Stegm - Sugar Shower

High-intensity, noisy power electronics from Canadian Ryan Bloomer. Distorted vocals and themes of sexual aggression and abnormal libido. Released as a CDr on his own Trauma Tone Recordings in 2005 and re-released the following year (with different packaging) on Freak Animal Records. 

1. Want

2. Empty Every Night

3. Cover Me

4. Tail

5. Excitation

6. Disconcerted Efforts

7. Knot Of Hair

8. Her Scent

9. Cave

10. Take A Little Too Much

mp3/320kbps

Tourette - Un Vent Glacé, Une Ombre Étrange Dancé dans tes Yeux

Blend of intricate ambient sounds and harsh noise from French project Tourette. Released as a CDr on Belgian label Audiobot (active from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s) in 2005.

1. Brûlot

2. Cruising Badlands

3. Glace Mes Pas Vers La Lumière

4. Lichens

5. Cruising Paradise

6. Le Règne Minéral

7. Les Brisants

8. Fleur Chaude

9. Un Vent Épuisé Ne Porte Pas Les Nuages

10. Douce Nuit Noire

11. Des Canyons Aux Étoiles

mp3/192kbps

Antonio Lotti - Vesper Psalms

"During the first third of the eighteenth century Antonio Lotti (1667-1740) doubtless numbered among the most important Italian composers, but today general knowledge of his music hardly corresponds to its true significance. Lotti was born to a musician in Venice on 5 January 1667 and began receiving instruction from Lodovico Fuga (1643-1722) and Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-90) in 1682. Both Fuga and Legrenzi were employed at the Basilica of St. Mark (San Marco), Venice's principal church, and Lotti's career also continued to be closely connected with this church: on 30 May 1689 he was initially employed there as an alto chorister, but soon he was also assisting on the organ, and already on 30 May 1692 he was appointed second organist. On 17 August 1704 he assumed the post of first organist and continued to serve in this capacity for more than thirty years. Together with his duties at San Marco, Lotti wrote sacred music for other Venetian institutions. In addition, beginning in 1693 he composed many operas for the various theaters in Venice; these works became extraordinarily popular and brought him an appointment as music director at the Saxon-Polish court in Dresden for two years. The high point of his activity at the Saxon residence (and at the same time the end of his career as an opera composer) was marked by the premiere of 'Toefane' on 13 September 1719 on the occasion of the wedding of the Saxon Prince Elector Friedrich August and the Archduchess Maria Josepha, a daughter of Emperor Joseph I. On his return to Venice Lotti assumed his customary post and then on 2 April 1736, at the age of almost seventy, was selected as music director at San Marco, after having been unsuccesful in his first bid four years prior to this date. He died in Venice on 5 January 1740.

"Lotti's extraordinary fame as a composer of sacred music originated already during the eighteenth century. In 1770 the English music scholar Charles Burney heard 'a mass sung in four parts, without other instrument than the organ', by him at San Marco. From these years on he was regarded as an outstanding master of the 'a cappella' style. Exponents of reform movements in sacred music during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century celebrated him as 'one of the greatest sacred composers of all time', as a composer who together with Fux and Caldara 'elevated polyphony to new height in the musical focal points of Southern Europe, in Vienna and Venice, by drawing on the pure 'a cappella' style of the sixteenth century' (Vinzenz Goller, 1913). On the basis of such an elevation, Lotti's works in the traditional 'stile antico' gained a certain degree of dissemination, while his large-scale masses, mass numbers and psalms composed in the 'stile concertato' have met with the interest of musicians and musicologists only in very recent years. For example, the so-called 'Missa Sapientiae' met with some notice, and Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, as well as the Dresden church composer Jan Dismas Zelenka had copies of it. Other works of no less importance, however, continue to await their rediscovery today. The trail of this music leads to Dresden, among other places, where Lotti, together with a few outstanding singers, arrived in the autumn of 1717. These Italians were initially engaged for the opera but also assumed responsibility for the performance of sacred music on special occasions. Of their first performance on the Feast of St. Cecilia, the court church chronicler reported in absolutely rapturous terms (in an original Latin text), 'In what here is still an entirely unaccustomed manner the Ialian musicians who have been sent by His Serene Highness the Prince Elector from Venice to Dresden enlivened our church, when in honor of St. Cecilia, within the octave after her feast day, they presented a sung high mass that lasted almost three hours with such a marvelous artistic skill, both with respect to the vocal parts as well as the instruments, as one had never yet heard before in Dresden.'

"The Prince Elector of Saxony Friedrich August I, better known as August the Strong, had converted to the Catholic faith in 1697 in order to be able to present himself as a candidate for election as King of Poland. The sacred music in the Taschenberg opera house redesigned as a Catholic court church in 1708 had occupied a rather modest level until the arrival of the Italians and gained public attention only after their arrival. It is no longer possible to determine which compositions were performed in this church during the two years that Lotti spent there. As music director he may have written his own works for the use of this church or had works copied that had been composed earlier. The scores of the psalms recorded here are extant in the holdings of the Library of the German Land of Saxony - State and University Library in Dresden and are from the court church archive. These works do not belong to the tradition of Catholic church music proper in Dresden (since this tradition formed only later on) but instead very much adhere to proven Venetian models. Of them, the 'Credidi' and 'Laudate Dominum' also later found their place in the repertoire of the court church; they thus represent the Venetian component within the Dresden tradition, a component that would make its influence felt for some two generations.

"Large-scale psalm compositions played a central role in Venetian sacred music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries both in the Basilica of St. Mark as well in the famous conservatories for girls. Such compositions found their place in the vesper service, during which the opening versicle 'Domine ad adjuvandum me festina', the hymn of the particular feast, and the 'Magnificat' were also usually performed with figural music. In such compositions Lotti and his contemporaries to a great extent followed standardized models in the overall design of their works, and these models for the most part remained unchanged over several generations. The task of the individual consisted not in the invention of completely new possibilities but in the greatest possible original realization of the models set by the tradition. This applies in special measure to the 'Dixit Dominus', which was set very often as the opening psalm of the vespers on all the Sundays and feast days of the liturgical year and in which above all the assignment of the individual verses to choral and solo numbers was by and large set. Only a few of the individual versions realized by Lotti in his composing can be named here: at the beginning the alternation between 'Dixit Dominus Domino meo' (in each case two or three soloists) and 'Sede a dextris meis' (five-part chorus) on various degrees of the main key produces a large-scale entry portal taken up at the end again in 'Sicut erat in principio' ('As it was in the beginning'). Likewise, the ensuing six-part vocal number on 'Donec ponam inimicos tuos' (three altos and three basses), embedded in a simple string accompaniment, hardly finds parallels in the compositions of those times. The solo instruments employed in the individual movements of this composition also contribute not insignificantly to its musical diversity, with the oboe in 'Tecum principium' and the violin in 'De torrente in via bibet' offering two examples. In contrast, the only trumpet is employed only together with the tutti; in this function it was normally reserved for the opening and concluding psalms of a vesper service in Venice. A catalogue of musical compositions of the Catholic court church from 1765 lists not only the complete version but also an abbreviated version, but neither the score nor the part of this latter version are extant. Lotti's original composition was probably too extensive for Dresden circumstances and therefore reworked in keeping with them.

