Sound of the Day

Wind. And more wind.
Weathermen say speeds of unto 80mph up until this evening.

Ballake Sissoko

Sunday saw us at Sage Gateshead for a performance by kora player Ballake Sissoko and his group (2 guitarists, a singer and a balafon player).
I love the sound of the kora!
Ballake (and his more famous cousin, Toumani Diabate) are masters of the instrument - their sound is so beautiful & complex, yet not taxing. Just can't get enough of it.
First really heard it many years ago via an album by Dembo Konte, who was from The Gambia, rather than these two who are from Mali.

Bing

In the coffee shop this morning an old guy is talking to one of the staff about the muzak playing, it's not to his liking. He's on about what really likes, saying,
"I'm going back to Bing Crosby"
"What's Bing Crosby?" came the reply.

And to think he was the most famous singer in the world at one time & sings the most famous Christmas song of all.

2008

So, the archives tell me that at the end of 2008 I came up with this list of my favourite music for the year:-

Nelson Foltz & Tom Lynn - “Still Life”

Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill - “Welcome here again”

Toumani Diabaté - “The Mandé Variations”

Jacaszek - “Treny”

Our Sleepless Forest - “Our Sleepless Forest”

Peter Broderick - “Float”

Ry Cooder - “I, Flathead”

Lawrence English - “Kiri No Oto”

Thomas Feiner & Anywhen - “The Opiates (revisited)”

Janek Schaefer - “Extended Play”

Rajery, Ballake Sissoko, Driss El Maloumi - “3MA”

Loudon Wainwright III - “Recovery”

Hauschka - “Ferndorf”

Max Richter - “24 Postcards in Full Colour”

Buena Vista Social Club - “Live at Carnegie Hall”

Johann Johannsson - “Fordlandia”

Arve Henriksen - “Cartography”

This is Your Captain Speaking - “Eternal Return”

Le Chat Blanc Orchestra - “Ste Claire Hotel”

Hans-Joachim Roedelius - “The Gugging Album”

Remember Remember - “Remember Remember”

A good year I'd say. (And very international - musicians from UK, USA, Germany, Poland, Norway, Iceland, Mali, Austria, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Cuba, Ireland, Morocco & Madagascar.)
Our Sleepless Forest were a young band from Putney who only made this one album of post-rock.
Remember Remember are a minimalist outfit from Glasgow - Steve Reich with a drum kit.
Toumani Diabate's album here is him playing solo. He is one of the finest musicians I've ever seen live.
Foltz & Lynn is part of a vast 4 CD set of drifting Jon Hassell inspired ambience.
The terribly named This is Your Captain Speaking are an Australian guitar band, with a fine album. (The recent third from them is however a major disappointment)
Since "Fordlandia", Johannsson has been mainly doing soundtrack work, some of it very good. This album marked the first I'd heard about Fordlandia, but I've since read a very good book about Henry Ford's city building exercise in the Amazon.
"Extended Play" was the first album I heard by sound artist Janek Schaefer, I was to discover lots of other good stuff & in the few brief emails I've exchanged with him seems a good man too.
The rogue album is Le Chat Blanc Orchestra, an ambient outfit from Canada as I recall, but an album I don't think I've played since - must dig it out.

Moving Music

Not often that I listen to a BBC Radio drama, but I couldn't miss "Moving Music" by Sarah Wooley.
To quote from the website:
"Philip Glass & Steve Reich are best known as pioneers of minimalist music. What is less well known is that they ran a removal firm together to make ends meet while they were making their way as young composers in the 1960s".

So, a drama in which you hear Steve & Phil move furniture.
It was about the how and why they fell out at the end of the 1960's after working, musically and other wise, for a productive period in which they found their styles & formed their own groups to play in non standard venues.
There was a disclaimer at the beginning of the play saying that some of it is guesswork. Was it fiction that Philip dropped a piano on Steve's foot? Why did Philip drop Steve's name from his piece "Two Pages (for Steve Reich)"? Not sure that anyone knows for sure. As always with these things the characters make statements that predict forthcoming events in their lives to a degree that never happens in real life.
Interesting little piece, using brief extracts from there music in between scenes. Justin Salinger did a very good impression of Philip Glass.

At last

the sound we wanted to here....
"Level One. Exit"

P home from hospital

3:52 am

Woke to the sound of rain bounding on the window.
Did the rain wake me, or did I just wake anyway?

Lift

"Doors closing."
"Going Up."
"Level 5."
"Doors opening."

and repeat.......

Drum Tower

Visited the Drum Tower in Beijing. Originally build in the 13th Century, this was part of the city's time keeping system, right up till the last century. Hugh building, with very steep stairs up to the top level. Today the only drums sounded are not for telling time, but a 5 min performance for tourists.
All very dramatic & loud within the gallery.
The type of drums used here are more famously used by Japanese groups like Kodo these days.
How much the sound is like ancient times is questionable & I wish I'd also heard them from outside. But then again, perhaps now with all the traffic noise, they may not be heard.

