Recording artists have been using found sounds and ambient noise in their works for decades, but few have done it in ways more innovative or controversial than Robin Rimbaud, aka Scanner. Beginning in the early ’90s, Rimbaud, who is based in London, has used cellphone scanners, police radios and other devices to record electronically transmitted conversations and turn them into musical compositions. His work tests not only people’s notions about what constitutes music, but also people’s notions of privacy. It’s a little disconcerting to think that your cellphone chat with your girlfriend might wind up as raw material for an avant-garde composer.

These days, Rimbaud’s become known as a “conceptual artist” who composes film scores, sound installations and various more high-brow projects in the art world. He also records with a experimental band called Githead. But he’s still trolling the ether with his cellphone scanner, too. On his latest Scanner album, “Rockets, Unto the Edges of Edges” (released earlier this year), he even sings a little–but the snippets of ghostly, disembodied, electronically transmitted voices are still in there. If every word in the dictionary had its own soundtrack, Scanner’s music is what you’d hear when you looked up “alienation.”

Here’s a video for a track from “Rockets.” Creepy stuff, huh?

Links:

• Scanner official site
• Robin Rimbaud/Scanner on MySpace
• Githead official site

for my essay on new media practice i have been looking at sound/internet and video art- which are all under the umbrella term of new media art.

Christian Marclay, along with Glenn Branca and Sonic Youth- came out of the experimental post punk era in the late 70s- i will post a few examples of branca, marclay and various other sound artists…

L.

1. A Love Supreme
2. Live At The Village Vanguard
3. Giant Steps
4. Ascension
5. Live At Birdland
6. Olé
7. Bye Bye Blackbird
8. My Favorite Things
9. Interstellar Space
10. Coltrane’s Sound
11. Crescent
12. Blue Train
13. Africa/Brass
14. Expression
15. Coltrane [Impulse!]

Voilà, afsluiten doe ik met de man. Staan wel nog op het aan te schaffen/beluisteren lijstje: Live In Japan en Last Performance At Newport. Een maand lijstjes en luiheid. Maar blijkbaar bestaat er een publiek voor, als ik de blogstatistieken moet geloven. Binnenkort misschien meer. Bedankt voor de reacties. Vanaf morgen opnieuw het normale gelul.

NP: John Coltrane – A Love Supreme

Untitled 15 (Mikhail Walusko, undated)

Amig@s de ElBaraMetal, la verdad es que este post me nació por el puro gusto, no se necesitan tener pretextos ni razones aparentes para justificar el hablar de un gran, grande, grandísimo disco de rock and roll como lo es The Dark Side Of The Moon, obra de los igualmente enormes Pink Floyd.

Corría el año 1973 cuando Pink Floyd, pioneros del rock progresivo y fieles seguidores de la psicodelia y la “locura” rockera de los años 60, editaron para la posteridad este álbum, considerado uno de los mejores discos de la historia, y tal vez, el que más influencia ha generado desde entonces en músicos de todos los géneros, no sólo del rock.

Y es que DSotM es un ejercicio complejo de creatividad musical, de una inventiva hasta ese momento inexplorada, que sin pensarlo siquiera, explotó y generó ondas expansivas de emociones encontradas en el entramado “floydeano” de la musicalidad exquisita de Gilmour, las letras profundas de Waters y las ambientaciones geniales de Wright y los beats secos pero volátilmente frágiles de Mason.

Todo el disco es genial, es verdad que hay que estar de un humor especial para escucharlo, ya que funciona mejor si se da uno el tiempo para oírlo de principio a fin, pero algunas piezas funcionan igualmente por separado, como la comercialmente magistral Money, Time y su genial introducción (pocas veces he podido escuchar algo más sencillo y a la vez tan complejo de emular y por ende, hermosamente rockero) o Us and Them, con todo el sentimiento explosivo que guarda en sus entrañas progresivas.

De colección este disco, hace poco salió por ahí la reedición especial del 25 aniversario, un disco remasterizado que salva algunos de los sonidos exquisitos del original, este si es para que se lo consigan en original (aquellos que todavía no lo tengan, que creo, serán, o deben ser, pocos).

De todas formas acá hay un sitio donde se lo bajan para que, después de darle unas dos o tres escuchadas, y si todavía no lo tienen, se lo pidan a Santo Clos o a los Reyes Magos ahora que se viene diciembre.

Carpe diem.

