Steve Reich "The Desert Music" (Nonesuch, 1985)

Artist: Steve Reich
Album: "The Desert Music"
Release Date: December 11, 1985
Label: Nonesuch
Genre: Minimalism, Avant-Garde, Chamber-Music, Modern-Composition
Mood: Theatrical, Hypnotic, Eerie, Detached
Reminds Of: John Cage, Terry Riley, Philip Glass
What People Think: Wiki, Amazon Editorial Review
Definitely Worth Buying: Amazon, CdUniverse

Tracklist
1. The Desert Music: First Movement (Fast)
2. The Desert Music: Second Movement (Moderate)
3. The Desert Music: Third Movement Part One (Slow)
4. The Desert Music: Third Movement Part Two (Moderate)
5. The Desert Music: Third Movement Part Three (Slow)
6. The Desert Music: Fourth Movement (Moderate)
7. The Desert Music: Fifth Movement (Fast)

Borrowing its title and text from a book of poetry by William Carlos Williams, Steve Reich's The Desert Music (1982-1984) is not a pictorial work, but is, nonetheless an evocative one. The Desert Music addresses the idea of mankind's awareness of his own condition, a subject that appears in one way or another in each of the three included poems. From Theocritus: Idyll/A version from the Greek, Reich sets the words "Begin, my friend, for you cannot, you may be sure, take your song, which drives all things out of mind, with you to the other world." Part of the text from The Orchestra reads: "Is there a sound not addressed wholly to the ear?... I am wide awake, the mind is listening." The connection between these phrases and the desert is indirect but sure; as Reich points out, it was in Sinai, not Jerusalem, that the children of Israel received revelation and guidance from God, and in the wilderness that Jesus confronted his temptations. And, referring indirectly to the deserts of Alamagordo, New Mexico, where the first A-bombs were detonated, Reich quotes again from The Orchestra: "Man has survived hitherto because he was too ignorant to know how to realize his wishes. Now that he can realize them, he must either change them or perish."

The Desert Music is characterized in part by a recurring element: harmonic progressions that unfold as rapidly repeated chords, without melodic or rhythmic adornment. The work's episodes of development and reflection are arranged into an arch form (ABCBA). The first and fifth movements share the same harmonic material, while the second and fourth -- settings the same text -- are both in a moderate tempo and use similar harmonic progressions. The central movement, the longest in the work, exhibits its own symmetrical form, beginning and ending with the same text. The middle portion, the work's focal point, sets a text from The Orchestra that sheds light upon the relationship between text and tone in The Desert Music: "It is a principle of music to repeat the theme. Repeat and repeat again, as the pace mounts. The theme is difficult but no more difficult than the facts to be resolved."

(source: AllMusic.com)

“The particular is the nub of the universal…”

Ornette Coleman Double Quartet "Free Jazz ( A Collective Improvisation) (Atlantic, 1961)

Artist: Ornette Coleman Double Quartet
Album: "Free Jazz (A Collective Improvisation)"
Release Date: 1961
Label: Atlantic
Genre: Free-Jazz, Improvisation, Avant-Garde
Mood: Passionate, Knotty, Sophisticated, Provocative
Reminds Of: Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Louis Jordan, Arnett Bobb
What People Think: Wikipedia
Definitely Worth Buying: Amazon, CdUniverse

Tracklist
1. Free Jazz
2. First Take

One of the most important (and controversial) innovators of the jazz avant-garde, Ornette Coleman gained both loyal followers and lifelong detractors when he seemed to burst on the scene in 1959 fully formed. Although he, and Don Cherry in his original quartet, played opening and closing melodies together, their solos dispensed altogether with chordal improvisation and harmony, instead playing quite freely off of the mood of the theme. Coleman's tone (which purposely wavered in pitch) rattled some listeners, and his solos were emotional and followed their own logic. In time, his approach would be quite influential, and the quartet's early records still sound advanced many decades later.

