- is the beguiling project of Minneapolis
raised, Morocco-based hammered dulcimer player Joel Hanson, erstwhile
Hood guitarist/multi-instrumentalist and sometime Declining Winter
main-man Richard Adams, Brave Timbers violinist Sarah Kemp, Chris Cole
of Movietone/Manyfingers (drums and cello) and Gareth S Brown of Hood
(piano).
They produce music that maps the contours between
brooding melancholy and redemptive calm that simultaneously suggests
both classical minimalism and hearth-side folk. They blend their unique
instrumentation into dazzling pieces that have been compared to Angelo
Badalamenti’s compositions for ‘The Straight Story’ soundtrack,
Laraaji’s early ‘80s use of the hammered dulcimer, the peaceful
qualities of neo-classicalists such as Rachel’s and 4AD duo Dead Can
Dance and This Mortal Coil.
In 1960 the American minimalist composer La Monte Young
created a collection of over a dozen conceptual compositions that
included elements of performance art, extra-musical actions and zen
influenced poetics. These works, which became known as Compositions
1960, were some of the earliest examples of Fluxus-inspired event
scores, and in the case of Compositions 1960 #7
(a depiction of the notes B3 and F#4 with the instruction “to be held
for a very long time”) one of the earliest examples of minimalism. For
this commissioned work I produced a piece that takes Young’s 1960’s
compositions as constituent parts to a whole, integrating multiple
interpretations of the individual compositions into a singular piece. It
is an attempt at practicing the radical permission that Young seems to
be implying in the work, allowing each of those pieces to be a platform
for creation, an intervention into my own modes of creation and a
problem or puzzle to be solved.
The completed piece emerged from
attempts to selectively engage Young’s compositions as starting points
for sonic creation and then arranging those diverse elements into a
singular coherent work. In this way the final project isn’t a
performance of any one of his compositions (or a re-performance of any
of their interpretations) but rather a homage to his thinking, his
influence and the potentials for conceptual scores to unlock creativity
from the chains of habit.
Commissioned by the CRES Media Arts Committee, 2015.
Composed by La Mont Young Arranged and performed by Gabriel Saloman
Well, one thing I've learned here is that when one of folks says something is great or terrific, I have no doubt that it is. I keep finding the most interesting and diverse selections to explore and hopefully add to my library. Wish I could get them all. Thanks to @rostasi for these Discogs
I'm glad you like them. I'm usually careful about saying too much when it comes to likes/dislikes because it's such a personal thing. Same with this. I really wouldn't expect most people to like his work, but sometimes death throws a ball at you that you either duck from or excitedly and fervently catch. I bought the Wergo recording of Rabe's "Was??" with the also wonderful Bo Anders Persson (Träd, Gräs Och Stenar, Pärson Sound, International Harvester) piece on the other side back when I was in school in the 70s: fondly remembering buying it with "The Sounds of the Junkyard" on Folkways.
Anyway, moving on up to 2001, I became friends with an eccentric Swedish fellow who was friends with Rabe and has posted an interesting interview with pix at his website. Part of his eccentricity is that he has a tendency to write rather purple prose, but if you can get past that, it's an interesting slice of Scandinavian modern music history. Jan Bark is mentioned often in both parts of the interview. Other Rabe related links are here.
Thanks again. 2 very different and interesting albums. I know I'm guilty of saying too much but, well, I don't think that'll change anytime soon. I also recently re-listened to Harvester/International Harvester/Träd, Gräs och Stenar and thought they were terrific as well. Oops, there I go again
I'll have to wait for the Ps before I get to Pärson Sound. Ps. Thanks for the links, much appreciated.
ETA: Not album priced, so it could be one of those US new Emu bargains. - €1.96 for this masterpiece.
It's going to take a while to get back to the ABCs Thanks, $1.96 here too, not album priced! Ps. one won't be enough.... From the Internet Archive The composition of this album is based on philosophy and practical instructions of the Great Masters of Alchemy. This music is an attempt to reconstitute the spirit of Coniunctio, an alchemical mystery. Alchemy knows a lot about opposite images, like water and fire, dryness and wetness, warmth and cold, the volatile and the fixed, the bodily and the spiritual, the Sun and the Moon, gold and silver, circle and square…
The punk-style guitar riffs and vocal phrases adjoin with angelic choir, church organ, and transparent piano passages. Coniunctio is the understanding or experience of the unity of opposites or paradoxes that lies beyond the world of duality.
The Green Line is a new project from Oliver Cherer under the name 'Gilroy Mere'. Trading as Dollboy, Rhododendron, and Australian Testing Labs as well as his own name, Oliver has meandered his way through the backwaters of left of centre English folk, ambient and electronic music, issuing numerous albums of original music to much critical acclaim via highly regarded boutique labels such as Static Caravan, Second Language, Deep Distance, Polytechnic Youth, and Awkward Formats.