1. Live In Middelheim 1999 (Masada)
2. The Big Gundown
3. Grand Guignol (Naked City)
4. Bar Kokhba (Bar Kokhba Sextet)
5. 50th Birthday Celebration Series Vol. 4 (Electric Masada)
6. Six Litanies For Heliogabalus (Moonchild)
7. Godard/Spillane
8. Filmworks XIV: Hiding And Seeking
9. Asmodeus: The Book Of Angels Vol. 7 (John Zorn/Marc Ribot)
10. Live In Sevilla 2000 (Masada)

Nattevingerwerk.

NP: The Fall – Dragnet

1. The Color Of Memory (The Vandermark 5)
2. In Our Times (School Days)
3. Collide (Territory Band 6 w/ Fred Anderson)
4. No One Ever Works Alone (Sonore: Vandermark, Brötzmann, Gustafsson)
5. Live In Wels & Chicago (DKV Trio)
6. Resonance LP (Resonance Ensemble)
7. Version Soul (Spaceways Inc.)
8. Dual Pleasure 2 (Vandermark & Nilssen-Love)
9. Immediate Sound (The Thing w/ Vandermark)
10. Distil (Atomic/School Days)

NP: Han Bennink Trio – Parken

Amig@s de ElBaraMetal, siempre es un gusto postear materiales de bandas propositivas dentro del metal y el hard rock que se consideren visionarias, audaces y sobre todo, innovadoras, pero en el buen sentido de la palabra, no siguiendo ese cauce “trendy” de voltear hacia el Indie rock y eso, sino en otros caminos más oscuros, menos transitados pero que igualmente ofrecen alternativas sonoras de interés marcadísimo para los asiduos rockeros de cepa.

Uno de esos grupos es 3, una banda que ya cuenta con amplia experiencia y bastantes discos en su haber, estos son unos cuates que se han distinguido por navegar indistintamente en diversos géneros musicales con gran éxito, entre ellos el bossa, el reggae, el funk, el progresivo, el metal, el pop rock y demás por mencionar algunos.

Pues bien, este desarrollo musical diverso, casi siempre fundado en las bases del rock, es lo que ha llevado a 3 a tocar con grandes exponentes del metal progresivo como Dream Theater, Opeth y Bigelf entre muchos otros, y precisamente el lanzamiento hace unas semanas de su último material es lo que nos concierne revisar.

Después de varias minuciosas sesiones de escucha del álbum puedo llegar a la conclusión de que este es uno de los mejores trabajos de 3, aunque carece de estructuras extremo progresivas que han dado un sello único al grupo, me explico: Revisions es un disco que se compone de canciones y rarezas que nunca se terminaron de grabar o de concretar durante los últimos 10 años.

Debido a esto es que se escuchas estructuras más sencillas, más musicales, pero definitivamente estructuradas en forma y contenido de tal suerte que se han convertido en canciones con alto contenido melódico y de muy buena manufactura en el arreglo y la ejecución.

Yo destacaría dos canciones: Lexicon of Extremism, una instrumental de tamaños considerables, y la abridora Anyone Human, pero en general el disco cumple su cometido, nos entrega canciones más accesibles sin perder la esencia de 3, que lo mismo se mueve en el rock suave que en el rock más pesado por momentos: todo se mezcla y se consigue un disco elaborado y accesible al mismo tiempo.

Este material, para aquellos que se quieran aventurar más en los límites del rock pesado y otras cosas, está de este lado.

Carpe diem.

Japanese artist, 1929 – present

Yayoi Kusama is one of my favorite artists who emerged in the 60s, hailing from Matsumoto Japan. Her paintings, sculptures and installations all revolve around her mad obsession with repetition, infinity, pattern and accumulation. She is an interesting character due to her mental illness – she had experienced hallucinations and severe obsessive thoughts since childhood, often in a suicidal nature.

Polka dots, “infinity nets”, flowers,and later, penises became a clear obsession of hers in her work. She is often part of her own work- as the key figure in an installation or as part of a painting or photograph. She moved to New York when she was 27 and became a strong force in the art world, competing with Andy Warhol for media attention.

here is a video of kusama at work:

yayoi kusama, revolutionary avant-garde artist

]]> http://onlypieces.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/au-ida-walked-away/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:07:43 +0000 onlypieces http://onlypieces.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/au-ida-walked-away/

au – ida walked away.mp3

A big night for Rachel Whiteread. On this date in 1993, she won the Turner Prize for Best Young British Artist, receiving £20,000. Then, minutes later, she walked outside the Tate Gallery to receive £40,000 from the K Foundation-for Worst British Artist.

