THE QUIET EARTH ORCHESTRA-WORLD WITHOUT WORDS


MY ATTEMPT AT OBJECTIVITY:

This is an instrumental project I had done around 1993.  Originally it was going to be a big vocal concept album about the endless cycle of warfare that humanity seems to be so wedded to (but in the context of an alien civilization), but the limitations of the recording gear I had access to at the time really made the BIG SPACE OPERA idea untenable...and I had my more song-oriented projects to attend to.  This project was shelved, though I was fond of the pieces...even the borderline-crappy ones. 

So I have dug up these moldering little things and applied some digital brightening and whitening to them.  

This is a non-release that I am happy to share with the world, but I can't justify selling it on the market as it's just not at the level that would make me proud to call it an "official" release.  It was recorded on a Fostex 8-Track deck and suffers from the limitations inherent in that level of audio quality.  It is best listened to as background music and is rather easy to pick apart qualitatively.

 

THE SONGS:

So, since this whole thing was supposed to tell a story, let's see if I can nutshell it for you...in the proper order and everything (song titles in CAPS...duh!):

The cycle starts with a world AT PEACE, calm reigns and all is prosperity and order.  Just like humans, who never can seem to ever leave well enough alone in their utter stupidity, these beings begin to experience a stirring, a restlessness that intimates that one's own peace and prosperity is never enough: one has to get a major slice of one's nearest neighbors peace and prosperity too! 

A demagogue-in-waiting begins covertly MAKING PLANS with a gung-ho band of lackeys, dimwits, aliens with the alien versions of the names Clem and Cletus, and various other confederates with tragic intellectual shortcomings.  Spurred on by the future dictators impassioned words, his support for a ban on gay marriage (deemed unsuitable by a large and vocal segment of society that can't cope with the mental image of so many tentacles),  and his NOBLE DREAMS OF DESTINY AND CONQUEST, this quickly-growing army of malcontents begins THE DANCE OF PREPARATION to pave the way for the invasion of their dark and swarthy neighbors to the East, a land of spicy food, loose clothing, and profuse body odor.  Some in the crowd voice their DOUBTS, but are soon overwhelmed by the tide of the mob, the mass mind that compels the assembling of an army and THE GREAT MARCH to WAR.

Despite the enormous amount of soldiers on both sides being WOUNDED AND LOSING HOPE, the war continues as EAST FIGHTS WEST.  On both sides the fever pitch of bloodlust builds as the main pastime of both cultures becomes attending an endless stream of FUNERALS AND PROCESSIONS.

Eventually the steam runs out as both sides face famine and economic collapse.  The denizens of this planet, profoundly human-like and quite stupid, look out upon a FRONTIER OF DESOLATION.  War criminals are arrested, prosecuted, and executed, reparations are made, and a glum and gloomy calm descends upon both countries as they try to rebuild their ruined civilizations.

Gradually A NEW LIGHT and a new DAWN emerge.  Things grow upon the wounded land and there is much spontaneous breeding and jubilation.  The incredibly-human-like-in-their-amazing-level-of-abject-stupidity alien creatures settle into an agrarian farming mode, having exhausted their non-renewable resources due to global conflict and over-consumption.  And thus the stage is set for the whole nonsense to begin anew within a generation or so.

The end. 

Wasn't that special? 

Did I mention that I think that humans are mostly stupid?  Oh, OK... I thought you may have missed that. point.

Groovy...and there are some Bonus Tunes:

DREAMSCAPE

SKYQUAKE

VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY

 

CREDITS:

All the sounds on pieces 1-13 are by John Ludi, who am me.  I also should mention that there is no MIDI involved here, with the exception of the old Alesis drum machine that served as the foundation of the more rhythmic tunes I done played all this wit my own hands.  Pretty spiffy for a bunch of mechanical-sounding crap, eh?

Now as for the 3 bonus tunes: Dreamscape and Skyquake are two of the first things I ever recorded (in the early 80's), both while I was in the "band" Pliny the Elder.  Ken Shaw did the kit drumming on both of them, while myself, Ken, Bill O'Connor, and Gary Caudell banged the crap out of a bunch of pots and pans for Skyquake (which is kind of a tribute to Henry Cow and Fred Frith).  Voluntary Simplicity is just me, recorded back around 1986.  It was heavily influenced by a song by Durutti Column that used a haunting set of melodies based upon fifths.  It's pretty in it's own weird way and it closes the whole mess nicely, obnoxious tape hiss and all.