Thursday, December 23, 2010

devoted to supreme simplification (or bent, by light)

(best of 2010)
music
enjoyed by the staff at the memory offices
(red entries most-listened to)

- chris abrahams - play scar - room40
- alva noto - for 2 - line
- amm - sounding music - matchless recordings
- amm - uncovered correspondence - matchless recordings
- thomas ankersmit - hangar performance - touch radio, recorded by john grzinich
- antony and the johnsons - swanlights - secretly canadian
- antony and the johnsons - thank you for your love - rough trade
(with william basinski)

- j.s. bach / teodoro anzellotti - the goldberg variations - winter & winter
- jan bang - ...and poppies from kandahar - samadhisound
- barn owl - the conjurer - root strata
- barn owl - ancestral star - thrill jockey
- thomas bel - lumières, ombres, voix et visages
- keith berry - the cartesian plane - elevator bath (lp)
- black swan - in 8 movements - ethereal symphony/experimedia
- olivia block & kyle bruckmann - teem - and/oar
- peter brötzmann & paal nilssen-love - woodcuts - smalltown superjazzz
- micael t. bullock and andrew lafkas - ceremonies to breathe upon - winds measure recordings

- john cage / terry jennings / john tilbury / sebastian lexer - lost daylight - another timbre
- john cage - violin & piano (andreas seidel, steffen schleiermacher) - mdg
- jefre cantu-ledesma - love is a stream - type
- celer - dwell in possibility - blackest rainbow
- celer - pockets of wheat - soundscaping records
- celer - weavings of a rapid disenchantment - basses frequences
- andrew chalk - the cable house - faraway press (cd version)
- andrew chalk & daisuke suzuki - in faxfleet clouds uplifted autumn gave passage to kind nature - faraway press (cd)
- andrew chalk - ghost of nakhodka - siren records
- marsfield (andrew chalk) - three sunsets over marsfield (parts one and two) - faraway press (lp)
- andrew chalk (marsfield) - the towering sky - faraway press
- richard chartier - a field for mixing - room40
- richard chartier & asmus tietchens - fabrication 2 - auf abwegen
- joe colley - disasters of self - c.i.p.
- clare cooper/chris abrahams/christof kurzmann/tobias delius/clayton thomas/werner dafeldecker/tony buck -
hammeriver - mikroton recordings
- françois couturier - un jour si blanc - ecm
- the cure - disintegration (deluxe edition) universal

- yannick dauby - overflows - sonoris
- deerhunter - halcyon digest - 4ad
- taylor deupree - snow (dusk, dawn) - 12k
- taylor deupree - shoals - 12k (cd + 7")
- dreams of tall buildings feat arve henriksen - drowning the heart sounds - museum

- max eastley - installation recordings - paradigm discs
- eleh - location momentum - touch
- eleh - repose - important
- lawrence english + minamo - a path less traveled - room40
- lawrence english - incongruous harmonies - touch (7")

- roberto fabbriciani / robin hayward - nella basilica - another timbre
- morton feldman - music for piano and strings by morton feldman: for john cage & piano and string quartet (the smith quartet with john tilbury) - matchless
- fennesz / daniell / buck - knoxville - thrill jockey
- food - quiet inlet - ecm
- ben frost - by the throat - bedroom community (lp version)
- the fun years - god was like, no - barge recordings

- jan garbarek / the halliard ensemble -
officium ovum - ecm

- tim hecker - apondalifa - room40
- catherine christer hennix - the electric harpsichord - die schachtel
- koen holtkamp - gravity/bees - thrill jockey
- m. holterbach & julia eckhardt - do-undo (in g maze) - helen scarsdale agency

- rafael anton irisarri - the north bend - room40

- philip jeck -
an ark for the listener - touch
- rolf julius - music for the ears: small music no. 1 - western vinyl

- thomas köner - nunatak/teimo/permafrost - type (lp reissues)
- lethe - catastrophe point #7 & #8 - invisible birds
- kiyoharu kuwayama & masayoshi urabe - from the abolition port - songs from under the floorboards

