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The Ultimate Futurist Score
Fritz Lang's 1927 German expressionist sci-fi epic, Metropolis is heralded as a pioneering work of the genre, and was among the first feature-length films of science fiction. A masterpiece of early cinema, Metropolis is a breathtaking showcase of Bauhaus, Cubist and Futurist design.
Quite tragically, a commercial soundtrack of the original score was for most of the century unavailable to the public. Save for a considerably abbreviated rock-and-roll reinterpretation by Music producer Giorgio Moroder, featuring Freddie Mercury, Loverboy and Adam Ant in 1984, no original soundtrack was produced. However, a breakthrough came in 2008, after a damaged print of Lang's original cut of the film surfaced in the archives of the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires. The resulting restored edition premiered in Berlin and Frankfurt simultaneously on 12 February 2010 for The Berlin International Film Festival, and ARTE presented a live broadcast. http://i.imgur.com/RGtQEmhl.jpg This restored edition featured the original score composed by Gottfried Huppertz, conducted by Frank Strobel and performed by The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin). An album of the performance was issued only on compact disc, and exclusively in Austria on the Capriccio label, #C5066 in June of 2011. This 2010 reconstructed version was created to sync with the 35mm restored edition, 3945.5m = 144:12 at 24 fps. http://i.imgur.com/u8W2wobl.jpg All of the album credits and liner notes are in German, and Amazon user James Wyatt offered corrections and a translation of the disc's printed tracklisting. He notes that there are two track name errors on this album - Track 19 'Fredersen und falsche Maria' is mistitled as Track 20 'Freder im Wahn' and Track 20 'Freder im Wahn' is mistitled as Track 21 'In Rotwang's Salon" To correct these errors - Rename Track 19 as 'Metropolis: II. Zwischenspiel: Fredersen und falsche Maria' And rename Track 20 as 'Metropolis: II. Zwischenspiel: Freder im Wahn' Wyatt kindly offers an English translation for the tracklist: 01. Metropolis: I. Prelude: Metropolis Theme 02. Metropolis: I. Prelude: Machinery 03. Metropolis: I. Prelude: The Stadium 04. Metropolis: I. Prelude: The Eternal Garden 05. Metropolis: I. Prelude: Maria with Children 06. Metropolis: I. Prelude: Machine Shop - Moloch 07. Metropolis: I. Prelude: Office Fredersen 08. Metropolis: I. Prelude: The Narrow - Drive 09. Metropolis: I. Prelude: In the House of Rotwang 10. Metropolis: I. Prelude: The Man Machine 11. Metropolis: I. Prelude: Rotwang and Fredersen 12. Metropolis: I. Prelude: In the Catacombs 13. Metropolis: I. Prelude: The Tower of Babel 14. Metropolis: I. Prelude: Freder and Maria 15. Metropolis: I. Prelude: The Pursuit 16. Metropolis: II. Interlude: The Cathedral 17. Metropolis: II. Interlude: In the Laboratory - Transformation 18. Metropolis: II. Interlude: Freder and Rotwang 19. Metropolis: II. Interlude: Freder and false Maria 20. Metropolis: II. Interlude: Freder in Delusion 21. Metropolis: II. Interlude: In Rotwang's Salon 22. Metropolis: II. Interlude: The Dance 23. Metropolis: II. Interlude: The Death 24. Metropolis: III. Furioso: Freder and Josaphat 25. Metropolis: III. Furioso: The Revolt of the Workers 26. Metropolis: III. Furioso: The Heart machine 27. Metropolis: III. Furioso: The Flooding 28. Metropolis: III. Furioso: The Escape 29. Metropolis: III. Furioso: The Dance of the Workers 30. Metropolis: III. Furioso: The Pyre 31. Metropolis: III. Furioso: On the Roof of the Cathedral 32. Metropolis: III. Furioso: The Reconciliation This recording is essential for any collector of silent-era scores, sci-fi memorabilia, or for any lover of epic and dramatic orchestral works. Finally, Fritz Lang fans have a proper score of his greatest work available for their music libraries. |
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The Voyager Golden Record 40th Anniversary Edition – A Gift to the Cosmos
On September 20, 2016, a Kickstarter project was launched in celebration of the Voyager Golden Record. The response was tremendous. 10,768 backers pledged $1,363,037 to help bring this project to life. And Ozma Records met their goal – shipping the result of the project to its contributors on September 5th, 2017 – 40 years to the day of the original 1977 Voyager launch.
Ozma Records did a magnificent job in producing the first-ever “Earthling edition” of this historic gift to the cosmos. The Voyager Interstellar Record may be the last vestige of our civilization after we are gone forever, and this 40th Anniversary Edition is a wonderful tribute to humanity and our place in the universe. Original concept illustration for the set: https://i.imgur.com/315Vg9El.jpg Audio Tracklisting: 1. Greeting from Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General of the United Nations 2. Greetings in 55 Languages 3. United Nations Greetings/Whale Songs 4. The Sounds of Earth 5. Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047: I. Allegro (Johann Sebastian Bach) - Munich Bach Orchestra/Karl Richter 6. Ketawang: Puspåwårnå (Kinds of Flowers) - Pura Paku Alaman Palace Orchestra/K.R.T. Wasitodipuro 7. Cengunmé - Mahi musicians of Benin 8. Alima Song - Mbuti of the Ituri Rainforest 9. Barnumbirr (Morning Star) and Moikoi Song - Tom Djawa, Mudpo, and Waliparu 10. El Cascabel (Lorenzo Barcelata) - Antonio Maciel and Los Aguilillas with Mariachi México de Pepe Villa/Rafael Carrión 11. Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry 12. Mariuamangɨ - Pranis Pandang and Kumbui of the Nyaura Clan 13. Sokaku-Reibo (Depicting the Cranes in Their Nest) - Goro Yamaguchi 14. Partita for Violin Solo No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006: III. Gavotte en Rondeau (Johann Sebastian Bach) - Arthur Grumiaux 15. The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), K. 620, Act II: Hell’s Vengeance Boils in My Heart (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) - Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Wolfgang Sawallisch 16. Chakrulo - Georgian State Merited Ensemble of Folk Song and Dance/Anzor Kavsadze 17. Roncadoras and Drums - Musicians from Ancash 18. Melancholy Blues (Marty Bloom/Walter Melrose) - Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven 19. Muğam - Kamil Jalilov 20. The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps), Part II—The Sacrifice: VI. Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One) (Igor Stravinsky) - Columbia Symphony Orchestra/Igor Stravinsky 21. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II: Prelude & Fugue No. 1 in C Major, BWV 870 (Johann Sebastian Bach) - Glenn Gould 22. Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Opus 67: I. Allegro Con Brio (Ludwig Van Beethoven) - Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto Klemperer 23. Izlel e Delyu Haydutin - Valya Balkanska 24. Navajo Night Chant, Yeibichai Dance - Ambrose Roan Horse, Chester Roan, and Tom Roan 25. The Fairie Round (Anthony Holborne) - Early Music Consort of London/David Munrow 26. Naranaratana Kookokoo (The Cry of the Megapode Bird) - Maniasinimae and Taumaetarau Chieftain Tribe of Oloha and Palasu’u Village Community in Small Malaita 27. Wedding Song - Young girl of Huancavelica 28. Liu Shui (Flowing Streams) - Guan Pinghu 29. Bhairavi: Jaat Kahan Ho - Kesarbai Kerkar 30. Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground - Blind Willie Johnson 31. String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Opus 130: V. Cavatina (Ludwig Van Beethoven) - Budapest String Quartet Each Voyager Golden Record 40th Anniversary Edition vinyl box set includes a high-quality enamel pin of the Golden Record diagram and a custom turntable slipmat featuring NASA/JPL-Caltech’s heliocentric view of the Voyager spacecrafts’ trajectories across the solar system! Concept illustration for the box set extras: https://i.imgur.com/4pqnYDrl.jpg From the official Kickstarter page: The Voyager Golden Record contains the story of Earth expressed in sounds, images, and science: Earth’s greatest music from myriad cultures and eras, from Bach and Beethoven to Blind Willie Johnson and Chuck Berry, Senegalese percussion to Solomon Island panpipes. Dozens of natural sounds of our planet — birds, a train, a baby’s cry — are collaged into a lovely audio poem called Sounds of Earth. There are spoken greetings in 55 human languages, and one whale language, and more than one hundred images encoded in analog that depict who, and what, we are. (To hear those greetings and Sounds of Earth and see a handful of the images, visit NASA/JPL-Caltech’s Voyager site!) Concept illustrations for the tip-on jackets: https://i.imgur.com/2FwUS5Fl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/8wxzSdal.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Ceac70Kl.jpg An exquisitely-designed objet d’art, this limited edition Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition vinyl box set was available exclusively through this Kickstarter. It was described as “the ultimate album package of the ultimate album package.” Exploded concept graphic of the vinyl edition: https://i.imgur.com/uMEYBUml.jpg True to the Kickstarter’s proposed description, the cloth-covered box with gold foil inlay houses three, heavyweight translucent gold vinyl LPs protected by poly-lined paper sleeves. The LPs contain all of the same magnificent music, greetings, and sounds as contained on the original Voyager Golden Record – nearly two hours of audio. The LPs slip into old style tip-on, black ink and gold foil jackets. And accompanying the music is a beautifully-designed hardbound book of captivating images from the original interstellar message, glorious photos of the planets returned to Earth from the Voyager probes, compelling essays, and ephemera from the project’s history. Concept illustrations for the companion book: https://i.imgur.com/RPtQ4Mzl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/O9HYveJl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/UAm0gZkl.jpg The set also features a plastic digital download card with a code to access all of the audio in MP3 or FLAC format. A lithograph of the iconic Golden Record cover diagram, printed with gold metallic ink on archival paper, high-quality enamel pin of that same diagram, and a custom turntable slipmat featuring NASA/JPL-Caltech’s heliocentric view of the Voyager spacecrafts’ trajectories across the solar system complete the box set. Concept image of the lithograph: https://i.imgur.com/Uca8Shdl.jpg (to be continued in just a moment...) |
The Voyager Golden Record 40th Anniversary Edition – A Gift to the Cosmos (continued)
(continued...)
