Max Richter - Sleep (BBC Radio premiere, Sept. 2015)

Shortly after the release of German-British composer Max Richter (b. 1966)'s "eight-hour lullaby" Sleep and its accompanying one-hour album From Sleep in September 2015, an invited audience took to their sleeping bags in the Reading Room of London's Wellcome Collection museum/library of health science for a unique night's rest.

From midnight to 8am, Richter, a small string group (working in shifts) and a soprano singer performed the work's live premiere, which was given a record-breaking live broadcast on BBC Radio 3 - the longest uninterrupted piece of music they'd ever aired live. [To note for the download: there are occasional dropouts of a few seconds each - I can't remember now if this occurred during the recording, or if they're due to the limitations of the get_iplayer sound grabber or file converter that I used, when dealing with such a gargantuan file.]

In Richter's words, 'I think of Sleep as an experiment into how music and the mind can interact in this other state of consciousness, one we all spend decades of our lives completely immersed in, but which is so far rather poorly understood. I consulted with [American neuroscientist] David Eagleman on how music can relate to the sleep state and have incorporated our conversations in the compositional process of the work'.

The audience at the premiere were specifically invited to sleep through as much of the performance as they could, and then describe the sensations they experienced.  I've certainly spent one or two interesting nights sleeping through this recording (when I could manage the full night without my earphones falling out) and occasionally half-waking to the gentle soundscape.

The 31 sections of Sleep range from simple piano pulses, to deep electronics, gorgeous string arrangements and wordless flights for the soprano voice.  Needless to say, I've never heard the entire thing whilst fully awake - might give it a try some day, but I suspect Richter wouldn't approve.

Taking in the occasional random half-hour is fun, to pay closer attention to the construction of the different segments, and the microscopic development (or sometimes hypnotic non-development) within them.  Which I suspect is what Richter was trying to do with the release of the more manageable From Sleep - which I don't see around as much these days, but will probably order a copy at some point.

link, no pw - one mp3 file, 1.8GB :)

Album cover for the full studio recording

Radka Toneff & Steve Dobrogosz - Fairytales (1982)

More mellowness to see the year out, in today's post and next Monday's.  Radka Toneff (1952-1982) was one of Norway's finest jazz singers, before dying aged just 30 from a sleeping-pill overdose (friends were uncertain if it was deliberate).  She was also Arild Andersen's partner for a time in the 70s, and wrote some material with him.  By the time of her third and final album, Toneff was working with US pianist Steve Dobrogosz, and the sparse, haunting piano-and-vocal Fairytales became hugely popular in Norway.

Fairytales caught my attention when a YouTube session hit upon the stunning take on Jimmy Webb's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress that opens the album.  Infinitely more stark and restrained than Linda Ronstadt's version from the same year, it sets the tone for a low-key, melancholy set taken from eclectic sources, including Webb, John-Taupin and Anderson-Weill, as well as a gorgeous take on My Funny Valentine.  An album of unearthly beauty for late-night candlelit contemplation.

Original LP cover

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pw: sgtg

Richard Hayman & His Orchestra - Waltzing Cat - The Music of Leroy Anderson (1989)

Something nice and light & relaxing for Boxing Day - this was a charity shop find that I grabbed right away due to that title and cover, thought it would at least be worth a giggle.  It's actually a very good recording of the most well-known tunes by light music composer Leroy Anderson (1908-1975), performed by pops-orchestra bandleader Richard Hayman and his orchestra.  Lots of fun to be had in the way that Anderson wrote and arranged, with plenty of these tracks falling on just the right side of novelty.  Reminds me of music for old-time cartoons in places.  BBC Radio 4 listeners will also recognise 'The Typewriter' as the theme tune from The News Quiz.  Lovely stuff.

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Merry Christmas!

Have a great one tomorrow.

If you fancy a nice bit of unaccompanied choral relaxation, here's the Christmas concert given by the Tallis Scholars a week and half ago, in London's Temple Church.

Programme:

Palestrina: Hodie Christus natus est
Palestrina: Missa Hodie Christus natus est (Kyrie and Gloria)
Muhly: Premiere
Nesbett: Magnificat
Palestrina: Missa Hodie Christus natus est (Credo, Sanctus and Agnus dei)
Byrd: Lullaby
H. Praetorius: Magnificat V (with In dulci jubilo)
link, no pw.

Pat Metheny - New Chautauqua (1979)

Pat Metheny's third solo album was also his first completely solo - working with overdubs to create a guitars-and-bass-only statement of his increasing skill and ambition.  It ended up being a bit of a sleeper in his catalogue, getting some much-needed rehabilitation when it featured in the first wave of ECM's 'Touchstones' CD reissues in 2008 (word on the street is that 50 more are coming in 2019 - I can't wait!), and remains a beautiful record throughout.

