- Salzburg Bells Multiple -- live recording -- Herrnau Kirche Aufnahmen
- With Paul (Bluehouse Edit) -- Dot Tape Dot -- Tomavistas: (Selected Rarities 2002-2007)
- 08 'Not Just More Idle Chatter -- Paul Lansky -- Tellus #22 'False Phonemes'
- Raag Megh -- Kamalesh Maitra -- Tarang
- Knee Play 2 -- Philip Glass Ensemble -- Einstein on the Beach (1979)
- Sympathetic spheres I -- Garth Knox -- Shsk'h Vol.05 - Solo Viola d'Amore : Garth Knox
- camino -- Murcof -- Remembranza
- Dear Thunder - Ione, Pauline Oliveros -- Ione, Pauline Oliveros -- Nile Night
- I -- Terry Riley -- Poppy Nogood And The Phantom Band "All Night Flight" Vol. 1
- Bottleneck bow scan -- Garth Knox -- Shsk'h Vol.05 - Solo Viola d'Amore : Garth Knox
- retrato -- Murcof -- Remembranza
- Ancient Bridge Part 1 -- Tange -- Complex Silence 2 [tmth05A]
- My Dog Is a Yufo - Steve Roden -- Steve Roden -- Cosmic Debris Vol. II
- Vermont Counterpoint -- Hans Balmer -- Minimal Flute
- Lettres à des amies-enfants - To Marion Richards -- Jody Pou -- Lettres à des amies-enfants (Silverman version)
- Lettres à des amies-enfants - To Ethel Arnold -- Jody Pou -- Lettres à des amies-enfants (Silverman version)
- Lettres à des amies-enfants - To Dolly Argles -- Jody Pou -- Lettres à des amies-enfants (Silverman version)
- Lettres à des amies-enfants - To Jessie Sinclair -- Jody Pou -- Lettres à des amies-enfants (Silverman version)
- Lettres à des amies-enfants - The mad gardener's song -- Jody Pou -- Lettres à des amies-enfants (Silverman version)
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Radio show 2010 Jan 26
Posted without much commentary. I'm really enjoying Shsk'h as a record label, the Raag Megh had audio issues, Terry Riley's Poppy Nogood is the unknown precursor to the Who's Baba O'Riley, and Steve Roden continues to be awesome.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Reboot radio show - 2010 -1 - 12
A new year, a new radio show. This is my 20th year of doing radio. Just sayin'.
2010 Jan 12
Salzburg Bells Multiple --- Michael Wittmann --- Herrnau Kirche Aufnahmen
This is the traditional start to my radio show, ever since we got back from Austria in 2008. It's a recording of the bells in the Herrnau church tolling noon. They're all at different rhythms of course. Natural meta-metric music. Ha.
Drumming: --- Ictus --- Reich: Drumming
I'm playing the full piece - gotta love college radio. As usual, when I write my commentary, I'm not a musician, so I'm going to use all the wrong words here. Anyway, the "point" of this piece is phasing, and I love listening to it slowly roll into chaos and back out. Totally awesome. This new recording (new? I forget how new, but I think it's 2009) has a different sound to it than previous versions. The drumming sounds more brittle, drumheads much more taut. There's more bounce in the heads, if that makes sense. Hell, I don't even know if they're playing real drums or not, this is just my ears interpreting. Anyway, it's a fabulous piece, and I'm excited to have a new version to play. There are several reviews where you can find out more.
Part 1 hits this point around 10:40 where - man o man o man - things just take OFF. It's fabulous.
The transition to marimbas in Part 2 is smooth, beautiful, and rich. As the voices rise into the piece, it continues to have the crisp precision that is by now normal. Moving to new instruments, though, changes the timbre completely, and the resonance in the marimbas keeps notes sustained that were previously cut off almost as soon as they were played. Rather than being muddy, it's rich and clean. And then, briefly at 6:40, things drop out out of phase, the rhythms take over again, and there's the transition at 7:09 to the new pattern. I'm loving this piece.
Ah, silly me, I ordered them wrong and played Part 4 before Part 3. Grrrar. Part 4 ends with a wild romp, totally great, and part 3 is a chiming glockenspiel dance with another beautiful lilting pattern high up above. This is a truly great recording
Atemtango --- Franziska Baumann --- Vocal Suite
Freaky! Interesting! It gets more and more harsh as time goes on, but always interesting. The overlapping, dubbed vocals are vaguely phase-like, meaning there's some connection to the previous piece.