As jazz's first extended, continuous free improvisation LP, Free Jazz practically defies superlatives in its historical importance. Ornette Coleman's music had already been tagged "free," but this album took the term to a whole new level. Aside from a predetermined order of featured soloists and several brief transition signals cued by Coleman, the entire piece was created spontaneously, right on the spot. The lineup was expanded to a double-quartet format, split into one quartet for each stereo channel: Ornette, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Scott LaFaro, and drummer Billy Higgins on the left; trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bass clarinetist Eric Dolphy, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell on the right. The rhythm sections all play at once, anchoring the whole improvisation with a steady, driving pulse. The six spotlight sections feature each horn in turn, plus a bass duet and drum duet; the "soloists" are really leading dialogues, where the other instruments are free to support, push, or punctuate the featured player's lines. Since there was no road map for this kind of recording, each player simply brought his already established style to the table. That means there are still elements of convention and melody in the individual voices, which makes Free Jazz far more accessible than the efforts that followed once more of the jazz world caught up. Still, the album was enormously controversial in its bare-bones structure and lack of repeated themes. Despite resembling the abstract painting on the cover, it wasn't quite as radical as it seemed; the concept of collective improvisation actually had deep roots in jazz history, going all the way back to the freewheeling early Dixieland ensembles of New Orleans. Jazz had long prided itself on reflecting American freedom and democracy and, with Free Jazz, Coleman simply took those ideals to the next level. A staggering achievement.

“It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something...”

Arnold Dreyblatt "Animal Magnetism" (Tzadik, 1995)

Artist: Arnold Dreyblatt
Album: "Animal Magnetism"
Release Date: 23 May, 1995
Label: Tzadik
Genre: Avant-Garde, Microtonal, Minimalism, Sound-Collage
Mood: Playful, Manic, Cathartic, Quirky
Reminds Of: LaMonte Young, Alvin Lucier, Elliott Sharp
What People Think: AllMusicGuide
Definitely Worth Buying: CdUniverse, Amazon

Tracklist
1. Point Rotation
2. Next Slide
3. Animal Magnetism
4. Group Velocity
5. Side Band
6. Flashbulb History
7. Epilogue

Arnold Dreyblatt's compositions have been recorded for such leading avant-garde music labels as Hat Hut, Tzadik and Table of Elements. The New York native studied film and video at SUNY with Woody and Steina Vasulka, and earned his masters from the Institute for Media Studies. In the mid-'70s, he studied composition with Pauline Oliveros and LaMonte Young, then learned from Alvin Lucier until getting his masters in composition in 1982. By that time, Dreyblatt had already been directing his own music ensemble, the Orchestra of Excited Strings, for three years. In 1984, he moved to Europe where, in addition to composing, he began using texts and images in his installations and performances. He has received numerous grants and stipends including the Overbrook Foundation, and the Philip Morris Art Prize. Dreyblatt has been a guest composer at Amsterdam's STEIM, Berlin's Kunstlerhaus Bethanien and more. He has been commissioned by Ars Electronica, Podewil/US Arts Festival, as well as for his production 'Who's Who in Central & East Europe 1933' for Berlin's DAAD-Inventionen '91. He has also created two independent yet interrelated art works in collaboration with the University of Lüneburg's Kulturinformatik Department, entitled "Who's Who in Central & East Europe 1933" and "Memory Arena." As of the late 1990's, Dreyblatt still resided in Berlin.

"While I really like everything of Arnold's, especially the more "heroic" parts of Nodal Excitations and Propellors in Love, this is the record that really steps out as the first genuinely new sound in maybe 10 years. It's as if the Dirty Dozen Brass band got a hold of some of Arnold's records and decided to give it a go. I cannot overstate how unbelievably brilliant this record is. When played loud, I firmly stand by my declaration that it is one of the 4 or so best records ever made". - Jim O’Rourke

"The bright, punchy staccato nature of Dreyblatt’s compositons allude to some of Michael Nyman’s early ensemble works, a character further emphasized by the dynamic constraints of the instrumentation... ...Dreyblatt wants you to listen through the beats in order to connect with the overtone structures and resonant sound features bouncing off the rhythmic surfaces... ...I’ve certainly grown to love it.“ - David Illic, The Wire Magazine Soundcheck Winner October, 1995

