10.28.2009

The Singer of Tales



This is a post about transcription.

In 1942, Béla Bartòk, as he was working at the transcription of the folk songs and folk poems recorded in Yugoslavia in the 1930's by Professor Milman Parry (and his student, the future folklorist Albert C. Lord), published a text in The New York Times about the way oral transmission of poetic tradition produces constant changes in the identity of this tradition : "The differences on the one hand and the identical parts on the other hand will show what parts of the words (or melodies) are more constant, what parts are more subject to changes, and to what degree. The reader must have in mind that folk-songs are a living material; and, as every really living thing or being, subject to perpetual changes, preserving constancy only of certain general formulae."

As we can ear these songs today, through their written representation, actual renditions and recordings, we experience the "transcription-effect" : orality brutally irrupts into the field of the recorded and the written. An object tries to enter a code that excludes him. Transcription is a struggle from literacy to orality, from the field of oral transmission to its own score, and from this score to other scores.

In the following songs, a voice contains many voices. In fact, it contains all the voices that carried these songs to their trancription. Perfectly immemorial, they've never been so close.
Antiquity faces us.

Selection of Folk Songs from the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature recorded in Yugoslavia by his student Albert C. Lord between 1933 and 1935


Selection of Béla Bartòk's transcripted scores of recordings from the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature

Performer and Performance : The Role of Tradition in Oral Epic SongLecture by Albert C. Lord, Harvard University, 1989.

Hungarian Peasant Songs, Béla Bartòk, 1917 (performed by Zoltan Kocsis)

10.20.2009

See you tonight, Johnny!


Tonight we're having a party with Jonathan at Le Bourg in Lausanne!

10.19.2009

Other Worlds



“I would say Oist music is mostly rooted in Sun Ra's music. His music was a very particular mix of american classic jazz with ritual improvisation, traditional influences and avant-garde sounds, a strange type of futurist Exotica. Oist music has also a ritual function. It is rooted in american popular culture, there's a lot americana in it, but it is mainly improvised and the vocal part of it is very specific. I love Pygmy music, for an example: it is maybe my favourite music. I don't understand why people are always singing the same way.”

Jim Shaw in discussion with the author about A Tone, Meant for Your Sins, a musical performance soon in Turin on the occasion of "Blinding the Ears"

Other worlds:

V/A, from Gabon, Musiques des Pygmées Bibayak, Dialogues avec le esprits (1996)

Sun Ra, from Lanquidity, There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of) (1978)

Secret Chiefs 3, from First Grand Constitution, Assassin's Blade (2000)

Exo'ism


Jim Shaw, Dream Object (Elephant Trunk), 2007

“I would say Oist music is mostly rooted in Sun Ra's music. His music was a very particular mix of american classic jazz with ritual improvisation, traditional influences and avant-garde sounds, a strange type of futurist Exotica. Oist music has also a ritual function. It is rooted in american popular culture, there's a lot americana in it, but it is mainly improvised and the vocal part of it is very specific. I love Pygmy music, for an example: it is maybe my favourite music. I don't understand why people are always singing the same way.”

Jim Shaw in discussion with the author about A Tone, Meant for Your Sins, a musical performance soon in Turin on the occasion of "Blinding the Ears".

Other music:

"Gabon, Musiques des Pygmées Bibayak", Dialogues avec le esprits (1996)

Sun Ra, from "Lanquidity", There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of) (1978)

Secret Chiefs 3, from "First Grand Constitution", Assassin's Blade (2000)

Secret Chief: Remember Charles Harrison (1942-2009)


"I certainly wouldn’t want to defend difficulty for its own sake. But in a world in which what seems to be expected is instant ease of transmission, it seems important to stress both that the work of critical cultural production tends to require a degree of exertion, and that a matching concentration may be required to recover what’s of value in art – as in much else. […] As regards the practice of Art & Language, however, it can be said that the objects that practice has generated – whether textual or pictorial or whatever – have generally been difficult to describe, and often contradictory in their apparent direction. They are consequently frustrating of attempts to escape from their internal detail into the vocabulary of cultural topicalisations. This may not have been good for business, but it has certainly been good for me. The need to confront the difficulties in question has remained central to my education as a writer on art over the course of nearly forty years."

From Christopher Heuer and Matthew Jesse Jackson interview Charles Harrison, in InterReview 08


Listen to Red Crayola With Art And Language, Born To Win (Transactional Analysis With Gestalt Experiments) from Kangaroo? (1981)

10.12.2009

In the House of Mirrors : Remember Hector Zazou (1948-2008)


On September 8th, it has been one year that Hector Zazou (b. 1948) died in Paris. Zazou, a.k.a. Pierre Job, was a French composer, musician and producer kown for his pionneer interest in extra-european music and eclectic approach of composition, in between dark Ambient music and Afro Rock, Contemporary and World Music. He started as an iconoclast member of the French underground Post Psychedelic and Free Rock scene (he has been involved in the Barricade collective in Marseilles in 1969, and then in 1979, "La Perversita's record has been designed by Bazooka/Kiki Picasso). Then, he freely evoluated inside various contexts as Afro Pop ("Noir et Blanc", 1983), World Music (the famous "Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Corses", 1991) and Pop Music with collaborations with people like John Cale, Siouxsie, Jane Birkin, Björk or Brian Eno.

