Iannis Xenakis - La Légende d' Eer (1977)

La Légende d'Eer (1977-78) (47:04)
Electroacoustic Work for 7-channel tape

"La légende d'Eer is a powerful 7-channel electro-acoustic composition which Xenakis created in 1977-78 to be played in "Le Diatope", a curvaceous architectural construction designed by the composer, together with a visual component including laser lights. This "multi-media" work was composed for the opening of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, where it was performed for three months and seen by thousands of people." in mode records website.

"Iannis Xenakis produced "La Légende d'Eer" in 1977 to celebrate the opening of the Pompidou Centre, that temple of the modern arts located on Beauborg Square in Paris. The 46-minute electronic work moves through a number of soundscapes. First there is soft ambience like one of Kaija Saariaho's "musical environments" (e.g. "Cloud Music", on a Petals disc). There is powerful fluttering designed by Xenakis for maximum impact on the ear, sweeping glissandos, sounds compressed down to a whistle and then expanded again. Whatever possibilities electronic means provide, Xenakis has used them. And yet, it's a much more accessible work than one would expect from the violent composer of "Metastasis" and "Nomos Alpha". Knowing that his piece was going to be played for a large Parisian audience, many of whom certainly didn't care about art music, sheer beauty seemed to be his overriding concern. But reading the booklet, with its description of Xenakis' design for the performance, really made me feel down. As Xenakis was an architect, he came up with a set that would truly complement the music: hundreds of mirrors, coloured lights, lasers. What a glorious experience it must have been to stand in the space and hear the music accompanied by such visuals. Indeed, the texts Xenakis put together to introduce the piece, by Plato (his "Legend of Er" from The Republic), Jean-Paul Richter, Pascal, and an astrophysicist writing on supernovas, mainly describe metaphysical experiences involving heavenly lights, multicoloured and infinite. It's quite remarkable how Xenakis, an atheist like much of the Darmstadt generation, was nonetheless intrigued by the idea of transcendence and the immortality of the soul. And yet, by just listening to this stereo audio recording, we miss out on the half of what Xenakis intended. [...] At least if you get MODE DVD which has the piece in surround sound, you get some of the spatial effects of this eight-track work."
by Christopher Culver

"[...] one of the most extreme electroacoustic music pieces ever produced in contemporary music. Our deepest respect to Iannis Xenakis, he lives eternally in his great music. "
by L. Vanessa

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link@256

Also check comments for Grasprelease's share of a new mix for Eer. Many thanks for this.

Ryoji Ikeda - 1000 Fragments (1995)

"1000 fragments is a compilation recording released by CCI recordings of several pieces revealing Ikeda's unique sound work produced between 1985-1995. Over a decade of Ryoji Ikeda's artistic work is portrayed on this marvelous CD. For who only knows Ikeda's work from his classical frequencies album +/- (or 0º), will be surprised and astonished with this album. In the first half [Channel X - 85 to 95] one hears 7 small sound pieces that resemble small electroacoustic radio pieces, where Ikeda's sense of humor [right on the second track one hears a voice saying: "It's the most beautiful ugly sound in the world" and talent for acousmatic composition and sound manipulation is quite evident. Although one can grasp Ikeda's compositional brand on this small pieces [the interspersed chirurgic combination of low and hi frequencies, many times arranged in hypnotic and dense frequencies drone scenarios] here his goal is achieved by creating many different soundscapes and tainted sound-situations that create a delightful hearing experience for the sonic listener.

The second part, named 5 zones [94-95], is an half hour deep sound journey through a musical path of a minimal and progressive electronic sound composition, Ikeda's keen ear for sharp rhythms and "sound-plot abstractions" reveals a very interesting mix of psychoacoustic scenarios and ambiences full of synthesized sounds and field recordings.

