The following description was swiped from the Improbable Music page of Philip Strong. Coincidentally, pH¡1 is a musician/producer with an experimental bent who recently used music by Satie for his soundtrack to a play, "Language of Their Own." Check out his page for further John Oswald++ transmissions.

PARADE (1986) by John Oswald, with reference to Erik Satie's Parade (1917), to accompany a choreography by Jennifer Mascall.

keyboard arrangements: John Oswald, Paul Plimley
guitars: Alex Varty
sax sample programming: Henry Kaiser
alto sax: John Oswald
baby: Cora Risdall
recording of live instruments: Doug J.Brown

produced by John Oswald @ the Western Front Lodge & EDAM dance sound studios, Vancouver with the financial assistance of the music section of the Canada Council. Post production @ Mystery Laboratory, Toronto.

Parade is one of those notorious Ballets Russes productions from the 2nd decade of this century. A jaunty score by Erik Satie, including project engineer Jean Cocteau's additions of the sounds of typewriters, gunshots, sirens, and a wheel of fortune, accompanied the choreography of Leonide Massine. A new version of the 1917 dance,commissioned by the Expo'86 World's Fair in Vancouver, although neither a reconstruction, nor even a ballet, retains elements of character & plot gleaned from the original.

The curtain opens on a stage carpeted in fog, human legs protruding from which support horizontal, hovering figures. A magician enters with his hands on fire. The opening tableau becomes animated: for the next 12 minutes a score of dancers & acrobats, spin, flip, fly & sustain a rapid succession of geometric progressions, gymnastic interactions, & sleight of hand vignettes.

The choreography, by Jennifer Mascall, is independent of whatever movement Massine may have created. Dance, which, unlike music is rarely notated, is free to exist in vague interpretations of its past accomplishments.

Satie's music, on the other hand, is available, faithfully reproduced in concert performances & recordings. Some versions have gone so far as to modernize the sound effects.

The basis for the present derivation is a cube factor increase in the playback speed of existing recorded versions. Left intact the 16 minute score would thereby be reduced to 4, but it has been further embellished by interpretations, reflections, & some sympathetic incongruities - fragmented & reassembled in pursuit of a discursive choreographic process.

The result is a tape. The 2 live musicians incorporated for performance have since been recorded to make a final composite, in this slightly abridged version. The opening bars are a direct quote of the Satie, & everything goes from there.

<Note: See CD below for recording of this performance>

I am only vaguely familiar with John Oswald, but I know he likes to take familiar music and make it weird. He starts with music by Bing Crosby, Dolly Parton, or Elvis Presley, and manipulates it into his own creation.

I have a John Oswald CD where he takes some weird music and makes it even weirder. Oswald combined about 50 different live performances of the Grateful Dead's long improvisation, "Dark Star", overlaying parts, time-compressing other portions in a process he calls "folding", and doing untold additional electronic gymnastics. Surprise - the music is a great success, very accessible and enjoyable. (CD is "Grayfolded")

I can't comment on this CD, other than to tell you that Parade is excerpted from the dance performance described above. It looks like a nice sampler, a good introduction to electronic music. The info presented below is from ReR.

"CMCD"
ReR

"Six Classic Concrete, Electroacoustic and Electronic Works: 1970 - 1990"
Total running length: 73:46.

24 page book of texts, pictures and notes included.

Track Listing:

1.John Oswald "Parade" (1986)
2.Georg Katzer "Aide Memoire" (1983)
3.Lutz Glandien "Es Lebe" (1990)
4.Steve Moore "A Quiet Gathering" (1988)
5.Jaroslav Krcek "Sonaty Slavickove" (1970)
6.Richard Trythall "Ommagio a Jerry Lee Lewis" (1975)

Six classic Concrete/Electro-acoustic works from the ReR back catalogue. Features work by John Oswald, Georg Katzer, Lutz Glandien, Steve Moore, Jaroslav Krcek and Richard Trythall.

"Jerry Lee's 'Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On' is mangled in a whirlwind of speed changes, splicing, loops and reverb...the effect is disorientating and hilarious....John Oswald's Parade is a masterpiece." ROCK POOL

"Georg Katzer's Aide Memoire should replace Brittain's War Requiem on Poppy Day." MONITOR

You can get it here.