Breaking Glass

While staying with D & L in Beijing, I awoke one morning to the sound of a snore and breaking glass, one over the other, as if one noise.
P was already awake & I asked her what she'd heard. It seems the snore was me. She'd heard no other noise.
So I woke myself up snoring and hallucinated the sound of breaking glass at the same time.

The East is Red

While in China, the only time I heard the national anthem, "The East is Red" was in a brief sampled version at the beginning of a piece of music playing on muzak.
Not that I expected to here it playing on every street corner, but I did sort of expect it at things like the acrobatic show we went to, but no.
I was surprised that the bit I did hear was in this brief sampled extract, but then I guess that the government isn't quite as hard line about somethings as it once was.
(I stress the somethings bit).
The version of "The East is Red" that I know best, is of course, Holger Czukay's version, the title track of his 1984 album, with brass band sampled over the top of Jaki Leibezeit's drumming.

School

"Mum, I learnt something new at school today" shouted A through to her Mum in the kitchen.
Then to herself, (but I heard) she added, "Of course I did" said the 11 year old school girl.

Beijing Phase

On the underground in Beijing there are a number of recorded announcements in Chinese & English. One of which is played for those using the escalators, "Stand firm. Hold the hand rail."
Now the "stand firm" bit does sound a like a military command.
But as it keeps repeating, these two phrases struck me as ideal material for a phased tape piece like those that Steve Reich made in the 1960's namely, "It's Gonna Rain" & "Come Out".
"Stand Firm. Hold the hand rail.
Stand Firm. Hold the hand rail.
Stand Firm. Hold the hand rail.
Stand Firm. Hold the hand rail.
Stand Firm. Hold the hand rail.
Stand Firm. Hold the hand rail."
As the different layers go out of phase, it would be anything other than standing firm.

Reich Again

Travelling music today "Octet" and "Violin Phase" - two of my favourites!
Steve Reich is my favourite composer of the last 50 years. So now you know.

Whirled Service

Just been listening to "Whirled Service" by Robin the Frog. This was a commission by BBC Radio 3's Late Junction programme & is a sequel to "The Ghosts of Bush".
Let me explain.
"The Ghosts of Bush" was an album created only using sounds recorded in the BBC's Bush House studios, the home of the BBC's World Service. And by in Bush House I mean the ambient sound of a stairwell, the sound of the life working, a door banging shut - the actual sounds of the building & the sound of the programmes it made. Some of the sound it treated, some of it as it naturally sounds. A sort of aural portrait of the building, and it's ghosts. Released under the name of Howlround, the artist is actually a studio manager for the BBC and worked in the building.
This new commission is made using the same techniques, but in the new home of the BBC World Service, hence the title "Whirled Service".
Very interesting. Great mood and atmospheres. As good as the first. Hopefully it gets a release beyond the BBC broadcast & short lived podcast version.......

http://robinthefog.com

Ball of Fire

Sitting in the café this morning and through the open door heard some children heading to school for the first day of term, as they went past "....on a ball of fire!" one of them said.
What they did on their holidays?

2001

Looking back in the archives I find that my albums of the year for 2001 were:-

Pascals - “Pascals” (Japanese band using toy instruments)

Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson & Sigur Ros - “Englar Alheimsins”

Led Kaapana & Bob Brozman - “In the Saddle” (Hawaiian guitar duo)

Robert Rich - “Somnium” (his 7 hour sound only DVD of one of his sleep concerts)

Orlando Lopez - “Cachaito” (Cuban bass player)

Brian Eno & J Peter Schwalm - “Drawn from Life”

Momo Wandel - “Afro Swing” (the deepest, most gravelly voice in the world)

Biosphere - “Substrata 2” (reissued album, but greatly expanded)

Blind Boys of Alabama - “Spirit of the Century”

John Zorn - “The Gift”

Gavin Bryars - “Biped”

Orchestra Baobab - “Pirate’s Choice”  (classic from Senegal - reissued with extra material)

Jazz Jamaica All Stars - “Massive”

Nick Lowe - “The Convincer”

Loudon Wainwright III - “Last Man on Earth”

The Legendary Marvin Pontiac - “Greatest Hits” (aka John Lurie)

Little George Sueref & the Blue Stars - “1st”

Fridge - “Happiness”

Tinariwen - “The Radio Tisdas Sessions”

And I have to say, I'm impressed with myself! Almost all of them I'm very happy to play now.

I remember being in Spin Records in Newcastle when the Zorn was playing and asking what on earth it was.

