― Tripmaker (SDWitzm), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 20:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 20:33 (eighteen years ago) link
The Ipecac one is Virginal Co-Ordinates, much less schitzophrenic than the Tzadiks, much more symphonic. I kind of miss the schitzophrenia actually, but the smoother, integrated, immersive longform piece with huge extended motifs is good too, I need to listen again.
Kang has joined the Secret Chiefs 3, which is now a sextet, for their tour in january, I'm hoping he gets to open for them as well
― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 20:54 (eighteen years ago) link
I did no such thing!
― Corcoran (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 20:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― Corcoran (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 20:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― Corcoran (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 21:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― sleeve (sleeve), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 06:40 (eighteen years ago) link
Like many others, I first saw his name on the 35 minute pyschoraga with the SCG. He (Kang) seems to select his projects carefully, and his name is usually a mark of quality I find. That last Secret Chiefs album was amazing also! Also, you are all so right, the Abduction disc is very mighty, but I think I like Iceland even better. That last track with vocals is so beautiful! There are others I still need to hear (Sweetness of Sickness? Anyone?).
― myopic_void (myopic_void), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 13:13 (eighteen years ago) link
I'll certainly check out the above recommendations, whether more difficult or not, but is there another release that's like Virginal Co Ordinated?
― ((((((DOPplur)))n)))u))))tttt (donut), Thursday, 8 June 2006 02:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― ((((((DOPplur)))n)))u))))tttt (donut), Thursday, 8 June 2006 02:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― milton parker (Jon L), Thursday, 8 June 2006 05:52 (seventeen years ago) link
Thank you MiltonParker!
― ((((((DOPplur)))n)))u))))tttt (donut), Thursday, 8 June 2006 13:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― ((((((DOPplur)))n)))u))))tttt (donut), Thursday, 8 June 2006 13:05 (seventeen years ago) link
new album Athlantis, has anyone heard it?
http://www.ipecac.com/bio.php?id=27
― Milton Parker, Friday, 3 August 2007 22:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Milton! I picked it up back in July and it's worth a spin. It's much shorter in duration than "Virginal co-ordinates". The feel of the album is generally quite tense and disembodied with a hint of menace underneath it all. Musically, it's quite minimal,the vocals carry or disarm the pieces, providing the main focal point. There's still instrumental passages like in Kang's other work, but they're mostly quite brief and provide nice respite from the desecrated choral work. Patton's opera singing is enjoyable and often used more as a support, but the real thrill is Jessika Kenney's vocals (particuliarly on the subtle and meditative "Ros Vespertinus") and the various members of the choir. Unsurprisingly, Patton still employs his love of madcap sputtering at certain moments. I haven't got fully engaged in this, but Eyvind Kang's quality standards remain consistent.
― Operator plug, Sunday, 5 August 2007 03:11 (sixteen years ago) link
the other day I stumbled on yet another Kang project I was unfamiliar with, a record he did with Tucker Martine called Orchestra Dim Bridges on some label called Conduit Records I have never heard of. It's from 2004 and is superb guitar instrumental stuff with little filigrees of electronic noise on the background.
I'm excited that there's a new one, also excited that it's on Ipecac and therefore findable.
― sleeve, Monday, 6 August 2007 19:38 (sixteen years ago) link
thanks for review operator plug
I have to admit I haven't returned to virginal coordinates that often, and I think the reason was Patton's vocals were just a little bit too intrusive in the texture in the final movement. (tons of respect for Patton but it doesn't always work in every context for me). it's also a bit of an Epic Piece that you have to really give yourself over for, it'd probably work best in concert
story of iceland I still play regularly
― Milton Parker, Monday, 6 August 2007 19:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Unfortunately, I haven't heard any of his stuff outside the Secret Chiefs 3 stuff and a few things he's done in the Zorn orbit, but I met him at a SC3 show, and he's a really nice guy.
― novaheat, Monday, 6 August 2007 22:36 (sixteen years ago) link
I wish I could be as positive about Athlantis as Operator plug above. I like Eyvind's work in general and lived in Seattle for a long time so I got hear him play quite a bit and knew him somewhat. I like a lot of his recording projects (Nades, Iceland, etc, the disc with Tucker is good and his work with various others Secret Chiefs, Frisell, Horvitz, etc) however, I've been disappointed in both Athlantis & Virginal co-ordinates. I don't hate the music, but it's just not a direction I care much about and both projects seem derivative of earlier work by other composers in ways that don't interest me.
I listened to Athlantis straight through for the third time over the weekend (& I've heard tracks on shuffle as well), and too often it seems like a cross between Philip Glass & Osvaldo Golijov. Eyvind may not be thinking of either composer, but the resemblances are striking and not as if he's taking these works on as a kind of genre to work within, like the blues or whatever.
I'm not disagreeing with the positive comments above, these are good recordings; I just wish I thought they were great recordings.
― Herb Levy, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 03:50 (sixteen years ago) link
Virginal Co Ordinates is one of the best records of the decade for reals.