"'Laudate pueri' was almost used as frequently as 'Dixit Dominus' during the course of the church year. In this psalm too settings on the large scale and of many parts were the rule in Venice. In the present composition Lotti limited his vocal and instrumental resources to the use of three solo voices together with an instrumentarium consisting of strings and oboes. Until 'Qui habitare facit' the division of individual verses into contrasting sections so very frequent in the 'Dixit Dominus' is lacking. The center of the composition is occupied by the soprano solo 'Quis sicut Dominus' on the basis of a basso ostinato. Throughout the eighteenth century it of course was possible to use the traditional 'stile antico' not only in the setting of the 'Ordinarium Missae' but also in the setting of psalms. This style is employed rigorously in 'Credidi', a psalm ocurring not in the Sunday vespers but also in the formularies of some feasts of saints as well as on All Saints' Day and Corpus Christi. As a rule each half verse but often also a shorter part is endowed with a musical 'soggetto', and this subject is then led through several voices or through all four of them. Despite the relatively uniform outer course of the setting, here too the composer has the opportunity to emphasize individual words in the texts. At the beginning and end the eighth psalm tone is heard in the soprano part - and in addition, as the words of the text 'O Domine quia ego servus tuus' in the bass - and thus grounds the anchoring of the piece in the traditional practice on a broader level. On the other hand, the use of the 'stile antico' does not automatically mean doing without instruments. In the music archive of the Dresden court church there is an arrangement of Lotti's 'Credidi' by Giovanni Alberto Ristori (1692-1753), who was employed at the Dresden court from the end of 1715, and in this arrangement the strings, oboes and bassoon play together with the vocal parts directly or at the interval of an octave. This performance material offers solid evidence of the further use of the work in Dresden and served as the performance basis in the recording presented here.

"'Laudate Dominum' is the concluding psalm of the vespers of such important feasts as the Epiphany, Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. With its length of only two verses together with the doxology, the text hardly offers the composer all that much space for development. As in the opening psalm 'Dixit Dominus', in his 'Laudate Dominum' Lotti included a single trumpet among the instruments. In the Dresden version, which also goes back to Giovanni Alberto Ristori, the trumpet is eliminated and two oboes are added in its stead, among other changes. The recording presented here, however, is based on Lotti's original version.

"Together with many other works, Antonio Lotti's vesper psalms first of all stand for the outstanding role played by Venice in European sacred music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In contrast to Antonio Vivaldi's works, which were composed at the same time or a little while later but today are much better known, Lotti's personal 'signature' is much more strongly marked by adaption to the resources of the human voice. There is one simple reason for this: Lotti began his career as a singer; Vivaldi as a violinist. With his activity as a singer and organist, Lotti from the very beginning had closer ties to the traditional compositional method. Within Venetian church music Lotti's works form the birdge between the traditional and the modern in unique fashion." (Gerhard Poppe, tr. Susan Marie Praeder. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Batzdorfer Hofkapelle, Sächsisches Vocalensemble, Matthias Jung

1. Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109): Dixit Dominus

2. Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109): Donec Ponam

3. Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109): Virgam Virtutis

4. Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109): Tecum Principium

5. Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109): Juravit Dominus

6. Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109): Dominus A Dextris Tuis

7. Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109): Judicabit In Nationibus

8. Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109): Implebit Ruinas

9. Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109): De Torrente In Via Bibet

10. Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109): Gloria Patri

11. Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109): Sicut Erat In Principio

12. Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109): Et In Saeculorum

13. Laudate Pueri (Psalm 112): Laudate Pueri

14. Laudate Pueri (Psalm 112): Sit Nomen Domini

15. Laudate Pueri (Psalm 112): A Solis Ortu Usque Ad Occasum

16. Laudate Pueri (Psalm 112): Excelsus Super Omnes

17. Laudate Pueri (Psalm 112): Quis Sicut Dominus

18. Laudate Pueri (Psalm 112): Suscitans A Terra

19. Laudate Pueri (Psalm 112): Ut Collocet Eum

20. Laudate Pueri (Psalm 112): Qui Habitare Facit

21. Laudate Pueri (Psalm 112): Gloria Patri

22. Laudate Pueri (Psalm 112): Sicut Erat In Principio

23. Credidi (Psalm 115)

24. Laudate Dominum (Psalm 116)

flac/16-bit

Giacomo Carissimi - Jephte; Jonas

"Giacomo Carissimi began his professional career as cantor, organist and then 'maestro di cappella' in institutions near Rome such as the Cathedral of Tivoli or the Church of S. Rufino in Assisi. Towards the end of 1629 his career took an important leap as he took on the task in the heart of Rome as 'maestro di cappella' at the Jesuit 'Collegio Germanico Ungarico' with responsibility for the music of the church of Sant'Apollinare, which belonged to the German Seminary. He held this position until his death in 1674. From this highly prestigious position Carissimi won early fame throughout Europe, becoming one of the leading figures in the music of the seventeenth century.

"The obligations of 'maestro di cappella' at the College were divided between composition and the direction of all musical activities of the Seminary, and teaching. Many musicians of the time came to study with him directly, including the Frenchman Marc'Antoine Charpentier and the Germans Christoph Bernhard and Johann Kaspar Kerll, or indirectly, through the music itself, and learnt this new style of composition. It is owing to Carissimi that much of this traditional Italian style of composition was maintained throughout continental Europe for the entire seventeenth century.

"Carissimi's activity was not limited to the College only, but also included important appointments outside the Church, such as service as 'maestro della musica da camera' for Queen Christina of Sweden. He also collaborated with the Roman Oratories, particularly with San Marcello, the Oratorio del Santissiimo Crocifisso, for which it is quite probably that many of his oratorios were composed.

"There is little direct information concerning performances at the College or at the Santissimo Crocifisso, but written testimony survives that gives some idea and makes it clear that both institutions had ample means for musical performance. Francis Mortopf, a traveller passing through Rome some time in the 1650s, is recorded as describing the music performed at Santissimo Crocifisso [...] '...a music so sweet and harmonious which, once having left Rome, can never be hoped to be heard again on the face of the Earth. It was composed with at least twenty voices, organs, lute, viola and two volins, all of which were playing music so melodious and delicious that Cicero with all his eloquence would never have been able to describe it'.

"'Jephte' is perhaps the best known composition of Carissimi today. Together with 'Jonas', it is also one of the few for which chronological reference can be established, some time before 1649. The text is a free treatment of the Old Testament narrative ('Judges 11:28-38'), and is much fuller than original biblical text. The narration is entrusted to the 'Historicus', sung in various places by different voices. In addition to the paraphrasing of passages from the Vulgate, completely new texts provide dramatic moments.

"The oratorio can be divided into two major sections. The first of these describes Jephthah's victory over the Ammonites, and the other deals with the drama of the sacrifice of his child, to which Jephthah has sworn. In the first part the chorus interventions are among the numerous dramatic amplifications of the biblical narrative. Other details such as the introduction of the word 'ululantes' in the description of the conquered Ammonites, which is absent in the biblical passage, allow the composer to make used of the dramatic 'topos' of the lament. Of still greater effect is the separation between the celebration of Jephthah's victory and the introduction by the narrator of the idea of Jephthah's oath. The final part with the lament by Jephthah's daughter and the repeated chorus, is extremely effective.

"'Jonas' is probably more or less contemporary with 'Jephte'. Here there is an analogous situation as far as concerns the biblical source and the oratorio text. The Vulgate is largely followed in the narrative, without paraphrase, but again there are dramatic interpolations. This oratorio too can be divided into sections. The first follows the biblical adventures of Jonah ('Jonah 1:1-4') and the first interpolation is head in the chorus 'Et proeliabantur venti' (and the winds battled), which uses the technique of two separate choirs, effectively reflecting the storm which threatens the ship where Jonah is sleeping. The biblical text, however, only briefly mentions this episode. The second section is dedicated to the dialogue between Jonah and the sailors. Close to the original text, this is also expressed in dialogue. The sailors' interventions are varied, first a duet, then a chorus, and then alternation of solo voices from the choir. The third episode is made up entirely of Jonah's prayer to God from the belly of the whale ('Jonah 2'). The refrain 'Placare, Domine, ignosce, Domine, et miserere' (Forgive, Lord, and have mercy), strengthened with the presence of instrumental 'ritornelli', divides the long 'recitativo' into three different but equal sections. The conclusion condenses in just a few lines the whole of the third biblical chapter. The final chorus is in fact a 'mea culpa' of the Ninevites, which again is a free invention of the librettist.

