Gangzi - 我是蒙古人

Artist:                Gangzi

Album:              我是蒙古人

Year:                 2012

Line-up:            Tulegur - guitar & vocals

So folks, the year 2013 is just around the corner as we are spending our last day of 2012 today. We thought with my colleague that for new year’s eve it might be fun to write about an album published during the year that is about to end: meet the aural obscurity of the year 2012.

In the summer of 2012, I travelled from Finland to Southeast Asia by land from Helsinki with a friend of mine. During our travels, we passed through some rather interesting cultures, including western (European) Russia, Siberia, southern China, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, but the place that really stayed in my heart was Mongolia and northern China. The vast landscapes of Gobi with all the camels and sheep were an astonishing beauty. North of Beijing and just south of Mongolia, there is an autonomic region called Inner Mongolia. That is the place from where the artist Gangzi, also known as Tulegur, comes from.

from Gobi, Mongolia

A few months ago, I saw an advertisement of a cultural event in Kaisaniemi, Helsinki. It was a one man show combining traditional Mongolian throat singing and vocals with western rock-music. I immediately became interested and we went to see Gangzi perform with some friends of mine. The show was intriguing; in the stage there was a seat, which Gangzi took as the show started. He played rather simple rock’n’roll riffs and fingerpicking and used overtone singing as a device. Some of us feared at the beginning of the show that the setup would not be enough to seize the listener, but at least for me, it was pretty engaging and mesmerizing. Tulegur was charming and sympathetic character and the combination of the vocals and the energetic guitar playing worked nicely.

I bought the album after the gig, along with a traditional Mongolian scarf. The album and the additional information are in Mongolian and Chinese. It is actually pretty interesting that the traditional Mongolian script is an official writing system only in Inner Mongolia, China, as Mongolia is using almost entirely Mongolian Cyrillic alphabets, which I think is pretty sad, because the unique and truly beautiful script that looks kind of like vertical Arabic is vanishing as the capable readers and writers are shrinking.

Yes, this is another concept, where the West meets the East. If you are into throat singing, exotic cultures or even in guitar music, Gangzi will have a place in your heart as well. I have no idea how and where to purchase this album, so it is truly an aural obscurity.

Happy new year from the prog cellar!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYR8VlfmxZE

Written by: Oz

Valentin Silvestrov - Requiem for Larissa

 

Artist:         Valentin Silvestrov

Album:       Requiem for Larissa

Year:          2004

Line-up:     National Choir of Ukraine ”Dumka”

                  Yevhen Savchuk – choirmaster

                  National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine

                  Volodymyr Sirenko - director

Label:        ECM

”Farewell, O world! Farewell, O earth

Thou dismal, dreary land!

I'll hide my torments, fierce and keen,

Within a cloud-bank bland.

Then to thyself, my own Ukraine,

A widow sad and weak,

I shall come flying from the clouds

And with thee I shall speak.

From our communion, soft and low

My heart shall gain some cheer;

At midnight shall my soul come down

In dewdrops cool and clear”

Valentin Silvestrov is a Ukrainian pianist and composer of modern and contemporary classical music. Between 1997 and 1999, he composed a requiem – a mass celebrating the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons. What makes this particular requiem bleakly stand out from more famous requiems composed by the likes of Mozart, Verdi and Fauré, is the fact that Silvestrov composed his own one after his wife Larissa Bondarenko died suddenly in 1996.

The following year Silvestrov began composing this Requiem to her memory, feeling that it would remain his finale composition. Thus, Requiem for Larissa is retrospective on the career of Silvestrov as a composer, reflecting on everything he and his wife had achieved going back to his First Symphony from 1963 and following his compositional body of work from the period when his wife was still beside her to The Messenger for synthesizer, piano and string orchestra composed between 1996 and 1997. Luckily in 2003 Silvestrov returned to large-scale compositions with his Seventh Symphony after composing only a few minor chamber pieces after he had finished his Requiem for Larissa.