"This particular release from 1995 is initially striking because of its pure energy. I guarantee that it's one of the few releases you'll find featuring "classical" instruments which encourages you to "listen at maximum volume!" Dreyblatt also uses a wider palette than most Minimalists, as his Orchestra of Excited Strings actually consists of strings, horns, percussion, and just-intonation guitar. Yet he holds the same concern with microtonal structure that Conrad does, just through more propulsive music. Some people back in the Seventies used to talk about how the music of Steve Reich and Phillip Glass was somehow related to "rock," but those charlatans don't have anything on Arnold Dreyblatt. - Pataphysics Research Journal

“If you REALLY wanted to scare somebody, wouldn't you find a new way to do it…?”

Scott Walker "Tilt" (Drag City, 1995)

Artist: Scott Walker
Album: "Tilt"
Release Date: May 1995
Label: Drag City
Genre: Avant-Garde, Experimental, Baroque-Pop, Minimalism
Mood: Brooding, Theatrical, Bleak, Autumnal
Reminds Of: Jacques Brel, Nico, Brian Eno, Leonard Cohen, Serge Gainsbourg
What People Think: SputnikMusic, WorldSocialist
Definitely Worth Buying: Amazon, CdUniverse

Tracklist
1. Farmer In The City
2. The Cockfighter
3. Bouncer See Bouncer
4. Manhattan
5. Face On Breast
6. Bolivia '95
7. Patriot (A Single)
8. Tilt
9. Rosary

Tilt was Scott Walker's first album following over a decade of silence, and whatever else he may have done during his exile, brightening his musical horizon was not on the agenda. Indescribably barren and unutterably bleak, Tilt is the wind that buffets the gothic cathedrals of everyone's favorite nightmares. The opening "Farmer in the City" sets the pace, a cinematic sweep that somehow maintains a melody beneath the unrelenting melodrama of Walker's most grotesque vocal ever. Seemingly undecided whether he's recording an opera or simply haunting one, Walker doesn't so much perform as project his lyrics, hurling them into the alternating maelstroms and moods that careen behind him. The effect is unsettling, to put it mildly. At the time of its release, reviews were undecided whether to praise or pillory Walker for making an album so utterly divorced from even the outer limits of rock reality, an indecision only compounded by its occasional (and bloody-mindedly deceptive) lurches towards modern sensibilities. "The Cockfighter" is underpinned by an intensity that is almost industrial in its range and raucousness, while "Bouncer See Bouncer" would have quite a catchy chorus if anybody else had gotten their hands on it. Here, however, it is highlighted by an Eno-esque esotericism and the chatter of tiny locusts. The crowning irony, however, is "The Patriot (A Single)," seven minutes of unrelenting funeral dirge over which Walker infuses even the most innocuous lyric ("I brought nylons from New York") with indescribable pain and suffering. Tilt is not an easy album to love; it's not even that easy to listen to. First impressions place it on a plateau somewhere between Nico's Marble Index and Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music -- before long, familiarity and the elitist chattering of so many well-heeled admirers rendered both albums mere forerunners to some future shift in mainstream taste. And maybe that is the fate awaiting Tilt, although one does wonder precisely what monsters could rise from soil so belligerently barren. Even Metal Machine Music could be whistled, after all.

(source: AllMusicGuide)

“If I’m using politics, I’ll use it to talk about an inner state rather than a political state. They’re related. It’s a way to break out of the [traditional] songwriting format. I’m looking inward—that’s why you get a solitary feel from the music. I’m composing something of myself through fragments.”