"The catalogue of Carissimi's vast output is not made up only of sacred music and oratorios, but includes secular cantatas for various groups of performers. Consortium Carissimi presents a transcription of the serenade 'Dai (trai) più riposti abissi' (From the most hidden abysses), originally set for two sopranos, bass and basso continuo. Here it is offered with two tenor voices instead, making use of a common practice of the time, replacing higher register voices with tenors. The text is by Francesco Balducci (1579-1642) 'a greatly ingenious man, but haughty and too vague for adventure... easily lost for love and poetry, little lover fatigue [who] attempted to live off Princes and Cardinals' (Guido Pasquetti). Balducci is normally allowed an important position in the codification of the music genre of oratorio. He was also a poet, and frequented high Roman ecclesiastical and aristocratic circles. Balducci was particularly associated with the Barberinis. The serenade, therefore, in its choice of text and its connotations of Roman high society represents a fine example of Carissimi's extramural activity. From a musical point of view this piece demonstrates a structure quite typical of its genre in the early baroque period. Distinct musical sections correspond to the verses of the text, which make use of different techniques and styles, alternating between recitative, aria, ternary episodes and solo sections, dialogue, 'tutti' sections and instrumental 'ritornelli'. All of these aspect delightfully underscore the details of the text itself, admirably communicated in a dense language which at the same time reveals absolute technical and expressive transparency." (Angela Romagnoli, tr. Garrick Comeaux. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Consortium Carissimi

1. Historia Di Jephte: Historicus

2. Historia Di Jephte: Jephte

3. Historia Di Jephte: Coro A 6

4. Historia Di Jephte: Historicus A 2

5. Historia Di Jephte: Basso Solo

6. Historia Di Jephte: Coro A 6

7. Historia Di Jephte: Historicus

8. Historia Di Jephte: Historicus A 3

9. Historia Di Jephte: Historicus

10. Historia Di Jephte: Filia

11. Historia Di Jephte: Coro A 2

12. Historia Di Jephte: Filia

13. Historia Di Jephte: Coro A 6

14. Historia Di Jephte: Historicus

15. Historia Di Jephte: Jephte

16. Historia Di Jephte: Historicus A 4

17. Historia Di Jephte: Filia - Eco

18. Historia Di Jephte: Coro A 6

19. Dai Più Riposti Abissi

20. Historia Ionae: Symphonia

21. Historia Ionae: Historicus

22. Historia Ionae: Deus

23. Historia Ionae: Historicus

24. Historia Ionae: Historicus

25. Historia Ionae: Historicus A 8

26. Historia Ionae: Nautae A 3

27. Historia Ionae: Historicus

28. Historia Ionae: Gubernator Navis

29. Historia Ionae: Nautae A 2

30. Historia Ionae: Historicus

31. Historia Ionae: Nautae A 3

32. Historia Ionae: Ionas

33. Historia Ionae: Nautae A 3

34. Historia Ionae: Ionas

35. Historia Ionae: Historicus A 8

36. Historia Ionae: Historicus

37. Historia Ionae: Ionas

38. Historia Ionae: Historicus A 3

39. Historia Ionae: Historicus

40. Historia Ionae: Ninevitae A 8

flac/16-bit

Double Leopards - Out of One, Through One and to One

Hazy drone-based electroacoustic odyssey from New York-based sound art project Double Leopards. Maintains a rich psychedelic atmosphere through slowly-birthed organic audio. Released as an edition of one hundred LPs on psych label Eclipse Records in 2005, recorded the year previous.

A. Untitled

B. Untitled

mp3/v2

Charles Tolliver - Mosaic Select 20

"It was 1970, and Slugs' a 4 A.M. joint on a gritty street of Alphabet City on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, was in the in-club, a scene of true-edge jazz. Hipsters, listeners, mack men, slick women, students, artists, activists, arrivistes—'Everyone went there, night after night,' remembers Charles Tolliver, trumpeter with Jackie McLean on the very first night live music was played in the place, in the summer of 1964.

""For much of the next decade, Tolliver's own Music Inc. was among Slugs' resident ensembles, in company with Sun Ra's Arkestra, Charles Mingus' combos and bands of such incandescent stars like trumpeter Lee Morgan, who, just off the bandstand, was shot dead by a jealous lover. Music Inc. 'Live at Slugs'', released originally by Tolliver's semi-collective Strata-East record label, has long been treasured as a like-it-was document of the high, hot music born in that smoky, boozy, seductive room (reopened in the mid '80s as the Nuyorican Poets' Café). Put this CD on, and you're there.

"'For jazz you'd start at the Vanguard, maybe hear Sonny Rollins playing to five people, then go to the Gate to catch Cannonball Adderley, who was often there, then pass by the Five Spot—all glassed—in on the corner of St. Mark's and Bowery, so you could see in before deciding if you were going in. You'd end up at Slugs',' Tolliver recalls with satisfaction.

"For a taste of the real thing; the hard, bright exuberance of clarity or the down and sometimes dirty but nevertheless spiritually untarnished intensity of urban dwellers grappling with that very day's practical, personal, social and aesthetic issues, finding rough and tumble answers often beyond conventions, limits or constraints. For instance, the music on this record—urgent, probing, hoodoo chasing performances, able to satisfy one's itch to get up, maybe bust open some new possibilities (dig the collective improv peak of 'Wilpan's'), or tenderly craft and linger in the luxuriance of a ballad (as on 'Felicite' and 'Orientale').

"Music Inc., live at Slugs', typically played generous sets, each tune easily running 10, 20 minutes or more. Energy was the watchword of the era's music, due partly to the influence of John Coltrane, among the jazz masters Tolliver idolized while coming up. Indeed, Coltrane's quest for musical fulfillment, and his great quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones, informed Music Inc.'s horn/piano/bass/drums format and repertoire of modal improvisation, motivic melodies and stretched-out hard-bop minor blues. As for Tolliver himself: 'The whole point of Music Inc. was not to have an alternate — a saxophonist to spell me if I got tired,' he explains, 'and to gain urgency from having to deliver myself, as the only horn player and composer-leader. I had to keep my chops up and strengths about me all the time.'

"By the date of this recording, Tolliver had long distinguished himself as a comer among the full range of pace-setters of the day (including Miles, Dizzy, Kenny Dorham, Freddie Hubbard, Don Cherry, Donald Byrd, Blue Mitchell, Woody Shaw and others). His particular forte is the focus with which he unleashes dramatic strokes — and those strokes themselves, broad figures he brings to inspired heights. He'd gigged with Jackie McLean, Max Roach, Roy Ayers, Roy Haynes and Andrew Hill, woodshed with Joe Henderson, Jack DeJohnette, James Spaulding and Chick Corea, recorded on Blue Note and led his own band (featuring pianist John Hicks) up at Count Basie's, a lounge in Harlem. With firm command of attack, tone and tempo, in the tradition of trumpeters such as Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown and Booker Little, Charles Tolliver was not so modest as to eschew the dazzling showcase; here he blazons swaggering statements over churning rhythms, floats ultra-pretty, heartfelt lines upon mousse-rich piano chords, dares to try—and nails!—thrilling lip trill climaxes. But he also surrounded himself with colleagues who superbly supported, challenged and balanced him, for utmost interaction and groove. If they don't top the Coltrane quartet's transcendence, Music Inc.'s members for sure demonstrate admirable physical concentration and enviable musical imagination.

