Morgan Fisher Morgan’s Organ

Super Deluxe January 15, 2009

Morgan Fisher –Yamaha YC-30 Combo Organ, Hohner Clavinet/Pianet Duo, Lipp Pianoline, Yamaha VSS-200, Mylodica, Claviharp, Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro, Moogerfoogers, Digitech Whammy Pedal, plus various toys, kazoos, birdcalls, bells…(gearheads the see extended gear list and full explanation below!

To attend one of the Morgan Fisher’s evenings of music, Morgan’s Organ, as he calls them, is to enter a world of visual and aural delight. Much more than a concert or live gig, but not so addling and exhausting as an all-night rave, Fisher creates a captivating, mesmerizing and total musical-artistic experience. To describe the fullness of it, it is hard to know where to begin.

The music perhaps. No, wait, the visuals, I think. No, wait, the space of Super Deluxe, which is perfect for such a total experience. The space of the club has three wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling screens on which to project the great visuals that Fisher picks himself. The tripled screens really pull you into another world, with only Fisher’s U-shaped keyboard set-up and a couple speakers as anchor in massive visual flow. His keyboard rack is at the center of the evening, as he works them over for the next two hours. (During the break, all the analogue keyboard devotees flocked to the equipment to check out the rare cool stuff!)

Fisher’s tremendous set-up of keyboards and effects, are impressive enough, but it’s really the careful attention he pays to the vintage analogue equipment that knocks you out. He has a close relation to each and every carefully selected instrument, and seems to know each of their idiosyncrasies and strengths. These carefully played vintage electronics sound nearly acoustic in this day and age of hyper-digitalized any-sound-will-do tackiness. It’s a re-embrace of the cutting-edge days of fantastically new sounds coming directly from the first instrument to make that sound, not something downloaded second or third hand. His various keyboards each have their own character, so that Fisher becomes an electronic conductor or maybe group-encounter leader, coaxing each of the instruments to tell their unique stories in their own voice.

But then, back to the visuals… The music all worked wonderfully with the visuals. Poetically arranged photos in the first set (all taken himself) and fantastically arranged stories from silent shorts in the second kept your eyeballs busy. The first set photos revolved through various ocean settings, both diver-deep and on the beach. Snakefish, frogs, schools of fish, seabirds, humans inside aquariums, and various hard-to-identify species floated on the walls at a gentle pace. All the while, (and then back to the music), Fisher explored tones and textures on the keyboards. The first set’s musical vibe was a tone poem, or rather series of tone poems, with sounds, sonic shapes and unexpected ear tickling of all sorts emerging from Fisher’s fingers as the photos flowed by and, gradually, into your consciousness.

The second set, though, went from ocean floor to the sky, jungle, fashion world and a bit of silent-film nudity. Selecting an intriguing series of short silent films from his personal collection, Fisher let these triply projected films play on as he worked more musical-narrative currents. The melodies stretched out further and further, developing more integrated, less mood-based and more coherently story-like dimensions. The silent-era videos of a dirigible journey, an African safari, the “latest” 1920s fashion and finally a comic short in which the extras kept losing their clothes and turning into nude dancing women were impossible to resist. The videos blurred the distinctions between old and new, retro and avant-garde, quest narrative and comedic surprise. The music kept it all pumping.

Yet, back more to the music, or am I back to the visuals? One gets delightfully lost in the synaesthesia of it all. Fisher does not exactly coordinate the music and the video, but they work together powerfully in an interactive way, even when they seem to diverge. The music draws on a style of musical expression also mined by avant-garde composer/performers like Terry Riley and Brian Eno. Fisher has his own distinctive sound, with pleasing cascades of chords, tripping melodies, interplays of rich sonic layers, and a genuinely symphonic expansiveness. The music follows many directions at once, and suggests even more directions at every branching of every musical node. This musical holism is immediate and intimate.

Less really is more. The two hours of constant improvisation demand a certain creative stamina, but overplaying would be confusing. Fisher keeps things neatly stated, and because of that, they are absorbing and engaging. Fisher has an endless supply of musical ideas with the unflagging energy to keep them coming not so much fast and furious as delicately and mindfully. His intensely chosen music-video collages establish a space for reflection with fascinating sensory input. That’s a rare and lovely treat. The only place to get that regularly is Morgan’s Organ once a month at Super Deluxe.

http://www.morgan-fisher.com
http://www.myspace.com/morgansorganmusic
http://www.super-deluxe.com/

EXTENDED GEAR LIST!

KEYBOARDS:
Yamaha YC-30 Combo Organ, Japan, 1970, one of a great series of combo organs.
Hohner Clavinet/Pianet Duo, Germany, 1983, combination of a Wurlitzer/Fender Rhodes type electric piano with a funky Clavinet (based on a Clavichord - with real strings).
Lipp Pianoline, Germany, late 1950’s, tube analogue monosynth similar to the more popular Clavioline and Ondioline, sounds similar to the Theremin used in 40’s horror movies!
Yamaha VSS-200, Japan, early 1980’s, digital keyboard, consumer-style portable synth used mainly for its lo-fi (8-bit) sampling function, with built-in mike to sample voice.
Mylodica, USA, 2008, Handmade version of what is variously known as a Melodica/Pianica/Melodion/Keyboard Harmonica, sounds like an accordion but mouth-blown and much lighter!
Claviharp, France, around 1975, French equivalent of an African thumb piano or kalimba, but with the tines hidden inside a box, a trigger for each tine emerging from the box in chromatic order with a keyboard painted on the box as a guide.
EFFECTS:
Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro, USA, around 2000, one of the few digital devices, creates repeating loops, building up rich layers of sound, plays backwards or half speed.
Moogerfoogers, USA around 2000, wonderful analog effects units made by the famous Moog company: a low pass filter, a ring modulator and a ”MuRF.”
Digitech Whammy Pedal, pedals allow you to apply the effect similar to a whammy bar on an electric guitar), can slide the notes up or down by up to 2 octaves.