Keith Jarrett "Death And The Flower" (Impulse!, 1975)

Artist: Keith Jarrett
Album: "Death And The Flower"
Release Date: May 1975
Label: Impulse
Genre: Contemporary-Jazz, Avant-Garde, Post-Bop
Mood: Mannered, Sophisticated, Reflective, Literate
Reminds Of: Herbie Hancock, Chic Corea, Lennie Tristano
What People Think: AllMusicGuide
Definitely Worth Buying: ArtistDirect, Amazon

Tracklist
1. Death And The Flower
2. Prayer
3. Great Bird

In the early 70s, Keith Jarrett formed two groups. One recorded for the German label, ECM, the other (as on this LP) for the traditional American Jazz label, Impulse. The Impulse team consisted of Paul Motian on drums, Dewey Redman on reeds, Charlie Haden on bass, Guilherme Franco on percussion and Jarrett on the grand piano. In both bands, Jarrett never touched an electric keyboard. Everybody was into some kind of spiritual calling at that time; Jarrett is no exception as the album title and his "poem" on the cover show. Death And The Flower is an example of how Keith Jarrett helped shape the way Jazz was to sound in the future. A new "World Music" feel and the chamber music like intimacy make this an innovative LP. The music still sounds fresh and relevant. The first side of this album, recorded in ´74, is filled with the title track. It spends the first minutes to create an African atmosphere with percussion and flute. Then the double bass contributes a riff and eventually, the piano starts and after a searching phase, the beat carries the song to harmonic sequence of minor chords. As the song flows, each musician takes a chance to show his skills. Then, the song slows down just to pick up a new speed, and Keith provides an irresistible riff on the piano moving the band to a dense groove. Prayer is a slow and quiet meditation showing how subtly this group plays. It´s amazing to hear how well each musician listens to what is going on. Jarrett´s improvisation demonstrates a strong influence of the classical tradition, notably Debussy, and at one point, he creates a minimalist pattern á la "Steve Reich". The last song, Great Bird, recalls the Coltrane sound of his last years. Based on the theme (a falling sequence), there´s free collective improvisation.
The band corresponds in dreamlike confidence. I think I prefer this group to the ECM band. Death And The Flower, in a word, is recommendable, not just to Jarrett fans.

(source: rateyourmusic.com, user: yofriend)

"I would say the difference is the same as that between a photograph of a flowing stream and the actual stream flowing…"

Jon Hassell "Vernal Equinox" (Lovely Music, 1977)

Artist: Jon Hassell
Album: "Vernal Equinox"
Release Date: 1977
Label: Lovely Music
Genre: Minimalism, World-Fusion, Experimental, Avant-Garde, New-Age
Mood: Sprawling, Sophisticated, Dreamy, Nocturnal
Reminds Of: Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Terry Riley
Definitely Worth Buying: InSound, CdUniverse

Tracklist
1. Toucan Ocean
2. Viva Shona
3. Hex
4. Blues Nile
5. Vernal Equinox
6. Caracas Night September 11, 1975

Trumpeter Jon Hassell was the originator and unrivalled master of the musical aesthetic he dubbed Fourth World -- in his own words, "a unified primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques."

Recorded in 1976 at the York University Electronic Media Studios in Toronto, Ontario, Vernal Equinox is Jon Hassell's first recording as a solo artist and sets the stage for his then-emerging career as a trumpeter, composer and musical visionary. "Toucan Ocean" opens the album with two gently swaying chords and delicate layers of percussion that provide a cushion upon which Hassell unfurls long, winding melodic shapes. His trumpet is sent through echo and an envelope filter, producing a stereo auto-wah-wah effect. "Viva Shona" features accompaniment by mbira, subtle polyrhythmic layers of percussion, and the distant calling of birds. Again filtered through echo, Hassell's gliding trumpet lines sound remarkably vocal. "Hex" features a bubbling, filtered electric bass part with a denser web of percussion. From his horn, Hassell elicits moans and sighs that are at first unaffected and later filtered. "Blues Nile" is a long, blue moan. Hassell's breathy, multi-tracked trumpet lines call and respond to one another, weaving a web of deep calm over an ever-present drone. This track clearly points the way to his later work with Brian Eno, in particular, their "Charm Over Burundi Sky." On the title track, Hassell's "kirana" trumpet style is in full bloom as he dialogs with the percussion. Hassell's most elegant melodicism blossoms forth here, and his unaffected horn often sounds disarmingly flute-like. The influences of his study of raga with Pandit Pran Nath are clearly discernible in the curvaceous melodic lines and overall sense of meditative calm within harmonic stasis. Throughout the album, percussionists Naná Vasconcelos and David Rosenboom add subtle, supple grooves and colors. "Caracas Night September 11, 1975" is a beautiful field recording featuring Hassell's plaintive trumpet commentary, subtle percussion interjections, and the sound of caracas humming and buzzing in the background. The first several tracks of Vernal Equinox bear the imprint of '70s-period Miles Davis, in particular the quiet ambience of "He Loved Him Madly" and parallel passages from Agharta. The envelope filter on Hassell's horn similarly draws a reference to Davis' use of the wah-wah pedal from that time. Nonetheless, in 1976, Vernal Equinox was remarkably unique and ahead of its time, and sowed the seeds of Hassell's influential Fourth World aesthetic, which he would continue to develop and refine. Decades after its release, Vernal Equinox still provides an enchanting and entirely contemporary listening experience.

