This past weekend was a very special one: I recorded my first ever love song, dedicated to and performed with Racha Gharbieh.
The song, Your Hand is the Only Hand I Can Still Touch is sung in a very peculiar voice – and language: the one emitted by the Crackle Synth. This fabulous instrument – and its little brother, the Crackle Box – that was created by Michel Waisvisz in the seventies at STEIM (Amsterdam) is one of the first electronic instruments to include the skin of the player as an essential and integral part of the production of the sound.
I discovered and started playing this instrument after meeting Michel Waisvisz in 2006 and being appointed artistic director of STEIM, and it became quite fast my second instrument – almost as fast as Michel and I became close friends. After Michel’s passing in 2008, I continued using his own Crackle Synth until I finally had an exact replica built for me in 2015. I use it ever since in concerts and recordings, alone or together with the trumpet, in solo works and in groups.
Like every piece I play on the Crackle Synth, the one I am sharing with you today is dedicated to Michel Waisvisz’s memory. But unlike all the other pieces, Your Hand is the Only Hand I Can Still Touch is the only one to be composed and not improvised, and it is the first one ever where i am playing the instrument with someone else, who happens to be the second dedicatee.
The idea of this piece came of course from the confinement and the social distancing we are currently living, and the fact that we are deprived from any physical contact with other human beings, except the ones we are confined with. What better instrument than one based on touching and connecting electric circuitry to address the situation? And what better partner to experiment these electrical connections with?
Thank you Michel for inventing this marvel.
And thank you Racha for being a constant inspiration.
I never thought i was capable of composing a love song. You proved me wrong.
I made two takes of this composition. You can watch the second one at the top of the page, and the first one at the bottom.
And you can download the two takes (and all the other pieces related to The Corona Diaries) for $0.00 or more from my Bandcamp page: https://mazenkerbaj.bandcamp.com/album/the-corona-diaries
oh wow, this is intense. the first take is even more intense than the second. but both are very inntense. the second is also very funny and beautiful. especially the action which starts on min. 00:04:00
thanks to both of you, am very moved.
thank you cristina. glad you liked it. this is racha’s first ever piece (if you do not consider her involuntary participation in other recordings like the ones of “before the war it was the war, after the war it is still the war” installation).
Oh yes, that installation … I vividly remember it and the experience… hugs to both of you
hey mazen! hey racha! this is such a great idea! like cristina says, really intense! and both takes have excellent endings! i wonder what else you will come up with! big virtual hug from the other side of town! n.
hey nick. great to hear you are hearing those. soon a new piece, in replacement of sawt out’s canceled gig. stay tuned. hugs from both racha and myself!