- francisco lópez - machines - elevator bath
- lovesliescrushing - crwth (chorus redux) - line

- machinefabriek - daas - cold spring
- aaron martin - worried about the fire - experimedia
- christopher mcfall - the body as i left it - sourdine
- olivier messiaen - visions de l'amen (sarah rothenberg & marilyn nonken) - bridge
- stephan micus - bold as light - ecm
- jon mueller - the whole - type

- toshimaru nakamura - egrets - samadhisound
- joanna newsom -
have one on me - drag city
- phill niblock - sound delta - touch
- bj nilsen - the invisible city - touch
- bj nilsen & stillupsteypa - space finale - editions mego (lp)

- organum -
sorow - siren records
- ben owen - frying pan light ship, hudson river, new york, ny - winds measure recordings

- charlemagne palestine -
strumming music: for piano, harpsichord and string ensemble - sub rosa
- arvo pärt - symphony no. 4 - ecm
- benoît pioulard - lasted - kranky
- piiptsjilling - wurdskrieme - experimedia

- akira rabelais - caduceus - samadhisound
- marc ribot - silent movies - pi recordings
- max richter - infra - fat cat
- steve roden - une pierre, des arcs et des oreilles
- rv paintings - samoa highway - helen scarsdale agency (lp)

- conrad schnitzler - zug - m=minimal
- simon scott - nivalis - secret furry hole
- simon scott - traba - immune (lp)
- seaworthy + matt rösner - two lakes - 12k
- trygve seim / andreas utnem - purcor - ecm
- colin andrew sheffield - slowly - mystery sea
- matt shoemaker - isolated agent / stranding behavior - elevator bath (lp)
- matt shoemaker - soundtrack for dislocation - elevator bath
- richard skelton (clouwbeck) - from which the river rises - sustain-release
- solo andata - ritual - desire path recordings
- kim doo soo - evening river - p.s.f. records
- steinbrüchel - a\b\d\d - binemusic
- supersilent - supersilent 10 - rune grammofon
- supersilent - supersilent 11 - rune grammofon (lp)
- swans - my father will guide me up a rope to the sky - young gods (lp + 2 cd)

- tape & bill wells - fugue - immune
- scott tuma -
dandelion - digitalis - 2010 (lp)

- various - shutter island (music from the motion picture) - rhino records
- violence and the sacred performing as viosac - dawning luminosity - vats

- chris watson - a journey south - touch
- stian westerhus -
pitch black star spangled - rune grammofon (lp)
- simon whetham - beneath the swinging bridge - mystery sea
- jana winderen - energy field - touch

- mark peter wright - inanimate life (a catalogue) - 3leaves

- yellow swans - going places - type
- yellow swans - being there - type
- neil young -
will to love/cortez the killer/dead man theme - reprise records (lp)
- richard youngs - beyond the valley of ultrahits - jagjaguwar lp reissue

- hans zimmer - inception (music from the motion picture) - reprise records/watertower music


(films from 2010
)

dvds

- chantal akerman - eclipse series 19: chantal akerman in the seventies - criterion
- michelangelo antonioni - red desert - criterion
- stan brakhage - by brakhage: an anthology, volume two - criterion
- john ford - stagecoach - criterion
- michael haneke - the white ribbon - sony
- julian jarrold, james marsh, anand tucker - the red riding trilogy - ifc
- sidney lumet - the fugitive kind - criterion
- terrence malick - the thin red line - criterion
- leo mccarey - make way for tomorrow - criterion
- steve mcqueen - hunger - criterion
- martin provost - séraphine - music box films
- nicholas ray - bigger than life - criterion
- carol reed - night train to munich - criterion
- götz spielmann - revanche - criterion
- jan troell - everlasting moments - criterion
- wim wenders - paris, texas - criterion
- william wyler/richard boleslawski - hell's heroes / three godfathers - mgm