(source:AllMusicGuide)

"From 1973 up until then I was totally immersed in playing raga on the trumpet. I wanted the physical dexterity to be able to come into a room and be able to do something that nobody else in the world could do. My aim was to make a music that was vertically integrated in such a way that at any cross-sectional moment you were not able to pick a single element out as being from a particular country or genre of music."

Ghost "In Stormy Nights" (Drag City, 2007)

Artist: Ghost
Album: "In Stormy Nights"
Release Date: 23 January, 2007
Label: Drag City
Genre: Experimental, Avant-Garde, Drone, Psych-Folk, Neo-Psychedelia
Mood: Hypnotic, Druggy, Indulgent, Literate
Reminds Of: Damon & Naomi, Sweet & Honey, Pearls Before Swine
What People Think: StylusMagazine, SputnikMusic, PitchforkMedia
Definitely Worth Buying: Boomkat, Amazon

Tracklist
1. Motherly Bluster
2. Hemicyclic Anthelion
3. Water Door Yellow Gate
4. Gareki No Toshi
5. Caledonia
6. Grisaille

Japan's Ghost has always been a truly enigmatic kind of rock band. From the beginning, they've only recorded when they felt it was necessary, and only when they had something utterly new to say. In other words, there isn't a set Ghost sound. They turn themselves inside out on each recording, and no two sound the same. In Stormy Nights is no exception. It is as different from 2004's Hypnotic Underworld as it was from 1999's Snuffbox Immanence and its completely separate companion album released on the same day. Ghost can play everything from strange mystical folk music -- notice the gorgeous Celtic-Asian flavor of "Motherly Bluster" that opens this set -- to flipped out, spaced out psychedelic rock; give a listen to the cover of "Caledonia" by freak noise rockers Cromagnon, and get your head ripped open. The centerpiece of this set is the completely genre exploding "Hemicyclic Anthelion," clocking in at over 28 minutes. This cut was taken from numerous live performances and edited together by Ghost's spiritual leader and guitarist Masaki Batoh, who has spearheaded Ghost's direction since 1984. It is a series of sonic universes showcasing all the elements of Ghost's sound from folk to noise to free improv, feedback drone, and psych terrorism, and never loses its momentum despite its utter self-indulgence. Merzbow, John Zorn, the Holy River Family Band and Derek Bailey would all be proud. The sheer staccato piano, guitar, synth and drum workout that follows it in "Water Door Yellow Gate" is, conversely, a tautly scored song, where the riff is monotonous, played as a simple set of chords carved from the lower eight keys of the piano. With numerous layered typmpanis washing out middling noise textures and roiling, razored electric guitars played by Michio Kurihara haunting the background, a chorus of backing vocals underscore Batoh's voice like an opera choir in a horror film while a constantly throbbing and pulsing bassline by Takuyuki Moriya wrenches up the tension. Conversely "Gareki No Toshi" is the piece's mirror image. No less a formalist construct, its shouted -- not sung -- vocals are relegated to the background and are distorted, almost buried under waves of seductive synth wash (courtesy of Kazuo Ogino), guitar feedback, bashed drums (Junzo Tateiwa) and a syntactical cadence that inverts the entire sequence in another key. It's remarkable how seamlessly the two pieces fit. The album closes with the gentle medieval sounding folk that is "Grisalle." A crystal clear acoustic guitar played by Batoh and his voice in its lower register is supported by Taishi Takizawa's flutes, Kurihara, and sonic atmospheres courtesy of the rest of the band with beautiful muted tympani pacing the verse; it's as gorgeous a psychedelic folk ballad as one is likely to hear and sends the entire thing out on a cracked, spacious wail as Kurihara's guitar and Ogino's analog synth carry it out. The rest of the band checks in -- especially that deep contrabass of Moriya's -- to make sure the thing stays on the earth. In Stormy Nights is another step. It walks out further than before, and yet, its melodic sensibilities, harmonic invention, and sonic exploration are utterly accessible to any listener willing to approach it with an open mind. Since Ghost has no set sound, there can be no "best" Ghost recording; they all appeal differently. This one is no exception, but it is a work of absolute beauty, chaos, seductive darkness and cosmic light.

(source: AllMusicGuide)

"The intense grandeur... is still quite a shock". [UNCUT, Feb 2007, p.73]

"Through its overarching range, it ably balances silence with noise, restraint with reckless abandon". [Cokemachineglow]

"An ecstatic, angry, gorgeously mournful manifesto". [SPIN, Jan 2007, p.89]

"On In Stormy Nights, Ghost does what they do best--compress decades of psychedelic and avant-garde music into a modern melange that will please fans from the folk end of the spectrum to the harshest of noiseniks". [UNDER THE RADAR, #16, p.99]

"Ghost are soundtracking a fresh, modern hell". [MOJO, Mar 2007, p.99]

Everything is clutched in the smog that daily covers our head, arithmetic balances fasten the extremes and all goes around that abyss…

Aube "Cardiac Strain" (Alien8 Recordings, 1997)

Artist: Aube
Album: "Cardiac Strain"
Release Date: February 1st, 1997
Label: Alien8 Recordings
Genre: Avant-Garde, Experimental, Noise, Abstract
Mood: Uncompromising, Harsh, Intense, Volatile
Reminds Of: Government Alpha, Bastard Noise, Merzbow
What People Think: RYM
Definitely Worth Buying: Alien8Recordings

Tracklist
1. Steal Up
2. Infatuation
3. Cardiotonica
4. Angina Cordis
5. Core-Strain
6. Vent

Akifumi Nakajima's Aube project has amassed a lengthy discography, most entries realizing the maximum capacity for audio variation from a minimum of sampled input (in many cases, a single sound source). Influenced by space rock and musique concrète, Nakajima began recording in 1980 but released nothing until a decade later, when he produced music for an art installation given by a group of friends. Since the installation involved water, he decided to use appropriately watery sounds for the music. Nakajima's first Aube release came in 1991, when the Japanese noise label Vanilla released his cassette LP Hydrophobia. Quite a few more water-related recordings followed, and Nakajima soon began branching out by using varied sources such as field recordings, the hum from fluorescent lamps, human voices, brain waves, heartbeats, even pages being ripped from a Bible. He has recorded for Staalplaat, Manifold, Charnel Music, Pure, Iris Light and the Grand Rapids-based upstart Elsie & Jack Records. Nakajima also operates a cassette-only label named G.R.O.S.S. that has released several albums of Aube material. In 1999 the album Evocation was added and a year later Aube closely released, Richochentrance and Blood Brain Barrier, respectively.

While Akifumi Nakajima of Aube not only creates a rather diverse selection of noise works (generally he gravitates more toward ambient than full-blast harsh noise), he also uses some very unique sound sources. This release, as the name implies, is created solely from the human heartbeat, although one wouldn't guess it at first. Distinct heartbeat sounds are heard, but much of the album distorts and twists these sounds beyond recognition. Cardiac Strain is among his noisiest albums. A typical track starts off barely audible until Nakajima either shocks the listener with an ear-shattering burst of rhythmic noise, or until the track eases into things and culminates in a point of pure chaos. Either way, this is a great album, considered by many to be one of his best.

(source: AllMusicGuide)

“If you’re getting a message about the heart being the devil’s organ, or the pit of hell, your brain is ready to endure this album, it’s red flooded sleeve and all.” Carl Wilson, Hour Magazine.

