Classical

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Scream & Writhe
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Classical

Post by Scream & Writhe »

Went through a big spell of listening to a lot of [edit: contemporary classical / ambient classical] stuff for the majority of last winter, then again when the weather started to turn in the fall.

Kali Malone's The Sacrificial Code is a masterpiece of calculated organ methodology. Sarah Davachi's work is similar, although it doesn't have enough structure for my tastes. Shida Sahabi's Shifts 12" from 2019 is a good EP in this vein as well.

Lots of Philip Glass, too. Spent hours/days listening to Solo Piano and the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack (which might be a perfect record).

Anyone else go hard on this stuff? What's good?
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by chryptusrecords »

yesterday was the 90th birthday of Eliane Radigue

an early acolyte of pierres schaeffer and henry, one of the first women electronic music composers full-stop, quickly abandoned musique concrete principles for long-form purely electronic pieces created on big ARP systems. the sounds are both at once very big and very small. each tiny interaction of overtones has huge ripples. her later work, 2000's and on, is drone pieces performed on acoustic instruments.

edit:
Scream & Writhe wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 6:54 pm Kali Malone's The Sacrificial Code
I haven't listened to the record but saw her play live once and it was very impressive, even sans pipe organ, i think she was using recordings of extended cello notes processed thru a pile of synth modules, very nice heavy drone
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by dust »

a recording of la monte young's trio for strings was officially released recently, excited to check that out whenever i have a free 3 hours
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by BrachliegenTapes »

Scream & Writhe wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 6:54 pm Went through a big spell of listening to a lot of this stuff for the majority of last winter, then again when the weather started to turn in the fall.

Kali Malone's The Sacrificial Code is a masterpiece of calculated organ methodology. Sarah Davachi's work is similar, although it doesn't have enough structure for my tastes. Shida Sahabi's Shifts 12" from 2019 is a good EP in this vein as well.

Lots of Philip Glass, too. Spent hours/days listening to Solo Piano and the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack (which might be a perfect record).

Anyone else go hard on this stuff? What's good?
Also spent much of Winter 2020 with The Sacrificial Code on repeat, would recommend Maria W Horn & Mats Erlandsson's Stigsjö Kyrka - Organ rehearsal tape for dirges in a similar vein:
https://mariawhorn.bandcamp.com/album/s ... arsal-tape
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Scream & Writhe »

BrachliegenTapes wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 9:41 am would recommend Maria W Horn & Mats Erlandsson's Stigsjö Kyrka - Organ rehearsal tape for dirges in a similar vein:
https://mariawhorn.bandcamp.com/album/s ... arsal-tape
Forgot to say thanks for the rec, this was nice. I need to listen to it some more.
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Mogao »

I listen a lot of modern classical or stuff that fits in to this genre. Lately it's been mainly Hania Rani. Her two albums on Gondwana records; Home (2020) and Music for film and theatre (2021) are piano based "ambietish" stuff. Easy and moody sounds.

Inner symphonies (2021, Deutsche grammophone) is Hania Rani and Dobrawa Czocher. I think this is the best one I've heard from her discography. Piano and cello woven really beautiful and hypnotic soundscapes. Sounds like a stuff you can imagine to hear in movies but without sounding too cheesy. Anyways, highly recommended.

Besides this I enjoy all the usual names; Arvo Pärt, Morton Feldman, John Cage, New York "big four" of minimalists etc etc, but I'll get back to these later. No need to vomit it all out in one post :)
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Remi »

I love Eliane Radigue. A few years ago, a friend and I were working in a call centre and he stumbled upon her number by chance. She picked up and at the end fo the conversation he did something we weren't allowed to do, which is asking her if she was the composer. She was surprised he knew who she was and she invited her at a performance she as doing a few weeks later in town.

As for myself, I often listen to Steve Reich. "Drumming" blows my mind.
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by shishido »

dust wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 2:04 am a recording of la monte young's trio for strings was officially released recently, excited to check that out whenever i have a free 3 hours
Do you know if it can be streamed somewhere? Or would you have the digital release that came with the record, by any chance? Dying to hear that too, but that boxed set is unsurprisingly very expensive...
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by shishido »

Speaking of Eliane Radigue, there's a short film on her worth checking out that was recently posted on Vimeo:

https://vimeo.com/541076521/d661c359f7
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Mattias Gustafsson »

One of my favorite records 2021 was the Kajsa Lindgren – Momentary Harmony LP on Recital. I bought it cause i buy everything from Recital. She is from Sweden but i never heard her before but this one really blew my mind. Highly recommended!
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Scream & Writhe »

Mattias Gustafsson wrote: Sat Jan 29, 2022 6:47 pm One of my favorite records 2021 was the Kajsa Lindgren – Momentary Harmony LP on Recital. I bought it cause i buy everything from Recital. She is from Sweden but i never heard her before but this one really blew my mind. Highly recommended!
Almost done listening now. It's very serene, ambient music in the purest sense. It reminds me of film scoring with how short the pieces are. There are a lot of interesting things happening and I'd be curious to hear what she might do with more lengthy compositions.