"Pianist Stanley Cowell was Tolliver's dream accompanist: percussive, rhnythm-grounded, sly yet churly-soulful, an evocative soloist and harmonic visionary with exemplary keyboard technique. 'I was so lucky to meet him at the beginning of my career,' Tolliver says. Bassist Cecil McBee was also indispensable, a fluid bedrock giving constant bottom and lift to the band. Drummer Jimmy Hopps stirred up and juggled a storm of polyrhythms, tending the pots, tubs and cymbals at a bubbling simmer as emphatically as at a ferocious boil. And he's exceptionally well recorded.

"'T always like to hear the drummer, yeah!' Tolliver enthuses. 'When I sat down to mix these recordings — which were recorded analog, of course, the format which I think retains the most warmth and punch — I made sure the drums were prominent. Because, you know: a trumpet player's got to have drums!'

"In the '90s, Jimmy Hopps has disappeared from view. Cecil McBee remains an internationally renowned, first-call New York bassist. Stanley Cowell, based around Washington, D.C., continues to perform and teach jazz. Tolliver lives in NYC and is a professor at New York City's New School for Social Research (Mannes School of Music).

"'We had a style then,' Tolliver says 'which endures in some players of the 90s I could easily name, which was based on being half-free, half-straight ahead. Or maybe 30 percent free to 70 percent straight ahead, mainstream — I don't know. Everything had a structure, but we could take the music any way we felt.

"'The music we created then is of course historical — but also, 30 years later, it still sounds as if it's just about to be conceived now. Some of that's the urgency which encompassed our lives at the time, also the necessity of having to deliver, on the fly! Some of it's because we're still living with Diz, Monk, Bird, Miles and Trane,' Tolliver considers.

"'Slugs' was a forum for us, an opportunity,' he notes, 'and we took good advantage of it, The audience at Slugs' was there to hear that kind of music, our kind of music, so we didn't have to satisfy them with standards or pop songs, didn't have to hold back or save something for another take or deal with producers who wanted to put other stuff under us than what we'd written ourselves. We were 95 percent acoustic — Stanley tinkered with the Moog and Fender Rhodes keyboards, but we always had an upright, not an electric bass. We got to play the way we were thinking at the time, and as long as we cared to.

"'Also we could always feel something from the audience there. Maybe not something specific about their responses: something intangible. We were able to play for ourselves, and for the real fans, members of the community who knew what we were trying to say, what the music meant. They're on the record, too, somehow, as much as Freddie Freeloader adding his ‘Yeahs!' to a Miles solo.

"'Of course, today, it's not written that I'm an enfant terrible, the way they used to,' Tolliver cautions. 'But I'm still playing, of course, and I've got to say I don't feel any different in 1998, at age 55, than when it came out, almost three decades back. It's all for real, and that's forever.'" (Howard Mandel, February 1998. Reprinted in the liner notes.)

"Slugs' Saloon, which was located on 3rd Street between Avenues B and C on the Lower East Side of New York City, was created in the mid 60s by two guys named Jerry and Robert. In its brief history, roughly 10 years, Slugs' became one of the main arenas to perform and listen to the music during those turbulent and extremely creative times.

"One day during the summer of '64 I got a call from the saxophone great Jackie McLean, who at the time lived just one street from the club, to do an afternoon ‘hit' at this new place called Slugs'. It would be the first time live music would be presented there. No bandstand had as yet been erected. So, in the middle of the club on a sawdust covered floor, Jackie, myself, Larry Willis, John Ore, and Billy Higgins inaugurated the place.

"The rest is history as just about every artist involved with creating the music during this period either played the club or passed through to see and hear what was going on. The music presented here is from a week engagement I made at the club in 1970 with my first Music Inc. group featuring Stanley Cowell, Cecil McBee, and Jimmy Hopps." (Charles Tolliver, 1998. Reprinted in the liner notes.)

"The music and philosophy of Charles Tolliver hails from a time when the most powerful artistic minds in Black America were in sync with its radical elite. As the trumpeter and self-made label executive puts it, 'One of the reasons the music of that era sounds the way it does is because there was at that time a oneness of purpose among Black people in general and musicians in particular. The whole push towards equality, along with John Coltrane's music, permeated everything we did for about five to eight years.'

"In 1971, under the influence of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and John Coltrane, Tolliver, along with business and musical partner Stanley Cowell, began what has become the most successful musician-run label in jazz history: Strata-East. But though the Strata-East story dovetails nicely with that of '60s, Black cultural nationalism and the desire for independence, Tolliver recounts also being motivated by the death of Kenny Dorham, a legendary trumpeter, friend and idol:

"'Kenny Dorham was truly one of my heroes and one of the greatest artists jazz has produced. As a player and composer he did amazing work, yet he died in obscurity. I went to see him just before he died and I asked myself, how does this happen, that someone who has recorded all this music has nothing? That's when I realized he didn't own any of his masters, and that recognition is what set me on the course I've been on to this day and I have not swerved from it. As musicians, I knew that we've got to leave something behind for our children.'

"Though the roots of Strata-East may lay in the above observations, the label's fruits were a catalogue of music that spoke to jazz as an art form in transition, poised between triumph and trauma. By the early ‘70s jazz had firmly established itself on the international scene as the definitive American contribution to world culture. The usual suspects, Monk, Mingus, Max, Miles, Ornette and Trane — a litany of giants really — had changed the face of 20th-century music in ways never predicted by Western modernism, and had proven the seriousness of jazz as a challenging aesthetic endeavor. For conscious and daring young African-American musicians of Tolliver and Cowell's caliber, the moment must have seemed like a rite of passage: one in which they would have to prove themselves worthy of assuming the mantle of their forefathers. Leaving Howard University's School of Pharmacy in his third year, Tolliver had come up in jazz the old-fashioned way, apprenticing with the masters. His post-college internships were with Jackie McLean, McCoy Tyner, Gerald Wilson and Max Roach. His recollection of that time identifies him as someone who caught the meteoric tail end of a golden age:

"'I played with all the great guys who were around then: Hank Mobley, Philly Joe Jones, Horace Silver, Elmo Hope, Sonny Red, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey. I was close to all of them. The camaraderie was really high at that time, because everybody grew up playing together. It was really a once-in-a-lifetime period when everybody was living here. Old cats like Pee Wee Russell got a chance to see us and we got to see them. From 1965 to about 1975 there were a group of guys who played together, stayed together, did everything together. When Miles would come to the Five Spot, he was just one of the guys. And this even after he had given us several turning points in the music, like 'Round Midnight and Kind of Blue.'

"Anything but a retired veteran, Tolliver continues to oversee the Strata-East legacy, while actively performing and teaching jazz orchestration and the repertoire of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers at the New School. Quizzed on the musical instruction methods of his younger days, he cuts to the chase: 'the real players' way of letting you know that you could play back then was by calling on you for gigs. I never got instruction, nor did I ever harangue anyone to show me anything. You learned this stuff from your elders by listening to the records. If you've got any craft in you, that's going to come out as you're practicing anyway. Like the old saying goes, ‘if you can't hear it, you don't belong.'

"Musically, the question on the table for Tolliver's generation at the dawn of Strata-East's inception was deciding what parts of bebop tradition remained viable in an age set on fire by Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra. As can be heard on this and his other Strata-East releases, Tolliver's Music Inc. group proposed clear answers to such questions, with meaty and melodious playing that celebrated the classical virtues of swing, virtuosity and the unbridled expressionism and spontaneity that were the '60s stock-in-trade. Call it a case of eating your cake and immolating it too.