Incredible attention was paid to ensuring that the audio content was the best it could be. Timothy Ferris, the original producer of the Golden Record, worked with the production team to remaster the audio for vinyl, drawing from the highest-quality sources available. Below are actual photos of the completed box set which just arrived at my doorstep. https://i.imgur.com/FuMDggvl.jpg Of the 8,815 backers who pledged enough for the vinyl set, I received copy #00018. (I wasted no time pledging the moment this release was announced!) https://i.imgur.com/zg6uirEl.jpg The set is of exceptional quality – you can feel in your hands how impressively sturdy the whole package is. https://i.imgur.com/ISsXwtKl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/uZZCe2gl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/TZb2xLNl.jpg Here is the final version of the slipmat. https://i.imgur.com/dldwujQl.jpg (to be concluded in a moment...) |
The Voyager Golden Record 40th Anniversary Edition – A Gift to the Cosmos (finale)
(conclusion...)
And the beautiful hardcover book brings the breathtaking photographs from the record to life… https://i.imgur.com/WPILxytl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/gPXGjxKl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/MHnfALll.jpg https://i.imgur.com/EuQ8h4ul.jpg The discs, dust jackets, and sleeves are just as impressive as the extras. No corners were cut on this production project. https://i.imgur.com/L9doL6Bl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/JQ0C2qcl.jpg And finally – the enamel pin. I’ll wear it proudly! https://i.imgur.com/J8D85CFl.jpg From OzmaRecords.com: It was a gift from humanity to the cosmos. But it is also a gift to humanity. The record embodies a sense of possibility and hope. And it’s as relevant now as it was in 1977. Perhaps even more so. The Voyager Interstellar Record is a reminder of what we can achieve when we are at our best—and that our future really is up to all of us. |
Man with a Movie Camera
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Last night, I had the absolute pleasure and privilege to screen the 1929 experimental Soviet silent documentary film, Man with a Movie Camera. I’d been aware of the film for some time but had never made it a point to view the picture. Directed by Dziga Vertov and edited by his wife Elizaveta Svilova, the film presents urban life in various metropolitan cities including Kiev, Kharkov, Moscow, and Odessa. The film was novel in concept in that it has no characters and no direct plot. Instead, it is a cinematic portrait of A Day in the Life of the Soviet citizen. And interestingly, many parallels can be drawn between the visuals of the movie and the musique concrete qualities of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life”. The film is universally acclaimed for its impressive use of a wide range of camera techniques invented and explored by Vertov, including double exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, Dutch angles, extreme close-ups, tracking shots, footage played backwards, stop-motion animations and self-reflexive visuals. In 2012 film critics participating in The British Film Institute’s Sight & Sound poll voted it the eighth greatest film ever made and the best documentary of all time. https://i.imgur.com/T5kNd1Ml.jpg The film is utterly captivating. There is a very natural energy to the picture which builds from the serene silence of dawn to the furious and industrious bustle of machinery and men. The film is partitioned into segments of thematic focus, from home life to business to sports and recreation, and with a brilliant fluidity of transition. It’s a fantastic snapshot of an entire world of culture in 1929, expertly framed by the titular man with a movie camera who appears throughout the film, equipment in hand. It is simultaneously engaging both emotionally and intellectually for the incredible vivacity and spirit of the imagery and the astonishing technological proficiency of the director's presentation of cinéma vérité. But the delightful surprise that really enhanced my experience was that the version I viewed was synced with a score written and performed by The Cinematic Orchestra, one of my favorite ensembles. I’d already owned a copy of their album, Man With a Movie Camera, but was completely blind to the fact that the album was constructed as an actual score, supporting and playfully interacting with all the exciting visuals of the film. This realization added a rich new dimension to the album and helped me see incredible beauty in its composition that I had not beheld in my previous listenings. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...albumcover.jpg To date, there have been twenty-three soundtracks composed for the film. But the most noteworthy are the ones by Cinematic Orchestra and the Alloy Orchestra of Cambridge. I’m also eager to sample additional scores composed by Geir Jenssen (aka Biosphere), minimalist composer Michael Nyman, and particularly Pierre Henry’s L'Homme À La Caméra. Many of the scores have been synced with the film and uploaded in their entirety to YouTube and are widely available via BitTorrent with multiple audio channels to select the score of your choice. I highly recommend the Cinematic Orchestra version (below) for your next movie night! |
What Does Your Soul Look Like?
