Canon 3 by astrogarage
this was sort of based on pachelbel's canon in d, or rather eno's (him again) reworking of it on discreet music. but instead of applying a rigorous compositional reprocessing of it like wot he did, i ended up just mucking about with the sound of four double basses and a wee bit of synth. i wasted most of an entire day on this, mainly to avoid cleaning the bathroom. i'm not entirely sure it was worth it, but i decided to finish the piece before midnight as it seemed like i would end up dicking around with it for weeks and then binning it. and in the meantime the bathroom would turn into some kind of cross between a turner prize entry and a biological experiment.
brian in brighton 2
so off to 'be right on' again to see brian and chums do pure scenius. three sets of structured improvisations and rough compositions presented in the form of a lecture by brian and chums. these chums included the necks, so why chris had to persuade me to go is a bit beyond me. but i guess i thought that such a pairing could only be disappointing, such was its promise. anyway...
we watched two of the three sets. this review pretty much chimes with everything i thought, so no need for me to write more, other than that i'd love to have seen what messages eno was sending to each musician's screen. i don't think anyone else has ever done this (i may be wrong) - the idea of 'conducton' has been around a while but relies on gesture rather than words and anyway such ventures seem limited to 'free' improv. it's something eno's been interested in for a while; to take musicians out of their comfort zone and to avoid the plod of 'a jam'. and for the most part it worked; some beautiful moments, and nothing much outstayed its welcome. chris heard someone remark that it 'was very avant-garde'. i was surprised at the comparatively small size of the audience compared to the previous week's gig. maybe brghton isn't as hip as we all think...
we watched two of the three sets. this review pretty much chimes with everything i thought, so no need for me to write more, other than that i'd love to have seen what messages eno was sending to each musician's screen. i don't think anyone else has ever done this (i may be wrong) - the idea of 'conducton' has been around a while but relies on gesture rather than words and anyway such ventures seem limited to 'free' improv. it's something eno's been interested in for a while; to take musicians out of their comfort zone and to avoid the plod of 'a jam'. and for the most part it worked; some beautiful moments, and nothing much outstayed its welcome. chris heard someone remark that it 'was very avant-garde'. i was surprised at the comparatively small size of the audience compared to the previous week's gig. maybe brghton isn't as hip as we all think...
brian in brighton
off to brighton last saturday for a top quality day with some friends doing the kind of things londoners do in brighton - fish and chips, arsing around on the pier etc, then to see icebreaker and bj cole perform brian eno's apollo at the brighton dome. brian hisself (in his sixties and still sexy) came on and introduced the music, which was played to a special cut of the film it was written for (al reinert's for all mankind).
the film interested me much less than seeing/hearing just how icebreaker were going to tackle the music, mainly because i've seen it a silly number of times. jun lee's orchestrations were subtle and inventive, and this has to go down as the first gig i've been at that featured both panpipes and accordion that i didn't want to run away from screaming. an ending (ascent) was particularly transcendent, particularly in the final reprise where mr cole joined in with some delish pedal steel.
after that, brian returned to the atage and announced 'an unadvertised adition to the published programme - some things which have never been played live before'. the ensemble than played four songs - two from 'another day on earth' and to my shock/delight/amazement etc, two from 'before and after science' - 'julie with...' and 'by this river'. i blubbed a little bit. that's not something i ever thought i'd hear (bri famously does not do this kind of thing), and though the buzz was nostalgia-driven as much as anything, these were rather lovely versions. the closing 'and then so clear' with bri's vocoded sexchange vocal, was absolutely fucking swoonsome.
the film interested me much less than seeing/hearing just how icebreaker were going to tackle the music, mainly because i've seen it a silly number of times. jun lee's orchestrations were subtle and inventive, and this has to go down as the first gig i've been at that featured both panpipes and accordion that i didn't want to run away from screaming. an ending (ascent) was particularly transcendent, particularly in the final reprise where mr cole joined in with some delish pedal steel.
after that, brian returned to the atage and announced 'an unadvertised adition to the published programme - some things which have never been played live before'. the ensemble than played four songs - two from 'another day on earth' and to my shock/delight/amazement etc, two from 'before and after science' - 'julie with...' and 'by this river'. i blubbed a little bit. that's not something i ever thought i'd hear (bri famously does not do this kind of thing), and though the buzz was nostalgia-driven as much as anything, these were rather lovely versions. the closing 'and then so clear' with bri's vocoded sexchange vocal, was absolutely fucking swoonsome.
i remember you
I remember you by astrogarage
made in response to metafilter's monthly music challenge - this month's was to cover the song that was number one on the day of your birth, this was done pretty quickly and (oh, the horror) features me singing. this is not usually a good idea but somehow my pained adenoidal warbling seemed to fit the song. the version that was number one when i arrived was by frank ifield and remains one of my most hated songs of all time. here's my original submission.
made in response to metafilter's monthly music challenge - this month's was to cover the song that was number one on the day of your birth, this was done pretty quickly and (oh, the horror) features me singing. this is not usually a good idea but somehow my pained adenoidal warbling seemed to fit the song. the version that was number one when i arrived was by frank ifield and remains one of my most hated songs of all time. here's my original submission.
clang sayne on resonance
the other saturday night, three quarters of clang sayne (james was stuck in new york due to icelandic volcanic stuff) trundled off to borough high street to resonance fm for a live session on jonny mugwump's exotic pylon show. we were paired with time attendant and i am a vowel who were armed with a whole range of electronic and noise producing gadgetry, plus occasional field recordings and spoken word interventions from jonny. the brief was to do what we liked with an understanding that we'd sort of alternate between units a bit. it was quite an enjoyable session, though at times it felt a bit clunky. this was mainly because there were two (or maybe more than two) very different aesthetics at work. but when we found the mid-points, it was kind of sweet. a listen to the podcast reveals subtleties i certainly wasn't aware of at the time...our bit starts around 35 minutes in.