"The lengthy, open-ended forms Tolliver preferred provided for incisive explorations of a composition's crevices, fissures and depths. On Cowell's 'Effi', a superb mid-tempo ballad, as well as the band's sumptuous and dangerous reading of Thelonious Monk's ''Round Midnight', Tolliver puts his globular and molten tone (often compared with Freddie Hubbard's), to driven yet sublime use. (On the subject of those Hubbard comparisons by the way, Tolliver has this to say: 'We have a similar sound and attack but the idea usage is completely different. Because we used to hang out, people assumed I was sitting at his knees, but it wasn't like that at all.')

"Tolliver brings an assured and bold approach to ''Round Midnight', where he jumps from a languid introduction to a near triple-time explosion of crisply chosen bursts of brass that almost seem in flight from Monk's famous changes. His sudden return descent to cruising altitude is incredibly smooth and romantic, if only to sucker punch us again by flaring up an Afro-Cuban groove that brings the song in for a three-point landing. Bassist Clint Houston and drummer Clifford Barbaro make for an energetic and sympathetic rhythm section, and the passages where Cowell stops comping and leaves the trio to blaze without his harmonic signposts make for champion feats of agility and dexterity. Imbued in this music is a fanatical devotion to both viscerality and technical acumen that unabashedly proclaims the enduring impact of Coltrane on Tolliver: 'Trane was in every fiber of what I did and still is. And Bird too. The point was to mix it up and make something of it that's my own. That's what being a jazz musician is all about.'

"As 'Live in Tokyo' and all his Strata-East recordings make apparent, Tolliver's achievements as a musician and as an entrepreneur mark him as one of the great independent minds of the jazz tradition. As the music finds a pathway into the 21st century, he appears destined to remain an intrepid frontrunner." (Greg Tate, April 1998. Reprinted in the liner notes.)

"Charles Tolliver arrived on the jazz scene in 1964, just in time for the last cycle of the golden era of hard bop. Had he arrived 10 years later with the same considerable talents as a trumpeter and composer, he might hardly have been noticed. But in the 60s, jazz had an ad hoc infrastructure of its own. There were thriving labels, jazz on the radio, jazz clubs in all five boroughs and every major city, bandleaders mentoring sidemen, booking agents, managers and tours.

"And that infrastructure was real. Consider that the equally talented trumpeter/composer Woody Shaw hit Manhattan around the same time and how parallel their careers ran for the next six years. They both gained their greatest initial exposure on Blue Note sessions, worked with Jackie McLean who gave their compositional skills a platform and gigged and/or recorded with Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, Art Blakey, Willie Bobo, Archie Shepp and Andrew Hill.

"In May of 1969, Tolliver formed Music Inc., a quartet featuring his close friend and musical cohort Stanley Cowell. While there are a lot of quartets fronted by saxophonists and guitarists, the format is rare for a trumpeter. And for good reason. The physical demands that the trumpet places on a musician far exceed those that a saxophone or a guitar would have. In fact, there are very few quartet albums featuring trumpet, let alone working bands! 

"But Charles, a quietly determined man who sees no reason not to face a challenge head on, picked this demanding context and made it work. He picked rhythm sections that would engage and push him. He built a band book of contemporary pieces rather than familiar standards, which meant the originals had to be strong, varied and memorable.

"It's interesting to note that many of the originals on these three CDs had been previously recorded, but at the time of these sessions only versions of 'Truth' (Jackie McLean, 1964), 'Earl's World' (Tolliver, 1968) and 'Effi' (Max Roach, 1968) had been released. The original recordings of 'Orientale' (Bobby Hutcherson, 1969), 'Effi' (Hutcherson, 1968) and 'On the Nile' (Jackie McLean, 1965) would not be issued until years later. And the first recordings of 'Drought' (Roach, 1968), 'Felicite' (Yusef Lateef, 1969) and 'Wilpan's' (Charles Lloyd, 1966) are still unreleased. Still these compositions, especially those by Charles and Stanley, have had considerable currency once they were introduced into the jazz world.

"As the music on this set proves, Tolliver's Music Inc. met every challenge and then some. These live recordings from 1970 and 73 embrace hard bop in all its various approaches and epitomize the teamwork that is so essential to any successful jazz performance. And Charles' endurance is absolutely remarkable.

"In 1971, Charles and Stanley took on another risky venture. Partly out of self-determination and partly because of the fading recording scene at the time, they formed Strata-East Records, a label that would be run by Tolliver to issue albums produced and owned by the artists themselves. And he took to this task with typical drive and thoroughness. When the first release came out, he brought promotional copies to my apartment personally! Now free records are one things, but hand delivered by the president of the company!

"It was on Strata-East that two volumes of Live at Slugs' and one LP of Live in Tokyo were first issued. On the occasion of this Mosaic Select set, Charles dug into the vault and came up with another 73 minutes of unissued music from these gigs. Hopefully this is just the first in a line of co-ventures between Mosaic and Strata-East." (Michael Cuscuna, September 2005. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Charles Tolliver (tp), Stanley Cowell (pi), Cecil McBee/Clint Houston (bs), Jimmy Hopps/Clifford Barbaro (dr)

1.1. Drought

1.2. Felicite

1.3. Orientale

1.4. Spanning

1.5. Wilpan's

1.6. Our Second Father

2.1. Drought

2.2. Stretch

2.3. Truth

2.4. Effi

2.5. 'Round Midnight

3.1. On The Nile

3.2. Ruthie's Heart

3.3. Repetition

3.4. Impact

3.5. Our Second Father

3.6. Earl's World

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Giacinto Scelsi - The Orchestral Works 2

"Giacinto Scelsi is known to have some untiring propagandists: he dissipates our angst, plunges us into an exquisite life, leads us into God's arms. He is also known to have some violent disparagers: he is less a 'messenger' than a joker behind apocryphal scores. But since his death in 1988, and the discovery of some new scores (some 120 works are published today, leaving around 30 yet to be fully explored), plus musicological and historical developments, the mystical spasms, the foolish garbled syncretism and the contemptuous treatment of a shrewdly revivified past have all been muffled. Now remains only Scelsi's music, which nearly everyone has avoided even mentioning. As his friend Henri Michaux wrote: 'Against noise, my noise. This noise then wards off all others—present, from before, from all day long—assembling them through a prodigious unheardofness into a perfect nothingness, a full relief.'

"Scelsi's music appears quite remarkable, although retrospection is still not distancing us enough to know just how much it has transformed new music. We know of his analogies with Varése's premonitions, with Frederich Cerha's or Per Nørgard's intuitions, and the minimalists' rudimentary developments. We know of the influence he had on Ligeti—who acknowledged this—or on Horatiu Radulescu, on the composers from the ineptly named 'spectral' school (Tristan Murail, Gérard Grisey, Michaél Levinas...), then on the architects of musical informatics, or even on his innumerable sextons, who, in their pursuit of examining the inner workings of sound—'the first movement of the immobile' (Scelsi)—attempt to perceive its 'depth', to analyze its transitions, its variations. Henceforth, according to Murail, 'we shall no longer compose (juxtapose, superpose), but de-compose, or at least, quite simply, position sound.' This corresponds to a radical change of perspective in our musical tradition.