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It was by the most serendipitous circumstances that I happened upon this magical musical discovery. It would be more accurate to state that the piece found me when I was ready to receive it. I’d recently revisited DJ Shadow’s complex turntablist opus, Endtroducing and found one particular track title resurfacing in my mind again and again after I’d put the record away. The track appears in two parts on the album - the classic, “What Does Your Soul Look Like?” Perhaps it was the existential considerations which had been present in my mind of late, but at one fateful moment I felt curious enough to research the title and quickly discovered that the two segments from the LP are edits from a four-part extended work released as an EP fully-exploring the nocturnal and reflective territory hinted at by the selections on Endtroducing. I quickly secured a copy of the EP and cued it up. It was instantly apparent that this was going to be an exceptional recording. Much in the spirit of Moondog’s microcosmic symphonies, What Does Your Soul Look Like Pts I-IV is effectively DJ Shadow’s own symphonique. There are even sonic similarities to what Moondog dubbed, “snaketime” in the way the focus and rhythm shifts constantly and fluidly throughout the four movements. Before the session completed, I really felt it was a piece I’d like to have in an original pressing to enjoy spinning again and again. There was only one copy listed for sale in the States, belonging to DJ Tom Thump. Tom has played at shows or opened for Gilles Peterson, Kruder and Dorfmeister, Thievery Corporation, Bonobo (5 times), Morrissey, Jamiroquai, Femi Kuti, Tricky, Morcheeba, The Original Meters, Gang of Four, George Clinton, Bonobo, and many others. I trusted that this would be a disc handled with care. I dialed it up, loud, and extinguished all lamps until the sound engulfed the room. What follows is the play-by-play of my experience. Pt II: A brief horn instrumental innocently opens the disc, followed by a haunting voice singing lonely with interspersed bass-drenched speech: “We are standing here at the edge of time…” (Cold…) “Our road was paved to the edge of time…” (Steel... Sparks…) “Come with me now to the edge of time…” (Does anyone remember who I am?) And then silence. And a narrator, (sampled from the 1983 film, Brainstorm), tells the listener that this is their last chance to turn back with a cautionary warning: “In a few moments, you will have an experience which will seem completely real... It will be the result of your subconscious fears, transformed to your conscious awareness... You have 5 seconds to terminate this tape... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.” And on the “one” a steady, persistent guitar loop ushers the listener in and a swirl of sustained strings, snippets of soulful vocals, DJ scratching, jazz licks, and funky percussion gradually transport you into the dark, contemplative world Shadow has built on this EP. The guitar and drums carry on for more than ten minutes while a vast array of samples weave their way in and out of the piece. There are glimpses of Richard Harris, a reflective soliloquy from the 1973 film, Johnny Got His Gun, Willie Bobo and company's "Shelley's Blues", and several others before the instrumentation finally relents, leaving the listener with the eerily emotionless android voice from George Lucas' THX-1138 speaking: "Can you feel this? ... What is that buzzing? ... Are you now, or have you ever been? ... Move slowly." Shadow brilliantly evokes a disquieting sense of unease while simultaneously creating a cerebral space that is endlessly intriguing and the listener eagerly presses on. Pt III: A rise of bubbling and echo-laden spoken word fragments, chimes, flute, and minimal piano create a mesmerizing atmosphere for the opening of the second movement. The speech is from the 1980 sci-fi film, Altered States. "...I'm asking you to make a small quantum jump with me, to accept one deviant concept - that our other states of consciousness are as real as our waking state and that reality can be externalized!... ...We're beyond mass and matter here, beyond even energy. What we're back to is the first thought!" And suddenly, a bass drum and hi-hat kick in full force front and center of the soundstage. Flute and piano are sprinkled in jazzlike hits accompanied by scratching and high-frequency tones from an indiscernible instrument. There is a momentary release from the percussion and the jazzy traces hang in the air before its energetic return to close the track. And not a drop of this sounds artificial or electronically-contrived. There is a brilliant fluidity and ever-present organic quality about this entire record, which keeps the sound fresh and timeless despite the nearly twenty-five years that have passed since its composition. Pt IV: A smattering of dystopian dialog (lifted from the movie Dead Calm), humming machinery, and ominous indistinguishable noises return the listener to the dark, melancholic environ that so much of this record occupies. And swiftly, a fleeting rest signals the introduction of the classic, “WDYSLL? (Pt IV)” we all know and love from Endtroducing. The track is an intimate, cerebral, and undeniably classy foray into minimal, soulful jazz turntablism. The vocal elements are restrained, subtle, and perplexingly elusive. This selection expertly captures the lonely, somber, and introspective space that DJ Shadow explored over the course of his universally-lauded epic debut LP. Pt I: A booming low-register voice utters the word, “...ONE…” followed by a single bell chime and an array of jazzy components for the briefest introductory moment before the percussion manifests and seizes your full attention. Fantastically sparse horns and traces of a choir appear… (or is it my imagination?) And a mournful voice (evidently sampled from Shawn Phillips’ “All Our Love”) sings words which drift into and out of comprehensibility: “And why should we want to go back where we were, how many years... (could that have been?)” “And why should we want to live a life that's past and nevermore… (will ever be?)” Which is followed by crooning in Italian - the voice of Gianni Nazzaro singing, “C'era Già” which, I believe, translates thusly: “...and there was already this love that we live long ago, there was already a rose I gave you... the songs I sang, the sadness in joy...” There is a beautiful sorrow and sophistication from start to finish on this record, and it really works to create a world the listener can disappear into. The final “Pt 1” movement has seven distinct known samples, including “Nucleus” by The Alan Parsons Project, “Voice of the Saxophone” by The Heath Brothers, the aforementioned lyrical excerpt from “All Our Love” by Shawn Phillips, percussion from David Young’s “Joe Splivingates”, the legendary “This is not a dream” pirate broadcast from John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, and finally, "...It is happening again..." from the episode "Lonely Souls" of the TV series Twin Peaks. These elements coalesce seamlessly into one cohesive lucid dream of an album. After a single breath, the female voice from the opening of the disc warmly repeats the now-familiar phrase, “here we are at the edge of time…” And then, with tranquil grace and incalculable ease, the instrumentation trails off leaving silence, depositing the listener back to this mortal world. Enter the final, seventh sample for the closing movement - a dialog between two characters from Westworld saying, “Don't you want to listen?" ... "Nah, I heard it the last time." And the needle raises and returns, leaving the listener awed and transformed. |
Cory Doctorow: Essential Readings on Content and Copyright
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Every now and again I like to publish book reviews on titles relating to music, the content industries, copyright reform, and the future of media. Recently a Joycean scholar recommended that I explore the writings of Cory Doctorow on these very subjects. I quickly realized I'd had a few of his titles on my reading list already, so I wasted no time and read two of his books this week. The first was CONTENT: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright and the Future of the Future from 2008, and the second was the more recent Information Doesn't Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age from 2014. Doctorow is no stranger to the legal world surrounding digital content. A Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author, Doctrow serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of Creative Commons, publishing many of his books under CC licensing. His writings and lectures focus on digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics. Doctorow worked in London as the European Affairs Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and helped establish the Open Rights Group. He was named a Fellow of the EFF and the 2006–2007 Canadian Fulbright Chair for Public Diplomacy at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. He's served as a professor at the University of Southern California and was the first Independent Studies Scholar in Virtual Residence at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and is also a Visiting Professor at the Open University in the UK. In 2012 Doctorow was awarded an honorary doctorate from The Open University. CONTENT features many of Doctorow's essays and keynote speeches on digital media and copyright. It opens with a talk he delivered to Microsoft's Research Group on the developing technologies of DRM outlining five key points:
But Doctorow is clear to differentiate the impact of DRM on technological revolutions of the past from its catastrophic effect on the current climate of the Web. In a chapter titled, "It's Different This Time" he states: We are remaking the world and everything we do in it. In the past, a regulation applied to VCRs would impact a few other industries or activities (making it hard, say, to record a home movie), but it wouldn’t have changed everything. You could regulate the VCR or the radio or the record player without regulating the automobile, the hearing aid, and voting machines along with them. That’s not true anymore. The stakes for getting copyright right have never been higher. There has never been a fight over entertainment-related technology where the consequences for everyone outside the entertainment industry were potentially more disastrous than they are now. Later essays in CONTENT discuss the practicality and curious marketplace of ebooks, the grand potential but admitted caveats of metadata, and the world of fanfiction in an age of rampant copyright litigation. While earlier chapters establish a contextual history of content sharing innovations, the book closes with advice for content creators and artists and speaks for the viability of Creative Commons. The essays are brief and written in simple plainspeak, making the text a breeze of a read. Information... picks up where CONTENT closes diving deeper into the impact of ever-restricting copyright laws. Doctorow examines the draconian consequences of unfettered censorship brought about by the engineered renewability of DRM technologies, citing the example of Amazon removing Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four from all its Kindle users' digital libraries in 2009 as just one case of potential abuse. These texts also explore the consequences of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act and ruling surrounding The Pirate Bay, the Grokster decision, and other anti-piracy acts. He calls attention to the