Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Συνθετικοί - Προσωπεία - Εφιάλτες (Δανάη 2010)




I have a thing about 80's greek bands as you can sometimes see by yourself in my blog-junkyard. Especialy for the desent ones. The band SYNTHETIKI was created in 1985, in Piraeus (Greece), consisting of 3 members - Apostolis Loverdos (lyrics, music, guitar) Dionysis Avgerinos (lyrics, music, keyboards) Dimosthenis Tsanetoglou ( technician) Their LP "SYNTHETIKI" was recorded in 1990 and only 500 copies of this album were circulated at the time. In 1993 the band broke up. In 2010 they released their second album "PROSOPEIA - EFIALTES" which was another landmark in the greek scene that has been dried for more than 15 years in the dark wave, post punk and minimal synth releases.

Anyways i really like these guys so i will repost the link that they gave earlier to their fans for getting their latest album for free and i am looking forward to hear anything new from them and hopefully before another 17 years passing by. Cheers :)




Alvin Lucier - Almost New York (Pogus 2010)


Almost New York represents the latest chapter in Alvin Lucier’s migration away from the world of experimental electronic music, a move he began in the 1980s. Mr. Lucier chronicles the challenges he faced achieving working with acoustic instruments in the CD’s liner notes, ultimately discussing the microtonal impulses at the heart of the music featured on this album. The four works on the recordings two discs – Twonings, Almost New York, Broken Line and Coda Variations – are thoughtful explorations in extreme subtlety. The slow transformation typifying these pieces comes as no surprise reading the end of Mr. Lucier’s prose introduction to the CD: one of his principal inspirations was the natural out-of-tune-ness symptomatic to performances of Morton Feldman’s protracted String Quartet #2, “by the end…the instruments have drifted a little out of tune – there being now time to re-tune during a live performance – acquiring a patina that comes with age.”

Twonings, the CD’s first track, exemplifies the techniques Mr. Lucier applies in the album’s other compositions. The work is written for cello and piano and explores the slight discrepancies in pitch between the piano’s equal temperament and the assigned just intonation in the cello part. The notes for this work specifically site the, “acoustic phenomena” and “audible beating” that should result from the music’s attempted unisons. Indeed, the performance serves this goal with loyalty: cellist Charles Curtis and pianist Joseph Kubera deliver the music in a disciplined manner devoid of traditional expressivity, which makes the friction between the two instrument’s tunings more dramatic.

The album’s title track, Almost New York, sadly seems like the kind of piece I wish I could witness in a concert. Written for one flutist rotating between five flutes, this piece uses pure wave oscillators to create a kind of synthetic drone against which the flutist plays long tones. After each note, the performer is supposed to switch to a different type of flute, walking around the performance space as he or she cycles through instruments. Clearly, this is the kind of thing you want to be in the room for, but sound engineer Tom Hamilton simulates the spatial effects very well with panning. Like Twonings before it, Almost New York focuses on the microtonal differences between multiple voices, in this case the flute and slowly sliding up and down oscillators. Flutist Robert Dick delivers a performance similar in its sparse character to that of the previous track. As we have seen, of course, this style is important to Mr. Lucier’s compositions given the subtle ideas he transforms over the course of each work.

The third tack, Broken Line, is the most rhythmically active of the whole album and is scored for Vibraphone, piano and Flute. Rhetorically, however, the work is a duo inasmuch as Joseph Kubera’s piano and percussionist Danny Tunick‘s vibraphone are used in tandem as a fixed-pitch wall against which the extended glissandi Robert Dick’s modified flute constantly abrades. Broken Line essentially represents a role-reversal from Almost New York as the flute challenges the fixed intonation of the piano and vibraphone. The most concise work on the CD at 12:21, Broken Line’s instrumentation alludes to Morton Feldman’s Why Patterns?. Though it possesses a different process than Mr. Feldman’s work, Broken Line is a similarly persuasive advocate for moment-form music and – thanks to its rhythmic activity – is the most accessible representative of this compositional style on the album.

Mr. Lucier’s connection to Morton Feldman’s music and philosophy coalesces in Almost New York’s final track, Coda Variations, which is based on the solo tuba coda from Mr. Feldman’s Durations 3. Mr. Lucier’s Variations takes the eight notes and double fermata from Durations and, “[subjects them] to seven sets of permutations of sixty three notes each.” The variations incorporate special microtonal fingerings on the tuba developed by the performer, Robin Hayward, and composer Marc Sabat. As you can see, Coda Variations plays on the same subtle theme of intonation as the rest of the album, but presents the changes in a slowly unfolding melodic line, not in the vertical dissonances of the earlier tracks. This makes listening to Coda Variations an exercise in concentration, much like it must be performing a composition that develops so subtly over such a long period of time.  *Sequenza 21


Various Artists - Malaila: Musical Field Recordings from Mali (sahelsounds 2011)


A short cd run of Malian centric field recordings that Sahelsounds put together for the USC Africa Health Initiative fundraiser. The image is inspired (and lifted) from the photographs of Seydou Keïta, Malian studio photographer renowned for his use of African fabrics in the compositions.