"All of Scelsi's works, gigantic liquid monuments, are 'absolute' in the sense that they are totally refractory to the outside world (and thus answer the question of what is music for me); sometimes they even oppose it. Immersing ourselves in the sound, his sound, we perceive not only pitch or timbre, for example— according to Scelsi, we hear the beating of its pulse. He envelopes this tremulous fleshy being known as sound, inhabits us with little mind to our thoughts, observations, or our 'sauve-qui-peut-(la-vie)'—every-one-for-himself—attitudes, to the point that his resounding obviousness overpowers us. We are contained in the energy he incites within ourselves. One of Scelsi's premier performers and personal friend, the double bassist Joélle Léandre, has declared that when one plays his music, perception becomes so intense that one actually becomes sound itself. This rendering the world to nothingness, this flagrant bursting of the self into sound itself (not only does one feel different from others, but different from oneself), and, the strangulation of time; this liquefying of phenomena, all these paradoxically constitute the universality of Scelsi's music. Again, Léandre: 'You can play his music in Tibet, in Africa, in front of a jazz or rock audience, or before ordinary folks who don’t have any real relation to art—all of them will be profoundly roused.'

"'La nascita del Verbo' ('The birth of the Word'), a grand 'cantata' in four parts for chorus and large orchestra, was written in Rome between 1946 and 1948—therefore heralding his spiritual, mystic (influenced by the Orient), and musical (sound dissection, timbral quest) transformation. The work was premiered on November 28, 1949 in Paris at the Théatre des Champs-Elysées, by the French National Orchestra, conducted by Roger Desormiére and the French Radio Chorus, conducted by Yvonne Gouverné. (Scelsi: 'Désormiere was the ideal conductor for any contemporary composer. He was implacably lucid and had an exceptional musical acuity.')

"This majestic cantata's style contains hints and traces of chromatic languages, like in Scriabin; some neoclassic tendencies, like Malipiero; and a dodecaphonic impression, although there is never a trace of actual serialism in Scelsi. Certainly, serialism was the most intransigent phase of western music—its force indispensable, but one that would incite a new poetics plus a new, active way of listening and hearing. It left behind a long-standing aesthetic wound that many judged not easily tamed.

"The first section of 'La nascita del Verbo' begins with an orchestral prelude leading up to the Word. In an 'atmosphere of chords', says the composer—indeed the chorus sings only syllables—we are witnessing the 'formation of sonorities polarized on all the vowels spoken by the chorus, which is divided into up to eight arts. A sea of percussion supports this peroration and precedes a vibraphone pedal, held in he higher registers, and which acts like a bridge between the opening and second sections.' There, the Word is 'born' and is manifest in the 'sonorous explosions on the syllables of the words Deus, Amor, Lux.' The third section, Scelsi specifies, is a 'vast double fugue one of the most imposing in the history of music', exposed and frequently re-exposed by the brass whose motifs are the same as the words Deus, Amor, Lux of the second section.' In the fourth and final section (also the longest), 'the choir, in a meditative atmosphere murmurs parlando a Latin invocation to fraternity. Several voices distinguish themselves one by one and sing a very simple three-note melody that gradually builds into a vast tutti. A dodecaphonic series in the strings announces the return to complexity. The three-note melody reappears and gives way to a lofty polyphony which culminates in a forty-seven voice canon in twelve keys. Finally, a second invocation—'Domine in te speravi'—reintroduces a new formation of chords of vowels and syllables, in the same spirit as in the first section, but this time in relation to the three notes on which the work concludes: 'Amor Lux-Domine'.

"This work, 'truly written in blood', left Scelsi 'in a deplorable state'. Afterwards, he stopped composing for several years. Meanwhile, in phantasmagorical public houses whose doors slam with the same resonance as a Viennese snuffbox, he gets involved with Heraldic science and Ninevehian art. Several moorings dock his ship, but enable him to become aware of—ah, prodigious unheardofness—materiality, of the depth of sounds' shadows, of what is incalculable in sound. He first explores this at the piano, only to desert the instrument — all while constituting an essential share of his ceuvre—since micro-intervals are not possible with the piano, by definition and in all practicality. Hence, whether through provocation or necessity — it really doesn’t matter — because in any case, a radical product of his evolution and of his pioneering labors emerges with his famous 'Quattro Pezzi (su una nota sola)' (1959) ('Four pieces on only one note') for chamber orchestra of 25 musicians. Each piece is limited to one pitch (f, b, a flat and a), but with micro-fluctuations of sound (vibratos, slurs, spectral changes, tremolos...), sometimes with octave transpositions. Because of the nearly total abandonment of the harmonic dimension, the listener may concentrate on new sonorous subtleties, on the orchestra's timbre as a whole. Timbre, formerly considered a negligible aspect of writing in relation to the notes themselves, is actually one of the main characteristics of musical perception — of aural perception. Thanks to these excavations, the music seems to crackle, to fissure, to be but scattered illuminations springing from its own depths.

"In 1966 came the ferocious, tormented, complex and variegated five-movement work for ondes Martenot, seven percussionists, timpanist, chorus and twenty-three musicians—'Uaxuctum', 'The Legend of the Mayan City' which they themselves destroyed for religious reasons. 'Uaxuctum' indeed once existed (the exact spelling of this famous 'city' in the Petén province of Guatemala is Uaxactuin, meaning 'Eight stones'). Among its rich and numerous vestiges is the oldest stone monument, a low pyramid covered with stucco. The Golden Age of this city began in the IXth century, and came to an abrupt end (climatic changes, wars, epidemics?) in the middle of the IXth century. Then it was said: 'The solitude and silence was heard in the Mayan cities'. And it's is better like that: no real Orient, no sitar accompanying a violin, no crossbreeding of shoddy goods. More than that, this 'elsewhere' is the same as Michaux's 'distant interior,' his 'Voyage to Great Garabagne'.

"Numerous 'interior elsewheres' are studded in this Scelsi work. But after the Far East, pre-Columbian civilizations of Central America, the richness of the Mayan pantheon, his supposed myths and mysteries are but reflected in Scelsi's compositional process: new instrumental and vocal techniques (breathing noises, nasal sounds, muted or inhaled gutturals...), rhythmic incantations, rhythms 'rising from vital dynamism' (Scelsi), a petrified flow of time. Few woodwinds, a string section consisting of six double basses, lots of brass, as is often the case with this composer, and, in addition to a timpanist, no less than seven percussionists: in part with quite unique 'tools' such as the 'grande fusto da 200 litri per olio lubrificante, senza saldature (sic)' whose ribbed sides are to be stroked and rubbed, or a large aluminum dome, vertically suspended, whose diameter must be no less than 1.50 meters.

"'Uaxuctum', a work of a rare difficulty, only received its premiere on October 23, 1987 in Cologne by the Cologne Symphony Orchestra and Radio Choir conducted respectively by Hans Zender and Herbert Schernus. Scelsi was able to attend the performance, and died less than a year later." (Jean-Noël van der Vied. From the liner notes.)

 

Performers: ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Concentus Vocalis, Wiener Kammerchor, Peter Rundel, Johannes Kalitzke

1. Quattro Pezzi: 1

2. Quattro Pezzi: 2

3. Quattro Pezzi: 3

4. Quattro Pezzi: 4

5. Uaxuctum: 1

6. Uaxuctum: 2

7. Uaxuctum: 3

8. Uaxuctum: 4

9. Uaxuctum: 5

10. La Nascita Del Verbo: 1

11. La Nascita Del Verbo: 2

12. La Nascita Del Verbo: 3

13. La Nascita Del Verbo: 4

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LHD - Hotel Fire

One in a long series of excellent 7" vinyl releases from L.A. noise supergroup LHD (Phil Blankenship and John Wiese). Released on Damion Romero's P-Tapes label in an edition of one hundred and eleven copies in 2005.

A. Hotel Fire

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LHD - Fascination

One in a long series of excellent 7" vinyl releases from L.A. noise supergroup LHD (Phil Blankenship and John Wiese). Released on Evan Pacewicz's Swampland label in an edition of one hundred and fifteen copies in 2005.

