An excerpt of a recent journal entry by David Byrne: I’d read in a new book about recorded sound (Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music by Greg Milner) that [Thomas] Edison arranged demonstrations of his “perfected” wax cylinder recorders at various theaters around the continent. He’d have a known singer sing along with [...]

There is rough texture, footsteps, animal noise, broadcast detritus, and voices. Voices in the background, on the edge of intelligible, just below a surface of friction and irritation, and a rising sine wave, so pure that it stands out, so quiet that it blends in. Plucked guitar, strings taut like barbed wire, enter. Then the [...]

Probably no artifact has stood as strongly for the touring Olafur Eliasson art exhibit Take Your Time as have photos of the purple refractions of his “One-way Color Tunnel” (2007). The tunnel, a narrow shoot of glass the color of a refined kaleidoscope, provides a physical entry point into his richly visual world. Much of [...]

Didier Blanchard: 01 Composition n°20 – Un��� corps sonore (34:44) Georges Bloch: ‘Fragments Corbuséens Palmés’ 02 Vocalise (1:57) 03 Antécédant-conséquent (0:48) 04 Hystérie 1 (2:42) 05 Valse ? (4:45) 06 Interaction 1 (10:23) 07 Hystérie 2 (8:17) 08 Interaction 2 (6:24) 09 Totale (2:09) 10 Tango (2:15) 11 Ganz zum ûberfluss (1:47) Total time 76:10 CD privately released by ‘Groupe des 5′, France, 1996 Le Corbusier’s relation to music is [...]

01 Bereta Yuda (5:19) 02 Golang Kanjin (6:20) 03 Improvisation (4:46) 04 2e Improvisation (2:51) 05 Lambata Sari Anom (7:06) 06 Puapr Sari Yuda (6:04) 07 Taruna Jaya (10:10) Total time 42:30 LP released on Disjuncta Records, France, 1975 Richard Pinhas created Disjuncta Records in 1974 to release his own project Heldon as well as other French musicians like Alain Renaud, Zao or Nyl. [...]

Before he helped foment minimal techno, Monolake (aka Robert Henke) was, by his own recent admission, working on what he called “‘emo’ synthesizer tracks.” As part of his ongoing “free download of the month series at monolake.de,” he’s been uploading some of these way early works, under the heading “Sonic Archaeology.” The second such effort [...]

Junior Kimbrough remixed by Grassy Knoll? Now, that’s my idea of a sonic Reese’s Pieces, my mix of musical chocolate and peanut butter — two wonderful things that are even better in combination. Kimbrough was one of the great late-generation bluesmen (hard to believe he passed on over a decade ago), a major presence on [...]

Recommended reading, news, and so forth elsewhere: ● Jon Hassell on Diagonal Composing, the Curses of Cliché & Abundance (theaustralian.news.com.au): Thorough newspaper profile of Jon Hassell, in advance of his first visit to Australia. Notes his work with Terry Riley and La Monte Young, and his association with Brian Eno. For a musician whose work is [...]

01 Luna Squamosa (6:01) 02 Chronos And Pericles (10:30) 03 Passage Of Jupiter (8:32) 04 Lundi (4:20) 05 Mardi (1:12) 06 Mercredi (3:26) 07 Jeudi (3:31) 08 Vendredi (4:04) 09 Samedi (4:44) 10 Dimanche (3:56) Total time 50mn Cassette released on Unlikey Records, UK, 1985 When he wants his mother to be proud of him, Davy Walklett uses the Eva Perouk alias to release almost ear-friendly music. [...]