Owen Pallett - Heartland

If it wasn't for work commitments and an expanding black hole in my bank account I would be at the Barbican. What an album. That sounds a dream gig.

Team jealous!

Just saw this with Britten Sinfonia. Sounded absolutely lush.

Except for the songs he played on the Nord. They just sounded like The Knife. ;-)

Can't believe I only just discovered this album. Absolutely incredible.

it's an album I settle into like a great big book

This is really OTM.

oh K you were there as well! Did you stick out the full 6+ hours? (I ended up leaving during Richter because i've seen him before and don't find his stuff all that engaging. plus it was 12.15 and i needed to get up in the morning)

I hadn't heard the record before but that was really lovely, I am a definite convert.

did you have middle aged classical music fans who looked a bit annoyed during Owen's set? there was a couple near me who sat with their arms crossed all the way through.... like grumpy toddlers but older.

I thought the whole night was great though (especially so for a 6hr+ bill)

argh why did i miss this

fuck!

haha amazing-- we were in the cheap seats (you know when that woman at the end was like 'the people in the balcony are clearly enjoying the view'? that was us, not being arsed to move down to the stalls) so sitting around us were pretty much just the kids, trying not to chair-dance too obviously. i have never seen so many t-shirts in a a Barbican audience.

it really was a great night, such a ridiculous amount of music! double sextet was just astonishing (i found clogs too twee tbh but, you know, life's rich tapestry and all that.)

No, sorry, I did not make it the full 8 hour Steve Reich they-shoot-minimalist-composers-don't-they marathon.

Left about 3 songs into Clogs due to train fear and gong fear. (3 gongs? Really? You need 3 gongs?) It was very odd because I seemed to be sat in a gaggle of parents of the children's choir who kept clucking about it "being far too late on a school night!" That was a bit of a downer for me, because it was a bit sullying of my enjoyment to be surrounded by uptight classical music stage dads. (I seriously did not know that there was so much politics surrounding the children's choir scene in London, but apparently it's a snake pit, with choir leaders getting in huffs and seceding from one another's groups. Shocking.) I did actually have to stick my fist in my mouth to stop from laughing aloud when the classic stage dads tutted about Owen's set "But we can't hear the *words*! What's the point of music if you can't hear the words?"

(I dunno about Barbican audiences because the last 2 shows I've seen there were Tomorrow In A Year and the Hallogallo thing so the architectural haircuts and band t-shirts seemed about right?)

It was an almost overwhelming amount of music though. And Steve Reich kept coming out and hugging everyone. (Actually he was sat near me, and he spent most of the night hugging anyone who came within 3 feet of him, but I guess it's his birthday, he's entitled.)

Heartland... Heartland was just ... quite too utterly utter. I'm still trying to digest the whole experience, like, having sound and colour turned up to 11 and I thought the record was beautifully arranged, but this was about 100 times moreso, and in any other hands, it might have been too rich, too caramel, too layers of meringue and cream and sprinkles on top but it was actually just heart-rendingly lovely, and there is really nothing like an entire violin section doing a sort of MBV wooze-swoop to set your heart fluttering.

(Also: Owen & Steve Reich in matching black caps was adorable, but I'd still rather have had more hair action. Grumble.)

That's a lovely write-up K, and makes me quite sad to have missed it.

Wonderful review Kate, can't wait till this lands in Holland!

It was beautiful, but it was also kind of a logistical nightmare. I mean, it was just *so* ambitious in its scale. They were 20 minutes late letting us into the theatre, but then you walk in and you see a band set up in front, then a full orchestra behind that, and then behind that, 4 grand pianos and 5 (?) vibraphones, and then behind *that* a choir on risers? (felt a bit sorry for the conductors tripping over said Nord on the way to the podium.) Just so much sound. Just a wonderful, overwhelming, totally enveloping and encompassing joyful noise of it all.

But I don't know that I've ever seen Reich performed live before, it's quite amazing watching the music flowing over the performers in waves. It has such a wavelike quality when you listen to it, it's very interesting to watch that duplicated as you can see a note, a pulse, originating, say, with the vibraphones, and the rippling through the string sections as bows start twitching, like you can actually *see* the pulse of the music that you hear.

Guess I should take that to a Steve Reich thread but don't really feel like searching.

i'm so jealous of all of youse! great write-up, k8.

wait the choir leaders seceding from each others' groups thing happened in like 1990, why the hell are they still talking about it

i was in that choir as a small person so was vicariously happy about it running over because it was always AWESOME when concerts went late on a school night, especially if they were at the barbican or the south bank centre, and you were like drunk with tiredness on the coach back and then you were groggy all the next day at school but as it was in the interests of culture no-one should really criticise you for it.

not v impressed with Clogs' excessive gongage given they barely fucking used them.

