http://michaelpisaro.blogspot.com/
Haven't read much of anything re: Michael Pisaro/Wandelweiser on ILM. Conversely, there is substantial dialog about this music on the I HATE music forum.
July Mountain drew me in initially and still stands as a favorite, though I haven't heard much of his earlier material, or any of the Wandelweiser recordings. His latest, Fields Have Ears (6), gets a lot of play on the stereo. It's texturally-rich and enveloping. The pieces are typically slow-moving, some near-static, and they often feature well-recorded, densely layered concrete sounds. Tonal elements are generated (sparingly) from piano, electric guitar, clarinet, sine waves, etc. Some interesting graphic scores and various bits of contextual information for the pieces exist online. There's a definite (plain, conceptual) aesthetic about the music that seems to separate it from more stylized or tonally-overt ambient music.. I wonder if that aesthetic prevents it from circulating to a more general audience, does it appear too dry/academic -- is there interest for this type of "sound art" outside a realm of more 'serious' listeners?
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Monday, 21 May 2012 01:44 (1 year ago) Permalink
Pisaro is a genius, he made me feel things i never felt before listening to music. Incredible stuff. My favorite pieces are "asleep, street, pipes, tones" & "Close Constellations And A Drum On The Ground". These are total masterpieces. The "hearing metal" series is great, as is the disc with taku sugimoto. I have only heard it once but the "harmony series" seems particularly great."field have ears (6)" is pretty different from his previous stuff. It seems 'faster' to me than his other pieces. Still it's great, one of the best thing this year.
" is there interest for this type of "sound art" outside a realm of more 'serious' listeners?"
(almost) all i listen to is gangsta rap, so i guess there is.
the question that interests me is : would such incredible music exists without the dry/academic concepts ?
― sisilafami, Monday, 21 May 2012 11:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
asleep, street, pipes, tones, despite its cohesion and consistency, feels sort of disparately 'cut-and-pasted' to me, how it's put together. I've been told that live versions of the piece are strong/loud/powerful though. Possibly it's the slow-moving quality of it that loses me, but I've never been able to fully engage w/it. "Fields 6" really is sort of "faster," there's not much space (silence) to breathe as in other Pisaro pieces. It feels like the most densely-layered of his work that I've listened to. Haven't had luck w/the ricefall/'wave and waves'/hearing metal series(es) yet, a lot of it feels too cold/monochrome, to be general.
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Monday, 21 May 2012 16:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
i think "asleep, street, pipes, tones" (and much of pisaro's music) has to be listened at high volume.
― sisilafami, Monday, 21 May 2012 16:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
july mountain works well at a low-moderate volume, where you're not focusing on it early on, and it transforms gradually from background to the foreground over its 20 minute duration. so, there
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Monday, 21 May 2012 17:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://youtu.be/LpJG3sw5HSA
Jürg Frey: Paysage pour Gustave Roud
loosely associated, affecting piece of music.
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Monday, 21 May 2012 20:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
beautiful :')
― sisilafami, Monday, 21 May 2012 20:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
he did it again
Michael Pisaro/Toshiya Tsunoda - crosshatches
(0_0)
― sisilafami, Saturday, 30 June 2012 16:46 (10 months ago) Permalink
http://olewnick.blogspot.com/2012/06/michael-pisarotoshiya-tsunoda.html
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/yukoz/20120624
(re: crosshatches)
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Saturday, 30 June 2012 19:59 (10 months ago) Permalink
thread feels unnecessary, as there's no discussion here.
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Saturday, 30 June 2012 21:59 (10 months ago) Permalink
I was good at starting unneccesary threads like this that had no discussion.
http://johnsonsrambler.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/line-up-announced-for-music-wed-like-to-hear-2012/
There are a few recitals in London, and some Pisaro will be played - should go to all, so I'll report back.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 1 July 2012 09:18 (10 months ago) Permalink
Anyone go to the Wadelweiser fest in London at the ICA last winter?
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 1 July 2012 09:20 (10 months ago) Permalink
is there interest for this type of "sound art" outside a realm of more 'serious' listeners?
Too many quotes and scare here.
All of this seems an extension of Cage, Lou Harrison etc. I don't think its that taxing from a conceptual viewpoint. Not very academic (Cage was an academic type, or he didn't set himself out as that in the way he appeared), quite sraightforward once you get hold of it and a specific take on a set of ideas that have been around for at least 40 years.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 1 July 2012 09:35 (10 months ago) Permalink
wasn't an academic type -- sheesh I am adding a lot of posts to this thread.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 1 July 2012 09:49 (10 months ago) Permalink
http://vimeo.com/39159300
somebody put up july mountain, audio quality is decent. dunno bout the video
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Wednesday, 25 July 2012 23:33 (10 months ago) Permalink
I took a class with Michael Pisaro. It was great, but I had to drop it because I was working on my thesis film and didn't have enough time. Wish I;d have stuck with it =(
― gygax! II: pornograffitti (admrl), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 23:47 (10 months ago) Permalink
the punishment of the tribe by its elders is real varied, dynamic. been getting a lot of play out of it.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Thursday, 31 January 2013 21:03 (3 months ago) Permalink
What did you think of Tombstones?
