roots) in accordance with this mathematical axiom, which he called ‘minimal measurement’. With a characteristic irony, this paradigm has run like a thread through all his architectural designs and installations.

Special cuddly edition limited to 200 hand numbered copies in artificial fur cover.

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