The Green Line is an instrumental album inspired by the buses that once linked central London to country towns. Established by the London General Omnibus Company in the 1930s, with their striking green livery they were a common sight in the outer London suburbs.
The Green Line is written as a remembrance of childhood trips into the exterior via the green double and single decker buses that took Londoners out to the countryside. It was recorded at his home studio in Sussex using a collection of instruments and obsolete electronics amassed over a lifetime of being unable to resist junk shops, charity shops and car boot sales.
@rostasi, my 10 cents would be that even though it is personal, when someone else who knows a wide range of music says something is great, I tend to take that as evidence that there is something there at least worth checking out if time permits. I think it's possible to give weight to someone's recommendation and still feel free to respectfully disagree in the end, but like @confused I have found many cool things that way I wouldn't have otherwise. Another's enthusiasm can be a leg up.
Comments
Freshly grabbed from Emu, released by Important Records in 2012:
Totally different!
In Aeternam Vale - Masse Critique(NYOP) - La Piscine - Machine À Laver / Ultrabase
Israel Quellet - Soni Sclavus
First off I'm looking to get scared....
$1.96 (Canadian) at Emusic
or 98 cents with the double booster sale. Yah!
NYOP Bandcamp
Ps. Thanks Bn, I really enjoyed the listens. I know I'll be checking out more of their albums.
NYOP Bandcamp
Thanks to am2
NYOP Bandcamp
I still think this is their best. Lovely.
Memory Drawings
- is the beguiling project of Minneapolis raised, Morocco-based hammered dulcimer player Joel Hanson, erstwhile Hood guitarist/multi-instrumentalist and sometime Declining Winter main-man Richard Adams, Brave Timbers violinist Sarah Kemp, Chris Cole of Movietone/Manyfingers (drums and cello) and Gareth S Brown of Hood (piano).
They produce music that maps the contours between brooding melancholy and redemptive calm that simultaneously suggests both classical minimalism and hearth-side folk. They blend their unique instrumentation into dazzling pieces that have been compared to Angelo Badalamenti’s compositions for ‘The Straight Story’ soundtrack, Laraaji’s early ‘80s use of the hammered dulcimer, the peaceful qualities of neo-classicalists such as Rachel’s and 4AD duo Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil.
They have released three albums ‘Music For Another Loss’ (2011), ‘There Is No Perfect Place’ (2014) and ‘The Nearest Exit’ (2017).
The completed piece emerged from attempts to selectively engage Young’s compositions as starting points for sonic creation and then arranging those diverse elements into a singular coherent work. In this way the final project isn’t a performance of any one of his compositions (or a re-performance of any of their interpretations) but rather a homage to his thinking, his influence and the potentials for conceptual scores to unlock creativity from the chains of habit.
Commissioned by the CRES Media Arts Committee, 2015.
Composed by La Mont Young
Arranged and performed by Gabriel Saloman
Thanks to @rostasi for these
Discogs
Folke Rabe / Jan Bark
Ps no album only pricing on these, however there are 2 releases of ARGH! - one with & one without.
Anyway, moving on up to 2001, I became friends with an eccentric Swedish fellow who was friends with Rabe and has posted an interesting interview with pix at his website.
Part of his eccentricity is that he has a tendency to write rather purple prose, but if you can get past that, it's an interesting slice of Scandinavian modern music history. Jan Bark is mentioned often in both parts of the interview. Other Rabe related links are here.
I'll have to wait for the Ps before I get to Pärson Sound.
Ps. Thanks for the links, much appreciated.
Thanks, $1.96 here too, not album priced!
Ps. one won't be enough....
From the Internet Archive
The composition of this album is based on philosophy and practical instructions of the Great Masters of Alchemy. This music is an attempt to reconstitute the spirit of Coniunctio, an alchemical mystery. Alchemy knows a lot about opposite images, like water and fire, dryness and wetness, warmth and cold, the volatile and the fixed, the bodily and the spiritual, the Sun and the Moon, gold and silver, circle and square…
The punk-style guitar riffs and vocal phrases adjoin with angelic choir, church organ, and transparent piano passages. Coniunctio is the understanding or experience of the unity of opposites or paradoxes that lies beyond the world of duality.
Anton Batagov - The Monk Thogmey's Thirty-Seven Precepts
Kidsticks - Beth Orton. Eclectic Sunday morning. Ike Quebec scheduled next.
Bo Anders Persson - Love Is Here To Stay (The Early Works by Bo Anders Persson 1965-1967)
track 7 - Proteinimperialism
Thanks
Thank you !
ETA: 3 years on Soundcloud and totally unnoticed. - Very strange . . .
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NP