Listening to this Requiem is like watching a harsh and snowy winter landscape: on the surface it might seem bleak, cold, inhospitable and charmless but it has far more sides to it than one can at first perceive. The music seems to be still and frozen capturing and petrifying the memories of the past. Yet as the snow in the winter landscape little motives and fragments of melodies drift cross are eyes slowly. Those short fragments of melodies and motives seem to float almost lifeless in the air but as we try to capture them they move away and disappear in the air, almost like an echo fading away into silence as it has almost been nothing but a resonance of a memory already long gone, the flakes of snow running through our fingers which we try to grasp in our hands.

The music of this Requiem is almost as fragile as snow or the human body which has carried the soul of a person to whom it is composed. The choir represents the angels of both light and darkness as Silvestrov succeeds in capturing the wide palette of wide range of feelings one must go through on the occasion of a death of a loved one: the sorrow, the sadness, the horror, the despair, the anger, the emptiness – and finally the acceptance, the calmness, the comfort of a memory and maybe even hope. Let us have a moment of silence in this darkest time of the year to remember the beloved souls of those who are no longer with us here in their physical form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfhsnDvjj8A

Written by Παναγιωτιης

Amaseffer - Slaves for Life

 

Artist:              Amaseffer

Album:            Slaves for Life

Year:               2008

Line-Up:          Erez Yohanan - Drums, percussion
Yuval Kramer – Guitar
Hanan Avramovich – Guitar

Mats Leven - Vocals
Kobi Farhi - Oriental vocals
Angela Gossow - Growl vocals
Yotam Avni - Growl vocals
Maya Avraham - Vocals
Amir Gvirtzman - Flutes
Yatziv Caspi - Tablas
Yair Yona - Bass guitar

Label:             InsideOut Music

“In a land of two horizons,

One million suns ago,

Where pharaoh rules,

Black magic thrives,

Effigies with marble eyes”

Eventough Amaseffer’s Slaves for Life is a release from InsideOut- a pretty well-known progressive rock/metal label- I still consider it to be in hiding from the big audience. InsideOut Music is an independent German label founded in 1996 and it has released music from pretty big acts, such as Pain of Salvation, Symphony X, Devin Townsend and Ayreon. Amaseffer is categorized to be progressive metal in many contexts, but I would actually state that the metal in this piece is merely a spice, something that emerges at the right moment to emphasize the huge orchestral soundscape that Slaves for Life has to offer.

Amaseffer is a band from Tel Aviv, Israel, and it was founded on a rather ambitious vision: To tell the story of Exodus from the Old Testament, in a musical trilogy. This is the debut album, and so far the only one as the next part, “When the Lions Leave Their Den” is scheduled to be released in the near future, during the next few years I believe. Slaves for Life begins as the title suggest, slavery of the Hebrews and the birth of Moses. After the beautiful intro with enchanting flute melodies, the self-titled track dives right into the point; orchestral and ethnic heavy sound with epic melodies and the raspy rock’n’roll singing of Mats Leven, who actually fits pretty well in the whole concept. The album ends in the ten plagues of Egypt.

The vision is huge and epic, but the music follows not far behind. The variety of emotions in this piece is enormous. Amaseffer is constantly compared with Orphaned Land, widely known Israeli band also singing historical and religious themes, and not without a reason. Orphaned Land’s Kobi Fahr is actually singing the oriental vocals in this album, appearing almost in every song. Slaves for Life is a definite addition a prog collection of anyone interested in progressive and symphonic metal and rock. Stay tuned for the next part!

“A vision I had,

Someone will arise, a new messiah,

Liberation is thy name”

Written by: Oz

Tzadik

Tzadik Records is an independent, not-for-profit, co-operative record label based in New York founded by the eclectic composer and saxophone player John Zorn and Kazunori Sugiyama. The record label declares on its webpage that it ”is dedicated to releasing the best in avant garde and experimental music, presenting a worldwide community of contemporary musician-composers who find it difficult or impossible to release their music through more conventional channels. Tzadik believes most all in the integrity of its artists. What you hear on Tzadik is the artists' vision undiluted.” Hence, the focus the record label is to bring us new and exciting music disregarding the profit-centered thinking which dominates the industry today but never compromising the artistic and production qualities of their releases.

Tzadik has released over 400 records of various different artists covering a vast variety of different musical genres including jazz, free improvisation, rock, klezmer, various world music traditions, noise and contemporary classical music. The label itself has ten different categories for its releases:

Composer series exploring new concert works of the classical music tradition normally by composers who are not part of the established high culture/classical music society.

