robert ashley

bits and pieces of the stuff that came after that, i mean.

the stories date from the original opera but these are new recordings

though they're very very similiar to the versions I remember from the Mills concert 10 years ago -- might be exactly the same backing music. but you can tell these are recent recordings, ashley has never sounded this diffuse. or... old, basically

it's odd how my favorite two of the recent deluge of Ashley sets have been the ones that showcase other performers, Sam Ashley & Joan LaBarbara, so even on those, you kind of feel like something's missing (i.e. Bob). but the first disc on the new one is ALL about his voice. the second disc of the new one is mostly a Jacqueline Humbert showcase, even most of the stories clearly come from her, but Ashley's punchlines every few seconds are the glue

Somehow I thought "Improvement" was much later than it was. Scratch my previous point about not loving anything that came after it.

Milton, does the section known as "flying Saucer Dialogue" (which was on the "Music from Mills"compilation) turn up on this new release? i absolutely love that. who is the woman on that?

-Particles of what?
-Paticles of the subject, Sir
-Coming up through the monitors?
...
-Where is it now?
-Who knows?
-That tone is not allowed, Lieutenant
-I'm sorry, Sir
-The answer then?
-It comes and goes...
-Intermittent?
-Precisely, Sir

no, that's just another bizarre satellite track. the woman is a very young jacqueline humbert, and the keyboards / sound design is paul shorr so that track is kind of like a trial run for the original recording of atalanta in 1985

Flying Saucer has come to Earth for important information concerning humans: The Marriage of Atalanta. Problem: Apples.

d'oh, her.

― ian, Thursday, 16 July 2009 02:23 (1 year ago)

yeah, i've become near-obsessed with ashley in the past year and a half; this is pretty welcome right now.

― mike powell, Saturday, September 15, 2007 6:08 AM (3 years ago)

world = small

very titantically.

i mean... titanically.

you know you've got to hold me tighter yeah

closer?

In Sara, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven There Were Men and Women

this totally kicked my ass at work this morning around 8 A.M.

i always think it would be fun to rerecord sarah mencken replacing the names w/ my friends names

o_O where do you work?

haha it was on my iPod, just playing shuffle in the AM - I work by myself for most of my shift.

I found Private Parts, Perfect Lives (Private Parts): The Bar, Automatic Writing, and Perfect Lives (Private Parts): Music Word Fire And I Would Do It Again (Coo Coo) at the community radio station I volunteer at. Kind of overwhelmed with Ashley at the moment. I listened to all of them (in the order above) last night. Automatic Writing was my least favorite, but I was listening to it pretty quietly cuz I didn't want to bug my neighbors upstairs. Maybe if I cranked it up I would like it more. The other three pretty much floored me. The increasing complexity from record to record really engaged me, I was expecting them to all sound like Private Parts. But The Bar immediately destroyed that impression. It's really psychedelic. I felt altered just listening to it. And then Music Word Fire sounded like some lost Arthur Russell underground dance jam.

It's all pretty much brand new to me. I've just looked up his discography and see that I've only been exposed to a small portion of it. I've heard Tyranny's Out of the Blue and The Intermediary, but it is pretty clear that there is a whole lot more music to discover out of this "scene" for lack of a better word.

love the bar!

I know my thing is to complain about shit I didn't go to but I missed him when he came to providence this year, I think elmo went tho?

here's a tv series ashley produced on the "scene" back in the 70s, see you in 14 hours

http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Ashley.php

Thanks!

Truly love Robert Ashley; one of my all-time heroes. Saw him a few years back performing with his ensemble three nights in a row.

Trips, do you know Atalanta? That is the one that for me really kind of blows my mind. It's incredibly dense and the narrative qualities are harder to follow than ever, but it's mindblowing and gorgeous and just sounds really cool..

The Perfect Lives DVD set is highly recommended as well.

All I've heard are the four I've listed, I'll look out for Atalanta. And I definitely want to see the DVDs, the records themselves are so cinematic.
I am going to watch some of those videos from the link that Ed posted, too, but my home computer is on the fritz and I probably shouldn't watch them at work.
Though it is Friday...

atalanta is really amazing, and the whole LOVELY MUSIC scene is pretty high-qual. there's a few duds ive heard, but like david behrman, pauline oliveros, blue gene tyranny, eliane radigue, gordon mumma, etc etc etc, all so good.

saw FOREIGN EXPERIENCES (from 86 or something?) a few weeks ago at mills with RA in attendance. that one is super-intense, and the whole experience of seeing it performed live was amazing. kind of like i felt when i watched INLAND EMPIRE, i was physically drained upon leaving, in a really good way.