George Sueref (The finest blues man Wales ever produced - whatever happened to him?), Momo Wandel & Tinariwen I discovered via Andy Kershaw's radio programme. (It's time he returned to the airwaves).

Fridge I first heard on the much missed BBC Radio 3 programme "Mixing It".

The Gavin Bryars CD I bought direct from him & so it's a signed copy.

Jazz Jamaica All Stars were one of the great live acts, saw them a number of times.

All quality if I say so myself.

In C(hina)

Travelling music this morning was the Shanghai Film Orchestra's version of Terry Riley's classic "In C".
This performance was recorded in 1989 in Shanghai, and mixed later in Hollywood by Brian Eno, Jon Hassell and Riley. It seems there were problems at the recording, partly due to tuning differences between China & Western music but also because the musicians were not used to having a free hand, to improvise the number of repeats of the 53 patterns that make up the piece. This released performance clocks in at 28 minutes, but first takes were only in the region of only 10 or 12 minutes!
It's an interesting mix.
"In C" is perhaps a greater idea than a piece of actual music, but I do like it.
I also have an album that is a Javanese take on "In C", which is perhaps a more natural mix than the Chinese version - "Gamelan of Central Java - XV. Returning Minimalism: In Nem". Recorded in 2009. It's inspired by "In C" rather than a performance of it. A good album.
There is also a purely vocal version available, which intrigues me. I've only heard an extract, but must get the full version sometime.

L Subramaniam

Just been listening to a live recording from 1983 of "Raga Dharmavati" by Indian violinist L. Subramaniam with Alla Rakha on tabla.
L Subramaniam really is a fantastic violinist. Wonderful flowing lines in his improvisations, with lots of "how does he do that?" moments.
I did once see him play years ago at, of all places, Newcastle upon Tyne Civic Centre. Not in a theatre or lecture space but just in a normal room. This caused problems as Indian musicians almost always perform sitting on the floor, so if you weren't near the front you couldn't see anything. Luck for me I could see, and it was one of the most impressive instrumental performances I've ever seen.
I did meet him after the concert, a tiny man, and got his autograph.
It was years after I'd first heard him that I discovered that he is actually the brother of L Shankar the violinist famous for playing with John McLaughlin in Shakti & later working with everyone from Peter Gabriel to Talking Heads to Echo & The Bunnymen. Shankar, as he later became known and now Shenkar, seems to have given up on the classical Indian violin (not forgetting his amazing twin necked violin), or even his fusion stuff which he recorded with the likes of Jan Garbarek, and wants to be a pop/rock singer. Something he's been trying to do for years now.
It seems a waste.
L Subramaniam continues to perform traditional, as well as fusion musics of his own, on his trusty violin. And he is the better violinist of the two.
My absolute favourite CDs of his are a couple of releases he recorded for the Radio France Ocora series. Unbelievable!

Seagull

On the iPod today came a track by Dead Can Dance.
They have, a few times, used bird calls on their music & right on cue today, a seagull flew past at low altitude but in full voice to add his cry to the music.
Perfect.
Must be a fan.

Music for a Found Harmonium

Last night watching a documentary about the first plans for the Channel Tunnel, "Music for a Found Harmonium" by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra was played over footage of the completed tunnel with the train speeding through.
Famously composed by Simon Jeffes after he found a harmonium left in the streets of Kyoto, the music has since taken on a life of it's own. Firstly the traditional Irish group Patrick Street played it as a set finale which allowed them to go off in various show stopping directions, before returning to the original tune again and again. So successful was this, and so liked by Irish & Scottish fiddle players that it has become a "standard". Sometimes called "A Tune for a Found Harmonium" and often credited not to Jeffes, but as a "traditional" tune.
A quick look on the internet finds that it has been covered by not only Patrick Street but;
Sharon Shannon, Four Men & a Dog, Moose Hill, Fiddlers Feast, Colin Reid, California Guitar Trio, Todd Hallawell, FBA, New Celeste, Les Violinik, Ochtopus, The Beggarmen, Matto Congrio, Hot Rats, The Fabulous Potato Heads R&B Ceili Band, Mundi, Mithril, Leidertach, Celtica, Steve Pettit, Alabastro Euforico, Anam Keltoi, Meletti Valerio, Rock Salt & Nails, Coila, Rapalje and Phil Coulter to name but a few!
Simon Jeffes was I think, a genius. Not a term I use lightly. His superb mix of classical, world musics, fun & exact arrangements created some of the finest music ever produced. As I say, a genius.
And his son Arthur isn't bad either - carrying on Penguin Cafe and his duo Sundog.