Archival series which offers the music of the label's founder, John Zorn, from 1973 to his newest compositions.

The new series called Spotlight which focuses on new and young musicians, bands and projects by the most adventurous musicians around the world today.

The Birthday Celebretation which documents the numerous live performances in 2003 celebrating the 50^th birthday of John Zorn.

Radical Jewish Culture which is dedicated to exploring the Jewish culture and identity through music in the 21^st century.

Key Series which brings the special projects and important works of the most crucial figures of avant garde music.

New Japan offers the hidden gems of the Japanese underground to the western audiences.

Oracels which celebrates the diversity and creativity of women in the experimental music making.

Film Music which is quite obvious.

And finally Lunatic Fringe which brings us the creative works and acts of the most peculiar and individual artists.

Tzadik is truly a treasure island full of extravagant and exciting, hidden musical jewels for the adventurous and open-minded musical explorers who constantly seek something new and surprising. Definetely worth a more in-depth expedition. Enjoy a musical sample of all the categories mentioned above.

Composer series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik-Fp2defYk

Archival: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i56QO9O8qso

Spotlight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHvJJcBRCmc

Birthday Celebration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xQoWXLMjW8

Radical Jewish Culture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqw3CA_GPTw

Key Series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MyqzG3Y86E

New Japan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsY44I6bPWc

Oracles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0XkNNQ9QMw

Film Music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZMBtWHnZME

Lunatic Fringe:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBpJ5-BohAw

Written by Παναγιωτης

Marc Ribot - Yo! I Killed Your God

Artist:           Marc Ribot / Shrek

Album:         Yo! I Killed Your God

Year:            1999

Line-up:       Christine Bard – drums

                    Dougie Bowne – drums

                    J. D. Foster – guitars

                    Roger Kleiner – guitars

                    Francois Lardeau – drum programming

                    Jim Pugliese – drums

                    Marc Ribot – guitars, vocals

                    Sebastian Steinberg – bass

                    Mark Anthony Thompson – bass, sequencer

                    Chris Wood - bass

Label:          Tzadik

”Yo! I killed your god

That's what this machine gun is for

Throw away your image

Throw away your books

Keep away me with your metaphor”

Marc Ribot is one the most outstanding guitar players of our times as well as one the most underrated ones unfortunately. What Ribot lacks in virtuosity and technicality he makes up more than enough in originality. His vast body of work has touched on various styles ranging from free jazz to classical music, from Cuban music to klezmer and from film soundtracks to punk rock. In addition to being a prolific band leader Marc Ribot has worked extensively as session musician performing and recording with such artists as Tom Waits, John Zorn, Jack McDuff, Wilson Pickett, Elvis Costello, Elton John and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss to name a few.

”I've just fried my fourth amplifier of the month

and this song is called Softly as in a Morning Sunrise”

Shrek was Ribot's own short-lived group which was active only for eighteen months between 1992 and 1994. In 1999 the legendary saxophone player, composer, record producer and personal friend of Ribot, John Zorn put a record together consisting of various live performances of Shrek in various different venues in the States and in Japan. Released under the controversial title of one of the featured songs, Yo! I Killed Your God captures Ribot at his wildest, rawest, most powerful and versatile. The band and its music is associated the No Wave moment but the wide range of influences on this record include punk (the title song which is a powerhouse avant-punk tune), experimental rock (a cover of The Wind Cries Mary of Jimi Hendrix is almost unrecognisable from the original), noise (the burst of mayhem in Expressionless), jazz (an interesting take on the jazz standard Softly as in a Morning Sunrise from 1928 which showcases Ribot's innovative side as jazz improviser), Cuban music (a fairly conventional take on the cuban classic Jamon con Yucca), spoken word (cynical rants on I Fall to Pieces, Clever White Youths with Attidude provided by Ribot himself with an indifferent voice) and modern classical music (various composed pieces on the album).

