The Music of Erich Zann

I keep coming back to The Music of Erich Zann, chiefly in the January dark, picking up my viola and speculating on the sort of thing Lovecraft might have had in mind back in 1922 when he wrote of '...the ghoulish howling of that accursed viol...' - or even what sort of viol he might have had in mind. Here's my latest take on it, freely improvised on one of these ornate 5-string violin / violas you can buy cheaply on Ebay from China.  And whilst the drone is most certainly gratuitous (the ubiquitous electronic shruti box, also off Ebay) I am wary of silence - day or night, it makes little difference - thus the rooted tonic earths the meandering amodality of the thing in such a way as to determine the inner aesthetic of a music that might be considered Folk Horror...  and all that implies.

The YouTube film is a visual record of this improvisation, though what you hear on the soundtrack is altered by the inclusion of extraneous real-time modifications (filters, reverb, delay, distortion) realised using Ableton Live, the full-length audio of which is available as an MP3 by clicking the link below:

Sedayne : The Music of Erich Zann : January 2011 

This post dedicated to Lord Loomis, Sir Ashliegh Grove and the various other Gentlemen of the No. 9 Club.