A. Kostis

A few weeks back now, on the free CD that came with my copy of The Wire magazine (The Wire Tapper series), there was one stand out track - "Dertlidikos Horos" by A. Kostis.
This track appears on a compilation "Greek Rhapsody, Instrumental Music from Greece, 1905-1956", a 2CD set with book compiled by Tom Klein. I've yet to track down the compilation, but if it's of the standard of that simple guitar track, it'll be worth getting.
There are lots of these type of releases these days - extensively researched books & compilations of old tracks. They always seem to look fantastic & are very desirable items. The risk is that you play the music once & just keep it as a novelty item.
As for A. Kostis, I gather that he died in 1943 & his real name was Bezos. He was a big fan of Hawaiian music having a band called Bezo's Hawaiian Guitar Ensemble during the 1930s!
World music fusion 30s style.
(The reason for mentioning this now is because that track has appeared twice on my iPod today while playing it on shuffle.)

Cafe Talk

Two old men overheard this morning.
One was trying to remember the name of someone he mentioned in his story.... "Dave...Dave...Dave...like Big Dave. They call him Dan."

Uninspired

Out walking at lunchtime with my iPod on.
But nothing appealed.
Tried it on shuffle.
Tied picking something.

Nothing inspired me today.

Monday

Driving music to and from work today was from "Flip Side (of Sophism)" by Pascal Comelade & Richard Pinhas, this duo's second full length collaboration. A mixture of toy instruments and processed guitar.
Lunchtime had me listening to "Ivor Cutler at 90" a BBC Radio 4 programme for what would have been his 90th birthday. Nice to hear his work again & to hear stories of his time as a teacher. "I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy and I'll punch the man who says I'm not"
Evening music came from Ludovico Einaudi's album "Una Mattina" - mainly solo piano minimalism, and then Charlie Haden and Hank Jones "Steal Away" - piano and bass jazz on old gospel songs and hymns.

Lightwave

A French electronics duo (Christian Wittmann & Christoph Harbonnier), who first came to my attention really, following an appearance on a Hector Zazou album. Followed them quite closely for a few years in the 1990s with their wonderfully dark, spooky & slightly mad albums like "Tycho Brahe" & "Mundus Subterraneus".
They seem to have disappeared these days, but there were a couple of albums from the early 2000s that I never got, not for taste reason, but availability & cost, as they never seemed to be available outside of France for anything like a reasonable price.
Well, only 9 years after it's release, this week I got "Bleue Comme Une Orange".
Listened to it a few times now & while it's a light affair compared to the earlier stuff it's been great to hear it. A great mix of acoustic & electronic. Jon Hassell make an appearance on a couple of tracks & rather than having him over the usual ethnic sounding backing, they make great use of the airer aspects of his playing.
Sorry it took me so long.
Perhaps I should track down that other album now?

After Silence

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music"
Aldous Huxley

Nothing

"When you have nothing to say, say nothing"
Charles Celeb Colton

Mitsuko answers

Interviewed in one of today's papers, classical piano player Mitsuko Uchida was asked (amongst others), these two questions:

What's your advise to young musicians?
"Listen. Keep your ears open"

The greatest danger to classical music?
"Soundbite culture. Music is like a great painting framed in time. You need all of it."

1995

At the end of 1995 I produced the following "Best of" list:-

Jon Hassell - “Sulla Strada”

Bill Nelson - “Crimesworth”

Techno Animal - “Re Entry”           

Ry Cooder - “ Music by” (a soundtrack compilation)           
Sheppard / Vasconcelos / Lodder - “ Inclassificable”

Seed - “ Vertical Memory”

Namlook / Atom Heart - “ Jet Chamber”

John Surman - “ A Biography of the Rev. Absalom”

Emmylou Harris - “Wreaking Ball”

Terry Evans - “Puttin’ it Down”

Passengers - “Original Soundtracks 1”

Woob - “Woob2”

Lightwave - “ Mundus Subterraneus”

Culturemix with Bill Nelson - “ Culturemix”

Baaba Maal - “ Sunugal”

Hector Zazou - “ Songs from the Cold Seas”

A number of surprises given the passing of time. I'd say that 4 of them I doubt I've played since!

Only 1 of them I still say is a truly great album, Emmylou Harris' "Wreaking Ball"(produced by Daniel Lanois). The Hassell, Nelson, Cooder, Sheppard/Vasconcelos/Lodder, Seed, Lightwave & Baaba Maal come close. Can't remember when I last played Woob or Terry Evans or the Culturemix albums. 
As for Passengers, what was I thinking?

I think I should now dig these out & play them again.

(Other years lists to follow in due course. Could be interesting.......)

Bookworms

Overheard in a second-hand bookshop in Penrith today.
An "older couple" come in & start looking at the novels.
"There's a cowboy one for you" she said.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy" she says, as she takes it off the shelf.
After reading the back she says, "I don't think you'll like it", and puts it back where she found it.