IIRC this was the first Metheny album I bought on vinyl, and was captivated by how fresh and vital it sounded from the word go.  On digital, that opening title track still jumps out with its 'hit the open road' energy.  After that, Pat mellows out for a short acoustic interlude, before tackling an atmospheric suite.  The album's second half is just as wonderful, as Pat continues his solo road trip as far as Mexico (in my personal favourite) before settling back at his final destination to watch the sun rise.

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pw: sgtg

Threnody Ensemble - Timbre Hollow (2000)

Fascinating one-off collaboration between two guitarists (Dave Cerf and Erik Hoversten) and a cellist (Dominique Davidson) from the post-rock/'math-rock' sphere, augmented by further strings, percussion and clarinet.  These tracks were recorded between 1997 and 1999, and released the following year by New Albion Records (Terry Riley et al). 

The premise appears to have been to find a part-composed, part-improvised space between folk music, chamber classical and the post-rock movement, and Timbre Hollow succeeds rather well on those terms.  Both guitarists play acoustic, with the playing style and production giving them an almost lute-like quality at times.  This along with the other instrumentation can give the odd feel of a late-baroque chamber ensemble having time-traveled to the 20th century, then remembering the musical progress they've witnessed in strange fits and starts.

The opening three-part suite ThaRoman (Formerly Valerie White) is a case in point, as passages of beauty and subtlety are railroaded from time to time by knotty experimentation that just about holds together; the 12-minute third section could've benefited from some trimming.  The remaining three tracks are more succinct.  Somewhere Near Denton initially sounds like a guitar-tuning exercise, but settles down into a nice minimal duet with some ambient field recording towards the end.  The Machine showcases the core trio's interplay at its best, and the closing Tension As Opposed To Tension is the most atmospheric, with a gamelan influence.  This album will at least be interesting to most listeners, and no doubt some folks will find it right up their street.

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Harold Budd & Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois - The Pearl (1984)

For their sequel to the eternally gorgeous Plateaux Of Mirror, Budd & Eno added Daniel Lanois as producer, and Plateaux's piano & sound treatments blueprint into a masterpiece.  The Pearl was very much cut from the same cloth, but also improved on the formula, and nudged it closer to pure ambient music.

Much of the joy of The Pearl is in the small details: the occasional environmental sounds in the mix, the closer blending of the piano and electronics, and the more pronounced production touches on Budd's simple melodies, for instance the echo delay on the sparse notes of Their Memories.  A beautiful album that suits background listening and close attention equally well.

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Bill Evans & Jim Hall - Undercurrent (1962)

Simply one of the greatest and loveliest jazz duo albums of all time.  Some would say that sentence doesn't even need the "duo".  Either way, six great tracks from two absolute masters of jazz piano and jazz guitar are here to enrich your weekend.  After a cooking take on My Funny Valentine opens the album, the overriding pace is relaxed and intimate, and the interaction between pianist and guitarist is effortlessly sublime throughout.

What would my absolute favourites be... I Hear A Rhapsody? Skating In Central Park?  Just going to go for 'all of them' as it's impossible to pick.  Was going to snip out the bonus tracks as I generally tend to do, then decided against it as they enrich the album even further (as well as almost doubling its slight running time).  Essential listening, especially for rainy days and long nights - plenty of those round here now.

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Michel Saugy - Oceanique (1991)

Sub-aquatic electronic mellowness from Swiss-born Saugy, on the French New-Age label Ellebore. First up is the 16-minute gentle drift of Asteria, and it's a very good piece for its era.  This was a couple of years after Jean-Michel Jarre came out with the extended ambience of En Attendent Cousteau''s title track - possibly an inspiration here?

The following three tracks, each 4-5 minutes in length and livened up by drum tracks, don't really feel like they belong here.  I've listened to them once or twice, and they were pleasant enough, but are essentially forgettable 90s library music rather than New Age or ambient.

Not to worry though - the half-hour long Navicula is still to come.  Even more of a becalmed oceanic drift than Asteria, this track more than makes up for the shortcomings of the middle section of the album.  In fact, if you just take the opening and closing tracks together, you've still got a pretty decent 46 minutes of early 90s electronic chillout to enjoy as an album.

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Franco Battiato - Sulle Corde Di Aries (1973)

Third album in Italian legend Franco Battiato's 1970s journey from avant-prog to straight up avant-garde, and the one that came before Clic.  Dominating Sulle Corde Di Aries is the 16-minute opener Sequenze E Frequenze, in which a drifting opening soon gets tightened up into a juddering pulse of synths and kalimba.  Battiato's definitely been listening to Terry Riley on this one.