ramifications of these actions, adding some important context to the events: In 2006, the Swedish police raided the data center that housed the Pirate Bay, an infamous BitTorrent tracker that had made a sport of taunting the entertainment industry. The circumstances surrounding the raid were contentious: it seemed the action had been improperly ordered by a government minister who was supposed to have an arm’s-length relationship with the police, at the behest of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. But what was more controversial in wider Swedish society was the collateral damage of the seizure: hundreds of websites went down at the same time as the Pirate Bay, as the police enthusiastically seized a data center’s worth of servers. These other servers—which hosted sites for businesses, nonprofits, and individuals—had nothing infringing on them, but the police couldn’t be certain of this at the time, so they took the lot. It’s like they decided that, since one store in the middle of town was carrying unlicensed products, they were going to shut down the entire shopping district while they figured things out. Doctorow's specific contextualizations always return to the broader global impact. In a chapter on the effects of copyright misuse on human rights, he describes the implications of the suit Viacom brought against Google and YouTube for not doing enough to keep their copyrighted works off their service. Viacom argued that YouTube was complicit in acts of infringement because it allowed users to mark videos as “private,” rendering them inaccessible to Viacom’s copyright-enforcement bots. He states clearly that: Under Viacom’s legal theory—which was supported in amicus briefs filed by organizations representing all the major studios, broadcasters, publishers, and record labels—companies should allow the giant entertainment corporations to access all of our private files to make sure we’re not storing something copyrighted under cover. Later chapters of Information... such as A World of Control and Surveillance, and What Copyright Means in the Information Age explore the present and future of copyright and cautions us of the consequences of unrestrained access in the hands of a few content distribution conglomerates. By this point, my notetaking consisted of highlighting entire chapters as every paragraph made a concisely-phrased critical remark about the state of technology and copyright. Snowden is mentioned, of course, as is the state of the music industry - both for the limitations brought about by licensing restrictions crippling the art of sampling as well as the transformation of the industry in an era of filesharing. Doctorow points out that pivotal recordings like Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique could never have been made in today's copyright climate. He notes that "extending the scope and the duration of copyright doesn’t just criminalize a whole genre of music—it also puts the labels in charge of the only legal route open to musicians, effecting a massive wealth transfer from artists to labels." Doctorow's writing isn't all doom-and-gloom. He does propose that concepts such as blanket licensing have an incredible potential to benefit content creators, distributors, and consumers alike. And he is a tireless advocate for Creative Commons. He summarizes his position quite effectively when he states: Content-blocking and surveillance are the province of book burners and censors, not creators and publishers. We have fought for generations for the freedom of conscience necessary to have a robust intellectual and creative sphere... ...And since the Internet is likely to be a fixture in our lives and the lives of our children, we all have a duty to stop arguing about whether the Internet is good or bad for us and our particular corner of the world—a duty to figure out how to make the Internet into a force for helping people work and live together, with the privacy, self-determination, and freedom from interference and control that are the hallmarks of a just society. It’s not enough for creators and their industry to love free speech. We have to learn to share it, too. The final chapter is a statement of great hope for the future. The internet provides the world with a potential for connectivity and collaboration and a richly diverse domain of access for the history of creative works. Artists are empowered to distribute their content directly to their fans, and the relevance of the old world distributive intermediary is shrinking. There has never been a better time to be an artist or a citizen of global culture. Doctorow's books inspire both an appreciation for that fact and a participatory role in the shaping of our world to come. Cory Doctorow offers his books for free at craphound.com. If you enjoy his writings, please consider purchasing a copy for your library. |
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Great write-up as usual. That’s why you’re the best. |
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Um... Imma skim that article if I can't keep from going crosseyed halfway through, but I think you and me are both looking forward to the day when the internet is a free, globally standard repository of every piece of knowledge and media that can be found in any corner of the earth. Everyone deserves to be able to learn and experience the full range of ideas of the human race regardless of income or country, and anything less is mental tyranny.
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But yes - your ideas and mine are aligned as to our hope for the future of the free and open internet, and for a rich and accessible public domain from which content creators can draw to copy, combine, and transform ideas into new material that speaks to its generation and effectively expresses its ideas. Cheers, Bat. |
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The Worst Orchestra in the World Packs the Royal Albert Hall
A feature published in AtlasObscura today made my day!
http://classicalmusicreimagined.com/...AL-VERSION.jpg Assembled by Gavin Bryars in 1970, and among its participants Brian Eno, The Portsmouth Sinfonia was an endearing trainwreck assemblage of musical ineptitude. Bryars' "scratch" orchestra had little to no experience playing instruments, but that didn't stop them from releasing an incredible album. They developed such a cult following that the ensemble went on to perform a sold-out show at the Royal Albert Hall! Check out the clips below for the hilarious results! |
The Innerspace Labs Essential Recordings Guide
Another successful project implementation at Innerspace Labs!
For the last year, I’d been keeping a list of music to listen to in a checklist app, but the scope of the project quick outgrew the checklist format, so I reconstructed it as an organic digital music journal that can grow with my listening habits. The initial process guide built from my notes comprises 76 pages of content, organized into 50+ sections with decimal numbered subsections. The journal also includes genre surveys, links to web resources, articles and reviews, and much, much more. It will be fun to build and explore, will promote new and rewarding listening experiences, and will serve as a historical document of my musical journey. Perhaps it can even survive me as part of my legacy to help future listeners explore the world of music I leave to them when I’m gone. That legacy factor developed into a second project which I’ve just completed this evening. While my blog and the journal will outlast me and serve well for any curious future listener looking to discover great music, I felt it would help to have something more digestible and more concise to introduce new readers to my archive. That’s when I had the idea of generating a user list on RateYourMusic.com to showcase favorite recordings from my library with very brief statements about each work. Tonight, the resulting list is live on RYM. Check it out here! https://i.imgur.com/tGizN1El.png |
Just Arrived: Squeeze Box - The Complete Works of "Weird Al" Yankovic!
Today's arrival is an exclusive limited release from PledgeMusic.com!
The ultimate tribute to one of the most prolific musical careers of the last four decades, Squeeze Box features all 14 of Weird Al s studio albums remastered on CD, 150-gram vinyl and digital, spanning from his debut album Weird Al Yankovic (1983) to Mandatory Fun (2014). https://i.imgur.com/uVAzipbl.jpg Mandatory Fun was not only the first comedy album in history to debut at #1 on the Billboard chart, but also the first to even reach that lofty position in over 50 years. Altogether, the albums included in Squeeze Box have earned multiple Grammy awards, as well as dozens of gold and platinum records in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Six of these albums make their debut on vinyl as part of Squeeze Box. Each has been newly remastered by Grammy Award-winning engineer Mark Wilder and personally approved by Yankovic. An Al-curated 15th bonus disc, Medium Rarities, features specially selected non-album tracks from across his remarkable career. Squeeze Box comes in a unique package worthy of Weird Al's inimitable style: an amazing replica of his signature accordion, with each album stored in its bellows. An accompanying 100-page book features a trove of rare and unseen photos and memorabilia. The set includes: "Weird Al" Yankovic (1983) "Weird Al" Yankovic In 3-D (1984) Dare To Be Stupid (1985) Polka Party! (1986) Even Worse (1988) UHF Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff (1989) Off The Deep End (1992) Alapalooza (1993) Bad Hair Day (1996) Running with Scissors (1999) Poodle Hat (2003) Straight Outta Lynwood (2006) Alpocalypse (2011) Mandatory Fun (2014) and the exclusive Medium Rarities (2017) https://i.imgur.com/oY1eTyDl.jpg As an added bonus, this edition of the Squeeze Box included an exclusive"Weird Al" turntable slipmat, sure to delight the rabid Close Personal Friend of Al in your life! https://i.imgur.com/ycs8byCl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/uRuuxVil.jpg https://i.imgur.com/B3kArqzl.jpg |
The Weird Al Yankovic collection? Are you a masochist? :laughing:
Actually, I kind of like Weird Al too. Someone help me! |
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A quick update while I'm waiting for the next few LPs to press and ship - after shedding my vinyl collector fetishism I needed something else to occupy my time so I've decided to explore music making for the first time since the late 90s. I was a singer-songwriter back then but presently I'm interested in composing atmospheric drone soundscapes. I built a Linux DAW system and am familiarizing myself with Ardour and the available FOSS VSTs and soundfonts. I'd like to keep this project open source if possible. I'm considering investing in a MIDI keyboard, (specifically the M-Audio Oxygen 49 MKIV), to facilitate composition but am not entirely sure it will be necessary for freeform drone so I've reached out to a few professional peers in the field to see what they think. It's not an easy road - Linux DAWs are notorious for breaking down and VST functionality is a gamble at best, but I enjoy a challenge. The best part is that this can be a hobby with no deadline or expectation of productivity. I can go at my own pace and regardless of the outcome, I think the journey is the key. If any of the forum's members have experience with drone composition in a FOSS environment, definitely drop me a line. Cheers, everyone. |
A Beloved Treasure in Celebration of The Penguin Cafe