In A Landscape --- Gamelan Pacifica --- Trance Gong
Excellent gamelan version of John Cage's "In a Landscape," which is weird to contemplate until you listen to it. It works. I like it.
Three Landscapes, Part Ii A Waterfall For Bjørnstjerne Bjørn --- Steve Roden --- Sleppet
Sound art, quiet, good, excellent as always. Steve Roden is not only a great sound artist, but he's a totally friendly guy. I wrote to him a few times a few years ago, and he was not only so kind as to reply, but he sent me music, for free! Holy cow! So, since then, I've bought music of his (including the pieces he sent me, if I could find them - some are out of print), and I try to play him on my show. Really good stuff.
Sleppet - Chris Watson --- Chris Watson --- Sleppet
More from the Sleppet CD, a compilation of sound art, basically. This sounds really good, the water and the noise, the textures coming together. I used to find this stuff so freaking weird, when I began. I would think to myself, listening to the slightly grey-haired DJ who'd been doing this for 20 years, "Why not play, y'know, SONGS, buddy?!" And now, 20 years later, here I am, slightly grey-haired, and playing sound art. I mean, I've done whole shows dedicated to sound art, over the years (ah, the WMUC days of spoken word and noise played at once, several turntables spinning in random, creating insane and accidental, coincidental synergies), and I still love it. This piece is great, as it moves from water to birds, with... oh, never mind. It's impossible to describe, like dancing about architecture.
Trance Gong --- Gamelan Pacifica --- Trance Gong
Another good piece by the Gamelan Pacifica group.
E-bows and Rainbows - Steve Roden --- Steve Roden --- Cosmic Debris Vol. II
Electronic blips and bleeps start this off, and with this piece I end the show. Rich sounds, almost like we're listening in on radio transmissions of some 50s majestic space kingdom drifting further and further out into space - sadness and remorse, loss and hope, all buried in one set of sounds. Seriously, how the hell did he do that in the first minute of an electronic piece?! What a fabulous story line. Incredible.
2010 Jan 12
Salzburg Bells Multiple --- Michael Wittmann --- Herrnau Kirche Aufnahmen
This is the traditional start to my radio show, ever since we got back from Austria in 2008. It's a recording of the bells in the Herrnau church tolling noon. They're all at different rhythms of course. Natural meta-metric music. Ha.
Drumming: --- Ictus --- Reich: Drumming
I'm playing the full piece - gotta love college radio. As usual, when I write my commentary, I'm not a musician, so I'm going to use all the wrong words here. Anyway, the "point" of this piece is phasing, and I love listening to it slowly roll into chaos and back out. Totally awesome. This new recording (new? I forget how new, but I think it's 2009) has a different sound to it than previous versions. The drumming sounds more brittle, drumheads much more taut. There's more bounce in the heads, if that makes sense. Hell, I don't even know if they're playing real drums or not, this is just my ears interpreting. Anyway, it's a fabulous piece, and I'm excited to have a new version to play. There are several reviews where you can find out more.
Part 1 hits this point around 10:40 where - man o man o man - things just take OFF. It's fabulous.
The transition to marimbas in Part 2 is smooth, beautiful, and rich. As the voices rise into the piece, it continues to have the crisp precision that is by now normal. Moving to new instruments, though, changes the timbre completely, and the resonance in the marimbas keeps notes sustained that were previously cut off almost as soon as they were played. Rather than being muddy, it's rich and clean. And then, briefly at 6:40, things drop out out of phase, the rhythms take over again, and there's the transition at 7:09 to the new pattern. I'm loving this piece.
Ah, silly me, I ordered them wrong and played Part 4 before Part 3. Grrrar. Part 4 ends with a wild romp, totally great, and part 3 is a chiming glockenspiel dance with another beautiful lilting pattern high up above. This is a truly great recording
Atemtango --- Franziska Baumann --- Vocal Suite
Freaky! Interesting! It gets more and more harsh as time goes on, but always interesting. The overlapping, dubbed vocals are vaguely phase-like, meaning there's some connection to the previous piece.
