The Drowned Lounge is an electro-accoustic live impro-mashup of hyperstretched evergreens, concert hall organ, triphop 30ies jazz beats and microscopic mechanical organ sounds. Performed by Nils Henrik Asheim and Gisle Martens Meyer, at Organ Night, Stavanger Concert Hall, March 24th 2017.
The work takes vintage pop music hits of the 20ies and 30ies, and separates them into tonal and atonal segments, which are then individually stretched to 10-50 times their length. Individual fragments and loops of the original are similarly processed. These elements are then mixed, synced and processed live, responding to organ improvisation on a concert hall organ, which is played live from a remote, the organ itself operating alone in an empty concert hall, microphoned and piped into the performing space.
The organ improvisation uses and misuses the original pop songs, blending glitchily and playfully with the shiftingly tonal and atonal material. In addition, the jazzy rhytmical elements of the original songs are extracted and infused with modern electronic beats, to create a flowing landscape of comfortably drowned evergreens.
The piece was performed in the foyer of Stavanger Concert Hall at Organ Night 2017.
