Apparatus

In 1996-97, Janet collaborated with Harry Castle a fantastic computer musician and pianist. They spent hours improvising together, Janet mostly on flute, Harry mostly on keyboard and computer. The result of these jam sessions was the CD Apparatus. The track Juggernaut went on to be the featured computer and instrumental duo at the 1997 International Computer Music Conference held in Thessaloniki.

Two years ago, Harry's mother called to tell Janet that he'd passed away at the age of 47 from natural causes. Today, I called her to tell her about Janet.

Apparatus is too much fun, too full of life and strangeness to sit quietly in a box of CDs in my storage locker. Mrs. Castle gave her permission for me to post the work on the web, and hopefully (my meager computer skills permitting), I'll have it available for listening in a week or so.

In the meantime, here's the lovely cover art by Sophie Plassard, which has the distinction of getting removed from an art show in Florida for being "unsuitable for public display" or some such. Okay, fine, it was entitled Lucifer. So, what's next, banning Paradise Lost? Anyway, this amused Janet to no end-- she'd tell everyone that she'd worked on an album which had gotten banned in Florida.

Then again, I suspect that the music itself would give the local biddies a heart attack. Do you know how many times people misinterpeted "Blue Mensuration"? It probably says something about those two that it never occurred to them that the title would sound funny-- the title refers to the way they used some rhythms from blues music.