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This very special LP has just landed - an exclusive edition from Erased Tapes. The London-based label is home to Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds, A Winged Victory For The Sullen, and Peter Broderick, amongst others. Specializing in the best in contemporary classical, Erased Tapes was an ideal choice for this special release. They were honored to reissue the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s last ever studio album, Union Cafe including a first-time vinyl edition — released on December 1st, 2017 to coincide with the 20th Anniversary of founder Simon Jeffes’ passing in 1997. On the history of this recording, Erased Tapes writes: The continuation of the PCO began at London’s Union Chapel in 2007 when Arthur and the original musicians commemorated Simon 10 years after his death. Another 10 years forward, 2017 will see Penguin Cafe pay tribute to him once again at the Union Chapel on December 11th where they will perform Union Cafe in full – a union from all corners of this magical world. Union Cafe was the fifth, and the last studio album by Penguin Cafe Orchestra. It was initially released in 1993 merely on cassette and CD, and will now be given a new breath of life, for the first time available on vinyl, and another chance to reach old and new fans alike. The label’s entry for the album featured a wonderful statement from Arthur Jeffes detailing the history and significance of the album. It contextualizes the recording exquisitely so I will include his remark unabridged: “The first song from Union Cafe that I’d unknowingly heard was Nothing Really Blue, performed live by Arthur and his successor band Penguin Cafe at the Barbican in summer 2016. He simply announced it as “another one of my dad’s”, and left me wondering all night about which record it was from… It wasn’t until summer 2017, a whole year later, that Arthur shared his father’s last studio recordings with me. Union Cafe is a record that somehow missed me, simply because it wasn’t available on vinyl like the other records I had gathered over the years. I couldn't help but feel privileged for the chance to discover another original PCO album. And so I put my headphones on and lay down at the foot of the small lake in Victoria Park to listen to this box of treasures. And as with all of Simon’s works, a whole world appeared in front of my closed eyelids — a world full of love and wonder, that manages to put tears in my eyes, shivers down my spine and a smile on my face. Scherzo And Trio would become the song that manages to brighten up my days, no matter how grey London sometimes gets. Organum would become the piece that Arthur played at my wedding. Cage Dead with its déjà vu-like character would become the theme song to a series of live sessions with artists from all around the world performing in the Sound Gallery, our new home on Victoria Park Road. Songs like Silver Star Of Bologna and Kora Kora, just like all the classic PCO songs, would feel familiar, though I’d never heard them before. Lie Back And Think Of England sounded like the work of a seasoned composer and yet unfamiliar at the same time — it made me wonder if Simon was planning a new adventure for his orchestra. Lastly, Passing Through would remind me that having a hidden track on your album was very popular with bands in the 90s, but finishing your album with the sound of water dripping out of a sink, slowly forming a musical pattern within all the chaos before the record suddenly ends, surely must be the most perfect way to say goodbye.” – label founder Robert Raths https://i.imgur.com/jxvqrzrl.jpg “Union Cafe was the last studio album recorded by the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra and marked a move towards a definitive English pastoral sound combined with larger string arrangements set against longer solo piano pieces. With this last album they got even closer to the PCO idea of squaring the circle of intellectually challenging modern music that is still actually beautiful. For me this has always been a contender as my favourite PCO album, and the fact that it never ended up on vinyl was more to do with the way things were in the early 90s, and chance rather than it being deliberate. So in that sense this release is righting an old wrong. The slow development of the pieces means that you can really get lost in them and vinyl is of course the perfect way to do that.” — Arthur Jeffes The label closed their entry noting that, “Arthur very kindly gave access to the original Union Cafe painting that currently lives in his North London home studio, created by Arthur’s mother Emily Young and now photographed by Alex Kozobolis for this special reissue edition.” It's a beautiful piece of music history and a treasure for any fan of modern classical or chamber ensembles. https://i.imgur.com/IEeEpW6l.jpg |
Sonemic: A Powerful New Tool for Music Discovery
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Many listeners have voiced a shared concern that the algorithms and predictive technology for music recommendation from services like Spotify and Pandora fail to match the sort of intuitive wisdom held by record shop gurus and librarians predating the digital revolution. What these algorithms lack is the human element - the chaos factor which leads an individual to suggest a recording not quantifiably parallel to one’s previous listening habits, but which still has a quality which would lend itself to the listener’s favor. Engineering that visceral comprehension into a recommendation engine has been one of the most insurmountable challenges of the digital age. That is precisely what has made communities like RateYourMusic.com an incredible asset to those in search of music beyond the well-tread path of popular song. The community-built database and forum features user-generated lists, listener reviews, and a powerful search function to drill down to impressively nuanced metrics to yield charts based on a wide range of criteria. https://i.imgur.com/jjteNknl.png RYM launched in December of 2000, and has since outgrown its name and its site design. To enhance the user experience, a new public beta site was launched in the last week of July, 2017 at Sonemic.com boasting a sleeker, more modern design and greater functionality. The term Sonemic, (rhymes with phonemic), comes from an interview with Brian Eno, in which he suggested that the word "music" was too limited in scope, and suggested the term "sonema" to refer to the broader sense of "sonic immersion and environment". All RYM user data was migrated to the new network, but the FAQ notes that no new content will be saved to Sonemic until the official launch. The network seamlessly integrates three separate sites - Sonemic for music, Cinemos (an anagram of Sonemic) for film, and Glitchwave for video games. There will also be a Sonemic+ subscription option with extra features to be announced. Logging in on one site will log you into all three, and site settings, messages, etc will be unified. The search functions of the site are impressive though results vary as it is still in development. When building a custom chart users are presented with numerous options. Chart type can be best, most popular, esoteric, or worst. Charts can rank by either releases or by individual tracks. Release types include albums, EPs, and singles as well as mixtapes, DJ mixes, video, compilation, and even unauthorized recordings. And the site will generate playlists on the fly. https://i.imgur.com/fLqVms3l.png Further functions permit a user to generate charts by genre, subgenre, influences (secondary genres), languages, and what is perhaps the greatest differentiator - descriptors. Here users can enter incredibly specific properties which unify otherwise disparate recordings based on a theme, such as aleatory, boastful, cinematic, dense, ethereal, hedonistic, introspective, lonely, misanthropic, nocturnal, quirky, raw, ritualistic, surreal, uncommon time signatures, or winter. By selecting genres, influences, date ranges, and descriptors to include or exclude, Sonemic can return results you might never find from a commercial streaming service. There is even a 5-degree slider to control the influence of popularity on the results. You can also search for recordings based on reviews of a particular community member or of a given geographic area. Together, these functions empower users to discover music far more dimensionally and has the potential to shed light on works which transcend the simplicity of genre labels. This will definitely be a community to watch in 2018. https://i.imgur.com/6VqvGQ7l.png |
Brian Eno: His Music And The Vertical Color Of Sound (a review)
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Brian Eno: His Music And The Vertical Color Of Sound by Eric Tamm is the author’s dissertation drafted while studying under Robert Fripp. The work certainly reads as an exhaustive thesis. Musicological terminology abound, one chapter alone discusses pandiatonicism, ethnomusicological scholarship, Phrygian modality, the principle of timbral heterogeneity, improvisatory roulades, Brahmsian modulation, temporal articulations, diatonic grandeur, inner melodic differentiation, and likens one Eno track to Xenakis as being characteristically “monistic with internal plurality.” By the work’s conclusion even Tamm, himself is decisively spent, and in his final statement, he pleads to his professors, “Amen. And may I now have my dough, please?” But academics aside, the text is a tremendously satisfying read. Tamm provides a contextual and informed perspective seldom witnessed in the province of rock, and his mastery of the subject is warmly welcomed and appreciated. Tamm examines each of Eno’s incarnations over the course of his career and explores his compositional methodology and his musical philosophy at each new turn. I found myself highlighting entire sections of useful analysis to the point where my notes consumed nearly a hundred pages on their own, as every chapter is brimming with valuable insight. While no single excerpt exemplifies the depth of information presented in the full text, the closing segment titled The Music’s Beauty offers a thoughtful observation about Eno’s catalog: Music deals with time and exists in time, and may be seen as a sacred observation of the mystery of time. Whether through classical symphony, Renaissance mass, reggae dance, jam session, or ambient soundscape, time marked by music is set aside, consecrated. Music concentrates time, making us aware of different levels of temporal magnification, from immense historical vistas to momentary transitions. It enhances and focusses our ability to perceive changes, fluctuations, and developments in an overall state. Music is paradoxical: profoundly unnaturalistic, presenting an abstract temporal tableau, it may nevertheless poignantly evoke not only realms of common, everyday experience, but images of the grandeur of eternity. Eno’s music is capable of thus transforming time, for those who would listen. I find this to be an elegantly concise, and almost poetic description of the artist. |
A First Foray into ECM Jazz
In an effort to introduce more novel content into my daily listening and to challenge myself a bit, I’ve decided to explore the ECM label, particularly the Touchtone remasters. In 2008 ECM issued forty of their most popular albums spanning 1971 to 1993 in the form of affordable cardboard sleeved compact discs. A few of the names were familiar, most notably Jon Hassell who I know from his Fourth World: Possible Musics tribal ambient LP produced in collaboration with Brian Eno. ECM’s motto is, “the Most Beautiful Sound Next to Silence” and I was eager to test their claim.