The work that won Whiteread both awards was entitled ‘House’. It was created by filling a Victorian house in Bethnal Green with liquid concrete, and then stripping away the mould-the house itself. What was left was a solid hulk of concrete, bleak and dead, looking like the opposite of what it once was. The Independent called it one of the most extraordinary and imaginative sculptures created by an English artist in the twentieth century.

Rewind back to the start of the year. Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, once number one artists as the Timelords and dance pioneers as the KLF, had been taking out strange adverts in the national press all throughout 1993. As the KLF, their statements filling the page had started out as cryptic and seemingly pointless (K Time), but by the summer their mood changed. On the 14th August an ad was put out with the confrontational message-

Abandon all art now. Await further instructions. Major rethink in progress.

The K Foundation then announced they would hold their own art award in 1993, with the same shortlist as the Turner Prize, on the same date, but with one vital difference. The award would go to the artist deemed the worst of the lot. This seemed to be obviously a challenge to the smug elite of modern art. Avant-garde art, such as that shortlisted in the Turner Prize, was no longer the anti-establishment by the 1990s, it was the establishment. And because of this, it had grown complacent, and become boring and vacuous. The popular media and the public were sick of this abstract nonsense, and it seemed so were the K Foundation.

-

But this interpretation was totally mistaken. It is easy to see how this happened. This argument between the art establishment and the popular media had been raging on for years. With their confusing, anonymous messages the K Foundation did not every explicitly deny that this was what they were talking about. So most of the press focussed on this line, seeing the night of the 23rd in this way. For example, The Times saw it as another tiresome campaign in the fight against obscure modern art, while on the other hand Factory Records boss Tony Wilson praised it as a great artistic statement in itself. However it was not really about artistic integrity, aesthetics, or that old chestnut, ‘what is art?’.

It was about money. The journalist Miranda Sawyer noticed something interesting that night. At the start of the night Drummond and Cauty gave the prize money to a group of artists, as witnesses,  to look after and then give to the winner. By the time the money reached, much of it had disappeared, around £9000 in fact. Sawyer saw from this as an example of what the K Foundation were examining – cash, art and all the associated feelings around them. Bill Drummond confirmed this years later. They weren’t attacking Rachel Whiteread and her concrete block at all, they were looking at something completely different. They weren’t making a statement about the art establishment, but rather a statement about money. That’s that then. But wait, what is the statement, K?

- – -

Unrelated to the 23rd November, but if you have the time then watch this 5 part documentary on what the K Foundation did next with their money. Amazing.

K Foundation – Burn A Million Quid (Part 1 of 5)

K Foundation – Burn A Million Quid (Part 2 of 5)

K Foundation – Burn A Million Quid (Part 3 of 5)

K Foundation – Burn A Million Quid (Part 4 of 5)

K Foundation – Burn A Million Quid (Part 5 of 5)

And a brilliantly frustrating TV interview afterwards. Also fascinating.

K Foundation – Burn A Million Quid (Interview)(Part 1 of 3 …

K Foundation – Burn A Million Quid (Interview)(Part 2 of 3 …

K Foundation – Burn A Million Quid (Interview)(Part 3 of 3 …

Chapter I

Third Birth, a Girl, and a Paddle.

Where we start at the beginning of selected memory.

Ciao,
Shoun Otis

1. Ask The Ages
2. Guitar
3. Köln (Last Exit)
4. Headfirst Into The Flames (Last Exit)
5. No Material (w/ Ginger Baker, Peter Brötzmann, Nicky Skopelitis & Jan Kazda)
6. Cassette Recordings (Last Exit)
7. Seize The Rainbow
8. Black Woman
9. Fragments (Sharrock & Brötzmann)
10. Paradise

NP: Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band - Between My Head And The Sky

L E F T

will soon present

the new collection

of

Gareth Pugh

for Autumn Winter 2009/2010.

L e f t

161 GERTRUDE ST

FITZROY VIC 3065

T+ 61 3 9419 9292

F+ 61 3 9419 6911

E+ leftfashion@bigpond.com

W+ leftmelbourne.blogspot.com

Via LEFT

I love hair. If I was granted three wishes by a genie in a magic lamp, one of them would be the ability to cut and then instantly regrow my hair like that Totally Hair Barbie back in the day. I chopped and mutilated the manes of every doll I owned. I even dyed their hair with kool aid. From the beginning I was always a fan of avant garde styles. I remember the first time I dyed my hair at the tender age of 12. Since then I’ve hosted countless colors, cuts, and even weaves on my cranium. Some good, many bad. I look at hair as an accessory which I will continue to interchange until the day it falls out…and then I’ll get some wigs.

I’m gearing up once again to cut my hair so I’ve been searching for some inspiration. I was blown away by the following styles I found on www.hji.co.uk:

Unbe-weaveable! Truly a work of art.