Three shorter tracks follow, with the spacey Aries first, the synths gradually joined by guitar, wordless vocals and finally a sax solo.  Aria Di Rivoluzione has Battiato attempting a raga-style vocal, singing about war and revolution whilst a spoken female voice recites lines by East German dissident/poet and songwriter Wolf Biermann over synth, drumming and sax.  The closing Oriente Ad Occidente starts out electronic, but gradually becomes dominated by oboe and mandolin.  A mind-boggling variety of sounds packed into 33 minutes then, and a must-hear all round.

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Carla Bley And Her Remarkable Big Band - Appearing Nightly (2008)

Following on from the first SGTG post of Michael Mantler's music last week, how about some Carla Bley?  Well, this isn't the first time music penned by Carla has featured here - that was Dreams So Real - but it is the first time the fringed genius herself and her own band have been posted.  Daughter Karen Mantler (on organ) and longtime bassist Steve Swallow are just two of the "Remarkable!" big band here.

Appearing Nightly is a live album recorded at the New Morning club in Paris in July 2006, and starts with three commissions - the opening pair, Greasy Gravy and Awful Coffee, were commissioned by the Jazz Orchestra of Sardinia, and the spectacular suite that follows, Appearing Nightly At The Black Orchid, was written for the Monterey Jazz Festival.  Throughout, Bley pays tribute to the big band traditions of Ellington and Mingus whilst putting her own idiosyncratic stamp on everything.  Closing out the show are Someone To Watch (another Bley composition, but it does end with a sly quote from Someone To Watch Over Me), and a lovely rendition of Ray Noble's I Hadn't Had Anyone Till You.  Remarkable stuff from the first note to the last.

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István Mártha, Sándor Bernáth, Endre Szkárosi - The Wind Rises (1987)

The Wind Rises (Electropleniar Sound Diary), or Támad A Szél - Hangnapló on its 1987 vinyl release by Hungaroton's jazz imprint Krém, was a bizarre collaborative project led by composer István Mártha.  Working with associates Sándor Bernáth and poet/sound artist Endre Szkárosi, as well as several other musicians, Mártha intended The Wind Rises to be the start of a multimedia project, out of which all that was completed was some video footage and this album.  So if the world was denied what could've been a Hungarian Twin Peaks, at least there's some fantastically odd music to listen to.

The album was eventually reissued by ReR Megacorp in 1998 with the cover above, and English track titles, lyrics and liner notes that helped non-Hungarian speakers to somewhat decipher what's going on.  What emerges is a strange narrative of the everyday existence of some timberyard workers in the village of Kapolcs, overlaid with folk singing (some of it seemingly recorded in the early 70s), bits of organ music, folk music, synths, avant-garde chamber music, skronking saxophones... you get the idea.  Tibor Szemző drops by to handle the wind instruments.  In a brief reminisce, Mártha describes the project as "an ex tempore exhibition containing sediments of feelings and documents, a mapping of fading connections with nature", perhaps as clear an explanation as can be found for this remarkable record.

Original LP cover

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Giya Kancheli - Bright Sorrow / Mourned By The Wind (1997 compi, rec. 1986-88)

Two great works of sublime melancholy from Giya Kancheli (b. 1935, Tblisi), who since the end of the Soviet Union has been resident in Western Europe, building up a healthy catalogue of ECM New Series releases that I've still to investigate.  The two LPs that make up this compilation come from his time in late-Soviet Georgia, and this CD forms part of BMG's Musica Non Grata series that also featured other censored-by-the-state composers such as Gubaidulina and Artyomov.

First is Bright Sorrow, subtitled In Memory of Children, Victims of War, For the 40th anniversary of victory over fascism.  Mostly consisting of quiet drifting strings, occasionally swelling up into full-bodied orchestration, it's a choral work for two boy sopranos and boys' choir.  The texts are from Georgian poet Galaktios Tabidzes as well as Goethe, Shakespeare and Pushkin, using pointed and poignant lines about life, death and loss.

The other work, in four movements, is the 'liturgy' for viola and orchestra Mourned By The Wind, written 1984-88 in memory of Kancheli's associate and friend Givi Ordzhonikidze, a Georgian musicologist.  The violist here is the work's dedicatee, Yuri Bashmet, who paints in great charcoal streaks on the dark and moving orchestral canvas.  Anyone who likes Henryk Górecki et al will get a lot of enjoyment out of this great collection.

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Original LP covers