Ambient themes seemed to be a suitable point of ingress for the genre of ECM jazz, as I am most comfortable with long-form soundscapes which emphasize sonic texture over melodic structures. I quickly found my way to a few introductory recordings well-suited to this task: • Ralph Towner’s Solstice and Batik LPs (ECM chamber jazz) described as hauntingly beautiful, with elements of drone and wall of sound, characterized as smooth and mellow • Jan Garbarek & the Bobo Stenson Quartet - Witchi-Tai-To - a classic understated work of spiritual jazz from 1974 • Tomasz Stanko’s Litania: The Music of Krzysztof Komeda, showcasing hypnotic, atmospheric Polish jazz performances • And the label’s most prominent artist, Keith Jarrett’s critically acclaimed Facing You and The Köln Concert LPs which are described as smooth, calm, and soothing instrumentals, featuring impassioned improvisation with moments of great intensity. Köln is considered a revolutionary work of contemporary jazz. It's a curious place to find myself as a listener and chronicler of music. I’ve read very little in the way of jazz criticism and am only rudimentarily acquainted with both its theory and contextual history. That made this territory a unique and satisfying venture from the familiar to something new and interesting. https://i.imgur.com/ve15VO0l.jpg Witchi-Tai-To is an hypnotic and surreal exercise in spiritual jazz with a mellow and meditative quality characteristic of many ECM releases. It definitely inspires me to track down lush and uplifting spiritual jazz classics like Alice Coltrane's Journey to Satchidananda and Pharoah Sanders’ Karma and Black Unity LPs. https://i.imgur.com/GW9Xf8wl.jpg Jarrett's Facing You was awe-inspiring. This was clearly bold, new territory for solo jazz piano. Jarrett's improvisation is personal, intense, and fantastically dynamic. Still, there is a gentleness to his performative style that makes the album incredibly accessible and satisfying. https://i.imgur.com/8ZhUCRSl.jpg The Köln Concert is absolute heaven. From the first notes it's evident why this is celebrated as the best-selling solo album in jazz history and the all-time best-selling piano album. And the circumstances of the performance make the magic of this music all the more remarkable. Evidently, Jarrett was suffering significant back pain and was wearing a brace the evening of the performance. The pain had cost him several nights’ sleep and following the drive from Zürich he was thoroughly exhausted. Jarrett arrived at the opera house only to discover that the piano on which he was to perform upon was small and poorly-tuned rather than the Bösendorfer grand he’d requested. But with only a few hours before the concert, Jarrett made the very best of the situation and went on to improvise one of the greatest concerts ever captured to tape. https://i.imgur.com/LOhSq0Vl.jpg Solstice is arguably the best of Towner’s catalog, forty minutes of instrumentals wedding sustained drones with elements of fusion and chamber music. It approaches the dreaded label of “new age” music but is jazzy enough to escape the bland realms of near-self-parody commonly associated with the genre. Never overly-energetic, the album is consistently subtle and darkly atmospheric. https://i.imgur.com/UiJ0Kn4l.jpg Batik is a similar work equally noteworthy for Towner and for Jack DeJohnette's abstract drumming on the album, especially his contribution to the title track. https://i.imgur.com/oEcLITyl.jpg I found Litania to be highly accessible and thought-provoking. It's gentle enough to provide a sonic wallpaper but sufficiently engaging to activate my mind and send me into a trance of self-reflection. The three variations of “Sleep Safe and Warm” are intimately soothing but the most intriguing selection from the album is “Night-Time, Daytime Requiem” which wanders placidly for more than twenty minutes of atmospheric bliss. “The Witch” changes up the dynamic a bit with the addition of an electric guitar but keeps with the ambiance of the record. The album could function well as dinner jazz but seems to lend itself ideally to quiet, solitary exploration. What I enjoyed most about each of these releases was ECM’s consistently ascetic, restrained, and meditative properties. While the recordings dabble in free jazz and avant-garde experimentalism, they remain at all times refined and gently ethereal. It was a most rewarding venture, and I’m excited to continue exploring more of “The Most Beautiful Sounds Next to Silence.” More than likely my next survey will be of the fifteen albums Arvo Pärt issued under ECM. Sublime listening awaits! |
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Not sure how much help I can be, but not only did I grow up with these recordings that you mentioned (tho the Komeda tribute is newer from the 90s), but I have everything on this label. The naysayers usually don't have much of a problem with the music, but, rather, the sound - Manfred has a (bad?) tendency to flatten the sound - purposely removing any depth - and so this pisses some people off about ECM in general. If that's not a problem for you, then I wish you happy listening. You have about 1600 recordings to explore! |
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This might be an expensive trip. :) If you have any insight as to listening resources to properly survey the catalog's chronology so I can determine how best to invest, I'd welcome the knowledge. Thanks again! |
Here's a list of ECM titles, in order, that are currently available.
I could recommend "listening resources," but I remember you being unrealistically picky about stuff like this, so you're pretty much on your own with that. |
Freshly Framed - A Touch of Zen
Freshly framed and hanging proudly in my home are the four watercolor lithographs included with original UK pressings of Brian Eno’s Before and After Science. These were painted by Peter Schmidt who worked with Brian Eno to develop the legendary Oblique Strategies deck designed to help artists break creative blocks by encouraging lateral thinking.
I’ve wanted these for many years and they add a touch of Zen-like charm to my home that I’ll enjoy for years to come. https://i.imgur.com/ByryDEMh.jpg |
^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^^
Those bring back memories... BTW, Hoopla Digital gives you the ability to "borrow" from their library of 111 ECM titles. |
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In Fulfillment of the Prophecy: Future Sound of London’s Lifeforms Has Returned!
