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[Stephen]

George Crumb - Makrokosmos III [nonesuch]


Pixies - Doolittle

[niwi]

[Dohol]

[quote="Stephen"]
George Crumb - Makrokosmos III [nonesuch]

I love that one.

It always takes me back to my childhood....sprawled out in the backyard on a summer night, staring out at the stars..



I love George Crumb.

[Jesse]

Kevin Parks/Joe Foster
Prince Rupert Drops

[Dohol]

I've been spending some time with it as well.

[Jesse]

Beethoven
String Quartet
#12

Julliard SQ

[snailed]

[EDIT: Since I took a bit to write this, and realized there wasn't a thread for it already, I created a new thread in I Hate Reviews: http://ihatemusic.noquam.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4731 ]

Burkhard Stangl/Kai Fagaschinski - Musik - Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht



This, I imagine, is going to be on my top ten of the year. It captures an atmosphere that I haven't yet heard on an Erstwhile release. Melody and harmony are central focuses here, although it's not by any sense of the word traditional. Kai creates breathy hisses and airy, winding melodies shadowed in multiphonics. The harmonics sometimes act as the center focus, with the fundamental tone shifting and acting as the shadow to the high harmonic pushing its way out at the top. Burkhard's acoustic guitar shifts between angular, arpeggiated harmonics, beautiful but dissonant chordal accompaniment, to scrapes and scratches with the tones barely peeking their way out. The two shift to other instruments as well, such as piano, electronics, and vibraphone (used to wonderful effect on the final piece). Even in the more textural sections, tones are the central focus. The mood is by no means singular, with field recordings often surprising and acting as a bridge which is picked up upon musically in the next passage. These field recordings are never tacked on, and always seem essential to where the music goes. For example, the thunderous bridge between the end of the second piece brings us to the low throbbing tones of the beginning of the third; the car trip we take in the sixth piece ("Ausflug") brings us to the serene conclusion. Throughout, the line between composition and improvisation is blurred, especially in the aforementioned final piece, "Weißt Du noch unser Lied".

Morton Feldman's influence is clearly heard, especially on the aforementioned closer and the wonderful and hysterically titled "Sexy M.F.". While the latter track clearly uses some of Feldman's musical tricks, his mood is present throughout the disc. Usually when I see Feldman references, there just seems to be grab at the surface-level of his aesthetic; this succeeds in capturing something buried a bit deeper in his music, a crystalline musical calm that is present in even the dark, dissonant passages. Those who ever wondered about the Feldman influence in EAI should hear this disc, as it makes it particularly clear case for it.

All in all, one of the finest discs I've heard this year. Highly, highly recommended.

[orangettecoleman]

Lussier/Yoshihide/Tetreault - "Elektrik Toboggan"

Does that have as much flavor as the cover implies? I was just enjoying Tetreault's disc with Kid Koala the other day and realized I'd generally like more fun in my improv.

I'm no EAI connoisseur, but it certainly seems to have an air of playfulness about it. It seems like they were having fun and there's a lot of energy.

[Charon]

I've been spending some time with it as well.

ooh, what's that one like?

[Jesse]

Kai Fagaschinski/Burkhard Stangl
Musik-Ein Portrait in Sehnsucht

Weird Weeds
I Miss This

[grisha]

[Root Doctor]

Darius Jones Trio - Man'ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing)
Roscoe Mitchell: Song For My Sister
Z-Ro: Z-Ro vs. the World/King of da Ghetto
Big Moe: City of Syrup

[kangaroo?]

before:



jim o' rourke - the visitor


now:



Stephen Cornford - Two Works for Turntables
(great sounds on this one stephen)

[simon reynell]

SLW: 15.9 grams (Beins / Capece / Davies / Nakamura) [organised music from thessaloniki]
If I did top 10's or 5's of the year, this would certainly be in both. Lovely lovely music.

[Stephen]

Stephen Cornford - Two Works for Turntables
(great sounds on this one stephen)

Glad it got to you safe and you're enjoying it.

myself NP:

Haptic - Repetition [bloodlust]

and looking forward to their forthcoming entr'acte release..

[MRS]

Literally breathtaking at times, will certainly be on my year end list. My review should appear on junkmedia.org soon.

Listened to this for the first time last night in a rare instance where I could really push the volume envelope. Not too keen on the 'things that bloat/things that stagnate' adventure but what a hoot, a deeply odd mixed bag in the best sense.

[Dan Warburton]

Underwhelmed, sorry.

[schiksalgemeinschaft]

Stupidest cover ever btw

[Dan Warburton]

Oh, I quite like the cover.. it's the music that I'm wondering about. Fabulous production and all that, but I seem to have heard it before..

[Jason Brogan]

Jan DeGaetani, Early Music Recital [Bridge]