Veljo Tormis

Watching the first episode of the much talked about Jane Campion TV series "Top of the Lake", I was struck by the theme music. I've heard that before. But for female voices, not piano as featured here.
The soundtrack is credited to one Mark Bradshaw, who is new to me, so no clues there. Internet searches failed to answer the question. It kept eating away at me. It was the female voices that I could hear in my head, but who were they?
First name that came to mind were the Icelandic group Aniima, so I listened to all their albums & eps, but no, not them. A couple of tracks are similar.
It took 8 days, but eventually I found it! It's an arrangement of the tune "How Can I Recognise My Home", which I had on an album by Estonian composer Veljo Tormis. Released by ECM on the album "Litany to Thunder".
And the original version is so much better! Yes, really.

Out

At about 5:30 this evening, as I started to prepare tonight's meal, I heard the shout of "Howat?!" through the open door. The sound of the players from the cricket club at the top of the hill (about 400 yards away as the crow flys). Never watched a game there, but often heard the expectant cries during the summer.

The Train in the Night

Recently finished this book by Nick Coleman.
Subtitled "A Story of Music and Loss", it details Coleman falling victim to Sudden Neurosensory Hearing Loss, after many years not only listening to music, but writing about it.
Really, it wasn't just loosing his hearing in one ear, it was worse than that, he experienced constant noise in the deaf ear & it also effected his balance.
So now deaf, but with constant uncontrollable noise and not able to stand up. (All a bit frightening really!)

He details the difficulty in listening to music in the state and how his relationship to it changed.
Coleman is only a few years younger than me, so most of the references about his teenage years I get. He makes a number of good points. Particularly about the arrival of Punk not been quite the simple straight forward event that most would have it be.
Don't follow his taste in music I have to say - Nazareth get more coverage here than they've had for many a year! And while I don't mind the Rolling Stones, I'm not a fan as he is.
Thankfully, Coleman's situation isn't as bad now, he can control a number of the symptoms & is back enjoying music, even if his hearing hasn't come back.

The Difference

"Unlike hearing, listening is an active process that requires hard work and intense concentration."
Des Coulam, from an article in the Caught by the River produced magazine, "An Antidote to Indifference".
Too much hearing not enough listening. Guilty as anyone.

Today's News Report

"Super fast" hand dryers have the same impact on the human ear as a road drill at close range and are causing "unwelcome stress".

Another example of current sound policy..............convenience over noise.

3 Installations

Monday to Durham.
In among all the usual castle & cathedral attractions and the current Lindisfarne Gospels exhibition are 3 installations.
"Stillaphone" by louie+jesse, which is in the Music School on Palace Green. Actually commissioned for the Brass International Festival (an annual event in Durham), it cleverly uses brass containers; bowls, jugs etc and turns them into instruments by dropping water droplets into each. The items are suspended at different heights & as the drops bounce into the containers, a sound, or note is produced. It works very well, visually interesting as well as sound wise. Would have liked to has gone back a few hours later to hear how the amount of water, now in each container, would have changed the sound.
"Book of Bells" by John Kefala Kerr took place in the very grand Monks' Dormitory Library at Durham Cathedral. This mixed the Brass festival with the Lindisfarne Gospels by being more directly related to religion & to Durham itself. The sound of distorted and modified bells and brass was multi-layered and played over hidden speakers. You were then encouraged to take part by ringing bells of different shapes and sizes that there on reading tables in the library. These were linked to books and texts that, for the committed, you could follow in sequence around the room.
Lastly, to a chapel around the back of the cathedral, for a commission by famous sound recordist Chris Watson, "In St Cuthbert's Time". This was tied to the Lindisfarne Gospels exhibition. Watson had recorded the sound of Lindisfarne over the course of a year, just natural sound, to create the soundscape that would have existed when the Gospels were written. However, my visit wasn't the ideal experience.
We arrived about 70 minutes after opening time, to find two attendants, restarting the computer that controlled it all. "Perhaps I shouldn't have pressed that button?" She said.
"You'll hear some music in a moment if we can get it working" was the next comment, followed by a very loud laugh. Remember this is in a chapel that is supposed to be quite, and we are expecting natural sound to illustrate the contemplative world of the monks, not music. Oh, and they were cutting the grass outside, and there is a lot of grass. After a few minutes we left.
Just as well I've already got the CD version that Touch released!

Portable CD

Came across my "old" portable, battery CD player. Haven't played it since I got the iPod.

So, I put in new batteries, picked a CD & sat outside listening. 

The sound was great! What have I been doing only listening to MP3s while out and about these last few years?