UFO up do.

Tiger style.

Personality crisis.

1984. I wish I was this cool.

So much to love about this. The copper to platinum fade. The 90’s pixie cut. The thick dark eyebrows in contrast. It’s very Annie Lennox.

And speaking of copper, how gorgeous is this?!?

I could go on forever – that site is like a hair goldmine! And now the finalists in the running for my new do:

Coming in second place…the asymmetric fringe.

And the current front-runner! Not too far off from the one above, but just enough.

We’ll see what happens when I hit the chair!!

Las vanguardias en Puerto Rico: contextos y pretextos de ruptura (Madrid: Ediciones de la Discreta, 2009), co-edited by Amarilis Carrero Peña and Carmen Rivera Villegas, proposes new readings of avant-garde aesthethics in Puerto Rico. The editors gather works that allow for a much-needed critical dialogue to provide a wide variety of readings and analyses about the island’s cultural poetics in the last decades of the 20^th century.

Amarilis Carrero Peña is associate professor of Spanish at the Department of Hispanic Studies at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez. Her interests include Spanish and Latin American Literature, Brazilian Literature, and studies in short story, poetry and novel.

Carmen Rivera Villegas is associate professor of Spanish at the Department of Hispanic Studies at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, where she teaches poetry courses. Her research interests center on the discourse of modernity in Puerto Rican poetry, travel literature on Mexico and the Caribbean, as well as rhetorical confluences between art and literature.

For full description (in Spanish) and purchasing information, see http://www.ladiscreta.com/vanguardias_puerto_rico.htm

It’s been a long time coming, but I have to admit that I am completely WOWed by Lady Gaga. I’ve been eyeing her style for a while now. Her appearance on last night’s episode of Gossip Girl, in which she performed “Bad Romance” rocking a 30-foot long red dress, was mesmerizing. The Bitch is BAD!

Her repertoire has likened to those of Grace Jones (have you seen this performce in Vamp?) and Rupaul. Rihanna might be her biggest competition. Beyonce is totally feeling the pressure. Did anyone else notice her sudden allegiance to the avant garde movement? Hang in there Bey. Ciara should just throw in the towel leotard.

Photo

Herb Lubalin is a legend in the design world. An expert designer, creator of typefaces (most notably, the popular ITC Avant Garde), maker of logos, and a Cooper Union graduate… Lubalin paved the way for today’s typographic design. His influence can be seen on logos created over the past 2 decades. Check it:

Check out our photos from the Lubalin exhibit we hit up in NYC:

The sea nymph fares well in the land of people, with her breathable new walking fins.

Skin: IC-Skins Ari – med – gold – pink
Hair: SLINK Cat’s Meow
Eyes: IC-Eyes Ranika Original
Dress & Shoes: B@R Mahamayuri

inai photojournal
inainfinity.wordpress.com

Luciano Cilio’s first and only record, released in 1977 on EMI. Poor sales halted his career as a musician. Six years after its release he committed suicide. One of the most affecting albums I’ve ever listened to.

06 06 Della Conoscenza (Original Version)

- Mason

1. The Elephant Man
2. Eraserhead
3. Blue Velvet
4. The Straight Story
5. Wild At Heart
6. Lost Highway
7. Mulholland Drive
8. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
9. Dune

Inland Empire nog niet gezien. Tot het zo ver is blijft dat maar #10, zeker.

NP: Mike Pride’s From Bacteria To Boys – Hang

Wind,

Our rooms

Letting in the bending

And leaning trees,

Leaves,

And

All

Fall.

When

Through all

Our arms your pillowed

Self moves and soft

Self rooms,

Our

Warming

Thoughts

Pause.

Then

Needing and

Heavy hearts thaw

Our sudden

And

Gathered

Hall.

I started this site, so I reserve the liberty to post some self-indulgent shit that nobody else will like, alright?!

This song sums up what everyone hates about Animal Collective in one pocket-sized reference guide:

1. Really short piano loop played uninterrupted for 6 minutes with droning, dissonant singing over top.
2. Completely random noises that show no reverence for time signature– noises that sound like a food processor having sex with a radio transistor.
3. Chorus that destroys any semblance of melody. Completely haphazard, rhythm-devoid drumming underneath the wailing of  “CUCKOO CUCKOO CUCKOO CUCKOO”

I get all of that. Really. But something about this song captures an emotional quality to it that I can’t get out of listening to any other song. That’s something you can’t quantify.

-jakeyp

Live version after the leap; but I doubt any of you will make it that far: