(to Widen your Aura and Moon-tan your Ears)
Gordon Raphael & The Half Full Flashes perform Mannequins On Parade in Stuttgart, Germany
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My besties from Mallorca, SATELLITES rocking with NIGHT CALL, from their first album–THE BOX
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Paparazzi Headtrip aka Mother’s Darling
You insisted I could do this, so I went ahead and did! Its a self-made synthetic landscape written and pre-formed in Hollywood on Wonderland Avenue all-by-me-sen!! Then Dave Allen (Gang of Four) added his mighty mighty Bass-lines and I tweaked it in Berlin with my Moogy Thing-a-ma-jig. Thank you for watching and listening to my song!
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FLOWERS FIRE
Number 15 in a series of basic omni-potential discorporations, musings in an abstract free-for-all meditative style. In the Golden Eon numerology we correspond Madagascar, Magenta, Persimmon, Pterodactyls, Terrah, and Queen Ethyl– a dog for all ears.
From this overview we can easily see how music, mathematics and poetry conjoin to form the expressive centers of the “solo album oversoul”. As I always say: “A number is not a number until it has been baked thoroughly and set to waft in the sun”. The same goes for a good and heady melody.
By the way: music on this movie is my own, and 2 guest musicians appear: Michael Davidson on guitars, bass n drums, Michael Stein on drums too. Gordon Doucette’s Seattle basement features prominently as the location of these recordings, Merci! Filmed at the majestic and excellent Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville Washington, as well as our Regent House in London, guest starring: Musée du Louvre and Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris.
Letter From Jan in Berlin: “Great Work, Gordon! … and since the fire element is symbolized by the color red, I cannot help feeling a slight affinity to this one … Love, JB x
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ABOUT A TIME
“Your best video yet. Like a Physcadelic message from the golden era of America”– Cody Blakeney (musician/producer from Boerne, Texas)
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I wrote this song on the balcony of my hotel room at the Continental Riot House on Sunset Boulevard, way back on the first trip I ever made to Hollywood. While the night sky was hazy and all lit up, the real stars seemed to be the crazies and beauties walking around on the sidewalk below. I was very inspired and this antique, curved Mandolin that I borrowed from Kenneth V. Weller was simply gorgeous. I felt like the whole world was right in front of me, and I could float up right into the warm night air.
(update Dec 23, 2011) wow…. I just got this amazing email today, directly related to this video, and I will to share it with you!!! Thank you– (G. Raph)
Hi Gordon –
Over the past week I’ve had a very interesting set of circumstances present themselves to me that partially have to do with you. Thought I’d share…
Last week I sold a mandolin Ken gave me several years ago that he had gotten in high school from Mr. Poulschock the orchestra teacher at Sammamish. I sold it to a guy at Georgetown Music in Seattle. After a bit of conversation about the mandolin, we were magically led to the realization that 37 years ago, HE had swapped this very same mandolin for a classical guitar with a man that turns out to be Mr. Poulschock. Clearly, the universe brought me to him on this day to give him back his mandolin! Weird! Cool! THEN, I happened to see your FB post of the holiday song video you made. I watched it and then saw the thumbnails that popped up indicating other songs you had recorded and posted to YouTube. I thought, hey, let’s give one of these a listen for fun. One was called “Mandolin Song.” I click on it, then am blown away to find that this song was written using the same mandolin from my story! Your comments (both in the video description and at the end of the video on the screen) about the magic of the moment of writing the song, and the sense that “anything is possible” gave me the interpretation I was looking for. My symbol for the new year and all its amazing possibilities will be a roundback mandolin! Cheers! – Laura Weller Vanderpool
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Massachusetts Murder Medallion by Kill Kenada, recorded by me in London at Silver Transporterraum Studio
I had the joy of recording these guys in London several times, and they even played on Regina Spektor’s
stunning debut album Soviet Kitsch after I introduced them! koooool
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The Kaleidoscopes Trailer 1 from Gordon Raphael on Vimeo.
Absinthee in New York, documentary about life in Transporterraum Studio and downtown rock stardom?
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From the Berlin Transporterraum studio with Moses Schneider and Benson Lauber to Transporterraum NYC studio, London and Liverpool. The beastly and angelic voices never stop singing harmoniously.
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a small folk song I made in honor of Christmastide in my Berlin apartment on Bergstrasse
What the world needed in 2021 was a 30 minute AMBIENT MUSIC video conceptionalized in a Gor-Tronic way. Originally created for an online ambient festival in Beijing, this is the floaty beast unleashed for the first time. Can you dig it?
Hi Gordon – Did you study with Donald Denegar (piano, music theory) in Bellevue, Washington USA? He told me a former student was a rock musician and producer/engineer who moved to Berlin. I have been his piano student off and on for 40 years.
HI Carol Yes indeed some of my best music education came from the wonderful Donald Denegar.
I took piano lessons, theory lessons and teacher’s training with him as well as attended Seattle Symphony concerts and a summer hike in the Olympic National Park Thanks for saying hello!