(a couple more criterions i have to check out still)

films

- cohen brothers - true grit
- tarrl lightowler - i flood myself with light
- christopher nolan - inception
- martin scorsese - shutter island
- michael winterbottom - the killer inside me

books

- joseph beuys - parallel processes - schirmer/mosel
- oliver byrne - the first six books of the elements of euclid with coloured diagrams and symbols - 1847 - taschen
- susan derges - elemental - steidl
- bob dylan - bob dylan in america (sean wilentz) - doubleday
- antonio lópez garcía - antonio lópez garcía: drawings - dap (entry title comes from random sentences found within)
- richard cook & brian morton - the penguin jazz guide: the history of the music in the 1001 best albums - penguin press
- lars müller - windfall light: the visual language of ecm - lars müller publishers
- bram stoker - dracula - everyman's library
- david toop - sinister resonance: the mediumship of the listener - continuum
- robert walser - microscripts - new directions/christine burgin
- h.g. wells - the time machine, the invisible man, the war of the worlds - everyman's library

(will probably add some more stuff in the next week or two)

Saturday, December 18, 2010

more light, and more darkness (program notes)



notes from the recent screening in los angeles,
thanks to those who came and sent kind words.
dvd out next year on invisible birds *

light in the darkness, or darkness moves
recent work by tarrl lightowler and matthew swiezynski
(and the ingenting kollektiva)

matthew swiezynski - i can feel the sea falling over my head - 2008-2010
filmed on christmas in 2008, this video documents some beautiful harmonium playing by d granahan accompanied by the sounds of a warm fireplace. the work starts out as a somewhat straightforward documentation, and then moves towards the end into abstraction, not dissimilar to alvin lucier's i am sitting in a room, though more akin to the transcendent qualities of indian classical music.
matthew swiezynski - it is something invisible - 2008-2010
the work for this video started by using a camera to collect images of trees using a method inspired by the films of michael snow and stan brakhage. this method involves spinning the camera around in the woods for as long as the body can tolerate (60-90 seconds), and then using a computer to layer and extend the raw footage. one way to think about the film is of a camera gathering small fragments of time from a forest that exists in larger periods of time (the life of the forest), and stretching these moments into something more appropriate to what the trees would see rather than someone passing through.
tarrl lightowler - as yet untitled - 2010
mr. lightowler has been making films of light on water for some 15 or more years. these 3 excerpts are from a longer planned work that involves an extremely refined way of thinking about and photographing the way light, movement and time leave an impression on water. this new work is accompanied by recordings made by the ingenting kollectiva on christmas 2009, edited by mr. lightowler.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

light in the darkness, or, darkness moves (la ville des anges)

recent films by tarrl lightowler and matthew swiezynski
premiering in los angeles on december 16th 2010, in echo park *.

matthew swiezynski - i can feel the sea falling over my head - 2009-2010
tarrl lightowler - as yet untitled - 2010
matthew swiezynski - it is something invisible - 2009-2010

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"tarrl lightowler and matthew swiezynski are two filmmakers who make attempts at photographing "ingenting", or, what is not visible to the naked eye (nothingness).

with the use of many ingenting devises, they have chanced upon a few moments of visual phenomena, otherworldliness, minimalism and abstractions, in the tradition of the romantics and their observations of Natur.

these devises generally involve some sort of alembic apparatus; something to distill and abstract images and sound, and can include movement, time, layering, beauty, grain, ephemera, etc.

in addition, to find work that is in a tradition that would include: agnes martin, robert walser, mark rothko, morton feldman, melville, victor hugo, henri michaux, michael snow & ernie gehr, j. s. bach, philippe jaccottet, ingmar bergman & gunnar fischer and sven nykvist, bela tarr, eliane radigue, robert musil, marcel duchamp, robert bresson, john ford, thomas köner, terrence malik, andrei tarkovsky, h.p. lovecraft, powell & pressburger to name a few.

and in general: jazz, abstract expressionism, 20th century classical music, french, russian and german poetry & literature, renaissance, netherlandish and dutch painting, early music, birdsong, distant melodies, and drone music."

words by arthur de eriomém