Log #140 - Glass Goes Pop

In the early 80s Philip Glass attempted to go pop with his Glassworks album - an album deliberately designed for the Sony Walkman (invented in 1979). Two decades later German electronic composer Wolfgang Voight recorded an album of atmospheric drones under the name Gas and called it Pop. 

Philip Glass Glassworks
Tom Waits Foreign Affairs
Thievery Corporation The Mirror Conspiracy

Tangerine Dream Ricochet

Gas Pop

Richard Hawley Truelove's Gutter

This week sees the first entry for 2 1/2 years from Washington DC electronica duo Thievery Corporation who make the most of their overdue reappearance with a typically classy set of down tempo swing and groove via The Mirror Conspiracy. The album, their second official studio release, came out in 2000, but I first became aware of them the year before through their excellent DJ Kicks compilation which must be one of the best of that series. 

I'm really enjoying the Gas album POP. It almost goes without saying (almost) but this sort of music does require several hours of listening before the subtleties are absorbed. This is slow burning ambience, with some beats too (heartbeat pulses). It's much less dynamic than the Fennesz album I acquired at the same time (Endless Summer), but equally unique and original. The circular drones come at you in waves which have a wonderful lulling effect as you drift across the surface of the peaks and troughs of Wolfgang Voigt's oceanic soundscapes. 

I'm pondering seeing Richard Hawley at a forthcoming concert in my area. I think I should go. I love his records. The thing that's holding me back is he is just about to bring a new album out and current set lists reveal he is playing practically the whole thing (obviously at the expense of much from the earlier albums I so love - in particular this one, Truelove's Guitar, which is an absolute masterpiece).

Have I missed his peak, or will the new album be equally as good (albeit less familiar even if I get it immediately)? I have a similar dilemma with the Felice Brothers who I was very sad to miss 2 years ago when they cancelled their UK tour. They are returning in the new year but with a new album and a new band. Will they be the same? I think I'll go to them too. Both of these artists have been favourites of mine for a while so even if I may have missed their absolute best I'll still regret passing up the opportunity.

In so much as this can be ever possible Philip GLASS attempted something more commercial with his 1982 Glassworks album. Temporarily putting aside his symphonic and operatic works:

Glassworks was intended to introduce my music to a more general audience than had been familiar with it up to then.

Through 6 relatively short pieces Glass takes us on a whistle top tour of the Glass that we feel that we know - we have the solo piano (Opening), the abrasive organ (Floe), the haunting pipes over minor chord string arpeggios (Island), the frenetic abrasive keyboard loops (Rubic), the beautiful clarinet melody over string loops (Facades), and the repeated embellished piano coda (Closing). Like a Russian doll the opening and closing pieces envelope the two alternating pairs - the beauty and the bombastic, or the order and the chaos if you like - bringing the album together as a satisfying whole.

It could be a greatest hits record, but serves more as an introductory compilation to Glass music. To call such music minimalist does it a disservice. There is a lot going on here and rather than being in any way generic, Philip Glass is unique and instantly recognisable.

Glass succeeded in his intention - Glassworks remains his most commercially successful record today.

Read More

Log #83 - An Accidental Masterpiece

After last week's classical excursion Eddy has dug deeper into the piano niche. We have possibly the most famous piano album in the world and one of the most popular - Keith Jarrett's random and accidental improvised The Koln Concert recorded live late one January evening in 1975. Apparently presented with an out of tune and faulty piano at the concert hall Jarrett threatened to pull out but at the last minute was persuaded on stage - the unforeseen restrictions contributing to the creation of a masterpiece of understated jazz minimalism.

What happened with this piano was that I was forced to play in what was — at the time — a new way. 

Of a similar vein is my favourite Philip Glass album. Free of the sometimes grating and frenetic organ or strings this album of 7 minimalist Solo Piano pieces is gorgeous. With simple melodies over sustained chords and peaceful arpeggios and lots of space, the music reminds me of the Michael Nyman soundtrack to the film The Piano. (But it's Philip Glass so cooler really).

I've heard pianist friends of mine saying this sort of music is easy to play but that misses the point. It's like saying The Jam or Depeche Mode have less validity than Genesis or Aphex Twin as their music is simpler.

~

1. Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert

2. Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 1 and 3

3. Carlos Barbosa-Lima - Chants for the Chief

4. Steve Hillage - Rainbow Dome Musick

5. Philip Glass - Solo Piano

6. Erik Satie -  Piano Music

~

To read a comprehensive analysis of the story behind Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert please see this article>>

Read More

Log #82 - Off World, Out of This World

~

1. Chopin - Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2

2. Barber and Shostakovich - Cello Concertos

3. Stockhausen - Helikopter Quartett

4. Steve Hillage - Rainbow Dome Musick

5. Philip Glass - Solo Piano

6. Kirk Degiorgio -  Off World Two Worlds

~

Some classical music appearing in the log this week. I don't know much about classical music - I've merely dabbled. There is so much of it. I used to go to the HMV superstore on Oxford Street and the entire bottom floor was given over just to classical music. Rock and pop has been around for 50 years or so, jazz a bit longer, but then you think of classical music and realise it's been around for 500 years at least! Then each piece in the classical music repertoire is "covered" so to speak a multitude of times by different artists/orchestras/conductors (to the experts the interpretations of pieces varies enormously - not for me, one copy of Chopin's Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2 is enough for me and I'm not too worried who is playing it - actually in this case it is the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra with soloist Alexsandar Madzar and conductor Dmitri Kitaenko).

Classical music is actually a misnomer. People use it to refer to all orchestral music but it actually relates to a particular era of music rather than a type - the "classical period" which more precisely refers to the period 1750 - 1820.

The major time divisions of Western "classical" music have been broadly defined by the following overlapping categories:

ancient music pre 500 AD
early music 500 - 1400
renaissance 1400 - 1600
baroque 1600 -1750
classical 1750 - 1820
romantic 1780 - 1910
modern 1890 - 1930 
postmodern 1930 - present
contemporary 1945 - present

Barber (b. 1910), Shostakovich (b. 1906) and Stockhausen (b. 1928) were all "modern" or "20th Century" composers. American Samuel Barber is probably the most "traditional" classical composer here - his Adagio is one of the most celebrated pieces in the classical repertoire and you would have heard it even if you hadn't realised. Dmitri Shostakovich was a prolific Russian composer who wrote symphonies, operas, ballets, chamber music, solo piano works, and even film music and jazz (when the government allowed).  Karlheinz Stockhausen was one of the first "avant-garde" composers who was a particular influence upon a number of German rock bands in the late 60s and 70s including Can and Kraftwerk. The experimental nature of his music is aptly demonstrated by his Helikopter Quartett where the four members of a string quartet perform in separate flying helicopters. I know, it sounds mad - you've got to see it really and here is a video:

Steve Hillage was the guitarist in Gong (and later System 7). Rainbow Dome Musick is a bit of a departure from the crazy space rock of that band, being an ambient minimalist piece of gurgling pulsations although it does recall Gong instrumental explorations like A Sprinkling of Clouds. It reminds me a lot of Terry Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air, not just in name.

Kirk Degiorgio's Offworld Two Worlds is an instrumental album of easy listening jazz soul funk mixes. Nice cover too, which graces the top of the log this week.

Read More