”Clever white youths with attidude

that's what the world needs today

singing songs about the alien nation

hey hey”

That said, in the case of Yo! I Killed Your God it is almost impossible to sum up the whole album in short. This album is just all over the place, but it never loses its focus. You could say that the core of the album lies on the No Wave movement which took various musical genres and filtered them through punk aesthetics. Everything is played through frantic bass, maniacal drums and, most notably, searing, raw and harsh electric guitars. The guitar playing of Marc Ribot has always come across as truly artistic: the eternal battle between the artist and his instrument, struggling to force the instrument to give a voice to the artist, a life to his art and a manifestation of his creative vision. This album captures the birth pains of playing an instrument, being punk, being high culture, being innovative, being primitive, being traditional, being original – being nothing. Definetely a difficult listening, but extremely rewarding.

I would give this album the rating of double motherfucker. Yo! Check this shit out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F03EH3yDJlA

Written by Παναγιωτιης

Edensong - The Fruit Fallen

Artist:           Edensong

Album:         The Fruit Fallen

Year:             2008

Line-Up:       James Byron Schoen - Electric and acoustic guitars, vocals
Matt Cozin - Drums
T.D. Towers - Bass
Michael Drucker - Violin
Eve Harrison - Flute
Rachel Kiel - Flute
Arthur Sugden - Piano, organ
Ben Wigler - Electric guitar
Kerry Prep - Piano, organ
Sam Baltimore - Cello
Joe Swain - Violin
Anthony Waldman - Drums, percussion
Ben Doleac - Backing vocals
Azalea Birch - Tablas
Hannah Goodwin-Brown - Cello
Joaquin Cotler - African percussion
Neely Bruce - Church organ
Steve Devita - Percussion
Adam Bernier - Synthesizer programming

Label:           Independent

When a modern progressive rock meets the old school of the 70’s, such as Jethro Tull, Rush and Genesis, dominated by folky and acoustic atmosphere, the result sounds more or less like The Fruit Fallen by Edensong. This refreshing debut from the promising band from the States is a rather interesting piece of work actually. Almost entirely from the mind and hands of James Byron Schoen, The Fruit Fallen combines classical music, heavy metal, 70’s prog, folk rock, and includes hints of numerous other genres and subgenres. The biggest problem with this kind of music is usually the matter of holding all of it together. An ambitious project, I would say, but it does not disappoint.

The global problem with prog-rock debut albums (or actually with any other debut albums as well) is their profusion and difficulties of reaching audience. These two are tightly linked together, as music is nowadays made more than ever before, and because of the internet the field of promoting has expanded utterly more than you can shake a stick at. This leads to a phenomenon where quality is buried underneath quantity, not to mention the effect of mainstream popular music. Because of all this, it is critical that the debut is solid and reaches listeners. The Fruit Fallen is solid as a rock, but hasn’t reached and satisfied as many listeners as I would imagine it could. The fact that this album is an independent release by James Byron Schoen makes it of course harder to reach audience.

The singing style of Byron Schoen reminds me a bit of Ian Andersons. The frequently appearing flute might have some subconscious effect in this train of thought. Well, Baron Schoen has listed Anderson as one of his influences. The Fruit Fallen creates a very interesting blend of feelings with diverse composition. In the same song, you can loosen up listening to beautiful and charming melodies and all of a sudden feel the adrenalin in your veins when at times even chaotic harmonies and heavy sound grasps your attention. The album flows with the alternate of these two and this is done so smooth the thought of it being forced or inappropriate will not occur.

All is well done: talented musicians playing well composed and interesting music with a religious lyrical theme. Song called “The Sixth Day” is a fine example on what the album has to offer. At least I will stay tuned for more of this in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO-Xlma2TM0 (Studio)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifaIrtJYOho (Live)

Written by: Oz

Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal Erzincan - The Wind

Artist:          Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal Erzincan

Album:        The Wind

Year:           2006

Line-up:      Kayhan Kalhor – kamancheh

                   Erdal Erzincan – baglama

                   Ulas Özdemir – divan baglama

Label:         ECM

Recently, I had the pleasure and the opportunity to hear and see Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan in concert, where these two internationally recognised masters of their respective musical cultures and instruments met. Their performance of was a musical experience of the utter most beauty and marvel which left the whole audience in a state of tranquility and awe. Luckily, for those of who do not have the opportunity to attend their concerts or wish to return to the musical sphere of Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan, the two musicians have captured the music on an album called The Wind.