Need to play more CDs at lunchtimes! (That's when I mainly listen to the iPod)

Dobrinka Tabakova

About 10 days ago, I discovered Dobrinka Tabakova.
During a trawl through various internet sites I came across reference to her album on ECM's New Series - "String Paths". What made me investigate further? I'm not sure really.
She was born in Bulgaria, but moved to the UK while still a child. She won a classical music composition competition at age 14! So, she's been doing this from an early age.
What sort of music? Well, classical. Using styles and forms both old and new. It's not radical, it's not traditional, but there is something I really like about it. I've read a couple of interviews with her and listened to a podcast interview (from ECM, and very poor sound quality for them!) and it's interesting that she plays down the Bulgarian folk connection that everyone seems to guess at & plays up her love of music outside of classical, everything from Keith Jarrett to bluegrass & Alison Krauss.
The "Concerto for Cello & Strings" on this CD is just wonderful! It's the music I've found myself wanting to listen to at every opportunity. I've even found myself humming the tunes!

http://dobrinka.com

The Wrong Nina

Discovered Amazon's new audio service this week.
Now when you buy a CD, you get access to an MP3 version to download (called AutoRip - look for the symbol!), or stream via your Amazon Cloud Player page. Yes, you have one if you've ever bought from Amazon.
What you also get once you've logged on to this, is not only all the MP3s you've ever bought from Amazon, but a whole bunch of the CDs you've bought as well. So, I got access to 161 albums I've bought from Amazon - going back to 2003!
It's not all the CDs  I've bought are there - can't quite figure out why, as they are advertising that many of them are available in this AutoRip format. Who knows?
I can now listen to these via my computer at work, on to an iPad or phone if I want. But if at home I'll still be playing the actual CDs of course.

Where will it all end? You never need be with out your favourite music.

Amongst the items that became available were some CDs I no longer have. Also were CDs I've bought for others. This explained a strange glitch, in that I appeared to have bought a CD by a singer called Nina from the Philippines! I hadn't - I'd got P a CD by Nina Simone & in the digital/catalogue confusion, the wrong Nina was delivered to my Cloud Player.

Music of Silence - a short list

"The Voice of Silence" by Peter Michael Hamel
"Silence is the Answer" by Deuter
"Silence" by Charlie Haden

While the first two take the idea of silence from religion & philosophy, Charlie Haden knows something about silence for a very different reason.
From the age of 2 till he was 15 he was part of his family's country music radio show, he then contracted a form of Polio & in effect lost his voice & stopped singing.
He didn't sing again in public or on record until 1999, when he recorded a version of "Wayfaring Stranger". He had kept rather busy in the meantime as perhaps the most sort after double bass player in jazz.

Hallucination

A few weeks ago I read Dr Oliver Sacks's latest book, "Hallucinations", in which he talks about the many ways in which we hallucinate & the conditions that cause them.

Most of course, were visual hallucinations. When we hear the word hallucination, we do think in visual terms. But there are also hallucinations for the other senses as well. The most well known is that of hearing voices. For the most part people don't admit to hearing voices as we think that is a sign of madness - something that is reinforced by the media & popular culture.
Sacks tells us that that is not always the case & if anything, madness is the least usual explanation.
It seems that hearing voices can frequently occur in the state between sleep & fully being awake.
Yesterday morning as I awoke, I heard a voice say a word. It was a hallucination.
The word?
"Pizzeria"

(Oliver Sacks with book)

Onomatopoeia

Hiccup
Ping-pong
Sizzle
Cuckoo
Splash
Drip
Bang
Purr
Ring
Rustle

and did you know that a zip is called a zip, because of the sound it makes?

"Boing, Boom, Tschak" to quote Kraftwerk.

Vienna 1903

On a BBC World Service documentary about silence that I was just listening to, it was claimed that one of the early noise abatement societies was formed in Vienna in 1903 & that one of their main concerns, was the sound produced by people beating carpets!
Something that I guess will not bother them now.

Influx

Influx of CDs this week. In 48 hours the following arrived:
Amiina - "The Lighthouse Project"
Greg Haines - "Where We Were"
Date Palms - "The Dusted Sessions"
Ry Cooder - "Live in Hamburg 1977"
Rauelsson - "Vora"
Marcus Fischer - "The Crow"
Gail Priest - "The Common Koel"

3 of these are numbered, limited editions. 2 of them are 3" CDs. 1 is perhaps released without the artist's permission. The musicians come from Iceland, UK, USA, Spain & Australia. The CDs are released by labels in Iceland, Germany, USA & Australia. (A world of music.)
All I have to do now is listen to them......

After the Noise Rush

Last night went with DB to see Neil Young & Crazy Horse, at Newcastle Arena.
It was the most rock and roll show I've been to for a long time.
But this wasn't the Neil Young of "After the Gold Rush" or "Harvest", this was the Neil Young of "Arc/Weld". So, amp turned up to 11, guitar set to maximum distort & stand back.
During some of the long noise sections (I'm talking 10 mins or so), and there isn't a better description really (especially the fans who didn't like it), I kept thinking, what do the likes of Glenn Branca & Rhys Chatham make of it all?
I guess mainly it comes down to whether you call it rock n' roll or art.
All 3 musicians/composers are using the guitar to create walls of sound, that go beyond the melodic, overtones are to the fore.
There again, what does Neil Young make of the likes of Branca et al using rock n' roll sound and instruments to create their sound? Is Chatham's "Guitar Trio" any different?

An Mordros

Read this in an issue of Granta years ago, that Cornish is one of only two languages that have a word for the sound that the sea (surf) makes. An mordros. I think that's great!
The other? Greek I believe.

Afternoon

Hot sunny day today. Sitting outside this afternoon I realised that I couldn't hear any gardeners at work - no lawn mowers or the like. Unusual. And that kept up for several hours. Just the sound of birds, the occasional passer-by & the far off hum of traffic.
The traffic reminded me of the sound of surf retreating over a pebble beach.

Lunch

Tried heading out this lunchtime to listen to a podcast from "Wireless Nights", the Jarvis Cocker fronted Radio 4 programme, now in it's second series.
A bit of peace and quiet to enjoy the documentary. But even if I did walk on the back streets & minor roads, there was nothing but disruption today.
• Painters taking a break across the street from where they were working, but still the radio turned up to 11.
• Guys with chainsaws cutting down trees.
• The path being dug up.
• Two dogs out with their owners taking a dislike to each other.
• Police cars on their way to some urgent appointment.
• Recycling lorry carrying glass bottles, rattling past.
• More than the usual number of cars. (Including a learner who passed me 3 times.)
• 3 times the path was blocked so I had to cross roads.
And so it went on.
So, not the best listening experience really.

Rush Hour

Yesterday's rush hour driving music was Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians". Wonderful! But the traffic didn't always travel at the speed of the music.

Harold Budd

I've just been playing what must be my favourite Harold Budd album, 1988's "White Arcades". Beautiful as most of his work is, full of echoing piano & shimmering atmosphere.
I'm often reminded of his comment about New Age music, a style/genre that he often gets linked with - "the trouble with New Age music is that there is no evil in it" is what I believe he said. While evil may not be the right work, he is correct in that most NewAge music is very one dimensional, while his work isn't.
Perhaps I should really be playing his very latest album that's just out "Jane 1-11" a set of improvisations, and I believe the 11th or 12th album he has released since he said he was retiring back in 2004 when he released his "final" album, the excellent "Avalon Sutra" (love that title!).
Once I was in the same restaurant as Budd, in Kendal of all places. But it was just before he performed at the arts centre next door, so I wasn't really surprised to see him there.

Blackbird

Last night at dusk, stood at the backdoor with P listening to (and watching) a blackbird singing at the very top of a tree in our neighbour's garden. A clear ringing sound.

My Name is.....

I've been a big fan of Steve Reich for many years now & consider him to be the most important & best composer of the last 50 years. I've many recording of his work. But yesterday was the first time I'd heard his 1967 piece "My Name Is".
The new music outfit Powerplant has just released the first commercially available recording of the piece! A 10 minute version on their album "24 Lies Per Second".
This is one of a very few conceptual pieces by Reich. The idea is to record audience members say "My Name is Steve", or "My Name is Phillip", or "My Name is Terry" or whatever, using 3 tape machines & then play them back to create the same effect as on Reich's more famous tape pieces like "It's Gonna Rain".
It's not greatly different in effect or style, but it is nice to hear it at last.

Laurie Anderson's Ears

From one of Laurie Anderson's pieces:

"You know, I've always thought that one of the most serious defects of the human body was that you couldn't close your ears. You can't point them anywhere or close them, they just sort of hang there on the sides of your head.
But an acupuncturist explained to me that the pressure points in the ears are very important because the whole body is represented right there in the ear. The ears, he said, are vestigial foetuses, little versions of yourself, one male and one female, and he showed me here's the lobe, that's the miniature upside down head, and this curve here is the spine, and right here are the little genitals, and that was when I went back to wearing hats."

Quote

"Express yourself completely, and then keep quiet"
Lao Tzu

Promo

Yesterday I bumped into A. I know him from his time as co-owner of the Volume Records shop in Newcastle. I was a very frequent and regular customer. A had worked as a record plugger for Virgin Records before that. Over the years he introduced me to lots of music & in fact gave me a number of Virgin promos he still had. Among them Holger Czukay's address to the sales force 12" and a new name to me, the first LP by Stephan Micus.
Micus is a multi instrumentalist who has carved a very singular path ever since. Multi-tracking himself in improvised sessions with traditional instruments from all over the world. And sometimes not "real" instruments at all - using flower pots as percussion for example.
What kind of music is it? Sometimes called New Age, sometimes Fusion, sometimes World Jazz, but none of them really. Most of his releases since have been for Japo/ECM.

