oh wow! thanks thom. i had no idea anyone really listened to this band. i thought they were truly, totally under-the-radar (e.g., releasing almost everything on little cassette-only labels).
I was just listening to this last night - this is the record that got me to join eMusic, back in 2007. (I was thinking of doing it anyway, but when I saw they had this before almost anybody else did, I went ahead and subscribed.)
Still probably one of my 10 favorite albums of the last 10 years... anyway, it was released on 4AD for some reason instead of ChemikalUnderground, so it's gone now on eMu, whereas her most recent (and not quite as good) album is still there. Oh well!
with John Adams, conductor and Foster Reed, Mandolin; brass sextet, fog horns & other ambient sounds; synthesizer, mandolin, voice, gambuh, piano, electronics, tape delay.
The genesis of "Fog Tropes" is as follows: In 1979, performance artist, Grace Ferguson, asked me to prepare a "soundscore" for her piece, "Don't Sue the Weatherman." I went around the San Francisco Bay and recorded a number of different fog horns. A kind of tape collage resulted, using not only fog horns but other sea sounds, falsetto keenings and gambuh (a Balinese flute). Much electronic processing and tape manipulation were visited upon the raw sounds.
I extracted part of the score, calling it simply "Fog", and began playing it as a tape piece before "Gradual Requiem". The idea of adding brass music as an overlay - or a trope, if you will - came when John Adams invited me to perform at the San Francisco Symphony's "New and Unusual" concert series. He suggested that "Fog" might benefit from some "live" horns.
So, I composed the new version in January, 1982, employing some of the harmonic ideas of "Gradual Requiem" (e.g., ascending minor triads) and it was premiered at the Japan Center Theater on February 18th with members of the San Francisco New Music Ensemble, John Adams conducting. It has since enjoyed performances by other brass groups and seems to have become one of my most popular pieces.
A lot of people are reminded of San Francisco when they hear this piece, but not I. To me it is just about fog, and being lost in the fog. The brass players should sound as if they were off in a raft floating in the middle of a mist-enshrouded bay.
@Daniel - You should check out the rest of that site. They get a ridiculous amount of well known and unknown bands coming through there. The funny thing was that session was tweeted within an hour of your post.
Since I'm stuck on the phone with tech support, I'm listening to this:
yeah, i did that. i also downloaded live sessions from deerhoof and a-place-to-bury-strangers.
my problem with the site -- and a lot of download sites -- is that they have an odd interaction with my external drive or my itunes or something. when i download something, i can play it, but the next time i turn on the computer, i get a strange error message and i have to locate the file using the "my computer" icon. sometimes it then plays; sometimes it doesn't. so when i download something from, say, daytrotter, i then copy it to a blank disc, delete the original file, then reload it via the disc, at which point it's saved, and can be played, just like stuff i rip from a commercial disc or emusic.
it's a pain, though, and it discourages me from downloading from places like daytrotter. but this one was worth it.
Pitchfork trashed this today, which I get, because on my first listen, it's exactly what I thought; It's just another John Williams soundtrack. But after a few listens, it's growing on me, and I'm thinking about it more in the line of the whole hypnagogic concept, which deals more or less in a sort of nostalgia for sounds from the late 70's and 80's especially, and this seems to me to be exactly that. The 70's and 80's weren't just about the cheapo synths, you had these big budget orchestral themes to the sci-fi movies we all saw too. So it's like giving the nostalgia concept the money to really take off and run with it. I don't know, maybe that doesn't make any sense, but anyway, I'm enjoying it, which is all that really matters I guess. Anybody else get this or have any thoughts? I also know I probably won't get to the theater for the movie, and will end up watching it on my small tv at "don't wake the kids" volume, so I think that's coloring my reaction too.
amclark2 - I actually passed on the $3.99 deal for it simply because I figured it would be more soundtrack than Daft Punk album, and I'm not a big soundtrack guy. The P4K review seems to confirm that, but as with anything they write it needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
Comments
I'm not really a big fan of twee, but every so often it hits the spot.
Craig
Still probably one of my 10 favorite albums of the last 10 years... anyway, it was released on 4AD for some reason instead of ChemikalUnderground, so it's gone now on eMu, whereas her most recent (and not quite as good) album is still there. Oh well!
Konntinent | If I Could Buy A Map of Hope : Volume 2
Listening online.
Ingram Marshall - Fog Tropes - Gradual Requiem - Gambuh 1
(New Albion Records 1990)
with John Adams, conductor and Foster Reed, Mandolin; brass sextet, fog horns & other ambient sounds; synthesizer, mandolin, voice, gambuh, piano, electronics, tape delay.
Gradual Requiem part I. @ youtube
Trying to forget the cold and put myself in an Equatorial state of mind.
Since I'm stuck on the phone with tech support, I'm listening to this:
my problem with the site -- and a lot of download sites -- is that they have an odd interaction with my external drive or my itunes or something. when i download something, i can play it, but the next time i turn on the computer, i get a strange error message and i have to locate the file using the "my computer" icon. sometimes it then plays; sometimes it doesn't. so when i download something from, say, daytrotter, i then copy it to a blank disc, delete the original file, then reload it via the disc, at which point it's saved, and can be played, just like stuff i rip from a commercial disc or emusic.
it's a pain, though, and it discourages me from downloading from places like daytrotter. but this one was worth it.
i love that four tet disc, by the way.
Today seems like a day for funk/soul.
Craig
Her voice is heaven to me.
Keeping the funk rolling.
Craig
Pitchfork trashed this today, which I get, because on my first listen, it's exactly what I thought; It's just another John Williams soundtrack. But after a few listens, it's growing on me, and I'm thinking about it more in the line of the whole hypnagogic concept, which deals more or less in a sort of nostalgia for sounds from the late 70's and 80's especially, and this seems to me to be exactly that. The 70's and 80's weren't just about the cheapo synths, you had these big budget orchestral themes to the sci-fi movies we all saw too. So it's like giving the nostalgia concept the money to really take off and run with it. I don't know, maybe that doesn't make any sense, but anyway, I'm enjoying it, which is all that really matters I guess. Anybody else get this or have any thoughts? I also know I probably won't get to the theater for the movie, and will end up watching it on my small tv at "don't wake the kids" volume, so I think that's coloring my reaction too.
Damnit, YES!
@amclark2, my rule of thumb is if PF likes it I avoid it and if they hate on it I get it.
Craig
Released only 2 years ago and it is seemingly already out of print. Too damn fine of an album for that to happen. :-/
Craig
I miss you Amie Street! One of my best freebies from there.
Craig
One of my favs from this year.
Craig
Duran Duran live on East Village Radio
Listening live online. Show should be available in archives in a day or so.