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“We wanted to release a very immersive, mind-blowing piece of music that was long and would deeply drench you in it. Lifeforms was redefining ‘classical ambient electronic experimental’ — that was the phrase we used.” Garry Cobain, FSOL, 2007 For the very first time since its original issue twenty-four years ago in 1994, Universal has reissued Future Sound of London’s masterpiece, Lifeforms, on vinyl. The project was born of a fan-created Change.org petition, and the label responded and agreed to the community’s insistence that the original duo oversee mastering and production of the release. Much has been written over the years about this iconic recording. Ken Micallef interviewed FSOL for emusician in 2007 and said, “the Future Sound of London helped usher in the modern era of electronic music…” [mixing] “...techno, ambient, jazz, folk and even operatic samples for a sound that would some 15 years later be dubbed “‘folktronic.’” Micallef noted that the duo “claim influences as diverse as Cocteau Twins, Claude Debussy, A Certain Ratio, Rachmaninoff, Eno and Tangerine Dream.” The album also features Robert Fripp on "Flak," Talvin Singh's tablas on "Life Form Ends," and Toni Halliday from Curve doing a "vocal texture" on "Cerebral" as well as the treated sweeping vocals of Elizabeth Fraser on the album’s eponymous single. Fun Fact: In November of 2017, the Guinness Book of World Records finally acknowledged FSOL’s “Lifeforms” as being the very first record-label-sponsored internet music download! https://i.imgur.com/xMJvAmpl.jpg Photo Credit: Gaz Cobain. Used with permission. Add to this stellar concoction the influences of Brian Dougan's father who was involved with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop inspiring Lifeforms’ almost musique concrète feel, and the result is an immersive and engaging album spanning two-discs of provocative abstract soundscapes. A milestone recording long overdue for reissue, Lifeforms finally returns on vinyl to reawaken our passion for the mysterious, alienesque, and magical futureworld it so expertly painted more than two decades ago. Whether you're discovering the album for the first time or revisiting a beloved classic, Lifeforms is a mind-bending psychoacoustic journey that will reward any listener with a desire to explore. https://i.imgur.com/wkbVS4wl.jpg |
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Read the Music by Beth Winegarner - An Engaging Musical Gift
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I was incredibly fortunate to be the recipient of Beth Winegarner’s collection of music essays titled, Read the Music as a thoughtful gift from a friend who warmly remarked, “it’s always good when a book finds its perfect owner.” She couldn’t be more right! In the introduction, Winegarner professes the critical role of music in her life, calling it a “powerful emotionally restorative” and stating that interfacing with music taught her a great deal about her inner landscape to discover herself. This absolutely resonated with my own perspective about music and its impact on my life. Winegarner published hundreds of articles as a journalist in the 90s on musical subjects ranging from Tori Amos to doom metal, so she certainly has some experience in the field that I was eager to explore. Beth cited a quote from an article from The War Against Silence web column which stated: “Writing about music without writing about how it affects your life is, to me, an exercise in surreal opacity, like writing about sex or child-rearing without talking about love…” That statement gave me pause to reflect on my own music journalism and to recognize opportunities where I might not have explored a featured recording as personally as I might have, and I’ll bear this in mind for future articles. Beth’s writing style was enormously satisfying - she has a poetically-descriptive and impassioned flare when describing a piece of music, whether describing Maynard James Keenan’s vocals as, “smooth as blood over milk,” or Jeff Beck’s electric guitar as “bleating like exhaust from a cartoon Jetsons spaceship” or characterizing a string section as “sheer gossamer wings,” Winegarner always paints a brilliantly vivid musical scene for her readers. She even employs some purely poetic devices, like the elegant alliteration of her phrasing of the end of a song which “...comes to its crashing conclusion and is done, leaving us with spiraling spidery filigrees of feedback.” I can’t help but smile at that one. What makes Beth’s reviews all the more engaging is her penchant for contextual examination. She characterizes artist’s works in relation to their inspiration, spanning a broad range of disciplines from Lovecraft, to Timothy Leary, to Crowley, the Necronomicon, deep listening, the Babylonian draconian goddess Tiamat, the Tolkien universe, the Hendrixian-inspired Sky Church of Seattle's Experience Music Project, the Golden Ratio, Pagan spiritual lore, Tibetan Buddhism, Shamanism, the spiritual vocal technique of konnakol (speaking in tongues), sexuality, Biblical mythology, and hypnosis! The book concludes with two essays on the industrial goth band Nephilim including a track-by-track analysis of the Zoon LP for an impressively in-depth examination of the work’s central themes of The Watchers and The Book of Enoch. I appreciated the opportunity to learn the perspective of a female music essayist, as that facet of academia is often monopolized by male writers. I’d previously enjoyed reading essays by the great composer Pauline Oliveros and by New York art-pop heiress Laurie Anderson, but Beth’s book was my first glimpse at contemporary essays on rock music of the 90s so it was a real treat. And her impassioned remarks about Tori Amos, Days of the New, A Perfect Circle, and other important artists of the decade did what all great music essayists strive for - they inspired me to dust off my neglected CD shelf and revisit some of these wonderful recordings. The book felt like a thoughtful conversation over coffee with a brilliantly introspective friend. I want to extend a special thanks to the woman who bestowed the book upon me. Librarians indeed give the best gifts! |
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Here’s a book I’d like to recommend to you: Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures By Mark Fisher A lot of it is about his relationship with music. The title is a nod to the band Japan, you might have noticed. http://www.neromagazine.it/n/wp-cont...ark-fisher.jpg |
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The Sound of Homecoming: The Complete Collaborations of Harold Budd and John Foxx
2018 has been a year of great personal development and growth, and as such, I’ve found myself time and again seeking warm, familiar tonalities rather than venturing into the unfamiliar and novel territories I’d explored in the years prior. I found it comforting to revisit long-standing favorite composers who created a sense of returning home each time I revisited their catalogs. That is precisely what made this latest discovery such a joy for me at this point in my life.
https://i.imgur.com/jFP3cv2l.jpg Harold Budd is unquestionably one of the foremost veterans in the field of ambient composition. His trademark soft-pedal technique is instantly captivating and calming, and while he may not be breaking any new ground in the genre, that's not what his listeners are seeking. Budd commands a mastery of his craft seldom matched in his field, and he’s consistently delivered quality contemplative soundscapes for nearly fifty years. At 81 years of age, Harold Budd has shown no sign of slowing down. He’s collaborated with numerous artists, including Brian Eno, Robin Guthrie, The Cocteau Twins, Clive Wright, Eraldo Bernocchi, Bill Nelson, Andy Partridge, Daniel Lentz, Fila Brazilla, & U2. Budd retired briefly in 2005 but quickly returned to composition and released ten more albums and this magnificent new acquisition in the years that followed. I’d always wanted a vinyl keepsake of Budd’s music, but much of his catalog was limited to compact disc, including the Budd Box seven-disc set. That what made this discovery an exciting addition to my library. From the original VinylFactory announcement in September: Quote:
This is the first time these recordings have been available on vinyl, and Demon Records did an exquisite job. The discs are 180g heavyweight vinyl, housed in a rigid slipcase. This release also comes with a limited print signed by John Foxx. https://i.imgur.com/YLj3qnDl.jpg Rateyourmusic user, dvd offered some valuable insight about the impact of this music on the listener: Quote:
I discovered Budd’s compositions early in my musical journey, initially through his collaborations with Brian Eno. The Pearl and The Plateaux of Mirror were albums I instantly knew I needed to have on vinyl, and they were followed shortly thereafter by an original pressing of his critically-acclaimed collaboration with Cocteau Twins for The Moon and The Melodies. But other than the aforementioned titles and a pressing of The Serpent in Quicksilver, I’d never been able to find a release on vinyl that truly felt like it celebrated and showcased Budd’s best work. And sadly the Budd Box has only been issued on CD. So imagine my excitement at discovering this recently-issued collection of the complete Budd & Foxx recordings! Mike Powell of Pitchfork fittingly described Harold Budd’s characteristic sound as existing “in that misty place between ambient, new age, and minimalist composition, where everything is gentle and nothing lasts for long.” Powell described Budd’s quietly recognizable style as “intimate and intuitive; fragile but warm; seductive but just a little bit mysterious, like the soft tinkling of a presence in the next room.” But perhaps the most fitting description comes from the set’s designer Jonathan Barnbrook who explains: Quote:
