Thursday 30 October, 2008

John Zorn's Cobra - Tokyo Operations '94


COBRA was completed in 1984 and has become one of my most oft-performed pieces.
In a world of Cobras, this one stands apart. There has never been a Cobra like this one. Zorn

Isso Yukihiro: nokan, dengakubue
Uemura Masahiro: percussion
Uchihashi Kazuhisa: guitar
Kinoshita Shinichi: shamisen
Senba Kiyohiko: percussion
Takei Makoto: shakuhachi
Tanaka Yumiko: gidayu
Nakamura Hitomi: hichiriki
Maruta Miki: koto
Mekken: bass
Yamamoto Kyoko: vocal
Ito Taeko: ortin doo
Makigami Koichi: prompter

1. Sensyo
2. Tomobiki
3. Senbu
4. Butssumetsu
5. Taian
6 Shakko

Recorded at Shibuya La Mama, Tokyo, 25.11.1994
Released by Avant in 1995
Cobra
composed by John Zorn
Produced by Makigami Koichi

link@320

Saturday 25 October, 2008

Taco Kooistra - Ladder of Escape Vol. 6 : Cello (1993)


"I do not believe that there is an essential difference between the shape of Lachenmann's piece and that of a Beethoven sonata. The means composers use have changed, but the material they work with and the musical expression they try to create have remained the same. Beethoven shaped his story into a sonata and Lachenmann tells a story about colour that ends in one note. In both cases, the result is music; it still concerns emotion and the building or lessening of tension. That is a classical theme and although you can vary its development endlessly, there is no essential change.

Of course, a new dimension is added in contemporary music through the extension of the technical possibilities and the increased importance of colouristic effects. But colour is also important in the music of Bach or Beethoven; they only use it on a different scale. If in just one note in a suite by Bach I deviate a little from the way it is usually played, everybody in the audience notices. This is far less the case in a contemporary piece, simply because the audience has never heard the piece. But when I create a sort of white noise in Pression (Lachenmann's piece on this CD), or if I put an extreme pressure on the bridge of my instrument, this results in a range of colour differences that is just as wide as in Bach's or Beethoven's music; only the resulting colours are different from theirs.

For some time after the Second World War, composers and musicians have denied the relationship between classical and contemporary music. But at present that bond is definitely being affirmed again. That is appealing to me. Therefore, all the works on this CD have something to do with the classical tradition of playing the cello".Taco Kooistra, CD liner notes


1. Capriccio per Siegfried Palm - Krzysztof Penderecki, 1968
2. Just for One - Joep Straesser, 1981
3. Sacher Variation - Witold Lutoslawsky, 1975
4. Hapsis - Herni Kergomard, 1986
5. Pression - Helmut Lachenmann, 1968
6. Spektra für 3 Celli - Unsuk Chin, 1985
7. Solipse - Rolf Gehlhaar, 1973

Taco Kooistra - Cello


#6 with Viola de Hoog & E. van Regteren Altena.
#4 & #7 with tape.

Recorded & Edited in Veenendaal, 1992
Released by Attacca in 1993

link@320

Saturday 18 October, 2008

Acousmatrix VII - Berio/Maderna (2004)


In 1955 Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna founded the Studio di Fonologia at a Milan radio station; it was the first electronic music studio in Italy. Berio became very active there, organizing concerts and also publishing a new music journal, both under the name Incontri Musicali. Berio explored the frontiers of sound, particularly vocal sound.

Among Berio's three contributions here, his Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) is the most memorable. Words come up from the ether in English, Italian, and French, merging and causing one another to erupt with new meaning and sonic resonance as they collude, combine, and resist their electronic counterparts. Maderna's two works, La Rire and Invenzione su una Voce, are both extreme exercises in splicing techniques. The voice and the taped sounds are so distorted, removed from their centre of gravity and context, that they become mere sonic elements in a collage of rhythm, sound, and dynamic. Indeed, the scratching techniques used by DJs today were taken to extreme territories in 1960.


Luciano Berio - Momenti, for tape - 7:15
Luciano Berio - Thema (Homage to Joyce), for tape - 6:20
Luciano Berio - Visage, for tape - 21:07
Bruno Maderna - Le Rire, for tape - 16:02
Bruno Maderna -Dimensioni II-Invenzione su una Voce - 16:02


booklet here!

link @320

Sunday 12 October, 2008

Bravo Clippings #36



>> a painting in a butcher's van (Australia).

Friday 3 October, 2008

Perez Prado - Pops and Prado (1959)



Soon the world of popular music cocked an ear. Perez Prado started climbing like the ripping trumpets in his orchestra, and he's been soaring eve since.

And there's another added attraction - the electric organ. For this album, both the Conn and Hammond organs were used. Conn can be heard on Ida, Sweet As Apple Cider; Hammond on Heigh-Ho, Yes Sir, That's My Baby and Taking a Chance on Love; and both are heard on Carolina in the Morning, You're Driving Me Crazy!, Paper Doll and If You Knew Susie.

In addition to the organ, the instrumentation also includes Prado's piano, bass, percussion, two drummers, one trombonist, four reeds and five superb trumpets. The master's hand has not lost its touch. The stunning brass cascades that make the hackles rise are here, along with that concise, but pulsing, Latin beat that throbs with almost hypnotic intensity.

1. You're Driving Me Crazy! (What Did I Do?)
2. Manhattan
3. Isle of Capri
4. Three Little Words
5. Carolina in the Morning
6. Yes Sir, That's My Baby
7. Ciribiribin
8. Ida, Sweet As Apple Cider
9. If You Knew Susie (Like I Know Susie)
10. Paper Doll
11. Taking a Chance on Love
12. Heigh-Ho (The Dwarfs' Marching Song)

>> additional bonus tracks (mono):
13. The Millionaire
14. Catalania
15. Ola Conga
16. Clap Hands
17. Tic Toc Polly Woc

link@320