Every time I read the descriptions for all the psychedelic reissues from places like Forced Exposure I always wonder where to find out more info. Is there any place that covers this in some reasonable detail? The websites I've found are pretty spotty and don't seem to review much of the more obscure stuff. I've ordered a couple of copies of Ptolemaic Terrascope (never see it even at the hipper magazine stands) and that's OK. Any suggestions?
> Apologies to non-U.S. list members; this is a bit off-topic...
>
> Twice recently, I've heard about Japanese noise/electronics artists being
> unable to enter the U.S. They get detained at customs and told to go
> home.
>
> * First, in May, Yasuhiro Otani was stopped in Chicago en route to the Big
> Sur festival in California. Reportedly, Customs saw his
> computer/electornics gear and decided he must be coming to the U.S. for
> work ... and they sent him home.
>
> * More recently, KK Null and Masashi Kitawara (SP) of the band "YBO?"
> couldn't get to San Francisco for a show. Not sure why, but I'd guess the
> reason is similar.
>
> I'm curious if similar stories are cropping up here and there. There's a
> bit of controversy about foreign engineers being brought to the U.S. to
> work, and it'd be amusing if certain types of musicians (Asian, carrying
> computers) were being mistaken for engineers and programmers.
>
> Or maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions, in which case you should ignore
> this post. :)
>
> - -- Craig Matsumoto
> KZSU, 90.1 FM, Stanford University
> wedge@slip.net
>
>
A friend of mine (Ron de Jong of Vertrek Ensemble) was booked to play at Tonic with Derek Bailey, John Butcher and Joelle Leandre in May. He had asked the club about a work permit, knowing what kind of paperwork he has gone through to bring US musicians here to play, and the person at Tonic told him it was unnecessary. Unfortunately, the customs agent at the airport felt otherwise, and refused to let him board the plane. This didn't surprise me -- or him, for that matter, knowing that work permits are needed to play in other countries. But what he can't figure out is why Tonic told him that they never get permits for people. And he can't get one himself, it has to be the club who does it.
Of course, he could have just lied and said he was going on vacation, and that the bag of cymbals and bells and sticks was a gift!
> From: "Patrice L. Roussel" <proussel@ichips.intel.com>
> Subject: Re: U.S. Customs
>
>
> I remembered that another Japanese musician was blocked at the airport of
> Porltand OR. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the artist.
I believe it was K.K. Null and Masashi Kitawara (sp?) from YBO2 that were detained in Portland. At least that's what The Knitting Factory said in explaining why YBO2 canceled and were replaced by Yoshida Tatsuya/Ron Anderson/John Zorn. Please forgive me if you are referring to someone else (a third set of musicians detained?). Either way, it is a rather puzzling trend.
> And don't forget to listen to Michel Doneda and Urs Leimgruber.
>
> Jacques Oger
I was just about to mention Doneda when this message came through from Jacques. I've recently been enjoying two new releases with him:
Kazue Sawai/Michel Doneda/Tetsu Saitoh -- Live at Hall Egg Farm (Sparkling Beatnik) and
Helene Breschand/Michel Doneda/Gerald Zbinden -- L'intense (For 4 Ears)
Doneda is one of the more unique soprano players that I can think of. He playing is, usually, very harsh but not in that cold and dry Steve Lacy way. This is more of a bone-rattling aggressive sounding playing, with lots of overblowing. The For 4 Ears disc is harp/soprano/electic guitar, and is often quite noisy and intense. Breschand (harpist) seems to get lost in the mix a bit, but manages to come through sometimes to help create interesting drony wall of sound.
The Sparkling Beatnik disc is a bit quieter, a bit more spacious, but not much. It is koto/soprano/bass. This is my first exposure to Tetsu Saitoh, who I like quite a bit. Can anyone recommend anything else by him (preferably that isn't too hard to find)? I know there is a duet with Joelle Leandre on Egg Farm, but I have no idea how I could get a copy.
>As a Fluxus-flecked multimedia artist, his work doubtless was
Did Smith have any connections to Fluxus other than possible friendships with some Flux-ers? I would have thought his aesthetics vastly different from Fluxus but then I also have only seen some films and read one or two of his writings.
> it's the "best" one. I've looked in the old Reich vinyl at
> WHRW-Binghamton, and have been unable to locate an "original".
There is another recording but on video. When I first read about "Pendulum Music" (in the Nyman experimental music book?) I had wonderful images of great swooshes of feedback. But years later I finally saw a performance in a documentary on Reich that aired on PBS and it was little thin bleeps of feedback, very similar to the SY version (unfortunately not an entire performance if I remember right). What a disappointment. Those classical types are such wimps.