I read something about her using field recordings more predominantly in her prior works, I'll have to dig back and check them out.
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Atrophist »

Does Alan Hovhaness count, I wonder? His Celestial Gate symphony is among the most beautiful and serene music I’ve ever heard.

Sure, I like the more radical 20th Cen stuff too, that sounds like a gang of burglars stumbling around a Classical instrument store in the dark. Xenakis, Feldman etc.

I’ve only managed to hear a couple of pieces performed live in a concert hall by these composers, I’d love to go to more if we ever have live music again. I also like to go to ”classical classical” music concerts, if the ticket prices aren’t too prohibitive, which they unfortunately often are.
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Residual / RT »

Scream & Writhe wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 6:54 pm Went through a big spell of listening to a lot of this stuff for the majority of last winter, then again when the weather started to turn in the fall.

Kali Malone's The Sacrificial Code is a masterpiece of calculated organ methodology. Sarah Davachi's work is similar, although it doesn't have enough structure for my tastes. Shida Sahabi's Shifts 12" from 2019 is a good EP in this vein as well.

Lots of Philip Glass, too. Spent hours/days listening to Solo Piano and the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack (which might be a perfect record).

Anyone else go hard on this stuff? What's good?
Kali Malone is excellent and I also just got into her old shoegazey band, too. She's super talented.

I've been listening to Ernst Reijseger lately, who my friend recommended. Specifically his soundtracks to most recent Werner Herzog documentaries. He's a cellist and a composer, so they're like cinematic neo-classical with a lot of atonality and noisy, distorted elements. Extremely good.

https://youtu.be/HytVGbd86Nk
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by TYHJP »

Atrophist wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 4:14 pm Does Alan Hovhaness count, I wonder? His Celestial Gate symphony is among the most beautiful and serene music I’ve ever heard.

Sure, I like the more radical 20th Cen stuff too, that sounds like a gang of burglars stumbling around a Classical instrument store in the dark. Xenakis, Feldman etc.

I’ve only managed to hear a couple of pieces performed live in a concert hall by these composers, I’d love to go to more if we ever have live music again. I also like to go to ”classical classical” music concerts, if the ticket prices aren’t too prohibitive, which they unfortunately often are.
Xenakis is the SHIT!
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by holy ghost »

Remi wrote: Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:53 am I love Eliane Radigue. A few years ago, a friend and I were working in a call centre and he stumbled upon her number by chance. She picked up and at the end fo the conversation he did something we weren't allowed to do, which is asking her if she was the composer. She was surprised he knew who she was and she invited her at a performance she as doing a few weeks later in town.
This story just MADE MY DAY! Thanks for sharing.

I am no expert but I try to buy everything I can from the GRM - in particular I’m always taken with Bernard Parmegiani but I’ve yet to hear one that’s a letdown.

I really like the 2nd Viennese School guys - Berg, Shoenberg, Webern and all the dissonant shut that came after that - however I am no expert. I really like throwing on some of those crazy operas - Lulu or Wozzek, and the Shoenbergs Moses Und Aaron is some of the weirdest shit I’ve ever heard. You definitely loose out without the visuals and the lack of a translation but what can you do. I really like Strauss too.

I will say, and any of my friends will roll their eyes at how often I mention it, but The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross is a A SUPERB read on this stuff. I have read it a couple of times and I think it’s one of the best books on music I’ve read. I wish I could say the same for his recent Wagner book which friggin’ bored me to tears. I made it 100 pages and gave up.
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Andreas »

I am in the final stages of collecting a 25 disc series of Alfred Schnittke compositions released by the Swedish art music label BIS. Amazing music, from postmodern jovialism to stern Sovjet orthodoxy to sheer chaos. Great artwork for the series, too. But since Schnittke is from the 70's/80's he's not really contemporary, no?

Sofia Gubaidulina have some great things too. Heard stuff for cello, organ and percussion that was amazing.

The local electro/experiment festival Intonal always have a few concerts in a Malmö church, one was with Kali Malone and Erik Enokson (?) debuting a piece for organ, electronics, choir and a small ensemble. Unfortunately it was pretty boring, hah. Seems like they hadn't yet grasped how to work with so many musician. Minimalism can become so fucking boring and safe (perhaps not in relation to this piece, but in general when I hear contemporary "intellectual" music).

But another performance at that church by Ellen Arkbro (from the same "scene" as Malone), solo organ, was amazing. Like clusters of ice floating slowly in the air. Quietly harsh, so to speak. Minimalism done right. Charlemagne Palestina performed the same evening, I mostly remember that he wore two caps at the same time. The music was 45 min of playing every tone on the organ. Not very memorable.
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Remi »

holy ghost wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 11:44 am
Remi wrote: Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:53 am I love Eliane Radigue. A few years ago, a friend and I were working in a call centre and he stumbled upon her number by chance. She picked up and at the end fo the conversation he did something we weren't allowed to do, which is asking her if she was the composer. She was surprised he knew who she was and she invited her at a performance she as doing a few weeks later in town.
This story just MADE MY DAY! Thanks for sharing.

