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Members of I he Eugene Electronic Music Collective have many wondrous musical "toys''
with which to create strange and wonderful sounds.
It's difficult enough for commercial pop
turiesmiths to break into the music business
these days, but for composers of avant-garde
electronic music, the odds against getting a
recording deal are virtually insurmountable.
Two years ago. six local exponents of syn
thesizer music decided that the prospects of
selling their ethereal aural sculptures could be
vastly improved if they |ust pooled their
energies, equipment and financial resources
and ran the distribution business themselves.
Thus, the Eugene Electronic Music Collective
was bom.
The six were Nathan Griffith, Phyllyp Ver
nacular. Peter Thomas. Derryl Parsons, former
KtXX' announcer Peter Nothnagle and one
member who did not want to be identified. On
ly Griffith. Vernacular. Thomas and Parsons
are currently active in the EEMC; the four are
Story by Patrick Low
Photo by Shu-shing Chen
producing, recording, promoting and
distributing their music solely on their own
resources.
“As individuals we couldn't get the kind
of exposure that we would get if we grouped
and pooled our efforts." Vernacular says.
"And so the idea really was to promote
ourselves as electronic composers to the. uh.
world. It started out real small, but we do gel
mail from all over the world now."
Although the EEMC is occasionally a per
formance group, it is primarily a mail-drdur
cassette dealership. The current EEMC
catalogue consists of 10 tapes of solo electronic
music by members past and present, including
a 90-minute sampler of music by the founding
members entitled “Free Fall." According to
Vernacular, about 90 to 95 percent of EEMC
orders are for the sampler cassette.
All the proceeds from cassette sales and
local performances go back into the collective.
A significant portion of its budget is allocated
for purchasing ad space in alternative music
magazines for listeners and composers of non
mainstream music. The magazines, such as
Sound Choice, are more than just reading
entertainment for the terminally hip. Accor
ding to Griffith, these magazines form the
communication link between musicians who
market their own compositions.
"Although they aren’t sold in a lot of
slums. (th« magazines) am very popular
among the independent music circuit,” Grif
fith says. “Everyone who is involved with in
dependent music knows about these
magazines, gets them whenever they come out
and reads them intensely. It's a network of
people who trade music with each other."
The EEMG’s business and music head
quarters is actually Vernacular's small, clut
tered campus-area apartment. The walls of the
apartment am elaborately decorated with
posters of Laurie Anderson. Talking Heads
and other subjects too arcane to describe. Enor
mously long rows of phonograph records
stretch across the floor beneath a long wall
When Vernacular says he listens to all kinds of
music, he’s not kidding.
A door on the east side of the living room
leads into Vernacular's Exploding Cellos
Studio. Inside, an arsenal of electronic equip
ment is housed along with Vernacular's eccen
tric collection of second-hand electronic toys,
with which he can re-croate just about every
sound-effect you've ever heard on Warner
Brothers' cartoons.
Except for the new Yamaha synthesizer,
the other keyboards are all obsolete, he admits.
But the rapid rate of obsolescence in the syn
thesizer industry is a blessing for electronic
musicians like himself: most of the syn
thesizers in his collection cost him only a
small fraction of the original price.
‘‘I think one of the biggest assets we have
is that we're limited in the machines we
have.” Griffith says. "Our machines am fairly
primitive compared to what’s being put out in
electronics these days, and we have to fight to
get the sounds we want. That makes it exciting
because it makes us think about the sounds
and how we can manipulate or combine
them.”
"I think when you have a limited system
you know it really well," Vernacular adds.
"You can get a maximum amount of expres
sion out of that system.”
Vernacular and Griffith are also involved
with producing and hosting KLCC's Sunday
evening electronic-music program. "Another
Green World.” The show promotes the
EEMC's music as well as works submitted to
the collective by composers nationwide and
abroad (Vernacular is especially proud that
they recently received a box of tapes submitted
from Yugoslavia). Their ads promise that any
tapes submitted to them would be aired on the
show at least once.
Continued on Page 7R
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