Kayhan Kalhor is an Iranian kamancheh player and composer, master in both Persian and Kurdish music. He has studied with numerous teachers and in different parts of Iran learning various traditions of music as well as studying Western classical music in Rome and Ottawa. Hence, he has a wide range of musical influences in his playing incorporation folk modes and melodies of Kurdish and Turkic traditions to Persian classical musical structures. The main instrument of Kalhor is the Persian bowed string instrument called kamancheh which means ”little bow” in Persian. It has four metal strings and the body consists of a long upper neck and a lower bowl-shaped resonating chamber.

Though Erdal Erzincan might not enjoy the same international success as Kayhan Kalhor, he is still considered one of the most brilliant and innovative baglama players in today's Anatolia, a raising star in the music field of Turkey. In recent years, Erzican has started to build an international career with much praise from the public. He plays the baglama, sometimes known as the saz, a plucked string instrument found in Eastern Mediterranean, Near East and Central Asia. It has three main parts: the bowl, the spruce sounding board and the neck to which the frets are tied with fishing line, which allows them to be adjusted. The Turkish baglama has seven strings divided in the courses of two, two and three and they are played by with tezene, similar to a guitar pick.

The Wind was recorded in November 2004, and it consists of one continuous performance which is divided in to 12 parts on the CD. The music is built around improvisations based on Persian and Turkish music, arranged by Kalhor and Erzincan. One might use the term musical journey, which I feel is becoming somewhat a cliché in this blog, but that would be a little misleading when describing this album. More than a grand and spectacular journey The Wind is an intimate conversation between to private persons, a musical prayer of deeply emotional and spiritual nature. Often, in the case of cultural fusion projects such as this, you might hear talk of musical dialogue and exchange of musical ideas. Here, however, the kamancheh of Kalhor and the baglama of Erzincan blend into each other so seamlessly that together they form a new coherent musical whole. Together Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan, with sublime rhythms and rich melodies, create a transcendental musical realm which leaves the listener with a deeply relaxed and a calm state.

To me, The Wind is like a musical poem; it might seem small at first but with time it reveals to have an entire universe within itself. You must immerse yourself in it undistracted to truly appreciate it as a whole, as a sincere piece of creative activity. You have to keep on getting back to it every once in a while, and when you do, you will find every time a small detail which you might have missed before; a nuance, a melodic motif, a rhythmic pattern, a meaningful silence, an idea behind the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8fAscnvkyM

written by Παναγιωτης

Wu Jinglue - Sunny Spring

Album:      Sunny Spring

Artist:        Wu Jinglue

Line-Up:    Wu Jinglue - Guqin

Label:         Silverwolf Records

It was my driving test and my teacher introduced an idea of choosing my own music for the ride. You should pick something that calms your nerve and your body, she suggested. Something that would make the situation feel less awkward and uncomfortable. Just a few weeks before the test, I had found this incredible musical gem from the land of billion people and I obeyed my teacher’s suggestion. As Wu Jinglue played Sunny Spring in a celestial manner, I did pass the test.

Few earlier blog posts have been related to the merging of the East and the West, but let us now venture forth into the oriental lands and concentrate on only one of those. Wu Jinglue (吳景略) was a Chinese musician, famous for playing the guqin, a traditional Chinese instrument. Not that long ago me and my colleague paid a visit at a lecture on Chinese traditional music. It was fairly unfamiliar world for a two Scandinavians, but during that lecture I actually perceived the fact that this music, the culture – together with the language - is thousands of years old, full of various instrument families, melodies and interpretations. The exotic tradition is still waiting to be studied more thoroughly, but this brilliant glimpse on the edge of it may still drill into the ears of a courageous explorer.

Sunny Spring is a double-CD and some of the songs are Wu Jinglue’s solo on guqin but most of the songs include flutes as well. Just one or two instruments can still capture your attention enough to drown in beautiful music.