“The six tracks are so creatively processed that it is a shame that those in the electro-acoustic ivory tower will never hear it.” Chris Twomey, Exclaim.

All composed, Mixed, Recorded And Designed By Akifumi Nakajima At Studio MECCA, Kyoto Japan November 1996 – January 1997.

Limited Edition 666.

A guided tour to the human circulatory system…

Laurie Anderson "Big Science" (Warner Bros, 1982)

Artist: Laurie Anderson
Album: "Big Science"
Release Date: 1982
Label: Warner Bros.
Genre: Experimental, Performance-Art, Art-Rock, Spoken-Word, Avant-Garde
Mood: Theatrical, Ironic, Sophisticated, Clinical
Reminds Of: Kraftwerk, Lydia Lunch, Brian Eno
What People Think: PitchforkMedia, AllMusicGuide
Definitely Worth Buying: CdUniverse, Amazon

Tracklist
1. From The Air
2. Big Science
3. Sweaters
4. Walking & Falling
5. Born, Never Asked
6. O Superman (For Massenet)
7. Example #22
8. Let X=X
9. It Tango

From perhaps 1977-1984, music had a preoccupation with the progress of society and technology and George Orwell was to blame. 1984 created an unconscious cultural deadline for the self-examination of Western society. Rock music sang about the spawning of mega-governments, punks assaulted fascism, pop stars noted a scaled cooling of compassion, jazz captured the spirit of robots. Suddenly, the word “modern” became an esteemed concept. It instructed us to accept the reality of imminent nuclear war, to be gaudy, to indulge, to ditch your 8-track player and buy a Betamax, to compete for every decibel of laughter, scrap of land, and shade of color.On Big Science instead of fostering these notions, Laurie Anderson observes them. Culled from fragments of her performance art opus, United States, Live, the songs from Big Science are compassionate and alarming. They describe the death musings of a commercial airline pilot over an intercom (“From the Sky”), the hubris of urban expansion (“Big Science”), the ignorance of the free-born (“Born, Never Asked”). The minimal music is loyal to her themes, melding organic brass and woodwinds with electronic beats, vibes, and melodic interludes. Most of the songs find Anderson, speaking over the music with her compelling pace and diction. “Cause I can see the future and it’s a place - about 70 miles east of here,” she utters in the simple, Cartesian, “Let X=X.” In this essence lies the source of Big Science’s magnificence. Here silence is used as artfully as words. There are empty slabs of pause, appealing to mechanistic processing and as well as warm-hearted salutations. The renowned “Oh Superman”, the album’s centerpiece, is complete immersion in this notion. Anderson reads her apocalyptic verse while a robot voice echoes. This interplay is chilling: like a mental duel between compassion and complete detachment. The “song” finds Anderson talking on the phone to what seems at first to be her mother then she gives pause, “OK who is this really?” And the haunting reply comes, slow over a subtle, sweet keyboard dirge, “I am the hand, the hand that takes.”The world Anderson describes, however, is far from minimal or bleak, for she also gives us texture. “Example #22” erupts with rhythm and jovial horns. German samples abound with Anderson bleating,“Honey you’re my one and only, So pay me what you owe me.” A bass and kick drum join the fray and suddenly the modern world is dancing. “It Tanga” jests at the connection gaps between men and women, women speaking open-ended and men repeating ageless Dylan, “Isn’t it just like a woman.” And that’s how the sparse chaos that’s presented by Big Science ends. You’ve been lured into a dream without realizing. Anderson has assaulted you with enough thought and silence and sound that you return society more enlightened but less certain of anything than when you left.As “O Superman” climaxes, Anderson reaches a resolution to this societal fray and I can’t help but think that Orwell would approve. It unfolds gradually in the telling, “Cause when love is gone, there’s always justice. And when justice is gone, there’s always force. And when force is gone, there’s always Mom. Hi Mom” It’s a poignant conclusion for certain, but when living in a world of compromise and miscommunication, it may be the best of all things.

(source tinymixtapes.com)

"This is the time, and this is the record of the time..."

