
Original artwork by Tamara Yadao ©2023
Tamara Yadao -- Corset Lore Tracks
“Goodnight Empyrean” was commissioned by UK Sheffield netlabel, Pterodactyl Squad, for a Spring 2021 compilation release called Train Radio. Train Radio was a project based around composer, *Minoru Mukaiya’s Japanese train platform jingles sounding at destination stops throughout the Tokyo subway system. Commissioned artists chose one of these jingles from which to develop a track around. The compilation is an homage to train riding experiences in Japan.
“Goodnight Empyrean” by Corset Lore is based on Mukaiya’s jingle at Tameike-sannō Station, Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Track 1 in the ward of Chiyoda. ©2021
*Minoru Mukaiya is also the former keyboardist of late 70s jazz fusion band Casiopea and producer of the mid-90s Train Simulator series of Japanese video games.
“Siquior”, a Game Boy work-in-progress I made in 2019, incorporates samples of the kulintang, an ancient, pre-colonial, Philippine indigenous instrument, and field recordings of rhythms in nature. Kulintang music was highly influenced by nature as it was used as a form of long-distance, tribal communication. Siquior is an island in the Visayan region of the Philippine archipelago that was dubbed ‘Island of Witches’ by the Spanish during the colonial period.
“Siquior” is a WIP demo track for the next Corset Lore project, Diskarte.
The next stage of work on this track will involve live drums by Kevin Shea in place of DAW drum instrumentation.
We will be workshopping sections with improvised drums and without.
Kevin Shea Reel 2023
Music is often judged by its sound whereas I gain meaning from its process, something I began focusing on 30 years ago after researching Jean Dubuffet’s art brut and his idea that its essential we maintain value from creating art before it becomes culturally contaminated.
“WCM” – 0:00
“soundz forest” – 1:00
“newage blowout” – 2:11
“newage blowout” / “WCM” – 2:57
“WCM” is a free drum interpretation, without instructions, of an oil-saturated graphic score given to me by artist Jacob Kassay. The score transcription is of “Wind Cries Mary“ by Jimi Hendrix. with an original performance of it in the late 2000s at The Kitchen in NYC. Baltimore drummer, Will Redman also performed. This current interpretation of me solo was recorded in Fall 2023 as Kassay wished to revisit the piece for an upcoming 7” vinyl.
“soundz forest” was meant to be part of an installation piece I developed for Prospect Park after sunset. The goal was to add additional sonic information to the melody of trees and pedestrians and surrounding street noise, but also to directly interact with the tones and timbre associated with a nighttime stroll through a city park.
In (proposed performance) “newage blowout”, a mono synth player performs the main theme in this work sample, as four other players walk in a circle around a rotary machine system, consisting of a mechanical stage spinning with instruments. This work focuses on the process of creating a composition in a literal circle. The players that traverse the circle perform slight variations on the main theme as it repeats iteratively over time.