William S. Burroughs - A Man Within (2010)



William S. Burroughs: A Man Within is a feature-length independent documentary by Chicago Director Yony Leyser, in collaboration with BulletProof Film, Inc.

The film features never before seen footage of William S. Burroughs, as well as exclusive interviews with his closest friends and colleagues including John Waters, Genesis P-Orridge, Laurie Anderson, Peter Weller, David Cronenberg, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant, Sonic Youth, Anne Waldman, Hal Willner, James Grauerholz, Amiri Baraka, Jello Biafra, V. Vale, Diane DiPrima, with narration by actor Peter Weller and soundtrack by Patti Smith and Sonic Youth.

The film investigates the life of legendary beat author and American icon, William S. Burroughs. Born the heir of the Burroughs’ adding machine estate, he struggled throughout his life with addiction, control systems and self. He was forced to deal with the tragedy of killing his wife and the repercussions of neglecting his son. His novel, Naked Lunch, was one of the last books to be banned by the U.S. government. Allen Ginsberg and Norman Mailer testified on behalf of the book. The courts eventually overturned their decision in 1966, ruling that the book had important socialvalue. It remains one of the most recognized literary works of the 20th century.

William Burroughs was one of the first to cross the dangerous boundaries of queer and drug culture in the 1950s, and write about his experiences. Eventually he was hailed the godfather of the beat generation and influenced artists for generations to come. However, his friends were left wondering, did William ever find happiness? This extremely personal documentary breaks the surface of the troubled and brilliant world of one of the greatest authors of all time.


Psychic TV - Dreams Less Sweet (1983)



In an imaginary battlefield that life and boredom are standing face to face the predictions this moment is that the second ones are taking the lead. I know i haven't posted anything for nearly a month but i am bored as hell to do anything creative and writting a few lines for all you my imaginary friends. That's why i wanted to post something special and since this blog is clearly in love with the Throbbing Gristle univerce i thought that it was unfair to leave Psychic TV outside of all this circle of anti-creativity, so enjoy...

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Félicia Atkinson - Les Bois Rouges CS (unread 2011)


Felicia atkinson is a musician / writer / visual artist who resides in brussels, belgium by way of paris, france. her artistic approach : be it visual, or musical deals heavy in minimalism and the space between objects. the missing, the desire, the unspeakable. this tape captures a few epic sculptures of sound. "songs" by and by are seemingly heavly meditated upon. junk culture surfaces and is quickly abolished. a beautiful and mysterious releases that could quickly be slapped with certin tags, if not for the amount of true and inspiring thought that was put into these works. comes housed in the most "high-def" cover unread has put forth yet.

Tracklisting:

"salinger"
"this impermanent gold"
"all the roads are circular"
"the sorcerer"
"infant empire" 

Buy / Download free from Unread

Craft Spells - Idle Labor (captured tracks 2011)


In the cold and dreary winter of 2009, alone in his bedroom and hidden from the darkness of the world outside Justin Paul Vallesteros had begun working on something that would change his life forever. What began as a couple notes played in experimentation soon transformed into vibrant melodies that soon shook Vallesteros’ musical foundation to the core. Guitar chords laced over pulse sating synth melodies and drum rhythms was a departure from Justin’s previous work; he began to create the dreamy nostalgic pop music that is Craft Spells. Justin is a California native who now finds residence in the mid-size town of Stockton, the heart of California. Craft Spells is the epitome of the recent uprising of the DIY music scene. Coming from a place not known for its musical history or impact on music culture it seemed destined for Craft Spells to stay as a bedroom pop project with no final destination in sight. But soon the shear amount of blog volume his work began to generate was unimaginable. Sites like Weekly Tape Deck, Pasta Primavera, No Modest Bear and Pitchfork’s Forkcast took notice and thus began the never ending worldwide posting and re-posting on blog after blog of Craft Spells. The sound is led by Justin’s blissful voice, backed behind beautiful guitar melodies over heavenly synths, pop basslines and looped rhythms. Captured Tracks has released 7” single for the song “Party Talk” and will release the debut LP due out in Spring 2011 called Idle Labor. 2011 is going to be a busy year now that Justin has set up a live band for future touring. Keep a look out for tour dates in Europe and US come the new year. In no time at all, Justin has been able to move out of Dave Brubeck and Pavement’s shadow to create something his own which he shares with the ever continuing admiration of the world.