What are you listening to right now? (Twenty Million Things [We'd Like to Do when COVID is over])

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  • edited April 2021
  • Gigi Masin
       
    1986                          Wind                                  1989         Charles Hayward / Gigi Masin
                                                                                 - Les Nouvelles Musiques De Chambre Volume 2
       
    2018                        Kite                                      2019          Gigi Masin & Jonny Nash 
                                                                                               - Postcards From Nowhere
  • edited April 2021


    As a composer, David Dunn is probably best known for his interdisciplinary work that crosses the boundaries between art and science. This has included the fields of acoustic ecology, bioacoustics, interspecies communication and scientific sonification while creating a body of innovative sound work that has contributed to projects as diverse as sensory enhancement of healthcare environments and intervention strategies for forest and agricultural pests. He has invented microphones to record such phenomena as the sounds of bark beetles in trees, underwater invertebrates in freshwater ponds, and the ultrasonic communication of bats.

    In Verdant, Dunn has returned to some of his more traditional musical roots to compose an exploration much closer to home, literally his backyard in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The aural complexity of this urban soundscape is ordinarily masked by layers of ambient city noise but the combination of the Easter Sunday holiday and Covid-19 pandemic shutdown allowed otherwise suppressed sounds to become readily audible. On top of this semi-wild soundscape (recorded at very high resolution), multiple sonic layers have been added that explore and accentuate the unedited ambient recording. Electronic drones and melodies are combined with harmonically rich patterns played by two electric violins. This creates a dense aural fabric interwoven with the prerecorded soundscape as distinct time streams move at different rates but interact with each other through shifting foreground/background dynamics.

    On its surface Verdant probably seems, in its extreme embrace of tonality, reminiscent of much late 20th century music (Tenney, Riley, Oliveros, Behrman, Budd, Feldman, etc.) and many popular “ambient” genres. However, beneath this veneer there are possibly some other, less familiar ideas. The intent may have more to do with the idyllic and elegiac affect sought by the English Pastoral composers after the violence of World War I and not merely a Post-modern conceit. While the motivation for Verdant was largely a response to the dark circumstances of 2020, it hopefully speaks to a more optimistic future and the favorable attention to that which we might otherwise take for granted. – D.D. 



    How many sounds can a piano produce without using the keyboard? Some answers can be found in this recording, where the whole instrument is investigated using different techniques to reveal a world of unexpected richness, textures, and resonances.

    But it’s not just that: it’s also a journey in what the concept of “piano” became in the imagination of three composers (and a pianist). Each, in fact, gave shape to an original sonorous universe, and the task of reconnecting the subtle threads between compositional idea and sound realization is entrusted, to varying degrees, to the performer.

    Lucia Dlugoszewski’s Exacerbated Subtlety Concert (Why Does A Woman Love a Man?) (1997, rev. 2000) is a piece for “timbre piano”. (Here the transformation of the sonic identity of the instrument goes so far as to be certified by critics with a new name.) Dlugoszewski, one the great creative figures of last century, is severely underrecognized for her groundbreaking achievements. Since there was no score of the work available, pianist Toniutti realized the piece through extensive research on documents and recordings.

    Tan Dun’s C-A-G-E, fingering for piano (1994) looks between traditional East and contemporary West. The piano becomes a “relative” of Chinese traditional instruments but also pays homage to one of the 20th century’s most revolutionary Western composers, John Cage, by using the Flemish compositional artifice of associating a pitch to every letter of his name.

    In the case of Philip Corner, prominent American composer based in Italy, the piano is an open field were all ways of sound production are welcome, and the keyboard is one among many. The priority is the realization of the compositional idea of each piece, moving within the boundaries of a few written indications, “verbal instructions turning into poetry”, as the author says.

    Three different sonorous and musical worlds, three different ways of reshaping the piano, but one common trait: the desire to wonder while listening, to reach “a hearing whose moment in time is always daybreak,” as Lucia Dlugoszewski once wrote.

    Italian pianist Agnese Toniutti dedicates herself to the exploration and research on peculiar piano repertoire, sometimes little-known, often revolving around the concept of sound and its role in musical composition. Cage, Scelsi, Cardini are some of her favorites; incursions into the territory of improvisation, performance and extemporary composition, also encouraged by the study of art movements in the Seventies, are constantly increasing in time.

  • edited April 2021
    "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" by Charles Mingus

    AMG says "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is one of the greatest achievements in orchestration by any composer in jazz history". Who am I to disagree!?

    https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-black-saint-and-the-sinner-lady-mw0000192238

    Rate Your Music listeners rate it is as the top Jazz album of all time. I'm not sure that I would go that far but I would certainly place it in my top ten or twenty.



  • edited April 2021
    Fabulous album by Alice Coltrane "Journey In Satchidananda"!

    AMG says "Truly, this is a remarkable album, and necessary for anyone interested in the development of modal and experimental jazz. It's also remarkably accessible"

    https://www.allmusic.com/album/journey-in-satchidananda-mw0000204160


  • edited April 2021
    Thinking of great husband/wife combinations. In this case, John and Alice Coltrane.

    Are there any other couples that you can think of that can match these two for their combined virtuosity?

