Metamorphosis was written in 1988 and takes its name from a play based on Kafka’s short story. Numbers three and four are from Glass’s incidental music to the play, which he wrote to fulfill separate but nearly simultaneous requests from two different theater companies. Numbers one and two use themes from Glass’s soundtrack to the acclaimed Errol Morris film The Thin Blue Line, which depicts the true story of a man’s wrongful conviction for the murder of a Dallas police officer. The touching melody of number two and the diatonic harmonies throughout provide an ironic counterpoint to the film’s numerous reenactments of the shooting. The thrice repeated two-note theme (a descending minor third) in numbers one and five recalls the movie’s pathetic litany of interviews and testimonies. Number five, which also draws on themes from The Thin Blue Line, was composed as a finale to the set.
Mad Rush was written for the occasion of the Dalai Lama’s first public address in New York City, in the fall of 1981. Originally an open-structured or open-ended piece, it was first performed by Glass on organ during the Dalai Lama’s entrance into the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It was later performed on Radio Bremen and finally used by choreographer Lucinda Childs as accompaniment to a dance Mad Rush. It is cast in seven similar sections that create an extended ternary form.
Wichita Vortex Sutra is the result of a chance meeting between two long-time friends, Glass and poet Allen Ginsberg, in St. Mark’s Books, a popular bookstore in the East Village. “We decided on the spot to do something together, reached for one of Allen’s books, and chose the poem ‘Wichita Vortex Sutra,'” Glass recalls. “I composed the music to match the rhythm of Allen’s reading.” The piece was first performed in 1988 at a benefit for a theater group of Vietnam veterans, with Ginsberg reading excerpts from his poem and Glass playing piano. Continuing their collaboration, the poet and composer are now at work on a new song cycle, Hydrogen Jukebox, which will include Wichita Vortex Sutra with Ginsberg’s own narration.
Another superb release from one of my favorite guitarists, Mark McGuire (perhaps better known as a member of the band Emeralds), on one of my all-time favorite record labels, Mego (now Editions Mego).
Below is the official video for the album’s title track, Get Lost. It’s very uncharacteristic for this Austrian label to have ‘singles’, let alone music videos.
I have long considered William Basinksi’s The Disintegration Loops series (volumes I – IV) to be among the strongest examples of ‘ambient’ music. Remarkably simple analog loops, overlaid with complex, stochastic crackling (the disintegration of the actual analog tape). This article provides a detailed overview of the work and, importantly, its recording process.
Here is the live broadcast of the first orchestral performance of the electronic original at the MET on the 10th anniversary of 9/11:
To give the above context, the original track, dlp 1.1, can be streamed here, for comparison to the orchestral interpretation above.
Track Listing:
1. Chris Watson “Midnight at the Oasis” 28:03
The piece is a 28 minute time compression from sunset to sunrise in South Africa’s Kalahari desert and features the dense and harmonic mosaic of delicate animal rhythms recorded in this remote habitat. “Midnight at the Oasis” was first performed at the Marquee in Parliament Street, York, on 13th September 2007 as part of Sight Sonic’s contribution to the BA Festival of Science. The Kalahari desert is a vast and open space where most of the wildlife is nocturnal. After sunset the dunes, grasses and thorn bushes are patrolled by an emerging alien empire – the insects. Midnight at the Oasis’ presents an unseen soundscape from this beautiful and hostile environment.
2. Chris Watson & Marcus Davidson “The Bee Symphony” 20:00
A project conceived by Chris Watson originally for “Pestival” in 2009 to explore the vocal harmonies between humans and honey bees in a unique choral collaboration around and within the hives of an English country garden. Recorded live at The Rymer Auditorium, Music Research Centre, University of York, England on December 17th 2010 by Tony Myatt, using a Soundfield SPS200 microphone recorded onto an Edirol R4 (surround version) , and 2 x Neumann U87 microphones via Grace Microphone Preamplifiers, recorded onto an Edirol R44 (stereo version). Composed and arranged by Marcus Davidson using recordings made by Chris Watson & Mike Harding, and diffused through a 4.1 Genelec system by Chris Watson. The Bee Choir: Dylan de Buitlear, Lisa Coates, Steph Connor, Lewis Marlowe and Shendie McMath.