Luxus [93] is the last piece and finishes this compilation CD in a royal fashionable way! It's a 16 min. amazing kind of walk into Light itself; it starts of with a sample of an intriguing (whimsical) sparse highly reverberating voice (from a choir ?) and then a synth major accord appears in a glissando and drony kind of way, developing a crescendo over time in intensity (attack & envelope) and entering in a extraordinary mix with the vocals and what seems to be violin or cello strings (synthesized?), the composition reaches its zenith into pure interior bliss resulting in a delightful hearing pleasure, passing on to the listener a deep relaxed state of mind as the composition fades away into silence on the last minutes...
After hearing "1000 Fragments" one understands why Ryoji Ikeda is one of the most impressive experimental electronic music composers."

review by L. Vanessa.


Channel X (1985-1995)

01 testone 0:06
02 trans-missions 1:36
03 this is a recording 0:50
04 radiorange 0:28
05 what's wrong? 0:58
06 holy wood 0:35
07 into the tranquility 3:04
08 all has been changed 0:37
09 abstructures 2:54

5 zones (1994-95)

10 zone 1 7:47
11 zone 2 4:51
12 zone 3 2:56
13 zone 4 6:50
14 zone 5 8:45

Luxus (1993)

15 luxus 1-3 16:18

Total 58:21

[note: this cd is originally mixed in a continuous play mode, T.A.O. (track at once) recording mode is advised with 0 seconds between the tracks]

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Deep Listening Band - The Ready Made Boomerang (1991)

A stunning second release from the Deep Listening Band's foray into the Fort Warden Cistern in 1988. Band members are Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster and Panaiotis. Guests include Thomasa Eckert, vocals, and William O. Smith, clarinet. John Cage wrote a mesostic called The Ready Made Boomerang in reaction to his first encounter with the Deep Listening CD. Consequently, the following appears in the liner notes to the Boomerang CD: "It is with continuing admiration and deep thanks that this recording is dedicated to John Cage for his loving inspiration and wholehearted support."

§ A deep and fascinating electroacoustic musical voyage into the no-mind harbor...

1. Balloon Payment 0:45
2. Metalorgy 2:12
3. Seven-Up 2:39
4. The Ready Made Boomerang 10:28
5. Phantom 8:49
6. CCCC (Cistern Chapel Chance Chants) 19:54
7. Geocentric 10:54

Total: 56:04

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Bernard Parmegiani - L'Oeil Écoute (1973)

An enduring reflection of the essence of time perceptible in its own right, can be established through the act of intimate listening where the self becomes immersed in re-living the experience of a journey or the immortalised passing of something disclosed as streaming images. As with all concrete music composers B. Parmegiani yields to this charm and in his works, it takes on the forms of continuous temptation marked throughout by a sense of the forbidden and by a certain fear. The listener is brought to wonder whether the composer actually intended to finish once and for all with the power of Orpheus.

In any case the train emerges as mans best friend and so it is here for Parmegiani the musician exploring and recasting dreamlike intricacy. Both through the effect of continuum and streaming images time is transformed into space literally transporting us.

The musical creation of Parmegiani is bounteous and broad in nature When not delicately distilled, brought in closer from afar or yet again built up from infinitely unprepossessing elements it is often boldly unveiled. We only need listen to the opening of l’oeil écoute, a sustained swirl and flurry emerging as a wave about to break, which we only just manage to glimpse at its approach, just like this train which we take at full speed surging forward headlong at the opening of the piece. At the very outset, on the one hand, everything is given in a single act, the music is already moving forward; and on the other the ghostly realm into which it takes us is already amply filed out.
We note that the large arbitrary breaks in tone Parmegiani achieves in l’oeil écoute and indeed throughout all his musical compositions, arise as searching encounters. As such they are gestures deriving from the sculptor himself. The blocks used are very imposing and the matter extremely dense...
The composer’s preference for this generously developed ghostly realm or space is also based on a specific creative foundation: it enables him to conceal things and thus especially allows him to disclose them to play on and with the ambiguity of their presence. Through its momentary and background quality the rather dense and complex matter in the piece gives rise to remarkable and constantly renewed perceptions of appearance and concealment able to assume utterly surprising forms since the interplay, mixing, blending and transparency of elements remains ever changing and is often highly unforeseeable. The surging fight of the potentiometers and balanced crescendos are all gradually chipped away at, carved out, transformed by the matter from which they are intended to extract specific essence. The entire work of B P. is imbued with such games of hide and seek and disclosure.