"If music cannot change the world, what use does it have?" This is the question raised by Hector Zazou, one of the most innovative and unpredictable French composers, as the versatility of his career demonstrates: rock music (the band Barricades), French impressionist music (the duet ZNR) or traditional African music (three albums with Bony Bikaye)... Hector Zazou has a surprise waiting with each new composition. Whether it be for string quartet, wind instruments, classical voices or synthesizers, all illustrate his passion for the most unexpected inventions. The album "Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Corses" (1991- is yet another successful experiment blending century-old a-cappella songs with shades of contemporary music performed by Zazou and occasional collaborators such as Jon Hassell, Manu Di Bango, Richard Horowitz, Ryuichi Sakamoto and John Cale. The following year Hector's "Sahara Blue" was released: the album, based on the work of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud and performed by the Sahara Blue Orchestra stars David Sylvian, Bill Laswell, Khaled, Dead Can Dance, Gérard Depardieu among other guests. Inspired by the musical folk traditions of the Northern Hemisphere, Hector's next adventure was "Songs From The Cold Seas" (1995), a literal journey through Siberian Shamanism, Scandinavian folk songs, Japanese ballads and Greenland mythology featuring an impressive cast of musicians including Värttina, Tokiko Kako, Suzanne Vega, Björk, Siouxsie and Jane Siberry. Released in 1998, "Lights In The Dark" – an exploration of ancient sacred Celtic music from the XIIth century featured some of the most beautiful Irish voices (Katie Mc Mahon, Breda Mayock and Lasairfhiona Ni Chonaola), a gospel choir and guest appearances by Mark Isham, Carlos Nuñez, Caroline Lavelle or Peter Gabriel. A successful tour followed in France (Printemps de Bourges), Italy and Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festival). Recorded with American singer Sandy Dillon, "Las Vegas Is Cursed" (2001) saw the return of Hector Zazou to electricity and experimentation (A flabbergasting baroque opera, a series of intriguing sonic scenes mixing electronic rock and altered chamber music (Keyboards Magazine). This amazingly rich and eclectic career brings to light the pioneering aspect of Zazou's unique approach and confirms his position in the foreground of the world music scene. In 2003 Hector Zazou composed an original soundtrack for Carl-Théodor Dreyer’s “la Passion de Jeanne d’Arc” while his new album “Strong Currents” was released, a collection of acoustic songs that was the fruit of several years of work (with Jane Birkin, Lisa Germano, Laurie Anderson…). Spring 2004 saw the release of “L’Absence”; an electronic twin of “Strong Currents”. He was then commissionned (by ciné-mix and Le Forum Des images in Paris)to compose another original soundtrack, this time for Robert Flaherty documentary “Nanouk Of The North”. Hector Zazou has proven himself as a creative force behind several unsual projects, as a unique musical arranger and producer called upon for his constant capacity of innovétion. He has been commissionned to write pieces for strings ensembles (By the Balanescu Quartet), contemporary dance performances or for the opening night festivities of the 1998 football world cup. Hector Zazou’s inventiveness as a producer has lead him to work with numerous artists among them Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo (Real World Records), Galician bagpipes player Carlos Nuñez,, Uzbek singer Sevara Nazarkhan (Yol Bolsin, Real World Records) , Italian band PGR (“Per Grazia Ricevuta”, released by Universal, was hailed as a masterpiece by the Italian press) and among others. His most recent project, a CD/DVD titled Quadri [+] Chromies, result of a two years collaboration with French digital painter Bernard Caillaud has been released in 2006. Followed in early 2008 by "Corps Electriques". His new album "In The House Of Mirrors", recorded in India, will be released by Crammed in September 2008. “In England they have Peter Gabriel, in America they have David Byrne, in France we have Hector Zazou” (Jean-françois Bizot)

(From Tacktic Music)

Here is a track from "In the House of Mirrors", his latest record on Crammed, recorded in India and mixed in Paris with Toir Kuziyev (tambur, oud et saz), Milind Raikar (violin), Ronu Majumdar (flute) et Manish Pingle (Indian slide guitar).

Get "Wanna Mako" here

10.06.2009

Lifeless Landcruising & Stiff Raceways



Cybotron - Cosmic Cars
Hoffnung & Psyche - Das Auto
Future World Orchestra - Casablanca Nights
Roger Roger & Nino Nardini - Hardware
Gruff Rhys - Wild Robots Power Up
Daft Punk - Make Love

10.02.2009

Synthetic Pleasure II



The Dan Deacon psychedelic videos have been shown at the Anthology Film Archive in 2007.

Synthetic Pleasure



Thanks to Guillaume !

10.01.2009

Exotic Arthur Russell



Arthur Russell, Treehousefrom World of Echo, Upside Records (1986)
Arthur Russell, Treehouse (Indian Ocean edit), from The Sleeping Bag Sessions, Traffic Entertainment Group (2009)
Arthur Russell, School Bell Treehouse (Indian Ocean edit)from The Sleeping Bag Sessions, Traffic Entertainment Group (2009)