robert ashley

also very excited to realise that the account that published that has many full performances of later operas from the kitchen (Dust, Celestial Excursions) so worth checking for anyone who like me didn't know filmed versions existed.

Yeah, between that (absolutely wonderful) "Improvements" and the previously unreleased realization of "Foreign Experiences" that came out last year, I've been pleasantly surprised at how much I've gotten out of hearing multiple realizations of these pieces.

Looks like there's a new version of "el/Afficionado" coming later this month as well. Never really connected with that one despite the "Eleanor" cycle on the whole being some of my favorite music of any kind, so I'll be especially curious to hear it.

looking at the timing my guess is that the new production of Improvements was intended to inaugurate a celebration of ashley that has been railroaded by the thing that's railroaded everything. excited about these new recordings as i haven't heard Foreign Experiences either.

Oh! "Foreign Experiences" is maybe an acquired taste but it's one of my favorite weird corners of that cycle, absolutely saturated in the 70's west coast milieu of "divorced guys reading Castaneda", which tbf may or may not be something you're up for. Both of the versions available from Lovely are great, but I have a special fondness for the 2006 CD version that's just Sam Ashley and Jackie Humbert bc Sam's delivery is just so relentlessly freaked out and seething, boiling over with bad vibes in a way that ratchets up the psychic claustrophobia of the piece to a paranoid fever dream.

And as for the more recent productions, no idea whether there was any larger plan there but I'm really happy to see that many of the people (e.g. Tom Hamilton) who were involved with his ensemble have taken an active role in ensuring the survival of the work and mentoring another generation of interpreters.