And describing the production process, Foxx said: Quote:
To those who might precipitously dismiss these works as simple new age music, I’d offer this closing remark from The Brighton Festival’s Guy Morley who said, "I think the impact of Harold is yet to be realised. Tonally, Harold has always come from a very deep and instinctive place. You don't need a degree in composition. Its simplicity belies its originality." By any measure, this box set is a fantastic keepsake for anyone who enjoys the godfathers of ambient music. Tracklist: LP 1 / Translucence 1.Subtext 2.Spoken Roses 3.Momentary Architecture 4.Adult 5. Long Light 6. A Change In The Weather 7. Here And Now 8. Almost Overlooked 9. Implicit 10. Raindust 11.Missing Person 12. You Again LP 2 / Drift Music 1. Sunlit Silhouette 2. The Other Room 3. Some Way Through All The Cities 4. Stepping Sideways 5 A Delicate Romance 6. Linger 7. Curtains Blowing 8. Weather Patterns 9. Coming Into Focus 10. After All This Time 11. Someone Almost There 12. Resonant Frequency 13. Avenue Of Trees 14. Underwater Flowers 15. Arriving LP 3 / Nighthawks 1. Down A Windy Street 2. Now That I’ve Forgotten You 3. The Invisible Man 4. Fugitive Desire 5. From Then To Now 6. When The City Stops For Snow 7. The Shadow Of Her Former Self 8. Music For Swimmers 9. Lovedust 10. Nighthawks |
Brian Eno's New 'Music For Installations' - Meditative Magic for the Modern Age
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Just arrived at Innerspace Labs - Brian Eno's stunning new super deluxe limited edition 9LP vinyl box set, Music For Installations! “If you think of music as a moving, changing form, and painting as a still form, what I’m trying to do is make very still music and paintings that move. I’m trying to find in both of those forms, the space in between the traditional concept of music and the traditional concept of painting.” - Brian Eno From the official press release from Astralwerks Records: ‘Music For Installations’ is a collection of new, rare and previously unreleased music, all of which was recorded by Brian Eno for use in his installations covering the period from 1986 until the present (and beyond). Over this time, he has emerged as the leading exponent of “generative” music worldwide and is recognised as one of the foremost audio-visual installation artists of his time. These highly-acclaimed works have been exhibited all over the globe - from the Venice Biennale and the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg to Beijing’s Ritan Park and the sails of the Sydney Opera House. The elegantly minimalist set’s packaging was designed by Eno with long-time collaborator Nick Robertson. The set is housed in a 12 x 12 rigid box containing 9 LPs and each album is packaged in a beautiful die-cut sleeve. The collection comprises music from Brian Eno’s installations past, present and future. For those of you who would challenge the practicality of having to get up and flip 18 sides of ambient music, you’ll be pleased to learn that the vinyl edition includes a digital download of these new and rare selections so you can enjoy Music For Installations anywhere you like, uninterrupted. Also included in this handsome set is an exclusive 64-page book containing a brand new essay by Eno and which features rare and previously unseen photographs from his various exhibitions from 1997 to the present. The set is ideal for long time admirers and collectors of Eno’s catalog. Even for the fan who already has it all, Installations offers new content never before available to the public. The press release notes that 50% of the music contained in the box set has never been available in any format and the rest has only ever had very limited CD direct-to-consumer release. See the complete track list below for original release info for all of the featured recordings. https://i.imgur.com/H9jCc01l.jpg While the set is a wonderful treasure for any lover of Eno's generative or installation music, there were a few omissions that we were sad to see left out of the collection. The set lacks ‘Compact Forest Proposal’ ‘Quiet Club’ ‘Music for the Long Now’ and the extraordinary ‘Extracts from Music for White Cube, London 1997.’ Just the same this is an incredible collectible that should satisfy anyone who has been chronicling Eno's evolution over the course of his illustrious career. When I tried to pre-order on March 16th, Amazon did not yet have a vinyl edition for sale, and to date lists only one copy as available. But I've always steered clear of Amazon for limited edition internationally-dispatched vinyl sets because they have no standard for packaging and there is a high damage rate for their vinyl fulfillment. Next I tried https://www.enoshop.co.uk but the site charges an additional $65.87 for international shipping bringing the set to over $300. Thankfully, I found that Bleep.com had the vinyl edition for pre-order, shipping for either $14.05 standard or $22.78 with tracking and confirmation and signature upon delivery, (and I chose the latter). I'm glad I ordered when I did because the set has since sold out from all official distributors. For the last year I’ve been riding the tail end of the bell curve of vinyl collector fetishism. And so I had to put some serious thought into whether or not to invest in this particular set, especially at its price point. My rational voice cited the impractical nature of the format as an argument against the purchase. But the collection appealed to my emotive side which justified the work as an important historical document from one of my most inspirational artists. It's an ideal collectible for the man or woman who already has everything Eno, and as a limited edition set there is a sense of urgency to pre-order while it's still available or pay a much higher price once the window of opportunity has passed. In the end, it felt like an exceptional piece that was well worth the cost to include in my collection. This is a proud addition to The Innerspace Labs ambient library and one which I’ll enjoy for years to come! https://i.imgur.com/d9rSMg0l.jpg Track List: Music From Installations (previously unreleased): 01: ‘Kazakhstan’ Premiered at the Asif Khan-designed installation ‘We Are Energy’ in the UK Pavilion at Astana Expo 2017 in Kazakhstan 02: ‘The Ritan Bells’ Premiered at an installation by Eno at Ritan Park in Beijing, China as part of the British Council’s ‘Sound in the City’ series, 2005. 03: ‘Five Light Paintings’ Premiered at an installation by Eno called ‘Pictures Of Venice’ at the Gallerie Cavallino, in Venice, Italy, 1985. 04: ‘Flower Bells’ Premiered at an installation by Eno called ‘Light Music’ at the Castello Svevo in Bari, Italy, 2017. ‘77 Million Paintings’ (previously unreleased): 01: ‘77 Million Paintings’ Premiered at the inaugural exhibition of ‘77 Million Paintings’ at La Foret Museum Tokyo, Japan, 2006. ‘Lightness – Music For The Marble Palace’ (previously only available as a limited-run CD, via Enostore only): 01: ‘Atmospheric Lightness’ 02: ‘Chamber Lightness’ Premiered at the Eno installation ‘Lightness in the Marble Palace’ at The State Russian Museum in St Petersburg, Russia, 1997. ‘I Dormienti’ / ‘Kite Stories’ (previously only available as separate limited run CDs, via Enostore only): 01: ‘I Dormienti’ Premiered at an eponymous installation by the Italian sculptor Mimmo Paladino at The Undercroft of The Roundhouse in London, 1999. 02: ‘Kites I’ 03: ‘Kites II’ 04: ‘Kites III’ Premiered at an installation by Brian Eno at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland, 1999. ‘Making Space’ (limited-run CD previously only available at Eno installations and on the Lumen website): 01: ‘Needle Click’ 02: ‘Light Legs’ 03: ‘Flora and Fauna’ / ‘Gleise 581d’ 04: ‘New Moons’ 05: ‘Vanadium’ 06: ‘All The Stars Were Out’ 07: ‘Hopeful Timean Intersect’ 08: ‘World Without Wind’ 09: ‘Delightful Universe (seen from above)’ Compiled by Eno for sale exclusively at his installations, this was first made available while guest artistic director of the Brighton Festival, 2010. ‘Music For Future Installations’ (previously unreleased): 01: ‘Unnoticed Planet’ 02: ‘Liquidambar’ 03: ‘Sour Evening (Complex Heaven 3)’ 04: ‘Surbahar Sleeping Music’ |
If I had been your roommate I would have kept the place spotless if you just let me sit quietly in the corner while you play your records. I wouldn’t speak unless spoken to. Listening to all that on vinyl would be like a brain massage.
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And this morning I stumbled upon an ambient music site I'd always intended to explore, so I scraped 72 hours of their media content and uniformly tagged and structured the files in preparation for a month-long series of listening sessions. I'll share any noteworthy highlights. I'm just honored that there are people out there who enjoy what I'm spinning. |
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