Marcus Davidson writes: “The first thing that struck me about the bees was how tuneful they were. During the day, their pitch was always based around A an octave below 440, the note we tune orchestras to. I found that the bees formed chords around the A, which varied depending on their mood. I spent time notating these bee chords, or note clusters, and as the bees sing easily in the human vocal range, I then scored the actual bee music for choir.
The sound of humans singing bees was strangely engaging. I thought it was reminiscent of Aboriginal music, perhaps showing how in tune with nature the native civilisations are. In fact, all the chords and ‘tunes’ in The Bee Symphony are taken from actual notes sung by the bees in the field recordings. The score was written so the choir sings exactly with different aspects of the bee song in real time, so hopefully we indeed have humans singing in harmony with bees!”
With thanks to Peter Boardman (the event producer), Tom Emmett, Celia Frisby & Bridget Nicholls, who originally commissioned The Bee Symphony.
Another heart-stopping debut brought to you by the increasingly inspired Digitalis imprint, Concern is the recording project of Gordon Ashworth who in a previous incarnation (as Oscillating Innards) delivered an altogether more brutal take on experimental music before planting his feet firmly in the world of shimmering, layered drones. Despite the heavily processed sound of this material, the three long tracks here (clocking in at a total of 40 minutes on this vinyl edition) were constructed almost entirely out of acoustic instrumentation, with the opening piece gradually building from a frayed field recording into a colossal hum of dense, layered drone that just seems to expand and develop without any perceptible change. It’s inspiring, deceptively visceral stuff. Next up – ‘Young Birth’ begins along a similar trajectory but soon curls up into into an incubated assembly of disentangled instruments, before the epic closing “Heratsink” proceeds to completely obliterate the vast majority of what passes for contemporary Drone with a colossal shimmer that sounds like Tim Hecker reconfiguring classic Raga structures into something almost unspeakably beautiful.
Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott’s article is well worth reading.
MOVIES may be the only art form whose core audience is widely believed to be actively hostile to ambition, difficulty or anything that seems to demand too much work on their part. In other words, there is, at every level of the culture — among studio executives, entertainment reporters, fans and quite a few critics — a lingering bias against the notion that movies should aspire to the highest levels of artistic accomplishment.
Original material from Janek Schaefer’s Extended Play (LINE_036), reprocessed between September 2008 and October 2010 using an entropic setup, spectral analysis and convolution processes.
Remember that $30mm USD you put aside last year for something special?
Here’s an idea: that James Biber house I photographed in an earlier post is on the market – the ask is only $28.5mm USD.
Surely yours for $25mm with the difference freed up to fund property taxes, maintenance, summer-themed snacks/soft drinks, condiments, and various meats for the BBQ.
Many more photos here, from Wallpaper* Magazine (Aug 2008):
Also, the house’s official link from the architecture firm, Pentagram (which itself, contains many additional links/photos).
Not exactly my taste (a bit too busy), but pretty amazing, nevertheless. I do take solace in knowing my TV is larger than the modest one in the guest house’s gym.
One of my favorite artists is releasing his hard-to-find back catalog on one of my favorite labels, eMego. This double disc, undoubtedly, will end up on many “best of” year end lists…
Composed way back in 1979, ‘A Red Score In Tile’ eventually surfaced as a vinyl-only edition in 2003. Made up of piano, this shows Basinski’s patented tape-loop technique perfectly and still stands as one of his most affecting pieces of music. If you’ve heard ‘Melancholia’ you’ll likely know what I’m talking about, piano notes are transformed into tones by the slowly disintegrating tape, and the loops become motifs all of their own. The beauty of Basinski’s work is in its patience, and this early piece is a testament to that overwhelming skill, a skill that few others possess. There are plenty of people now attempting similar things and recreating these sounds using similar methods but for my money none have come even within ten feet of William Basinski.
I had the good fortune of catching Basinski perform live Thurs night, organized and hosted for free by NYC’s premier independent music shop, Other Music.
Basinski intended to play the album’s original magnetic tape live, though technical constraints forced him to play unreleased material (to the disappointment of no one).