In A Landscape --- Gamelan Pacifica --- Trance Gong
Excellent gamelan version of John Cage's "In a Landscape," which is weird to contemplate until you listen to it. It works. I like it.
Three Landscapes, Part Ii A Waterfall For Bjørnstjerne Bjørn --- Steve Roden --- Sleppet
Sound art, quiet, good, excellent as always. Steve Roden is not only a great sound artist, but he's a totally friendly guy. I wrote to him a few times a few years ago, and he was not only so kind as to reply, but he sent me music, for free! Holy cow! So, since then, I've bought music of his (including the pieces he sent me, if I could find them - some are out of print), and I try to play him on my show. Really good stuff.
Sleppet - Chris Watson --- Chris Watson --- Sleppet
More from the Sleppet CD, a compilation of sound art, basically. This sounds really good, the water and the noise, the textures coming together. I used to find this stuff so freaking weird, when I began. I would think to myself, listening to the slightly grey-haired DJ who'd been doing this for 20 years, "Why not play, y'know, SONGS, buddy?!" And now, 20 years later, here I am, slightly grey-haired, and playing sound art. I mean, I've done whole shows dedicated to sound art, over the years (ah, the WMUC days of spoken word and noise played at once, several turntables spinning in random, creating insane and accidental, coincidental synergies), and I still love it. This piece is great, as it moves from water to birds, with... oh, never mind. It's impossible to describe, like dancing about architecture.
Trance Gong --- Gamelan Pacifica --- Trance Gong
Another good piece by the Gamelan Pacifica group.
E-bows and Rainbows - Steve Roden --- Steve Roden --- Cosmic Debris Vol. II
Electronic blips and bleeps start this off, and with this piece I end the show. Rich sounds, almost like we're listening in on radio transmissions of some 50s majestic space kingdom drifting further and further out into space - sadness and remorse, loss and hope, all buried in one set of sounds. Seriously, how the hell did he do that in the first minute of an electronic piece?! What a fabulous story line. Incredible.
New uses for this blog
This blog started out as a place for me to write about the music that I listen to. I ran out of time. I don't spend enough time on music, other than my radio show, and though I wish I could write more about all the other music I listen to (the blogs where I can download out-of-print music, the songs I buy from my emusic monthly download contract, and so on), I just don't get around to it.
Another issues I'm going through is that, outside of work things, I read a lot of random crap on the web. I love it. Who doesn't? But it sucks me in, and I end up not spending enough time paying attention to writing while I consume what others wrote. Somehow, up to now, this blog has felt like a place I had set up only for music, and that's going to change. So, from now on, I'll start posting about anything that's on my mind that's not exactly work or family related - just random things I come across on the web. I'll reblog other people's good articles if I think it's something worth sharing. I'll comment on whatever I find, even if I'm totally off base. And yes, on a weekly basis (when I'm not out of town or skipping a show for some reason or other), I will continue to have short postings on my radio show. I think it's worth it to share the music I play on my show, and I think it's worth it for people who read here to find out more about music that they wouldn't otherwise find out about. So, for those who have this on their blogroll and haven't had anything show up in a while - thanks for tuning in. I hope I'm interesting enough for you to keep me around.
Another issues I'm going through is that, outside of work things, I read a lot of random crap on the web. I love it. Who doesn't? But it sucks me in, and I end up not spending enough time paying attention to writing while I consume what others wrote. Somehow, up to now, this blog has felt like a place I had set up only for music, and that's going to change. So, from now on, I'll start posting about anything that's on my mind that's not exactly work or family related - just random things I come across on the web. I'll reblog other people's good articles if I think it's something worth sharing. I'll comment on whatever I find, even if I'm totally off base. And yes, on a weekly basis (when I'm not out of town or skipping a show for some reason or other), I will continue to have short postings on my radio show. I think it's worth it to share the music I play on my show, and I think it's worth it for people who read here to find out more about music that they wouldn't otherwise find out about. So, for those who have this on their blogroll and haven't had anything show up in a while - thanks for tuning in. I hope I'm interesting enough for you to keep me around.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Finally posting again
After a month of not posting, here I am, back on the air. I've been doing shows all September, but haven't really bothered to put them up online. Mostly, I've been running on a theme: In C and Robert Ashley's Private Lives. I have many many versions of In C, so why not play one per week? This all came because of the minimalism conference which happened earlier this month in Kansas City. I've been reading various things about the conference and playing music by those artists as well. Charlemagne Palestine, John Luther Adams, a recording of Dennis Johnson's November (as recreated by Kyle Gann), and so on.