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 1 February 2013 00:20 (3 months ago) Permalink
i couldn't get into it, but i like the track "silent cloud," that piano. what do you think of it?
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Friday, 1 February 2013 00:28 (3 months ago) Permalink
Just started listening but had to stop. I think the idea is really interesting and I'll see how it works out tomorrow.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 1 February 2013 00:36 (3 months ago) Permalink
tombstones is boring, punishment is great.
― sisilafami, Friday, 1 February 2013 18:56 (3 months ago) Permalink
'boring' is a weird word to apply to Pisaro.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 1 February 2013 19:09 (3 months ago) Permalink
i know what you mean, but to me with this kind of music there's a thin line between a masterpiece & a badly executed composition that ends up being dull.
― sisilafami, Friday, 1 February 2013 21:07 (3 months ago) Permalink
the hearing metal and transparent city pieces are interesting, but I couldn't really get into them. I thought 'Close Constellations and a Drum on the Ground' and 'Asleep, Street, Pipe, Tones' were both more complex and more interesting.
My favorite of his are the original Fields Have Ears and Fields Have Ears(6). July Mountain is great, too, but I wish it were longer.
what do people think of Crosshatches? I haven't hear it yet, and don't know anything about Toshiya Tsunoda
― Dan S, Friday, 1 February 2013 23:03 (3 months ago) Permalink
here is something on Tsunoda
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 1 February 2013 23:39 (3 months ago) Permalink
'Close Constellations and a Drum on the Ground' and 'Asleep, Street, Pipe, Tones' are def my fav. Crosshatches is outstanding as well
― sisilafami, Saturday, 2 February 2013 00:02 (3 months ago) Permalink
http://www.freejazzblog.org/2013/02/various-artists-wandelweiser-und-so.html
enjoying this comp a lot so far. i hadn't known anything about the wandelweiser people before, but they seem to be hitting a sweet spot somewhere between the AMMish stuff, the quieter free improv, and the more droney digitally processed stuff (i'm reminded of the textures on a recent stephan mathieu record) i've been digging in the last few years.
― j., Tuesday, 5 February 2013 08:34 (3 months ago) Permalink
Even AMM had bits and pieces of jazz at times (via Prevost, although I'd need to check its been a while). This is more about ironing everything out, including the New York school (it could be too muscular at times, after all they liked Webern). Certainly from what I'm reading Pisaro has taken the politics of someone like Christian Wolff and followed up on the implications peformance-wise: allowance for improvisation but that which comes from amateur practice, that use of community space (church halls) in performance, a gap between Trots and anarchos.
That Tsunoda record has been running though my mind, and if you think of Steven Beresford as David Tudor without any chops (its absence is the main thing if you like) then really this is what we are getting with Erstwhile a lot of the time. The sophistication is in the electronics w/no indoctrination into improv's mannerisms.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 6 February 2013 20:47 (3 months ago) Permalink
ah, 'tombstones' is lovely. refreshing.
― j., Tuesday, 12 February 2013 03:40 (3 months ago) Permalink
"That Tsunoda record has been running though my mind, and if you think of Steven Beresford as David Tudor without any chops (its absence is the main thing if you like) then really this is what we are getting with Erstwhile a lot of the time. The sophistication is in the electronics w/no indoctrination into improv's mannerisms."
can you elaborate on this if possible? the Beresford reference is what confuses me the most.
― jon abbey, Sunday, 17 February 2013 02:23 (3 months ago) Permalink
Tsunoda is incredible, very glad I finally figured out a way to get him on Erstwhile (and now we have a second project in the works, a duo with Jason Lescalleet, although it probably won't be out for a few years). the best musical intro for him is Scenery of Decalcomania, fantastic record.
also there are a few ErstWords pieces people here might be interested in if they haven't already seen them:
http://erstwords.blogspot.com/2009/09/wandelweiser.html (Michael Pisaro on the history of Wandelweiser)
http://erstwords.blogspot.com/2009/07/field-recording-and-experimental-music.html (Tsunoda on his own work)
― jon abbey, Sunday, 17 February 2013 02:26 (3 months ago) Permalink
Tsunoda is doing a grab and throw sounds around like Beresford seems to do in his improv sets w/that sense of the random. The results as heard are miles apart.
Hard to tell bcz I'm unlikely to see Tsunoda do a show in London.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 17 February 2013 11:17 (3 months ago) Permalink
finally got my hands on crosshatches. fantastic; immediately put it on again when the second disc finished.
trying to parse out what's 'natural' or 'electronic' is a fun little game to play.
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Friday, 22 February 2013 05:18 (3 months ago) Permalink
glad you guys are enjoying crosshatches! for fans of that one, Tsunoda just self-released two solo double CDs that are interesting followups, The Temple Recording and O Kokos Tis Anixis (Grains of Spring. I am still processing them myself (one listen through, around 3 1/2 hours of material total), but Pisaro was raving about his first listen/s to The Temple Recording on FB earlier today:
"Listening to the mind-bending and ear-stretching 'stereophony' of Toshiya Tsunoda's wonderful "The Temple Recording." The phase effects and stretched space of the recording technique are audible. They give you the feeling of hearing _around_ and _through_ things instead of just taking them in."
― jon abbey, Friday, 22 February 2013 21:48 (3 months ago) Permalink