Philippe Mion, L’oeil écoute: An Analytical Commentary

link @320

Bravo Tubes #2

Joseph Barbera & William Hanna, "Make Mine Freedom" (1948)

Download available at the Internet Archive

Charalambides - Joy Shapes (2004)

"To say that the words 'unique' and 'singular' are over-used in describing music is to state the obvious.  To apply these words to the sounds created by the various duo/trio configurations of the Texas group Charalambides over the last decade plus would be understatement. To be sure there are numerous antecedents to their music; to deny this of any artist's work would be akin to saying that they are deaf. But they have surely broken new ground in the primitive/folk/mystic/improv/psych valley in which they toil. This new album is certainly not for the faint of heart.

Five songs stretch and crawl over 75 minutes, with Christine Carter finding a new fearlessness in her voice that will draw comparisons to Patty Waters or the early work of Meredith Monk. Joy Shapes is the first studio album recorded by Charalambides in a long time.  The main tracks were recorded in June 2003, with subsequent overdubs, mixing and mastering done throughout the summer and early fall of 2003 including one night of vocals recording done in what Tom Carter calls a 'lost evening.'"

Kranky Records' website

Christina Carter: electric guitar, voice, bells
Tom Carter: electric guitar, lap steel guitar, acoustic guitar, chimes, wind wand
Heather Leigh Murray: pedal steel guitar, psaltery, voice

link@192

Bravo Clippings #18

Frank King, Gasoline Alley, 10 May 1931

Phil Ranelin - The Time is Now (1974)

A lost classic from the legendary Tribe Records label of Detroit -- home to some of the most groundbreaking soul jazz of the early 70s! This set is one of the more "out" sessions on the legendary Tribe label from Detroit -- and one that features many of the label's great players, like Wendell Harrison, Marcus Belgrave, Charles Moore, and Ranelin himself. The tracks are long and progressive, with distinct political overtones that work well with the avant playing of the set. Titles include "Black Destiny", "Time Is Running Out", "He The One We All Knew", and "The Time Is Now For A Change". Plus, this reissue also features 3 previously unissued bonus tracks -- "He The One We All Knew (extended)", "Time Is Running Out (extended)", and "The Time Now Is For Change (outtake)".

Phil Ranelin: trombone, percussion

Haroun El Nil: alto saxophone, bass clarinet, percussion

Wendell Harrison: tenor saxophone, percussion

Marcus Belgrave: trumpet, flugelhorn

Charles Moore: trumpet, percussion

Keith Vreeland: piano

John Dana: bass

Reggie Shoo Be Doo Fields: bass

George Davidson: drums, percussion

Link@320

Ground Zero - Consume Red (1996)

"It's easy and maybe even cool to say "to hell with copyright." But of course, things aren't really that simple. What exactly is the difference between someone using your performance on their own CD without your permission and making a load of money, and GROUND ZERO sampling a revolution-era Pekinese opera to make a CD that DOESN'T make money? It burns me that a Japanese television network rotting in money can use my music without my knowing it, and I still don't get a cent out of it. But as long as a TV network is paying JASRAC (the one and only copyright organization in Japan) I'm told it's not illegal. So am I allowed to sample that TV channel without paying a cent, and make a CD from it? And then, what happens when that CD is sampled yet again by Stock, Hausen and Walkman?

The two main reasons for the existence of copyright are this. When a work is created by someone, there is ownership in that work. And, if such ownership exists, there is the question of how to justifiably turn that into money. My problem is about the fact that not all forms of creativity can be accredited to a single entity. And if I'm correct, what about copyright?