The music tells tales and describes landscapes without words. Usually, the theme of the story is strongly related to nature, a common phenomenon in Chinese culture, take shaolin monks and their aim of imitating animals for protection as a foundation for martial arts for instance. In the mythology of Chinese traditional music Ling Lung (伶倫 ) actually constructed bamboo flutes, which were tuned to the sound of birds. This music aims at mirroring the sound of earth: water flowing softly in the river during spring time, a lovely birdsong echoing in the wind of the misty mountains. It has the power of rebooting your quiescent call of nature for aural pleasure and charming tranquility. This smooth ride is worth of digging, even though the whole essence of this piece might be somewhat obscure for a West-oriented musical mind.

Take a leap by expanding your music taste and challenging your musical customs.

Here is a piece by Wu Jinglue, and although it is not from Sunny Spring, it’s a fine example on his music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMztoZXw2l8

written by Oz

Yatha Sidhra - A Meditation Mass

 

Artist:       Yatha Sidhra

Album:     A Meditation Mass

Year:        1974

Line-up:   Rolf Fichter – Moog synthesizer, Indian flute, vibes, electric piano, electric guitar, 

                                        vocals

                 Klaus Fichter – drums, percussion

                 Matthias Nicolai – electric 12-string guitar, bass

                 Peter Elbracht - flute

Label:       Brain

Yatha Sidhra is a short lived German group of the 1970's. Later music historians labeled the band as a part of Krautrock genre which is a generic name used to describe experimental music groups which were active in West Germany in the late 1960's and throughout 1970's. If you are unfamiliar with the Krautrock scenes, I suggest you check out the BBC documentary The Rebirth of Germany, to which you can find a link at the end of this post. Yatha Sidhra, founded by the Fichter brothers who were trying to form their ideal band for a while, finally hit the right note in 1973 when their band Brontosaurus changed its name to Yatha Sidhra thus also marking a change in their musical identity. Year later the album A Meditation Mass was released and it remains the only official release of the band.

In the previous post, my colleague wrote about the east meets the west musical fusion projects where a western artist teams up with an eastern artist trying to fuse the music of their culture creating a new and rich sounding musical world. The phenomenon was born in the 1960's when especially Indian master musicians such as Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan launched their international careers in Europe and USA. The coming of eastern music to the West also inspired a lot of western groups to draw inspiration to their own music from the eastern musical traditions.

As you might already have guessed from the band and album name, Yatha Sidhra and A Meditation Mass are heavily influenced by the eastern cultural elements. Drawing from the ethnic and meditative influences A Meditation Mass is a long piece divided into four parts with two musical themes with two variations from each one. The albums can be seen as a concept album inspired by Buddhist philosophy even tough the album is almost entirely instrumental.

The aim of the brothers was to create an exotic and dreamy musical landscape built around electric guitars and bass emulating a drone provided in the Hindustani classical music by the tambura to accomapany the melody. Meanwhile the Moog synthesizer and the flute (which is credited as the Indian flute which could be the bansuri) create the melodic centre of the music. Through out the album percussion instruments appear to play hypnotic tribal rhythms. The music shifts from ethnic spacey ambient to psychedelic rock and to swinging and more upbeat jazz-rock. Due to the Buddhist philosophy, the piece is made cyclic as the album ends the way it started.

A Meditation Mass is a true hidden gem of the 70's krautrock scene. It is a beautiful, atmospheric, psychedelic and meditative (as the title suggests) musical journey, which will take you the exciting crossroads of the East and the West. Listened comfortably in arm chair or a sofa, served with a cup of tea for example, A Meditation Mass can be truly an escapist aural pleasure – especially this time of the year.

The BBC Documentary ”Rebirth of Germany” on Krautrock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHUwkYkn_kA

Part 1 of A Meditation Mass:

http://www.progarchives.com/mp3.asp?id=1068

Written by Παναγιωτης

L. Subramaniam & Stéphane Grapelli - Conversations

Album:      Conversations

Artist:        L. Subramaniam and Stéphane Grapelli

Year:         1992

Line-Up:    L. Subramaniam – Violin, viola, violectra, tambura, surmandal, percussion