Epiphany 1

Back in 1972, without much money to spend, but lots of music to discover, I bought a number of label compilation LPs. These were always cheap & were a way into all sorts of music.
One I bought was "The New Age of Atlantic", the second such compilation that Atlantic Records had done. In amongst the likes of Led Zeppelin, Yes and Buffalo Springfield was Loudon Wainwright III.
Just a guy with a guitar it turned out to be like nothing I'd heard before. Not for the music, the singing or the guitar playing, but the lyrics. I was only 15 at the time & had mostly just heard the usual Top 30 stuff, and now here was a song with lines like;
"Come up to my motel room, save my life"
It's a song that appears to be autobiographical. The narrator is a musician on the road, lonely, basically begging a girl to go back to his room. It seemed painfully honest & far more adult than anything I'd heard before.
A couple of weeks ago I saw Loudon Wainwright live again (I've lost count of how many times Ive seem him). I think he may be the only artist that I've listened to constantly since. (And of course, he may be one of the few still performing and recording.)

Tapes

Recently on a Jon Ronson programme on Radio 4, he talked to a Danish woman who after the death of her Grandfather listened to lots of cassettes he had left behind.
It seems that he'd recorded many family events over the years, birthdays and the like. But in secret.
After listening to a number of these, she made a discovery.
An even bigger secret.
Her grandfather had another family. Another wife & son. People that her and her father knew nothing about. But there on the cassette was the sound of her Grandfather and this other woman. Even the sound of him talking on the telephone to her Grandmother.
Why he recorded these things she had no idea. Had he listened to them? Was she the first?
What secrets are on the millions of cassettes and old reel to reel tapes hidden in peoples lofts & cupboards all over the world?

Conrad reissued

This week sees a couple of old early 1980's albums by Conrad Schnitzler get the reissue treatment. Now available as CD, downloads & on vinyl.
I have the original vinyl, which were only available direct from Conrad & limited to 500 copies. Not for artistic reasons, but financial. Oh and not may people knew who he was or had heard his music.
It seems very strange to have them available agin now that Conrad is no longer with us.
I did meet him once. I was going to West Berlin for a few days (well before the days of budget airlines) and DE who edited Neumusik at the time suggested I look him up. So, after getting to Berlin I found a phone box with a phone book in it & dialled his number. 30 minutes later I'm sitting in his kitchen drinking tea with him while his girlfriend knitted, a pal of his carved an image of Buddha in a block of dope & Conrad's cat tried to open the fridge door.
The soundtrack to all of this wasn't some crazy sequencer electronics, but a free rock festival on the radio, a live broadcast from the other side of West Berlin.
I kept in touch for the rest of the 80's, but then drifted......
"Con 3", "Grün" and "Control" were my favourites of his. But it is awhile since I've heard "Control".

Vinyl

In the newspaper yesterday, yet another article about the "new" interest in vinyl. With the usual talk of "cold" digital sound etc.
Perhaps I was the only one, but when vinyl was the only thing, I used to buy records that had poor pressings that crackled, warped records that didn't play correctly, records that made the needle jump, records that were scratched (or got scratched) etc, etc.
These downsides never seem to get mentioned...........

The first thing I listened to

After I got home, now with fully functioning stereo ears, the first played CD was Lubomyr Melnyk's "Corollaries".
This had been sitting waiting to be played properly for weeks & so seemed a good place to start.
The opening track is 19 minutes of wonderful fast flowing piano with some added vocals by producer Peter Broderick. A sort of minimalist piano music that while there are obvious links to the likes of Reich & Glass, are definitely his own style. It's fast & flowing and constantly changing, like looking at a river. A river for the ears? It's not difficult music, anything but really.
Melnyk claims to be the fastest piano player in the world - 93,650 individual notes in an hour!
He calls his style of music "Continuous Music" and his website makes many, perhaps, over the top claims about it all.
(I did try, and eventually succeed, in buying a CD of his "Wave-Lox" album a couple of years ago direct from his website, it was a very long and involved process. It was getting to the stage, almost, of why did I bother.)
http://www.erasedtapes.com/

Three things happened

First I'd been listening to the Radio 4, 30 part series by David Hendy, "Noise: A Human History", then I was reading a book which was, at least in theory, about listening, (but wasn't really) and lastly I was deaf in my right ear for 3 weeks. These things happening at the same time made me think long and hard about what I listen to, what I hear & how I react to it.
After thinking about it all for a few weeks, I decided to start this blog. Let's see where we go.......