Sorry I missed the Sunday, I was there on Saturday which was great although it overrun by quite a bit and I had to split after Dan Deacon to get back to the burbs, the atmosphere was pretty mellow where I was on the balcony, sensed some bemusement at Tyondai and Dan Deacon from the classical dads, one of whom was sitting next to me and chuckling at certain elements in Tyondai's set. The Michael Gordon piece was grrreat too.

OMG that makes it somehow even funnier if it happened *that* long ago that they were still going on about it, at such great length...

if it was the f1nchl3y/n3w l0nd0n split then, yeah, that was 1991 (i was there, man). the classical dads' kids would not have even been born yet!

I think at least one of them was a second generation mum or grandmum or something who had BEEN THERE 4REAL back in the day, I was trying not to eavesdrop but jeez, it was a 45 minute intermission or something.

this LP is a masterpiece

it do hold up

Yeah, I can't believe I only had it at #7 on my list last year. Could honestly see it as a decade-end contender even at this ridiculously early point.

Wow... completely surprised by the magazine that just came in my editorial-mail and landed on my desk, from the North Netherlands Orchestra. They are going to perform Heartland with Owen Pallett in its entirety in November here! Didn't see this one coming, fantastic!

― RIP Brodie, aspiring bellhop boy, 4 months old (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, May 2, 2011 9:34 AM (6 months ago)

Just got home from this - swoon!

Good to hear that, etc.

But I am heartbroken... I cannot attend this Thursday because of effing last minute work obligations.. Completely gutted. ;_;

Lbi - can't you fake an illness? Seriously??

Editor-in-chief, big meeting to report... believe me man, I have tried coming up with a viable excuse, faking illness/death, but I can't pull it off... Gutted.

Dude, faking death doesn't sound very viable to me...

etc - I was there too! It was a fantastic performance, both by Pallett and his band as well as the orchestra. In the train to Amsterdam I was wondering whether he would use the orchestra to provide the loops he normally does himself, but he did them like he always did. That said, the orchestra was great and really added something to the songs. For some of them these versions were even better than on the album, imo. Specials props to the drummer, he was amazing on his muted (with dish-cloths?) kit. Did not recognize all the songs, maybe some stuff from singles/EP's associated with Heartland were used, I'm not familiar with all of those.

Two years on and I'm still not tired of this record. Still, any new material on the horizon? Owen?

^^ Co-sign. I think it was my most played album in 2011, too.

guys

I sing along to this like a fool <3

Stumbled across a copy of this on vinyl this week and excitedly bought it. Spine still reads "final fantasy"--do I have some kind of soon-to-be-rare collectors item here?

Either way, my life is now maybe .05% more complete!

Nah a bunch of them printed that way, not sure of the percentage though.

We had "the discussion" after the vinyl sleeves had already been to the printers. Canadian CDs have the same thing.

Thanks for buying my shit second-hand! You owe me $2

No I don't! 'twas a first hand, still sealed $20 copy!

well then i'm ordering in sushi tonight

On me.

you're gonna feel so bad if he gets food poisoning.

"Why, oh, why didn't I buy Heartland sooner?!"

album is really a masterpiece I gotta say & I'm actually p. critical of my friends but this record is always a fantastic trip

the last time I bought multiple copies of the same album, it was Silent Shout*

was very tempted to do so for this album though, because it's fucking badass

* thank you, The Knife, for saving me from the ignobility of admitting I bought 4 copies of The Great Milenko for absolutely no fucking reason*
** oops

I have a cd copy w final fantasy on the spine, but I still file it next to all my parliament albums

I think this is the last album I bought multiple copies of. Had ordered it online but they were late in delivering, and I couldn't wait that additional week...

I *own* multiple copies of the album, but my CD is/was a review copy.

Think the most number of copies of one album I've ever bought was 4 of London Calling: original CD, late 90's remastered CD, mid-00's "deluxe edition" CD, and vinyl.

I bought it on iTunes =)

then I burned a copy to listen to in my car =|

then I lent it to my dad and he never gave it back =(

Spinning the vinyl now. Accidentally had it on 33 when I started and got a minute in before I went over and corrected it.

Owen's voice in 33 sounds oddly like Scott Walker, btw.

*on 33

album is really a masterpiece I gotta say & I'm actually p. critical of my friends but this record is always a fantastic trip

― Inconceivable (to the entire world) (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, September 23, 2012 6:22 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

”HURRICANE J? HURRICANE....J? THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN YOUR HEAD FINN?”