                    Stéphane Grappelli – Violin, piano

                    Joe Sample – Keyboards, piano

                   Mark Massey – Synthesizer, piano

                   Jorge Strunz – Guitar

                   Jerry Watts – Bass

                   Ron Wagner – Drums

                   Frank Bennett – Percussion

                   Frank Morgan – Alto saxophone

                  Handel Manuel – Piano

                  Niles Steiner – Steinerphone

                  Manoochehr Sadeghi – Santoor

                  Anthony Hindson – Electric guitar

Label:     Milestone Records

"Music is a vast ocean and no one can claim to know it all. The more you know, the more you realize how little you know. It is an eternal quest" - Dr L Subramaniam

Conversations is a collaborative album of French jazz virtuoso Stéphane Grappelli and acclaimed Indian musician Dr. Lakshminarayana Subramanian of the Carnatic tradition. It is a conversation between the west and the east, between two violinists of different cultures, a musical exchange and encounter like those of George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, John McLaughlin and Shakti, and John Mayer and Joe Harriott.

Stéphane Grappelli was born to an Italian father and a French mother in 1908 Paris, France. While learning his musical skills in Conservatoire de Paris in the 1920’s, he was also accompanying silent films as a pianist. Grappelli, who is known as the grandfather of jazz violinists, had already worked with numerous well-known jazz musicians and other musicians making him one the most respected violin players outside the art music scene.

Lakshminarayana Subramanian was born in 1947, Chennai, India to two prestigious musicians. He took up the violin before the age of five in the guidance of his father, Professor V. Lakshminarayana. At an early age he also developed a passion for science and has acquired M.B.B.S at Madras Medical College and a Master’s degree in Western classical music in California Institute of the Arts. So not only is he a qualified doctor of medicine, but he can play the Indian violin leaving your mouth wide open and compose ethereal and soothing musical pieces.

At the beginning of the 90’s these Subramaniam and Grappelli decided to join forces and record an album of very interesting musical landscapes, “Conversations”. L. Subramaniam is very keen to mix different elements of Western art music with the musical tradition of his native India, which has led him on a various musical journeys with many different musicians. On this particular album the conversation between the two violins, one Western and one Indian, is a most interesting experience: the violinists play together and separately music full of rich sensations from which a stream of pleasure and enjoyment resonates. The rhythm section is playing rather minimalistic jazz-rock in the background, leaving the spotlight to the amazing string orgy of Grappelli and Subramaniam. It works perfectly. 

 

The songs on this album do not form a coherent whole for there are a few tracks, which seem a bit out of place, like the display of Subramaniam’s virtuosity on the Indian violin (Paganini Caprice 5) and Grappelli on the piano (Tribute to Mani). However it does not take away anything essential from the magic of the rest of the album. Conversations is a vast musical soundscape which these diverse musicians paint together to the pleasure of our ears. It’s about the softness and delicacy of the Western violin and the curious otherness and exotic appeal of the Indian.

Do not take just my word for it, check for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFI4TzUDc-8

Written by Oz and edited by Παναγιωτης

Gnaw Their Tongues - Reeking, Pained and Shuddering

 

Artist:         Gnaw Their Tongues

Album:       Reeking, Pained and Shuddering
Year:          2007

Line-up:     Mories – All instruments

Label:        Paradigms Recordings

”It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

- Krishnamurti

When we dwell upon the nature of art, we easily think of something of extraordinary beauty and something close to perfection. However on the present day there are a few individuals who find aesthetic pleasure from things which are not considered beautiful and harmonious by the traditional conventions. In the late 19^th century the Western classical music was facing what now call ”a crisis of tonality”, meaning that composers thought that they had more or less exhausted the possibilities of the system of traditional tonal hierarchies. This resulted in atonality which in short means that music lacks a tonal center, the key. Therefore the music does not sound ”happy” or ”sad” to the average listener but rather harsh and jarring – discordant. In the early twentieth-century Europe also lay the cultural origins of the broad genre which we call noise music. The only distinguishing genre feature is that the music employs noise (an unpleasant or disturbing sound) as a principal musical resource.

One day as I was exploring the website of the English record label Paradigms Recordings, I happened to stumble upon an album that had such an intriguing description that as a little musical pervert I had no choice but to venture forth in to the sick, disturbing and frightful but yet the so fascinating world of the Dutch one-man project known as the Gnaw Their Tongues. The website says that the music is ”harrowing, apocalyptic bestial ritual music from the deepest, darkest cellars of the Netherlands. Avant black metal, agonising funeral doom and blackened experimental drone noise stab forth again and again until all the blood is split and total carnage is all that remains. Pure dread put to music”. That really sums up the record perfectly. Reeking, Pained and Shuddering is a truly unique mixture of noise, black metal, black and dark ambient, martial industrial, spoken word sequences and drone, if you care about genre tags.