Can't wait to play some of it on the air. This is the kind of thing that would stop me in my tracks if I heard it on the radio first.
It's also nice to have a cache of "really long tracks that are awesome" for when you need a break.

i play the park/the backyard to close my show at least a few times per year... such beautiful music. it blows my mind that more people are not totally in love with the work of Robert Ashley.

First time I heard Robert Ashley was on the radio when the DJ played "Mila's Journey Inspired By a Dream" and it blew my mind

I played side one of The Bar last night. Sounded great. Haven't gotten any listener comments, though. I found a compilation record with the piece "She Was a Visitor" on it at the station. I just now found a copy of the Sonic Arts Union comp lp with the Ashley piece "Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon" as well as pieces by Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma at the academic library where I am employed. I also found some Leonardo Music Journal cd's (WTF had no idea that was an actual thing) as well as the Robert Ashley cd "Superior Seven."
Can't wait to clock out, go home, and crank these up.

If i was from the big town I would be calm and debonair

"purposeful lady slow afternoon" is so unpleasant..

Yeah, horrible, really. I mean, I like the way it sounds, but the text is just....bad sex is not something I need more insight into.
I feel like his background in Hollywood must have influenced that (and everything else, I suppose).

Alvin Lucier's piece on that record, though, sounded GREAT when I turned it up REAL LOUD.
It's cicada season in Missouri and they are really droning up a storm this year. The piece worked well in conjunction with that.

Superior Seven is also not so great, it's instrumental :(

http://perfectlivesbrooklyn2011.wordpress.com/

also: dalkey archive is publishing the 'perfect lives' libretto later this year

Superior Seven is also not so great, it's instrumental :(

that's a weird one - the liner notes are a long & funny essay about how the expenses involved make it almost completely impossible for composers to write for orchestra. then the CD has two half-hour pieces 'for orchestra' realized with MIDI realizations using cheap orchestral preset sounds. I remember the second piece had potential, if it were to actually be played, but with those liners, the entire release seemed a little closer to an apology than a working prank

but I still keep it, because it's an interesting example of Ashley's traditionally musical composition. as he frequently (notoriously) leaves musical chords / arrangements up to his collaborators like Blue "Gene" Tyranny, Superior Seven is a good way to get a grip on what his sense of musical composition when he limits himself to notes. the other really effective piece where Ashley's writing the notes as well as the words is 'Tap Dancing In The Sand'.

Thanks for the context, Milton. It left me scratching my head. I'll have to read the liner notes!

"purposeful lady slow afternoon" is so unpleasant..

― one dis leads to another (ian), Friday, June 3, 2011 1:04 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yeah, horrible, really. I mean, I like the way it sounds, but the text is just....bad sex is not something I need more insight into.
I feel like his background in Hollywood must have influenced that (and everything else, I suppose).

― Trip Maker, Friday, June 3, 2011 1:07 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

i actually passed on a pretty nice copy of this for this reason!

Has anyone else read his novel? "Quicksand" Came out last year but I just got it last week, finished today. It was really great. But I sorta just love Robert Ashley and reading it in his voice (internally) may help you feel the rhythm of teh prose. also I like mystery stories. there is a lot of interesting stuff in here. like any of his texts. but it's rlly just fantasstic. i cld write pages abt it and my reaction to it and its specific evocative qualities or points of reference or narrative style or or. read it. shirley yer local arty bookstore will have it..

i bought a robert b parker novel today cuz Ashley notes him as one of his favorites (or, the narrator's favorites.)

so bummed i missed his performances last year

http://vimeo.com/38729104

three operas performed at la mama in 2009 on vimeo now, complete. free arts!!!!!

Robert Ashley’s opera “The Old Man Lives in Concrete”

opens tonight

http://roulette.org/

i think it actually opened yesterday?
but i am going tonight.

nice one ian. enjoy.

best part is that it's just a 15 minute walk from my house.

is the song at about 12 mins till 20 mins in this, a robert ashley song? my googling the lyrics suggests it is.

http://soundcloud.com/pluie-noir/pluie-noir-podcast-002-sleeper

Yeah that one's a classic
"sans ice"

ah cool... what record is it from?

(thanks)

private parts.