Friday, 31 May 2013
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.
Thursday, 30 May 2013
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.
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.
Wednesday, 29 May 2013
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."
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."
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.
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.
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
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.)
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?
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?
Monday, 27 May 2013
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".
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...........
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/
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.......
After thinking about it all for a few weeks, I decided to start this blog. Let's see where we go.......
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