Log #129 - Elaenia Meets A Country Gent In Rothko Chapel

Josh T Pearson The Last Of The Country Gentlemen

Larkin Poe Fall

Edgar Froese Epsilon In Malaysian Pale

Morton Feldman Rothko Chapel

Floating Points Elaenia

Tim Hecker Virgins

Morton Feldman was an American 20th Century composer famous for his very long (some lasting multiple hours) minimalist pieces. Rothko Chapel was written in 1971 for the Rothko Chapel in Houston which houses paintings by Mark Rothko. The composition is a 5 piece suite lasting a relatively modest 25 minutes in total. On this CD it is twinned with Why Patterns? which is a 29 minute single part piece composed in 1978. 

Both pieces are very quiet and very still. In fact some of the most minimal minimalist music I've ever heard. Rothko Chapel is characterised by ghostly choral singing and Why Patterns is a piece scored for flute, glockenspiel, and piano. Closest comparisons that spring to my mind are Ligeti (famous for his 2001: A Space Odyssey film soundtrack - but not the well known riff, that's Richard Strauss) and Takemitsu (although his music is much busier). The stillness separates it from the more frantic and insistent music of fellow New York composers Glass and Reich, and its underlying melodious nature from the avant-garde of Cage. As such Feldman's work is much closer to modern ambient music.

The most interesting aspect for me, composing exclusively with patterns, is that there is not one organizational procedure more advantageous than another, perhaps because no one pattern ever takes precedence over the others. The compositional concentration is solely on which pattern should be reiterated and for how long.

Feldman made an analogy with Middle Eastern rug makers who, to his eye, laid out a set of patterns to be woven concurrently, with no pattern holding precedence over another. They coexist in the final product, running their course on the rug with separate rates of recurrence. 

Like many pieces of minimalist music his compositions make use of phasing where a series of motifs are repeated slightly out of sync. coming together occasionally and particularly at the end. For such experimental and atmospheric music to work it needs the time and space to breath and fulfil. 

I really like the Floating Points album Elaenia. It's instrumental jazz tinged electronica most reminiscent of Cinematic Orchestra, Hidden Orchestra or GoGo Penguin. Believe it or not  the album also takes me back to John Martyn's most electric piano infused album Solid Air. 

Some of the tracks sound like a full on band, they are so well produced, but I understand Floating Points is the stage name of Manchester producer Sam Shepherd. Case in point is the centrepiece of the album Silhouettes which is an impressive electric piano led piece with horns, strings, chant, and deep bass - all underpinned by wonderful funky cymbal laden jazz drumming which flutters incessantly over a ticking metronome and comes to life particularly for the second half. This sounds so good (so live, real and organic) I find it hard to believe it's electronically created by one person.

It's my track of the week (and of course it's not one person!):

The 7 tracks are all different though. Ranging from the jazz fusion of the Silhouettes through ambience to pulsed electronics (Jean Michel Jarre, Luke Vibert or Tangerine Dream). There are lovely dynamics in tone, tempo and volume. Talk Talk's landmark post rock albums Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock have been cited as influences. 

Quick words on the other new (re) entries this week. I've had visitors this weekend so the slots of the magazine have been on a bit of a rotation (in particular slots 1 and 2 which take most the temporary traffic). Some albums came and went (including Rory Gallagher, Morte Macabre, KLF, Band Of Horses, and Father John Misty) but my Sunday snapshot happened upon Josh T Pearson and Larkin Poe.

The songs reach an apparent end and then he goes off on another round as if he's just thought of something else.

The Josh T Pearson album is another marmite record. On the surface you could say Pearson sings interminable introspective personal songs with a slurry spoken Southern drawl and a cheap out of tune acoustic guitar (the album is supplemented with some fiddle backing from Nick Cave collaborator in chief Warren Ellis). You could also say it sounds like he's making them up as he goes along. The sloppy guitar picking and strumming sounds random and void of rhythm. The songs reach an apparent end and then he goes off on another round as if he's just thought of something else. But on a deeper level there is definitely something more. I think it's the authenticity. The rawness and passion trumps the musical limitations. He really feels his music and makes you do too. 

Does this authenticity extend to him believing he's the Second Coming? I'm sure not but nevertheless I expect he did play on this with his image.

Sweetheart I Ain't Your Christ he sings ironically while looking just like Christ:

I ain't your Savior or your Christ
Or your goddamn sacrifice
And when I said I'd give my life
I weren't talking suicide

I saw him live once and his stage personae was also very Christ like with his long hair and beard (now all shorn incidentally), standing stationary, centre stage, in a skinny black suit, lit by a single spot light. He was charismatic and mesmerising, and as I found out at the signing afterwards a really nice bloke too. 

I think the best track on the album is Woman, When I've Raised Hell where his low voice and downward cascading guitar chords come together in a powerful and foreboding song:
 
Woman when I've raised hell, you're gonna know it

There won't be a shadow of doubt in your bright little mind

No pictures left hangin' only lonely unpainted nails

Ah honey you'll connect those dots read the writin' on the wall

In 2010 Americana country rock band Larkin Poe, formed around Atlanta sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell, released four EPs: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter:

They are beautifully packaged in cardboard digi sleeves. The music is pretty good too. It's melodic and relatively heavy with the Lovells excelling on electric and slide guitar. Each record has around half a dozen songs or more and at about 30 mins is pretty much a complete album in its own right.