    Worthy of a new "Discussion"!?
  • ^^ I'd go with Richard & Linda Thompson. More music from my youth...
    Genesis
       
    1972                      Foxtrot                                   1973        Selling England By The Pound
       
    1974     The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway          1976                A Trick Of The Tail
     
    1986                    Invisible Touch
  • edited April 2021


    @Confused - seeing your post I had to play this, my first introduction to Genesis way back virtually five decades ago
  • Harvest  Ciccada

    Ciccada - Harvest (April 23, 2021 release).

    Says some guy on Bandcamp: "Prog-baroque, perhaps? Definitely open-mindedly-adventurous music with a charming, folksy, medieval-esque, Canterbury flare. I find it a pleasing & highly entertaining panoply of styles—my faves being the whimsical melodies & the light-hearted jazzy romps"

  • Thinking of great husband/wife combinations. In this case, John and Alice Coltrane.

    Are there any other couples that you can think of that can match these two for their combined virtuosity?

    Worthy of a new "Discussion"!?
    Well I think Geri Allen outshone Alice Coltrane, but Wallace Roney was not in John Coltrane's league -  so few are (and, of course, Allen and Roney were eventually divorced). Carla Bley and Paul Bley/Michael Mantler/Steve Swallow (especially the former). William Parker and Patricia Nicholson - her contribution is in dance rather than music performance, but Parker himself acknowledges her importance to his music - not to overlook her key role as founder and motivator of Arts for Art and Vision Festival.
  • edited April 2021



    Many thanks Plong42. Just been listening to this. An intersting mashup of styles. I could recognise, say, early Genesis, and Renaissance from the 70s. But also the guitar style of, amongst others, Francis Monkman fromm the late 70s/early 80s rock/classical crossover band Sky. Alongside that were folk-rock elements, and a touch of jazz. Worth a listen - click on Plong 42's image two above for hyperlink. 
  • greg said:
    @Confused - seeing your post I had to play this, my first introduction to Genesis way back virtually five decades ago
    That album and Foxtrot are my favourites. I sort of lost interest after Peter Gabriel left. 

    Gentlemen Without Weapons
       
    1988                 Transmissions
  • yarjazz said:
    Thinking of great husband/wife combinations. In this case, John and Alice Coltrane.

    Are there any other couples that you can think of that can match these two for their combined virtuosity?

    Worthy of a new "Discussion"!?
    Well I think Geri Allen outshone Alice Coltrane, but Wallace Roney was not in John Coltrane's league -  so few are (and, of course, Allen and Roney were eventually divorced). Carla Bley and Paul Bley/Michael Mantler/Steve Swallow (especially the former). William Parker and Patricia Nicholson - her contribution is in dance rather than music performance, but Parker himself acknowledges her importance to his music - not to overlook her key role as founder and motivator of Arts for Art and Vision Festival.
    How about Patti Smith and Fred "Sonic" Smith?
  • edited April 2021
    Gang Of Four
       
    1979                  Entertainment!                           1980                     Solid Gold
    Ps - I reminded how much I enjoyed Dave Allen's bass playing here & with Shriekback
  • Godley & Creme
       
    1978                           L                                      1979                    Freeze Frame
       
    1981                      Ismism                                  1985           The History Mix Volume 1
  • Review  The Gift  Why The Sea Is Salt  by Leo Trimming  Progradar

    The Gift - Why the Sea is Salt (2016). This has the same feel as Camel, maybe symphonic prog? Links go to bandcamp for streaming.



  • Last week Bandcamp buy, very good
  • Husband/Wife combinations - can't get much better than Elvis Costello and Diana Krall. 
  • My oops - Darn fingers.
    Grand Theft Canoe
      
    1993        Bolivia + Argentina = Paraguay

  • Guy Harries
       
    2011                    Muse Hack                               2014    Guy Harries & Yumi Hara Cawkwell
                                                                                                           Sonic Rituals
                                                                                Emusic

  • Going all New Age for a new month.


  • - SOLID STATE MIKE MAINIERI QUARTETINSIGHT

    Somewhat freaky cover for an album of laid back jazzy vibes and electric guitar.

  • And while we are doing great lp covers (and great Bolivian heavy psych) then there's this chap.
    popsikecom - CLIMAX GUSANO MECANICO RARE GATEFOLD KILLER PSYCH PROG LP  BOLIVIA - auction details

    Climax – Gusano Mecánico
    Nice use of Escher's House of Stairs albeit at 90 degrees.


  • Grails
       
    2006     Black Tar Prophecies Vol's 1, 2, & 3         2011                   Deep Politics
       
    2013      Black Tar Prophecies Vol's 4, 5 & 6         2017                Chalice Hymnal

  • Éliane Radigue - Chry​-​ptus — Biogenesis — Arthesis
  • edited May 2021
    @djh thanks for the intro to "Gusano Mecánico" by Climax.

    I don't think I've ever seen such diverging views on an album. If you go to Progarchives, in particular, some people think it is fantastic whilst others think it's awful! Personally, I really enjoyed it, particularly the title track, Cuerpo Electric and Cristales Sonadores.

    In any case, as you rightly point out, it deserves 5 out of 5 for the cover!

    And on the topic of great album covers, isn't that topic worthy of its own discussion stream!?
  • Siddhartha Weltschmerz album cover
    Siddhartha - Weltschmerz

    Last seen in a @rostasi post Oct 2015. One for the classic 70's folk possibly?

This discussion has been closed.