Tony Coulter here, back with a few more audio-visual odds-and-ends. Since December last, I've been showcasing music acquired following my move to Portland, OR. Recently, though, coming up with the goods on a biweekly basis has become more challenging. This could be because the local used-vinyl well is running a bit dry -- or perhaps it's just that I'm currently semi-employed at best, and thus don't have too many dinars to throw around. Or maybe it's because lately I've mostly been buying $2.00-copies of dodgy '70s albums I never owned, by the likes of BTO, Kansas, and Styx -- which, it goes without saying, are not exactly blog-able, whatever their merits may be. Thus, today's post marks a shift (meaningful only to me, I'm sure): Though all proffered recordings have yet to be aired on FMU, all but one have been in my possession for years. The pictures that follow them, however, were for the most part unearthed locally -- after traveling all the way from Vietnam.
And now ... come inside, my dears....
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Rodolfo Caesar: A arte dos sons (no label, 1979) LP
Let's start with a very rare Brazilian LP, containing three stellar electroacoustic pieces from the 1970s by one Rodolfo Caesar. Caesar's music here is very much in the vein of INA-GRM stalwarts like Pierre Henry, Luc Ferrari, and Bernard Parmegiani -- and indeed two of the three pieces were produced at INA-GRM's electronic music studios in Paris. What I've given you is the untitled middle section of the piece Tutti Frutti, from 1976. They don't make electronic music like this any more, my friend.
Rodolfo Caesar: Tutti Frutti, pt. 2
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Ljupco Samardziski: Kontrabas (Double Bass) (RTB, 198?) LP
Next up is a Yugoslavian LP from, I'm guessing, the late '70s or early '80s, featuring the phenomenal double bassist Ljupco Samardziski -- who seems these days to be equally known as a visual artist. The track I've selected, Tiho (Quietly), was composed by Zoran Hristic, but most likely involves a lot of input from Samardziski (i.e., improvisation). Whatever the particulars, I'm sure this piece would be a lot more boring in the hands of most other performers. By the way, I should mention that Samardziski's playing reminds me a bit of the great Fernando Grillo.
Ljupco Samardziski: Tiho (Zoran Hristic)
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Augusto Concato: Without/Senza (no label, 1977) 7"
Staying with the avant slant, let us consider next a one-sided 7" from 1977 containing a fine piece of sound poetry in the vein of Kurt Schwitters, Henri Chopin, or Francois Dufrene. The responsible party, Augusto Concato, is an Italian, and, I believe, primarily a visual artist. As far as I can make out, the sounds on his single were meant to emanate from the head-on-wheels pictured below.
Augusto Concato: Without/Senza
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Aleksandra Mir: Bingo Blues / Big Buck$ Solo (Transmission, 1998) 7"
Let's turn next to a single offering up audio-verite recordings made in a Scottish bingo parlor. Despite being completely unmanipulated, the A-side, which you'll find below, serves quite well as sound art, no?
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Tim Souster: The Future Is Now (Transatlantic, 1977) 7"
Yet another single is next, this one from the versatile British composer/performer Tim Souster, whose career encompassed everything from acting as a sidekick to Stockhausen to recording funky sound-library releases. 1977's The Future Is Now, of which I've given you part one, scrambles up all his various musical strands in grand collage style.
Tim Souster: The Future Is Now, Pt. 1
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Mark Lockett & Janet Sherbourne: Walks Abroad (Practical Music, 1987) cassette
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Mark Lockett & Janet Sherbourne: Cafe Ole (Practical Music, 1987) cassette
Staying with British musicians -- and with classically trained composer/performers who omnivorously and unaffectedly blend classical, rock, and jazz -- let's now sample two cassette-only releases from the duo of Mark Lockett and Janet Sherbourne. Sherbourne, incidentally, was also part of a duo with composer/saxophonist Jan Steele, and made her recorded debut on an LP featuring the music of Steele and John Cage, released by Brian Eno on his Obscure label (and beware-of-the-blogged here). As for the music on these two Lockett/Sherbourne cassettes: If I had any musical talent at all, this is what I'd (try to) sound like.
From Walks Abroad:
Mark Lockett & Janet Sherbourne: Lazy Haze
Mark Lockett & Janet Sherbourne: Cat's Paw
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From Cafe Ole:
Mark Lockett & Janet Sherbourne: The Music Box
Mark Lockett & Janet Sherbourne: Close of Play
Mark Lockett & Janet Sherbourne: Soup Song
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Charlene Darling: Mourning Tooth (no label, 2010) CD-R
Let's finish up the audio portion of this post with the one thing I haven't owned for years -- indeed, with something brand new. Mourning Tooth, self-released on CD-R, is the third more-or-less solo album from a twenty-two-year-old French woman who's music strikes me as being a lot more heartfelt and original than the hipster pablum a lot of the young whippersnappers make these days. Mademoiselle Darling was/is also a member of the bands El-g, La Ligne Claire, and Pussy Patrol, the latter as punk-spastic as the name implies. I should mention as well that her two earlier releases are featured on the Free Music Archive (here), and that the guitarist on the two tracks below is Efai Hefaille.
Charlene Darling: Mourning Tooth
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And now it's time for the pictures. Most are from Vietnam originally, and ended up in an antique shop in Portland, from which my wife recently purchased them. The two round-eyes thrown into the mix were clipped by me from long-discarded record jackets, which housed I-no-longer-remember-what.
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That's it for now. See ya in two weeks....
You know, your elegant yellow hyperlinks look great against a black background, but don't work very well against a white background, which is what they appear against in the RSS feed. In fact, your posts look more like Victorian censorship, as the underscores under the hyperlink text are the only things that show up, to wit:
"Let's start with a very rare Brazilian LP, containing three stellar electroacoustic pieces from the 1970s by one _____________. Caesar's music here is very much in the vein of INA-GRM stalwarts like ______________, ______________, and ________________ ..."
Posted by: Randy | August 05, 2010 at 12:51 PM
Ack -- that's alarming. Thanks for letting me know, Randy....
Posted by: Tony Coulter | August 05, 2010 at 01:04 PM