A. Fascination

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Maim - Permanent Damage

Extreme, pedal to the metal harsh noise from Swede Jonas Lindberg's Maim moniker. Assaults relentlessly for one hours. Released as a CDr edition of fifty copies on Italian noise/industrial label Seven Sermones Ad Mortuos in 2005.

1. Hell's Gate

2. Cartilage

mp3/v2

Knurl - Triapse

Knurl release from 2005, released on the artist's own Panta Rhei Recordings in 2005 as a CDr. Features Bloor's unique style of skilful, carefully composed analogue noise with an especially ominous, reverb-drenched quality.

1. Apheresis

2. Ketonuria

3. Lectivism

4. Zosphere

5. Triapse

6. Aptonema

7. Pernumerary

8. Riosteum

mp3/320kbps

Marc-Aintoine Charpentier - Motets Pour la Semaine Sainte; Messe à Quatre Chœurs

"Marc-Antoine Charpentier was born in Paris in 1643. When he was barely twenty years old, for reasons unknown to us, he journeyed to Rome, where he was overpowered by the music he heard in the churches there: Renaissance polyphonies, masses and motets of all magnitudes in the new style, and, above all, the works of Giacomo Carissimi, which were sung in the oratory founded by Philip Neri. 'The sober brilliance of this music,' in the words of the musicologist Bukofzer, convinced him to study with the Roman master. Charpentier became familiar with all the genres of religious music: the sacred story—the name given to early oratorios—and its particular declamatory style, of which Carissimi was the great exponent, as well as traditional counterpoint, works for multiple choirs, and the concertante style, which emphasized instrumental music. Having refined his composition skills to perfection, he returned from Italy with a melodic suppleness, an expressive solicitude, and a freedom of invention unique among French musicians of the time. 

 

"During his stay in the Eternal City, Charpentier penetrated the mysteries of ultramontane music. Returning to Paris around 1670, he brought with him a short treatise in manuscript form, 'Remarques sur les messes a 16 parties d'Italie,' in which he lucidly analyzed the 'Missa Mirabiles elationes maris' for four choirs by Francesco Beretta. The musicians of Rome had brought to an unrivalled magnificence the writing for multiple choirs started by the Venetians of the previous century. Yet, with a critical eye, and being thoroughly imbued with Italian art, Charpentier was able to unravel the techniques of this genre of composition, which were not as complex as might seem at first glance. He first established that, to start with, 'the trick consists only in finding four different bass lines.' He then noted that, for example, if 'the forbidden intervals sound good with 16 voices, then for eight they are excusable, and for six, four, three, two, and one, they are intolerable.' He therefore concluded that it was 'easier to compose for 16 parts than for eight, because the liberties one takes with 16 don't sound as terrible as they would with 8'! 

 

"It was at this period that he composed his 'Messe a quatre choeurs, H. 4' (for 16 voices). This was perhaps sung as part of the ceremonies organized by the Theatins, starting on August 13, 1672, for the canonization of their founder, Gaetano of Thiene. Alternatively, it may have been sung for the feast of St. Francis Xavier, celebrated at the Jesuit novitiate on December 6 of the same year. Although he set the entire text of the mass to music, Charpentier indicated places where the organist should improvise passages, in order that—if we can believe the annotations in the author's manuscript—the singers would have time to twice change their positions with respect to the altar during the Kyrie, the second time to return to their initial positions. Aiming for the best sonority possible in the space, this work not only uses the opposition and the massive grouping of the choirs; it also exploits all the possible combinations of the four voices of each choir, such as when the four sopranos begin the Gloria by personifying the angels. The strings, in some places, double the voices—'the entire Kyrie with violins' or 'Gloria in Excelsis without violins.' Seeking to best render the sense of the text, the composer sustains our interest by contrasting the monumental force obtained through homophony with the intimacy of the sections given to soloists. According to Catherine Cessac, Charpentier 'appeared as a fantastic architect who possessed in the highest degree the sense of balance and proportion,' but yet 'this architectural aspect never stifled expression.'

"Several years after his return, the rupture occurred that put an end to the many years of fruitful collaboration between the two Jean-Baptistes, Molière and Lully. Molière, in 1672, then called upon Charpentier, which confirms that his musical reputation was already well established. The association did not last long, though: 'Le Malade imaginaire' appeared in 1673, and then the revival of 'La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas' and of 'Le Manage forcé' in 1674, the year of Molière's death. Nevertheless, Charpentier continued until around 1685 to compose for the French theatre, creating various theatrical pieces, overtures, dances, and vocal music. 'Médée,' his only musical tragedy, appeared in 1693; it shows to perfection his sense of drama, which was otherwise almost exclusively reserved for sacred music. 

 

"Charpentier worked for a time for the nobility, yet he never held a post in a royal institution. In 1679 he was hired as a musician by the Dauphin; the Mercure galant tells us that the king wanted to hear only his music while visiting his son at Saint-Cloud. In 1683, Louis XIV, who had just moved to Versailles with his Court, decided to reform the music of the Chapelle royale. A competition was held throughout all of France, but Charpentier, because of an unidentified illness, could not compete. This unhappy event in effect determined his career in Paris. Some feel that this was fortunate, since it meant that Charpentier's music did not have to be molded into the official, and often quite strict, liturgical functions. In fact, he was one of the few French composers of the time to write masses—at the Chapelle one heard only motets, usually written on the texts of the psalms with extremely varied compositional techniques and musical effects. 

 

"Somewhat previously, perhaps even upon his return from Italy, Charpentier moved into the Marais home of the Princesse de Guise. This noble lady maintained a small ensemble of voices and instruments, and the music that they performed was, according to the Mercure galant, 'so wonderful that that of several other monarchs cannot come close to it.' Until the death of the princess in 1688, Charpentier composed several small-scale masterpieces for this group, which were 'highly regarded by the most knowledgeable connoisseurs,' and in which he made a remarkable and very personal synthesis of French and Italian styles. 

 

"While he worked for the Princess, and probably after having quit the service of the Dauphin, Charpentier collaborated more and more frequently with the Jesuits of the rue Saint-Antoine and of the Church of Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul. He had certainly known them since his stay in Italy. When creating works destined for the Jesuits, he knew that music had to be at the service of faith, like an 'ars persuandi,' counting on emotion and the pleasure of the senses to encourage the faithful to accept the mysteries of religion; Charpentier shared fully in this aesthetic scheme. 

 

"Charpentier's career reached its summit in 1698, at the moment when, on the recommendation of the Duc d'Orleans—the future Regent was studying composition with the musician—and probably of Madame de Maintenon, he was named director of music at the Sainte-Chapelle. Because it was dedicated to Saint Louis (Louis IX), this church, the second in importance in the kingdom after the Chapelle royale, was the only one in Paris reporting to the Court. The recommendations in his favour from nobility must have carried much weight, since this post could not be occupied by a layperson. In this way, the calm atmosphere of an almost monastic cell witnessed the heights of Charpentier's career. 

