Wandering

A long dreamy slice of melancholy cello. Excellent for afternoon naps.

The cellist is Alban Gerhardt, playing music by Peter Kuhlmann (aka hyperprolific synth-ambient superhero Pete Namlook). 

Even more than most of the posts here, this is clearly a marginal release, so if you like it a trip to the iTunes store is highly recommended.

I discovered this slice of deliciousness via the alluringly addictive Sleepbot. 

All one mp3, but in two parts to meet upload restrictions. Unrar them to one folder.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/n5s3dwb9jqa3zq6/Peter%20Kuhlmann%20%26%20Alban%20Gerhardt-%20Wandering%20Soul.part1.rar

http://www.mediafire.com/file/m6t8qympzahzqbm/Peter%20Kuhlmann%20%26%20Alban%20Gerhardt-%20Wandering%20Soul.part2.rar

Música Callada

"It is rather difficult to translate and explain the real meaning of "Música Callada" in any language other than Spanish. The great mystic poet San Juan de la Cruz speaks in one of his beautiful poems: "La Música Callada, la Soledad Sonora" [Silent Music, Resonant Solitude] seeking thus to express the idea of a music that would be the very voice of silence. Music retaining for itself its quiet voice, that is, remaining silent while solitude becomes its own music." [Preface, published score to Música Callada]

This is Vol. 4 of a 4-volume set. I also own Vol.1 and love both. At some point I will buy the other two. And pretty much anything else that I find, by anyone, playing Mompou.  

(from http://www.pianosociety.com/cms/index.php?section=213):

"Federico Mompou, Catalan composer and pianist, was born in Barcelona in 1893. He studied piano at the Conservatorio del Liceo in Barcelona and gave his first concert at the age of 15. However, his shy and reticent nature did not predestine him to be a virtuoso performer, and he decided to become a composer after hearing Gabriel Faure perform his Quintet. Three years later, with a letter of recommendation from Granados, he went to Paris to study harmony and piano with Isidor Philipp and Ferdinand Motte-Lacroix. In Paris, he became influenced by the French impressionism of Debussy Satie. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Mompou returned to Barcelona, where he wrote his first works for the piano.

In 1921 Mompou returned to Paris where he remained for 20 years and became a respected composer. In 1941 he settled permamently in Barcelona. He was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, elected to the Royal Academy of San Jorge in Barcelona and of San Fernando in Madrid, and made Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Barcelona. He married the Catalan pianist Carmen Bravo in 1957, and died in Barcelona on June 30th, 1987.

Mompou was a modest, quietly spoken, and thoughtful person and this is reflected in his music. He wrote no operas, concertos or symphonies, and some choral works are as close as he got to producing large-scale works. He was predominantly a composer of lyric songs and piano miniatures. The music is imbued with the colours, sounds, and images of his beloved Catalonia, the style ranging from elegantly impressionistic to simplistic and minimal. Here we see the influence of Satie in using the utmost economy of means, doing away with key signatures and bar lines, and occasionally inserting silly comments. As a young man, Mompou worked briefly in a bell factory, and the sound of bells can be heard throughout his works. For Mompou, less is more, and one needs a finely attuned ear and a responsive state of mind to properly appreciate his music."

(I like how they flatter the listener at the end there.)

He sounds like he was an interesting guy: quietly eccentric, and devoted to his craft. I'm not sure the Masó performances are the best-- to my uneducated ears they sound, perhaps, a trifle fussy and precise-- I hope to hear better at some point-- maybe Michelangeli, who I just discovered on Youtube recently?-- but they're certainly gorgeous in their way and make for wonderfully relaxing evening music.

Anyhow, you'll enjoy this if you enjoy Satie. (And what kind of person doesn't enjoy Satie?)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/kfuctgrktvcrmt4/Frederic%20Mompou_Jordi%20Maso-%20Piano%20Music%20Vol%204.zip

for much more (5 volumes of Mompou playing Mompou!) go here:
http://elrestoesruido.blogspot.com/2008/11/federico-mompou-mompou-plays-mompou.html

Lots of good purchasables (discs and downloads) at CDUniverse.

A Long Way From Home

Lots of miscellaneous Youtube goodness.







Not Youtube, but you'll want to listen:
http://soundcloud.com/rogboy/burn-it-down-los-lobos

Incurable

There's a lot of retro-nostalgia(?) these days for the 80s. Most of the contributors of this blog grew up during the 80s. And guess what!??! It WAS awesome. We just didn't know it at the time. It was a bunch of shitty pre-adolescent sexual frustration and Republican yuppies. And Michael Jackson was big. Except he sucked then. But now he's cool. I guess. I don't know. The first CDs I bought were in the early 90s. Some Cure, some Skinny Puppy, Ministry and Front 242. There's some Cure I can listen to. They have some great singles, Just Like Heaven, Love Cats and what have you. I obsessed over Disintegration when I was a teen. I still like the titular track, but really it's teeny-bopper shit.

For the real Cure, you got to go to Echo and the Bunnymen. Or as an alternative, The Sound, an enduring obsession of mine. The mastermind behind The Sound was a man named Adrian Borland, and succumbed to crippling schizo-depression in 1999 and committed suicide.

My parents always made fun of me when I listened to my Cure records--"Why is that guy in so much pain?" Well, ma, dad, it's an act. For all I know Robert Smith might be the most depressed man alive. But there is a much more profound quiet pain in The Sound. It is post-punk stripped of most of the glam/punk-kid affectations. Quite in the same genius vein of label mates Echo and the Bunnymen--but less cinematic and much more introspective.

And unlike the Bunnymen, The Sound never had a hit single. The first couple of albums are incredibly, Ian Curtis-inspired, austere and dark (and I love them QED.) They were urged to write more accessible tunes; they certainly were capable of it. Listen to "One Thousand Reasons."--a song Bobby Smith could have written--if he had any decency. (And I guess his indecency is his appeal.) But The Sound didn't sell-out their sound. They released another barely commercially viable album Thunder Up and then broke up. I guess Borland had minor success in the Nederlands and released a number of solo albums (which I'm processing now--seems to be excellent stuff). So it wasn't all for naught. Except he killed himself.

I'm giving you some of my most well-worn mp3s: the mid-period 1985 EPs Shock of Daylight / Heads and Hearts.

So, the sound of The Sound: Dark post punk. But not goofy gothic. (Though I like 80s gothic--don't get me wrong.) This mid-period stuff has quite a lot instrumental movement going on it; but on songs like "Longest Days" all the parts mesh like a smooth ticking, bitter-sweet alarm clock. The bass sound is amazing. The guitar sounds great. The keyboards sound great. Hell, even the saxophone sounds great. Enough talk. Time for the delicious pop-pain of The Sound!

ICI.

{Side note, trying rapidshare. Let me know if this is a problem.}


Post Script: I think some of the details of the history are wrong. All Fall Down was the album that Borland wrote in response to his label's request to make more accessible tunes. The EPs here are after all that. I don't know. Go here and figure it out with me.