The music consists of horrendous, distorted cacophonies which are accompanied by drums, strings and painful screams. Occasionally, the overbearing barriers of noise and blasting black metal mayhems dissolve into more dark ambient soundscapes and almost gentle string passages almost resembling a piece of chamber music only to explode to screeching screams of demons. One piece opens up even by a female opera singer creating an interesting contrast to the menacing humming background sound until a brutal blast beat appears out of nowhere. The general sound world is cold, harsh and uninviting. The songs are narrated with spoken word performances which reflect the twisted and sick aspects of the modern day society. Fanatic preachers painting pictures of a christian hell, sinister voices reciting biblical quotations and eyewitnesses recounting the search of Ed Gein's house.

The music is truly frightening. It takes you on a cinematic horror movie-like trip to the darkest corners of the human psyche. However, it is a journey of a most fascinating nature similar to that of Dante's descent to hell. Proceed with caution:

Utter Fulity of Creation

Written by: Παναγιωτης

Junipher Greene - Friendship

Artist:    Junipher Greene

Album:     Friendship

Year:      1971

Line-Up:   Helge Groslie - Lead vocals, keyboards

           Bent Aserud - Electric & acoustic guitars, flute, harp,  vocals
Oyvind Vilbo - Bass, vocals
Geir Bohren - Drums, vocals
Freddy Dahl - Lead vocals, electric & acoustic guitars, vibraharp

Label:     Sonet

Friendship my friends, is a matter of thought,

It’s a wonderful thing that cannot be bought,

It comes from the heart and lasts through the years,

Through hardship and sorrow, and human tears,

And it shines like rays of the sun.

The beginning of the 70’s, progressive rock was thriving in the UK, but what was happening in Scandinavia? Something very spectacular was recorded in Oslo, Norway: A double-LP called “Friendship”, which was actually the first double-LP ever made in Norway. The exact year was 1971, and the artist was a band called Junipher Greene. In the same year, prog-classics such as Aqualung by Jethro Tull and Moving Waves by Focus were released, but this early prog-rock gem was never really discovered by the big audience, though perhaps it should’ve been.

The band was founded in 1966 and it started as a blues group in Sandaker Secdondary School of Oslo. The magnificent tale of this band reached its climax with this album, which, in 2007, was given a title “The best rock album of Norway”. After a few comeback-gigs in 2008 and 2009, their 2010 concert called “Rock på Torget” in Bodø became the last live show of this marvelous group. Fortunately, it was captured on DVD.

“Friendship” is a mixture of various musical genres of that time. The pillars lie on a rock’n’roll ground, but there is a spoonful of jazz and a gentle pinch of blues in the sauce. Organ-spiced rock is sometimes accompanied with the gentle touch of flute, which is actually the reason I brought up Focus and Jethro Tull. The high point of the album is definitely the unbelievably beautiful “Maurice” where the rhythm section is playing bossa nova and the air is filled with the incredible flute dominance. The album culminates to the self-titled track, running almost 20 minutes: a standard duration in the prog-scene.

The band had to finance half of the LP by a demand of the record label, Sonet, which considered progressive rock as a risky investment. Sonet is a Swedish record label concentrating on jazz, founded in the 40’s, now being a part of Universal Music Group. My Special edition is a re-mastered version (2003) of the LP.

“Friendship” may be a hard one to acquire, but it is worth the search, if you are into 70’s prog-rock. It is a pioneer in Scandinavian progressive music; Junipher Greene is one of the first progressive groups from Norway. The attitude that stems from this piece is amazing; “Friendship” should’ve been one of the cornerstones of the evolution of prog-rock. Now it remains a mysterious Norwegian diamond in the history of chaotically breeding music industry.

Check out some samples: the self-titled track and the enchanting flute brilliance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbh1_Yjgnkg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTJ3tlnb6hE

Written by: Oz