So, today I've got SMCQ's version of In C playing, and I have a plan to play "The Bar (Differences)" from Robert Ashley's Private Lives, and otherwise, I haven't decided what I really want to be doing with my time. I'll post this for now, and add updates as the music flows around me.
===================
An hour later, and damn, I'm having a great time with the music. "What can an old fart like you do with all this money?" Robert Ashley is goddamn hilarious, and the rhythm of his language is just great (in his post 1980 phase of composing, I guess - I don't really like the earlier stuff all that much...). How many great ways are there to say "AND!" as a multi-syllabic word? He covers a lot of the bases in "The Bar (Differences)." Great piece.
The last hour had the long version of In C, followed by the Karlheinz Miklin Trio doing "Echoes of Illyria." One of the "Illyria" themes sounds an awful like one of the 53 motifs of Riley's In C, so it seemed like a natural fit to me. I don't know if I'm right or not (I really should study music more, and learn to train my ear, rather than winging it and going with what intuitively feels right), but it was a nice transition. From there, I moved on to Betsy Bobenhouse and Christy Banks doing a flute and clarinet piece, "Elaphe." The shift from "Illyria's" bass clarinet to the clarinet in "Elaphe" was pretty slick. Then a John Luther Adams piece, a remix of some of his tape loops from the 70s. I do like my weird tape loop pieces.
But still, right now, I'm caught up in the wacky piano playing by Blue Gene behind Robert Ashley's rant-mumbles (seriously, that's what it feels like). Awesome stuff. I think I have some Kyle Gann to play later on, and I don't have anything picked for the last half hour of the show. But I'm having a blast.
===================
Okay, I moved from the Robert Ashley through a Kyle Gann piece that really didn't grab me and was faded out into a long drone piece. God, I love a good drone. This is Ancient Bridge Part 2, by Tange. This takes the FM3 Buddha Box and samples it into something totally amazingly different and beautiful. What a gorgeous piece. And it was a free download , woo hoo! Gotta love free downloads.
So, today I've got SMCQ's version of In C playing, and I have a plan to play "The Bar (Differences)" from Robert Ashley's Private Lives, and otherwise, I haven't decided what I really want to be doing with my time. I'll post this for now, and add updates as the music flows around me.
===================
An hour later, and damn, I'm having a great time with the music. "What can an old fart like you do with all this money?" Robert Ashley is goddamn hilarious, and the rhythm of his language is just great (in his post 1980 phase of composing, I guess - I don't really like the earlier stuff all that much...). How many great ways are there to say "AND!" as a multi-syllabic word? He covers a lot of the bases in "The Bar (Differences)." Great piece.
The last hour had the long version of In C, followed by the Karlheinz Miklin Trio doing "Echoes of Illyria." One of the "Illyria" themes sounds an awful like one of the 53 motifs of Riley's In C, so it seemed like a natural fit to me. I don't know if I'm right or not (I really should study music more, and learn to train my ear, rather than winging it and going with what intuitively feels right), but it was a nice transition. From there, I moved on to Betsy Bobenhouse and Christy Banks doing a flute and clarinet piece, "Elaphe." The shift from "Illyria's" bass clarinet to the clarinet in "Elaphe" was pretty slick. Then a John Luther Adams piece, a remix of some of his tape loops from the 70s. I do like my weird tape loop pieces.
But still, right now, I'm caught up in the wacky piano playing by Blue Gene behind Robert Ashley's rant-mumbles (seriously, that's what it feels like). Awesome stuff. I think I have some Kyle Gann to play later on, and I don't have anything picked for the last half hour of the show. But I'm having a blast.
===================
Okay, I moved from the Robert Ashley through a Kyle Gann piece that really didn't grab me and was faded out into a long drone piece. God, I love a good drone. This is Ancient Bridge Part 2, by Tange. This takes the FM3 Buddha Box and samples it into something totally amazingly different and beautiful. What a gorgeous piece. And it was a free download , woo hoo! Gotta love free downloads.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
