Archive: March, 2007

the nihilist spasm band

Sunday, March 18th, 2007

The godfathers of noise | Nihilist Spasm Band

They’re the ones who started all this 37 years ago. And they continue to “make a noise”, in-different to tendencies, fashions and strategies. Take it or leave it, as the band like to say.

The Nihilist Spasm Band Members are: Hugh McIntyre (1936 - 2004), John Clement, John Boyle, Bill Exley, Murray Favro, Greg Curnoe (1936 - 1992) and Art Pratten.

Refusing even to be labelled as “nihilists” and “anarchists”, despite the name of the group and their attitude in relation to music itself and to the music establishment, the one and only Nihilist Spasm Band is the real nihilist/anarchist thing. It was them who invented the word “radical” to identify a specific approach to the sound world. Murray Favro, Art Pratten and John Boyle tells us how, and why…an interview by Rui Eduardo Paes

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I'm a real nice fellow [13:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

artist portrait | Comments (0) | 1 Views

9 compositions | iridum 2006

Thursday, March 8th, 2007

9 Compositions | Iridium 2006 is a 9-CD box set documenting what Time Out New York called “last Spring’s epochal run” by the Anthony Braxton 12+1tet at Iridium in March 2006. Braxton has been called a “jazz legend” The New York Times, “an obvious genius” All Music Guide, “an extraordinary musician” Village Voice, and “one of the past forty years’ great radical musical thinkers” AllAboutJazz.

His ground-breaking and continually evolving approach to music, developed over the past five decades, embraces a wealth of musical traditions ranging from jazz saxophonists Warne Marsh and Albert Ayler to innovative American composers John Cage and Charles Ives to pioneering European Avant-Garde figures Karl-Heinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. Fanatically documented by a dedicated following around the world, his multi-faceted career includes hundreds of recordings, an influential legacy as an educator and author of scholarly writings, and awards such as the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship.

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reviews | Comments (0) | 451 Views

peter gannushkin

Tuesday, March 6th, 2007

an interview with Peter Gannushkin…

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interview | Comments (1) | 2,029 Views

einheitsfrontlied | united front song

Sunday, March 4th, 2007

1. As man is only human, He must eat before he can think. Fine words are only empty air And not his meat and drink.

1. Und weil der Mensch ein Mensch ist, drum braucht er was zum Essen, bitte sehr. Es macht ihn ein Geschwätz nicht satt, das schafft kein Essen her.

Chorus: Then, Left! Right! Left! Then, Left! Right! Left! There’s a place, Comrade for you, March with us in the workers’ united front; For you are a worker too.

Chorus: Drum links, zwei, drei ! Drum links, zwei, drei ! Wo dein Platz Genosse ist ! Reih’ dich ein in die Arbeiter-Einheitsfront, weil du auch ein Arbeiter bist !

2. As man is only human, He’d rather not have boots in face. He wants no slaves at his beck and call, Nor life by a master’s grace.

2. Und weil der Mensch auch ein Mensch ist, drum hat er Stiefel im Gesicht nicht gern, Er will unter sich keinen Sklaven sehn und über sich keinen Herrn.

Chorus: Then, Left! Right! Left! Then, Left! Right! Left! There’s a place, Comrade for you, March with us in the workers’ united front; For you are a worker too.

Chorus: Drum links, zwei, drei ! Drum links, zwei, drei ! Wo dein Platz Genosse ist ! Reih’ dich ein in die Arbeiter-Einheitsfront, weil du auch ein Arbeiter bist !

3. And since a worker’s a worker, No class can free him but his own; “The emancipation of the working- class Is the task of the workers alone”.

3. Und weil der Prolet ein Prolet ist, drum wird ihn kein anderer befrein; Es kann die Befreiung der Arbeiter nur das Werk der Arbeiter sein!

Chorus: Then, Left! Right! Left! Then, Left! Right! Left! There’s a place, Comrade for you, March with us in the workers’ united front; For you are a worker too.

Chorus: Drum links, zwei, drei ! Drum links, zwei, drei ! Wo dein Platz Genosse ist ! Reih’ dich ein in die Arbeiter-Einheitsfront, weil du auch ein Arbeiter bist !

Text (dt.): Bertolt Brecht | Musik: Hanns Eisler

Peter Brötzmann / bass saxophone, Fred Van Hove / piano, Han Bennink / drums

Recorded by Dietram Köster on February 25th,1973 in Bremen. Supervision by Peter Schulze. Produced by Jost Gebers. SIDE A: Einheitsfrontlied-Part 1 (4:23) | SIDE B: Einheitsfrontlied-Part 2 (4:03). Composed by Hanns Eisler. Cover: Design by Peter Brötzmann

einheitsfrontlied part. 1 [4:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup
einheitsfrontlied part. 2 [3:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup
Ernst Busch sings the Einheitsfrontlied [3:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

podcast | Comments (0) | 387 Views

fette biester

Sunday, March 4th, 2007

Recorded 1990 in NYC

fette biester [5:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

podcast | Comments (0) | 300 Views

the village concerts

Friday, March 2nd, 2007

Albert Ayler In Greenwich Village - Impulse A-9155 | The Village Concerts - Impulse IA-9336/2 | Lörrach / Paris 1966 - hat MUSICS 3500

With recent releases, a large body of Ayler’s music has become available from a period of about four months from late 1966 to early 1967. In part, this music can be seen as an outgrowth of that which first appeared on the 1965 records Bells (ESP 1010) and Spirits Rejoice (ESP 1020). Yet it is something more than that, really the full flowering of what can only be termed Ayler’s “visionary” music.

I’ve written previously of the broad “existentialist” quality of Ayler’s playing and of his 1964 records in particular. And while the characteristics of that music - its ambiguousness and constant change - are still in evidence, something has dropped away and been transmuted. There’s nothing near as dark or bleak as, say, the outlook on “Mothers” or “Holy Spirits” (Vibrations, Arista Freedom Al 1001) from the earlier period. In its place, there’s much thematic good humor and, at times, even a feeling of “peace” (though that may in turn be perceived as “sad,” “resigned,” “full of longing,” or “mystic”).

I should point out that “existentialism” and “mysticism” are but two sides of the same coin. Both understand and move into “the Void,” which may be interpreted, however, as either “Nothingness” or “the ALL.”

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bells | Comments (0) | 399 Views

voyage through times and spaces

Thursday, March 1st, 2007

All about Norbert Stein is pata: music, scores, label, formations.

All things have to flow, says Norbert Stein. This is his motto for life as well as for the music he writes, that is more a commonplace than a pearl of wisdom. Relating to music the flow-metaphor means: it should be in motion without being frantic but be steady even with changing tempos; it doesn’t have to linger in idyllic landscapes, but rather should make the listener ready to be taken away in it; it should communicate tranquillity rather than allay you, and it should be far from suspending the listener´s self-perception. Also it should have stylistic limits that are not valuable until the end of time but be open and vague enough for changes and new influences.

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Lucy und der Ball [3:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup
Die wilden Pferde der armen Leute [3:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

label portrait | Comments (0) | 394 Views