When I interviewed Steve Reich for OHM, he basically indicated that "Pendulum Music" was done as a performance piece years ago and not something released as a recording. All of a sudden, there's these two versions of the piece done recently (which amazed him).
We originally considered including the version by Ensemble Avantgarde to include on OHM. At that time, we were in contact with Thurston and Lee from Sonic Youth to get some quotes for the liner notes. Lee mentioned that they themselves had done a version of the piece on "Goodbye 20th Century" and that we should consider using it. We liked the SY version better so we went with that one.
Reich mentioned that he hadn't actually heard the SY version yet and it so happens that Lee lives in the same building as he does. Reich said "I should go to his place, bang on the door and ask for a copy!"
As yet another side note to this, I mentioned to Lee that I had extra material from the OHM interview with Reich about the early tape pieces he did ("Come Out" and "It's Gonna Rain") that we weren't able to include in the liner notes. Lee said I should definitely transcribe that material and put it out. I contacted Reich again and got his approval to publish this material so it will be appearing in the next issue of Perfect Sound- I'll send a note to the list
From: Steve Smith <ssmith36@pop.sprynet.mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: SY 20th Cent. & "OHM" Box set
Date: 12 Jul 2000 17:21:26 -0500
Perfect Sound Forever wrote:
> As yet another side note to this, I mentioned to Lee that I had extra material from the OHM interview with Reich about the early tape pieces he did ("Come Out" and "It's Gonna Rain") that we weren't able to include in the liner notes. Lee said I should definitely transcribe that material and put it out. I contacted Reich again and got his approval to publish this material so it will be appearing in the next issue of Perfect Sound- I'll send a note to the list
> when this is ready.
While everyone's waiting for that, head on over to http://www.newmusicbox.org and click on the column "In the Third Person" for a secret toy surprise... No, seriously, it's a bunch of little tiny interlinked articles by a couple of familiar Zornlisters (namely Jason and me) on the interstices between rock bands and new music composition. Sonic Youth is of course one of the bands examined.
Since we're co-credited you might never know who wrote what, which is less than fair to Jason since I don't think this was any of my own best writing. But this is a site imminently worth visiting by anyone who's the least bit interested in modern American composed music. Great Gary Lucas interview by the editor as well.
And in the photo, he's the "guitarist," I'm the "drummer."
Gratuitously,
Steve Smith
ssmith36@sprynet.com
NP - clickety-clack, clickety-clack go my little fingers on the keys
Subject: Re: Re: PROMO: John Butcher/Phil Durrant-Requests and Antisongs
Date: 18 Jul 2000 14:12:12 -0400
>what do you think of my genre name for the new wave of >electroacoustic improv, dangerous improv?
Why not just New Wave of Electroacoustic Improv (NWOEI) along the lines of the now old-school New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM)? (Personally I like Kenneth Goldsmith's "glitchwerks" better because no improvs are dangerous in any meaningful sense.)
Subject: Re: Re: PROMO: John Butcher/Phil Durrant-Requests and Antisongs
Date: 18 Jul 2000 13:30:02 -0400
On Tue, Jul 18, 2000 at 02:12:12PM -0400, wlt4@mindspring.com wrote:
> Why not just New Wave of Electroacoustic Improv (NWOEI) along the lines of the now old-school New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM)? (Personally I like Kenneth Goldsmith's "glitchwerks" better because no improvs are dangerous in any meaningful sense.)
There's always the danger of looking foolish. Not to mention the
danger of being knocked off the stage by a hyperactive guitarist. And
there's always the mortality rate of Spinal Tap's drummers...
--
|> ~The only thing that is not art is inattention~ --- Marcel Duchamp <|
Is anyone here familiar with the live stuff in the incredible 20 release _Complete..._ series on Polonia? Looking for the best of the heap to get me inspired to investigate further...
When I was in Quebec City one record store had an entire section labelled "musique actuelle" (plus a pretty large "Progressive" one) which got me wondering: Does this have an idiomatic meaning in French that I don't know? Is this a common genre/style/sensibility label among French speakers? If so does it come from the Victoriaville fest, the BYG series or some other source?
Hey there, I'm new-ish to the list and this is my first post.
My name is Cameron, I'm 16 and I live in South Australia
I realise it's a little late in relation to the topic, but it's here anyway.
Firstly I read on this list that Zorn practiced saxophone for 8 hours a day and people were unsure about that. Well, I recently was at a site www.dtmgallery.com which I got linked to through this list and I was going through this cartoon called "Masada by Harvey Pekar". In that, Zorn told this guy he practiced for 8 hours a day for 10 years. I think it was about frame 5 so you can go there and check it.
The other thing is I found a biography on Zorn in a jazz book at school. However, I'll send that in another message so that this one isn't so huge.....
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