ihatemusic

Interesting...


The trailer:

http://www.manafon.com/amplified_gesture/

No (North/Central/South) Americans, eh?

his entree to this world was via Fennesz and my 2004 Cologne AMPLIFY fest, so one step at a time.

Interesting that Keith and John Tilbury appear "together" on two tracks.

yeah, Tilbury, Stangl, Hautzinger were all used at least in part as overdubs. what's a little strange is that I don't think Sylvian ran the final product by the musicians before releasing it, but there are a lot of minor issues I have with the way all of this was done (the musicians I've spoken to don't seem to have any complaints, this is just me talking as an outsider).

Amplified Gesture is the worst name since taomud

amplified gesture

taomud

I wonder who will actually buy the DVD, with a price tag of $85 (plus shipping) for the special edition. I sure won't. If the one of the objectives of the DVD was to create some awareness of this music for listeners outside of it - the edition will fall short of that because few will be able to afford it.

I think the objective is to create an arty-farty aura of musical and "philosophical" seriousness.

.

Exactly my thoughts.

I don't have a problem with a CD or DVD release being nicely designed. I like the way Manafon looks and have long admired the designer Chris Bigg's work... but, the purpose of CD design should be to provide a thoughtful accompaniment to the music, not to try and inflate the whole project away from a functional CD towards a coffee table art object. The existence of the special edition, its ridiculous price tag and the inclusion of the film on the special edition only is disgusting in my opinion, and I cannot believe for one minute that the likes of Prevost, Tilbury or Rowe are comfortable with this.

On the 14th September there is a screening of the film at the ICA in London, which is to be followed by a Q&A session with the director. (and hopefully Sylvian too, but that isn't advertised) I plan to go along and see if I can ask some of these questions.

Yeah, Sylvian will be the first up against the wall ... only he definitely won't be at the ICA for the screening.

I'm going to talk to him about some of those issues via e-mail if I can, although I lost his e-mail address when my hard drive crashed a while back and getting it again might not be so easy. I have no problem with the existence of the special edition or its price tag, if people will pay for that, then great and Sylvian can more easily fund future projects. what I do think was a poor decision was to only include the DVD in this special edition, and that's what I'm going to see if I can do something about.

Yeah the decision to put the film only on the expensive edition is what really bugs me. If the two editions had the same content and people could just choose how nice a version they wished to pay for then I'd have much less of an issue.

As it is, judging only from the samples I've seen/heard the part I am most attracted to will cost me $85 to see. I just would like to know if the musicians interviewed in the film were aware of this when they were filmed.

I think they knew that it would be part of a special edition not included with the normal CD, but I doubt they knew the elaborateness of said package or the price. there are a lot of little issues surrounding this release, most of which can be chalked up to Sylvian's not being used to working in this world before, I think.

and I'm sure the DVD will leak for free soon enough, so it really won't cost you $85 to see (plus I thought you said you're going to the ICA for the screening?). it is a poor decision, no doubt, but let's not go overboard about it. he had the right intention in making it at least.

I can't help agreeing here. Pop musician not popular, seeks highbrow cachet. It's a narrative we know well.

yeah, I don't think it's true in this case (if you're talking about the record in general). I think he was inspired by this area of music, both live (at the Cologne AMPLIFY specifically) and via records, and wanted to try to make a record somehow using these musicians who he greatly respected. none of those musicians were forced to work with him, they all willingly and happily did so.

and dunno what "Pop musician not popular" means, but Sylvian sells a ton of copies via his own Samadhi Sound label, and would doubtless sell even more if he stuck to his older ways of working.

Hmmm... how do you force a musician to work with you exactly?

I'm really clueless about that expect maybe pointing a gun at 'em while gently asking "how about you concentrate on small details and unspectacular sound sources/events, and examine them closely?" Perhaps adding "you bitch" at the end of the sentence would help too?

yeah, that's the point. people are acting indignant on behalf of the music and the musicians, but the musicians themselves are perfectly happy with the situation and the results (as far as I know anyway, and with the $85 pricetag for the deluxe edition aside).

again, I haven't heard any of this record yet, or seen the film. they both might be awful for all I know, but I think Sylvian's intentions were good at least.

Yeah, true, but someone who just recently got interested in improvised music, then did a non-improvised record using improvising musicians (for color? for high-brow cred? for pure love of their music? not sure it matters) and then put out a super-fancy $pecial €dition to spread the word of improvised music definitely trips my alarm.



I mean his old band used to put out records that actually hit the UK pop charts. I'm not at all implying that this new project is for sales, quite the opposite: it's an honorable way to be un-popular.

ON PREVIEW:
I'm not actually indignant--definitely not on behalf of anybody else, especially. It's may also be that the dude has always seemed like a complete cheeseburger.