Watch "O Superman (For Massenet)" video...

Moondog "Moondog" (Prestige, 1956)

Artist: Moondog
Album: "Moondog"
Release Date: 1956
Label: Prestige
Genre: Avant-Garde, Minimalism, Modern-Composition, One-Of-A-Kind, Experimental
Mood: Provocative, Theatrical, Complex, Ethereal
Reminds Of: John Cage, Duke Ellington, Steve Reich
What People Think: RYM
Definitely Worth Buying: Amazon

Tracklist
1. Caribea
2. Lullaby
3. Tree Trail
4. Death, When You Come To Me
5. Big Cat
6. Frog Bog
7. To A Sea Horse
8. Dance Rehearsal
9. Surf Session
10. Trees Against The Sky
11. Tap Dance
12. Oo Debut
13. Drum Suite
14. Street Scene

By the standards of the mid-'50s, or indeed of any era, this was so far-out and uncommercial that it's difficult to believe it was even released. Moondog, by this time well known as a New York street musician, drives these pieces along with maraca and clava percussion, often in odd time signatures. The percussion lines are the backbone for unusual melodies, often Asian- or Japanese-inspired, with a movingly mournful (but not unappealing) quality. Washes of wind-like sounds and animal noises are often used to embellish the pieces. Bits of "Tree Trail" and "Frog Bog" even come close to exotica, but this ain't no Martin Denny (who, of course, was also using frog noises on record around this time); Moondog's music is much less frivolous in intention, and the round-like repetition that flavors all his work is present through most of this disc. To add to the unpredictability of the proceedings, there's a Japanese lullaby (sung by Moondog's wife Suzuko), a percussive duet between Moondog and tap dancer Ray Malone, tribal/Cuban drum passages, and a "Street Scene" track that mixes Moondog's drums and poetry with Manhattan traffic. All very enigmatic yet attention-holding stuff, ripe for discovery by new generations that will appreciate his defiantly idiosyncratic mix of styles and formats.

(source: AllMusicGuide)

Death when you come to me, I'll be listening to Moondog's tales...

Moondog's Corner...

Nico "The Marble Index" (Elektra, 1968)

Artist: Nico
Album: "The Marble Index"
Label: Elektra
Release Date: 1968
Genre: Experimental, Drone, Avant-Garde, Minimalism, Neo-Classical
Mood: Cold, Somber, Detached, Ethereal
Reminds Of: John Cale, The Velvet Underground, LaMonte Young
What people think: AllMusicGuide, EveningOfLight, LastFM
Definitely Worth Buying: CdUniverse, Amazon

Tracklist
1. Prelude
2. Lawns Of Dawn
3. No One Is There
4. Ari's Song
5. Facing The Wind
6. Julius Caesar (Memento Hodie)
7. Frozen Warnings
8. Evening Of Light
9. Roses In The Snow
10. Nibelungen

The Marble Index is the name of a gothic-folk album with neoclassical and avant-garde elements, recorded and released by Nico in 1968.The album featured long-term associate John Cale, an experimental musician who had worked briefly with Nico during her stint in The Velvet Underground. Cale had an extensive background in various avant-garde settings, working with minimalist composer LaMonte Young, among others. Cale and Nico created an album that radically deviated from traditional rock music song structures. Cale said it was the first rock album to do so. He also said that The Marble Index had made a seminal contribution to the body of modern classical music.Nico wrote all her own songs on this album and accompanied herself on the harmonium, which has also been referred to as an "Indian pump organ". The arrangements are abstract and, musically speaking, "cold". The effect is kindred to the psychological sound experimentation of electronic and serial composer, Karlheinz Stockhausen. The Marble Index has been described as a "nightmare in sound". It has influenced a wide array of genres in contemporary independent music. Artists such as Coil, Jocelyn Pook and Dead Can Dance, as well as numerous contemporary goth bands have all cited Nico as a seminal influence.

(Source: en.wikipedia.org)

I wanna spend the rest of my days listening to this one...

Watch Nico performing "Frozen Warnings"...
Watch John Cale covering Nico's "Frozen Warnings"...

Further Reading