 

"During the six years that remained to him, Charpentier created the masterpieces of his prime, among which we find three grands motets written for the first nocturne of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday (but presented on each their eve): In to 'Domine speravi, H. 228' on Psalm 71 (Vulg. 70), 'Dominus illuminatio mea, H. 229' on Psalm 27 (Vulg. 26), and 'Conserva me Domine, H. 230' on Psalm 16 (Vulg. 15). Based on the names of the singers that were noted on the manuscript, we know that these were sung in the spring of 1699—Holy Week celebrations must have been particularly sumptuous at the Saint-Chapelle—and these were the last works composed by Charpentier on the texts of the Psalms. Written for soloists, five-part choir this 'French' distribution was rare for Charpentier, being a monopoly of the Chapelle royale and orchestra, these three exceptional works 'demonstrate,' according to Jean Duron, 'the extraordinary sense of composition and of harmony that Charpentier continued to acquire throughout his life.' Each motet is in two or three sections, each of which begins with a different grouping of solo voices—the H. 229, by a short sinfonia and ends with a chorus. The length of Psalms 71 and 27 forced the composer to present the musical images suggested by the text in linkages without breaks or repetition, giving a density and an irresistible energy to the music. Psalm 16, being shorter, allowed the musician to further extend himself and to conclude the piece with a majestic choral tour de force. In sum, the notion of the ensemble, the profusion and diversity of ideas, the depth and concentration of intention, as well as the audacious harmonic exploration, make this triptych an essential milestone in the work of Charpentier. 

 

"Retired from the world, Charpentier died in the peace of his cell at the Sainte-Chapelle on February 24, 1 704, at the age of 60, known and appreciated by a small circle of connoisseurs. Five years later, his nephew Jacques Edouard published some of his motets 'mixed up with symphonies,' and in 1727 he bequeathed to the Bibliotheque royale the 28 manuscript volumes of the 'Melanges,' the works meticulously assembled by Charpentier himself throughout his life. This mindful task, which was exceptional for the period, allows us today to acknowledge the real worth of the most skilful, diversified, and expressive musician of seventeenth-century France." (François Filiatrault, tr. Sally Campbell. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, Christopher Jackson

1. Grand Motet Sur Le Psaume 70 'In Te Domine Speravi', H. 228

2. Grand Motet Sur Le Psaume 26 'Dominus Illuminatio Mea', H. 229

3. Grand Motet Sur Le Psaume 15 'Conserva Me Domine', H. 230

4. Messe À Quatre Chœurs, H. 4: Kyrie

5. Messe À Quatre Chœurs, H. 4: Gloria

6. Messe À Quatre Chœurs, H. 4: Credo

7. Messe À Quatre Chœurs, H. 4: Sanctus

8. Messe À Quatre Chœurs, H. 4: Agnus Dei

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Knurl - Scyamine

One of the best examples of Alan Bloor's equal parts intelligent and relentless style of analogue harsh noise, the sounds on this disc were "produced from an instrument created from found stainless steel". The variety and intensity of the sounds produced is engaging and impressive. Released on Phil Blankenship's Troniks sublabel PACrec, one of many early 21st century noise classics released on that label.

 

1. Aloplasm

2. Entrosyme

3. Exteroceptor

4. Perparaphy

5. Aesthesia

6. Scyamine

7. Panasomiasis

 

flac/16-bit

MSBR - Metal Stricken Terror Action: Dedicated to Richard Rupenus

This is a remastered and extended version of an earlier release by Koji Tano, repackaged as a CD and including source material from UK noise/industrial pioneers The New Blockaders (dedicated to Richard Rupenus of the same fame). An excellent collection of noise material from the late master produced shortly before his death in 2005. Released on the artist's own Denshi Zatsuon label.

1. Positive Action 3

2. Positive Action 8

3. Positive Action 4

4. Positive Action 2

5. Positive Action 1

6. Positive Action 10

7. Positive Action 6

8. Negative Action 5

9. Negative Action 7

10. Negative Action 9

11. Negative Action 2

12. Negative Action 1

13. Negative Action 4

14. TNSBR 1

15. TNSBR 2

mp3/v2

LHD - Young and Restless

A brief (just under twenty minutes) but excellent high intensity noise assault from L.A. maestros Phil Blankenship and John Wiese. Released in 2005 as a CD on US based avant-garde label Blossoming Noise, and recorded between 2002 and 2003. 

 

1. Untitled

2. Untitled

mp3/256kbps

LHD - Opaque

"Harsh city crust" from "double flamethrowers" Phil Blankenship and John Wiese. Both are on excellent form here throughout this intense display of sonic pyrotechnics. Released on Ron Lessard's Pure label in 2005. 

 

1. Untitled

2. Untitled

3. Untitled

mp3/256kbps

Pain Jerk & John Wiese - Terrazzo

Collaboration between 'japanoise' giant Kōhei Gomi (Pain Jerk) and American west coast veteran John Wiese. Crisp and intense full-frontal noise, recorded via mail collaboration during 2005 following a 'chance meeting' in Japan and released as an issue of one thousand CDs on UK label Harbinger Sound in 2007.

1. Triangle Sky

2. Japan

3. Palms

4. Absolute Hell

flac/16-bit

Forced Womanhood

Noise compilation from defunct American label 23 Productions, features contributions centering on themes of sadomasochism and gender dysphoria. If the repugnance of the subject matter (and often vile samples) can be penetrated, there are lot of very, very good tracks here from lesser known noise artists as well as the likes of Dominick Fernow (as Prurient) and Richard Ramirez (as Black Leather Jesus). Not for listening during meal times.

A1. Cleanse - Angel's Trumpet

A2. Clew Of Thesus - Cut Me

A3. Prurient - Tailor

A4. Prosexist - Girl Power

A5. Karlheinz - What You Want

A6. Ga-Ne-Tli-Yv-S-Di - Penal Exile

B1. Immaculate Grotesque

B2. Eugene's Council - Taint (Needledick Mix)

B3. Eugene's Council - Taint

B4. Black Leather Jesus - Issues

B5. V.D. - No Love For A Bottom

B6. Loop Retard - Untitled

B7. Survival Unit - Let Me Die A Woman

C1. Raquel de Grimstone & Prosexist - Paint You Up

C2. Moribund - Cut It Off

C3. Moribund - My Salvation

C4. The Viodre - Phalcam Mancunt

D1. Panicsville - Slut Torture

D2. Karmanjakan Intonarumori - Locked For Humiliation/Tied Down For The Transformation

D3. Human Is Filth - Penectomic Scisson Venesection

D4. Concrete Violin - Castration Anxiety Overcome

D5. Mansfield Deathtrap - Bitch Me In

mp3/320kbps

The Rita - Magazine

"Originally released as a limited-edition double cassette on Swedish label Abisko in 2005, 'Magazine' has since become a near-legendary album, considered by many to be the finest recording from pioneering harsh noise artist The Rita (and equally celebrated for its iconic artwork, featuring a Big Muff effects pedal acting as the magazine for a machine gun). 'Magazine' contains 80 minutes of militant noise music, with Sam McKinlay pushing the limits of extreme sound until they begin to implode. Drawing influence from abstract painters such as Ad Reinhardt and Kazimir Malevich, the four tracks on 'Magazine' are progressively deconstructed, slowly taking the dynamic sonic elements away until the last track is a linear/minimalist 'wall' of texture and crunch. Ultimately the hope is that under a microscope the same slowly deteriorating audio dynamism and viciousness from the first three tracks is still present, just found within the walls of linear crunch during the last track, 'Obsession.' A study in brutality, density, and focus, 'Magazine' tests the listener, challenging them to fully engage with the shifting layers of sound that, through careful study, continually expand beyond their seemingly minimalist form. This militant approach to sound became a call to action for a generation of noise artists who were influenced by The Rita, and 'Magazine' has finally been reissued for all to hear." (From the online notes to the 2019 New Forces reissue.)

A. Magazine 1
B. Magazine 2
C. Magazine 3
D. Obsession

flac/16-bit

Cracksteel - Felucca

Released on Australian label Cipher Productions in 2005 in an edition of 50 copies. A dense, furious assault of noise that proves the consistency of this project. As usual low-end heavy.

A. Noesis Ventilator
B. Blasted Vortex Archipelago

mp3/320kbps