In the general flow of things, which do not consist of mere solitary products bobbing along but of things sampled and re-sampled, how can anybody say for sure who created what? The first question needs to be directed to the idea that an artistic work is born from a single entity's creativity. And so forth and so on. So rather than to go on talking about it, the idea is to go ahead and do it.

So it comes to this. GROUND ZERO samples the musical performance of a Korean national treasure, Kim Suk Chul. Any artistic purist should fly into a rage right there. His superhuman playing is without question a product of his own creativity, but it could also be that he is in fact a vessel for the voices of gods or ancestors. So GROUND ZERO takes and samples this brilliant music sacred enough to blow away any puny ideas about copyright. Then we will have this remixed by a number of unique sampling artists and place the two versions on a "chopping board" of consumption and sampling. Call it public sampling if you will. It's up to you how you cook with it. Mke it techno or enka or anything you like. What we want to see is not style or perfection but something beyond that (that is, if there is such a thing). The jumble of criticisms and questions that may emerge should outbalance today's definition of copyright together with its messy problems and questions of creativity. Go ahead and butcher this with your own hands. We can talk later". Otomo Yoshihide

Otomo Yoshihide: turntables and guitar
Sachiko Matsubara: sampler
Yumiko Tanaka: futozao-shamisen
Masahiro Uemura: drums
Yasuhiro Yoshigaki: drums
Naruyoshi Kikuchi: soprano saxophone
Mitsuru Nasuno: electric bass
Uchihashi Kazuhisa: electric guitar, effects

Sampling guest: Kim Suk Chul (hojok)

link @224

Bravo Tubes #1

Waldemar Bastos - Live in Amsterdam (2004)

The Jam - Sound Affects (1980)

Sound Affects is a 1980 album by British group The Jam. This release, their fifth album, is frequently considered the closing point of The Jam's artistic peak begun on their third LP, All Mod Cons and carried through on its follow-up, Setting Sons. This is considered by many fans and critics to be The Jam's best album; only All Mod Cons receives more claims thereto. Paul Weller considers this album to be The Jam's best work.

After the ambitious, harder-rocking Setting Sons, The Jam returned to the pop-oriented outlook of All Mod Cons, albeit with a noticeably different sound. The most salient influence on this album is '60s British psychedelic pop, such as The Beatles' Revolver, The Who's The Who Sell Out, and The Kinks' The Village Green Preservation Society. The psychedelic overtones run throughout the album: in the backwards guitar on "That's Entertainment"; in the swirling, gauzy feel of "Man in the Cornershop"; in the punchy British horns of "Boy About Town" and "Dream Time". Other obvious influences are post-punk groups such as Wire, Gang Of Four, and Joy Division and, particularly evident in Rick Buckler's drumming, Michael Jackson's Off the Wall album. Indeed, singer/guitarist/songwriter Paul Weller said at the time that he considered the album a cross between Off the Wall and Revolver.

The album's cover is a pastiche of the artwork used on the various "Sound Effects" records produced by BBC Records during the 1970s. This album features the group's second UK number one single, "Start!", built around a bassline obviously inspired by The Beatles' "Taxman", the lead cut on Revolver. Ironically, Polydor pushed for "Pretty Green" to get the single release instead, thinking it a surer bet, but Weller insisted on "Start!"

"Pretty Green" is perhaps the apotheosis of the Michael Jackson and Beatles fusion, melding a throbbing funk bassline and rhythm with melodic guitar breaks and psychedelic sound effects. The group would later explore the "Britfunk" sound in earnest on their next and final album, The Gift.

Perhaps The Jam's best known and most acclaimed song is the striking acoustic ballad "That's Entertainment"; it was recently named to the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time at #306, The Jam's lone entry. For a full discussion of this song, see the relevant article page.

Wikipedia

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Bravo Clippings #17

Chris Ware, ACME Novelty Library #1, Winter 1993-94