tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72778346083359542682024-03-12T23:47:51.673-07:00Classical-DroneAn ongoing inquiry into music, from classics to drones, with occasional pauses to admire the scenery.Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.comBlogger289125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-6365003870407586642013-02-23T09:55:00.000-08:002013-02-23T09:55:28.655-08:00Transcriptions album available at Bandcamp
This month I released my first album on bandcamp, an EP of six transcriptions of classical works that I've made over the last decade or so. Five of the pieces are by J. S. Bach, no surprise given the number of posts that I wrote about him over the duration of this blog. Four of the five are readings from the Art of Fugue, which I also wrote about more than once. I worked for Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-86509991944674788762011-05-03T16:40:00.000-07:002011-11-03T17:25:44.604-07:00HiatusWith the recent posting of my review of Beautiful Ghost Wave, this blog will be on hiatus for an undetermined while due to other commitments. By the same token, I will no longer be able to accept promotional releases for review at Classical-Drone. I hope to continue writing for furthernoise.org, which recently posted my review of Netherworld's Glacial Movements release, Over The Summit. WithoutCaleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-19709942203546156462011-04-23T15:55:00.000-07:002011-04-23T16:06:51.894-07:00Ghost NoiseGoh Lee Kwang, who runs the Herbal International label, contacted me earlier this year with an invitation to review Jason Kahn's recent CD Beautiful Ghost Wave. I have a few CDs with Kahn creating fairly static textural improvisations using percussion and electronics with like-minded musicians Jason Lescalleet and Toshimaru Nakamura. My only prior exposure to his solo work is the opus for sine Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-32257772452498316462011-03-17T10:54:00.000-07:002011-03-17T13:07:39.636-07:00Ghostly ContextCompilation albums are intentionally a mixed bag, sometimes nothing more than a couple of big names strewn among introductory artists for a quick attraction to a new label. At their best, they contribute a complex and multivariant perspective on a pre-defined theme and become more than the aggregate of their individual tracks. Ghostly International, a "record label and art company" based in AnnCaleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-26156573280654006272011-03-14T17:19:00.000-07:002011-03-14T17:28:32.905-07:00The Cunningham Legacy TourSaturday night, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Legacy Tour came through Tucson with an evening of three dances spanning nearly fifty Cunningham's creative choreography. Let me state at the outset that I don't follow contemporary dance with anywhere near the avidity with which I approach music, so I don't have the vocabulary or experience to say much technically about the dances. My Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-63585285716585314412011-03-09T10:17:00.000-08:002011-03-09T10:29:08.645-08:00Sweet CelloMy latest side trip into the world of J. S. Bach is a paperback I picked up on a whim at our local indie bookshop: The Cello Suites by Canadian journalist Eric Siblin. I was previously unfamiliar with these suites except from guitar or lute transcriptions. Emusic has an excellent recording by Pierre Fournier on DGG Archiv for a decent price, so I availed myself of the opportunity. A wise move,Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-52973862316894468042011-03-04T07:48:00.001-08:002011-03-04T07:56:56.907-08:00Electroacoustics from IcelandOne of the joys of reviewing is the unexpected, the music that I never would have found, except for the promotional copy that arrives in my inbox. Such a case is a young Icelandic electroacoustician, Bjarni Gunnarsson, whose first solo album, Safn 2006-2009, was released last year on the Belgian microlabel Lamadameaveclechien (the lady with the dog, in French). Gunnarsson is a member of the duo Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-52491251353797991802011-02-18T15:46:00.000-08:002011-02-18T15:55:08.137-08:00Musique Concrète for the EyesIt's been a while since I last reported on the gems I've found inside Netflix that travel the same waters as yours truly. And I've found a nice one, My Cinema For The Ears, directed by Uli Aumüller and featuring mostly Francis Dhomont and a bit with Paul Lansky. The film's continuity and direction come from watching Dhomont work on a piece entitled Another Spring, which was released in Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-59050882843870784952011-02-10T14:44:00.000-08:002011-02-10T15:03:01.824-08:00Sounds of Venice ContinuedEnrico Coniglio first came to my attention in his collaboration with one of my favorite drone ambienteers, Oöphoi (whose work deserves a couple of articles here, but another time&hellip). He has been kind enough to keep me apprised of his work, and some time ago I received a couple of packages of CDs from him containing releases from different projects. Coniglio has deep roots in Venice, Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-63712369365003854072011-02-08T04:30:00.000-08:002011-02-08T04:35:54.059-08:00February FurthernoiseThe February issue of furthernoise.org is out, where I have two reviews: Chance Reconstruction by M. Ostermeier, a post-classical artist creating unusual work with piano and electronics; and the first volume of some nice droney Soundscapes from Edward Rizo. More info and links to the artists, plus other reviews and a new compilation of exclusive live tracks, at furthernoise.org.Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-6565885435492966882011-01-28T14:35:00.000-08:002011-01-28T14:55:02.885-08:00The Long Surround MigrationThis week I completed a long-held goal for my studio, which was to enable surround sound listening. The path to this goal was unfortunately fraught with a couple of hidden perils, compounded by my piecemeal upgrade to various home audio installations of differing manufacturers and capabilities. I document them here as a cautionary tale.The first piece of equipment was a Sony Multi-Channel Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-59615195462308999282011-01-19T09:00:00.000-08:002011-01-19T09:38:30.840-08:00Capitalism ruined the BeatlesSomewhere over the holidays I saw a notable-2010 book list that included Peter Doggett's account of the Beatles after their breakup, You Never Give Me Your Money. Not a bad read, but be forewarned that there is little discussion of music in the book. The solo post-Beatles albums show up as milestones in the unending legal battles that consumed the group starting in the late 1960s, while they Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-38811063259379358492011-01-19T05:27:00.000-08:002011-01-19T05:41:31.782-08:00Generative KaynAt the encouragement of fellow Roland Kayn aficinado Massimo Ricci, I had another look at the liner notes for Kayn's early vinyl releases, which are posted on his site. Despite my earlier comments on the paucity of material in English, there is some English explanation in each set of liner notes. It's pretty clear from the documents that Kayn developed a generative music systen, nearly twenty Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-76784290611686865762011-01-12T06:18:00.000-08:002011-01-12T06:28:42.660-08:00Drone Classics — Gaku-no-MichiJean-Claude Eloy's epic electronic work Gaku-no-Michi has long been on my short list for drone classics. Composed at the NHK Studio in Tokyo (like Stockhausen's Telemusik) in 1977-78, the 1979 double LP was one of my favorite electroacoustic works from my first hearing. But the four sides were only an excerpt, somewhat less than half of the total. Nevertheless, they grew in stature through itsCaleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-48701763973277908252011-01-07T15:28:00.000-08:002011-05-07T08:32:41.251-07:00Roland Kayn, 1933-2011Another of the great pioneer electroacousticians passed away this week. Roland Kayn was a part of the early electronic improv groups, Nuova Consonanza, with Ennio Morricone, Franco Evangelisti and Aldo Clementi, but his mark came with huge electronic epics that he started composing in the mid-1960s. One part of his Cybernetics project was released on the legendary DGG Avant-Garde series of LPs,Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-61340711171331736542011-01-03T09:30:00.000-08:002011-01-03T09:50:20.454-08:002010 in review2010 was a strange year for me and recorded music. I traveled to some major U.S. left coast cities and visited some world-class record stores, expecting to do some serious CD bingeing. The second trip involved two smaller stores, one of which I visited quite profitably in 2004. Unfortunately, both stores had shifted to fairly small CD displays, having switched largely to vinyl and used items, Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-54197896213987329542010-12-29T10:22:00.000-08:002010-12-29T14:50:40.801-08:00A Life Unfinished, FinishedChristmas morning I finally finished John Tilbury's Cardew biography, Cornelius Cardew: A Life Unfinished, having saved the final, political years for my third extended session with the book. In the 1970s, Cardew turned away from the avant-garde music that had gained his reputation, and began writing more populist music that would be useful in mobilizing the troops for the imminent revolution. Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-57359058437285783292010-12-17T13:48:00.001-08:002010-12-18T04:56:42.050-08:00Sound toward the lightRené Daumal was a mystic and writer in interwar France, a fertile time for the imagination even if it was highly unstable economically and politically for most of Europe. Born in 1908, his early years most famously included a bit of drug experimentation, specifically inhaling carbon tetrachloride, which gave him a glimpse of a higher reality. Although he later renounced external Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-30171252596700973702010-12-17T13:48:00.000-08:002010-12-18T04:56:06.317-08:00Captain Beefheart, RIPSad news today that Don van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, passed away. I was a Zappa fan, and Beefheart sang Willie the Pimp on Zappa's first solo, Hot Rats, which rapidly became my favorite song on the album. Zappa had also formed two labels, Straight and Bizarre, and I picked up everything they released. One of earliest releases was Beefheart's monument, Trout Mask Replica. If this was Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-15229657949155404882010-12-06T14:07:00.001-08:002010-12-06T14:12:51.986-08:00December at Furthernoise.orgThe December 2010 issue of Furthernoise.org was published today, and it includes two of my reviews, both featuring Australian music. The first is a review of Gail Priest's Presentiments From The Spider Garden, an extended web of unanticipated exotic territories formed into a long suite. The second is an overview of the first four releases on the Melbourne label Vicmod, which together show off Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-25707822158822606402010-11-04T12:46:00.000-07:002010-11-04T15:55:24.941-07:00Piano and classical dronesWhen I set up this blog nearly four years ago, I envisaged the Classical and the Drone as twin poles between which I would concentrate my humble observations. The intersection of these two worlds certainly exists, for example La Monte Young and Alvin Lucier, but the last time the two came together around here was about a year ago with Sunn O)))'s drone metal combined with classical instruments.Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-17149257328009122252010-11-01T14:26:00.000-07:002010-11-01T14:35:36.999-07:00A seasonal performanceOur first high cultural event of the season was last night at the University of Arizona's UAPresents, violinist Robert McDuffie and the Venice Baroque Orchestra playing the Seasons Project: Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons in the first half of the concert, and Philip Glass's second Violin Concerto, entitled The American Four Seasons. McDuffie commissioned the concerto with exactly this pairing Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-43818464791653605142010-10-21T15:06:00.000-07:002010-12-24T10:54:53.898-08:00Music in utopiaSettling back in after travelling involves finding various pieces of life and picking them up again. One of these pieces is John Tilbury's Cardew biography, which I've mentioned before. Needless to say, this wasn't a vacation book because of the FAA's continued enforcement of luggage weight restrictions. So this past week I've picked it up again, reading about the Scratch Orchestra, a Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-82218700555371805422010-10-20T11:45:00.000-07:002010-10-20T12:13:26.994-07:00Dark economicsBrian Pyle's solo spinoff from the Starving Weirdos, aptly-named Ensemble Economique since Pyle played everything himself, released its third album this past summer, a gorgeous vinyl package in Amish Records' Required Wreckers series. Standing Still, Facing Forward moves away from the Ensemble's more industrial earlier releases, with a sound built up from bowed strings, winds and environmental Caleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7277834608335954268.post-53169734577925224592010-10-14T16:48:00.001-07:002010-10-15T07:16:28.786-07:00Canadian reminiscencesBack in the spring I reviewed a two-CD set by Brooklyn dronemeister Kyle Bobby Dunn purporting to be an introduction to his music, but if someone really wanted to approach Dunn's music from out of the blue, his more recent limited edition Rural Route No. 2 might be a better place to start. Dunn is originally from Canada, and this release is from an unusual source, a print shop and publishingCaleb Deupreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14013497049609718830noreply@blogger.com0