I am no expert but I try to buy everything I can from the GRM - in particular I’m always taken with Bernard Parmegiani but I’ve yet to hear one that’s a letdown.
You're very welcome!

And yeah, Parmegiani is awesome. I LOVE "De Natura Sonorum", a real masterpiece as far as I'm concerned. I was lucky enough to play a piece from it on an acousmonium a few years ago. It was very intimidating yet felt incredible at the same time.
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by chryptusrecords »

Andreas wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 3:50 pm But since Schnittke is from the 70's/80's he's not really contemporary, no?
i think in classical music, like philosophy, everything after world war 2 is "contemporary"
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Joie de la Blumpy »

Let's get something going on the whole spectral music thang.

The Romanian superheros, Dumitrescu (n partner), Nemescu, Radulescu, Dinescu, and other and assorted scus. The frenchies, Grisey (RIP), Leroux, Murail, Dufourt...specially fucking Dufourt. Dude kills.

What I like best is that mofos never actually agreed on what spectral music was/is. Seems the most readily agreed-upon definition would overlap with industrial in general. That made/makes me laugh, forever. But basically, for my money, you take this classical shit, see, and fuse it with buncha fucking tape shit see, and it gets all, like, spectral like. Ooo-eee-oooOOOoooh.

Not technically spectral but imo effectively so: Italians like Scelsi and Nono. And, I'd say undeniably, Ligeti.

Namecheck too fins like Saariaho (effing genius! plus made the wiki) and the more recent Thorvaldsdottir. Mixing genres here, slightly, but I'd think you'd only excuse the incestuities at your peril.
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Scream & Writhe »

Joie de la Blumpy wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 9:37 am Thorvaldsdottir.
I revisited Aerial the other day (month) and need to do it again. I'm not familiar with any of her other work though.
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Joie de la Blumpy »

Scream & Writhe wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 10:20 am
Joie de la Blumpy wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 9:37 am Thorvaldsdottir.
I revisited Aerial the other day (month) and need to do it again. I'm not familiar with any of her other work though.
I'd place Aerial at the peak, then Rhízōma, then the more recent Enigma (with Spekral Quartet). But all very much worthy. There are some truly great performances readily accessible on everyone's favorite tube.
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by chryptusrecords »

oh, i have a good drop for yall, i never hear anyone talking about this dude
Lāszlō Hortobāgyi

he has a lot of writing about his music that i can only sort of get my head around. the text on the cover of this album gives you a hint: "A psychomusical expedition to the Archipelago in cooperation with the Computer Department of Ethnomusicology, Gayan Uttejak Society, Budapest." It's a merger of computer-synthesis and ur-traditional religious aspect, the sounds turn out something like muslimgauze meets laibach with amiga trackers, and an internal techno-mythology reminiscent of drexciya. as far as i can tell he is a famous and well-regarded composer in hungary. also like muslimgauze, some of his stuff falls flat, but when it hits it hits properly.

excerpt from his website about this album:
"It is a composition from Borojāva in Amygdala’s maritime monarchie which is the ritual music of “Anima Enthropia”, performed on the occassion of the His Highness Kanjeng Wadiswarankoil Pangeran Adipati Arya IX. Mankunegara King’s funeral. The rite begins with the traditional Amygdala Sadja (the conventional tuning signal of the musical caste Mohalia Quazian in the southern counties, similary to the 440 Hz the tuning A) which follows the Gamelan Kyai Kanyut Mesem Arkestra (built in Kartasura Period of Mataram Kingdom, 1680-1745) resp. the entry of Mongolian Hö-mi Heredityn Papae Capella.

Thenceforward the rite is accompanied by the Archelectronic Bass and the Gamelan Gambang Synthware all along."

http://guo.hu/?page_id=2982
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Namahs »

Not sure if this is on topic so to say but lately I've been really interested in Alvin Lucier's works
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Joie de la Blumpy »

chryptusrecords wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 10:57 am Lāszlō Hortobāgyi
Definitely an interesting character. He got a lot of play on college radio (in Toronto) back in the day. Always sorta baffling. I'd be into it, then shit could get downright shlocky. I feel like his heart's always been in the right place, but that maybe he sometimes tries a bit too hard to broaden the appeal of certain musics and the results are an almost guaranteed simultaneous hit and miss.
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Re: Contemporary Classical / Ambient Classical / etc

Post by Joie de la Blumpy »

Whoops. Somehow merged James Hamilton and Morton Feldman. That'd be pretty cool though!
Last edited by Joie de la Blumpy on Wed Feb 09, 2022 8:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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