― stanton in the shadows of brotown (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 5 March 2009 13:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Just "discovering" him now, and not sure what I think but very intrigued.
There is an amazing concert line-up scheduled for a couple weeks from now in Santa Fe and Albuquerque: Bill Frisell, Eyvind Kang, and Rahim AlHaj (the last of which is actually the one I was most interested in). Unfortunately, it's really early in the evening and I work nights now, so it will be about an hour (or possibly two) after I get up, and I'm not sure I can hack that on my day off. The fact that we will be shifting our clocks forward doesn't help matters.
But if anyone happens to be in New Mexico at the right time. . .
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 14 March 2010 02:19 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.outpostspace.org/node/741
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 14 March 2010 02:20 (fourteen years ago) link
That is an amazing lineup!
― Sundar, Sunday, 14 March 2010 02:35 (fourteen years ago) link
Really not ready for the Bowie-esque 10:10 (well it starts out kind of Bowie-esque) all of the sudden on The Story of Iceland, after all that post-minimalist Reich/Harrison sounding stuff. I did not click big with Eyvind Kang after all.
― Internet Looser (_Rudipherous_), Sunday, 21 August 2011 02:54 (twelve years ago) link
i really dig Virginal Co-Ordinates, and just got (and really like) the Dying Ground album.
what should i seek out next?
― difficult to adjust to ilxor being a low frequency poster (ilxor), Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:21 (twelve years ago) link
lately I have really been digging both NADEs records on Tzadik (7 NADEs and Theater Of Mineral NADEs), they are so good. Live Low To The Earth is still my favorite though. TOMN is probably the most like Virginal tho.
― sleeve, Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:22 (twelve years ago) link
His newest one, Visible Breath, is quite good. I reviewed it for The Wire. All droney 'n' purty.
― that's not funny. (unperson), Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:40 (twelve years ago) link
What is this Orchestra Dim Bridges thing on Spotify?It's really cool.
― Trip Maker, Wednesday, 16 November 2011 20:20 (twelve years ago) link
I talk about it a little bit upthread, yes it is very good!
― sleeve, Thursday, 17 November 2011 19:47 (twelve years ago) link
it is. interesting stuff. a shame they removed a lot of his other albums.
― sonderangerbot, Thursday, 17 November 2011 20:40 (twelve years ago) link
new album "The Narrow Garden" on Ipecac is fucking incredible, very masterful mood shifts from ominous to light & pretty and back to doomy again
― ilxor, Monday, 2 January 2012 21:45 (twelve years ago) link
It is an incredible album indeed. Invisus Natalis is just wonderful.
― Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Thursday, 15 March 2012 14:24 (twelve years ago) link
I wanna hear this new one, but I'm busy sinking my teeth into Visible Breath. I also need to hear that record with Kinney, Athlantis and Yelm Sessions. Vinyl On Demand has been killing my music budget lately.
― Flat Of NAGLs (sleeve), Thursday, 15 March 2012 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
argh Kenney with an e not an i
"narrow garden" is grand. not perfect but grand, still.still smacks a little of colonial "exotica"
― iglu ferrignu, Saturday, 24 March 2012 17:46 (twelve years ago) link
The Narrow Garden is maybe my favorite album of the year so far. wrote a review here. love love love!!
― ilxor, Sunday, 8 April 2012 02:57 (twelve years ago) link
I share your enthusiasm!
― Jamón Sibérico (Ówen P.), Sunday, 8 April 2012 03:27 (twelve years ago) link
yeah this is top 5 of 2012 for me so far
― W. E. B. Du Bois Goals Panel (DJ Mencap), Sunday, 8 April 2012 12:13 (twelve years ago) link
Rules
― #yolo contendere (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, 8 April 2012 14:27 (twelve years ago) link
ok ok I'll buy it today, sheesh.
<3 u all
― Flat Of NAGLs (sleeve), Sunday, 8 April 2012 15:18 (twelve years ago) link
I'm appreciating guy's voice more and more
― Jamón Sibérico (Ówen P.), Sunday, 8 April 2012 15:42 (twelve years ago) link
I love The Narrow Garden but especially adore Invisus Natalis. I always play it ten times in a row and still feel like it is something new and wonderful.
― Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Sunday, 8 April 2012 21:02 (twelve years ago) link
new one is on spotify. this is damn good.
― original bgm, Sunday, 8 April 2012 22:05 (twelve years ago) link
ya i just listened to this, snap judgement is that it's his best since virginal co-ordinates (which for me is v hard to beat). that particular portentous dissonance that floats through it surfacing more or less violently here and there seems something pretty new to his compositional voice, horrifyingly but brilliantly oppressive.
― Boo-Yaa Too Rough International Boo-Yaa Empire (Merdeyeux), Monday, 9 April 2012 02:27 (twelve years ago) link
Discovering the Narrow Garden has led to me seriously reconsidering my EOY ballot. Totally enchanting. My favourites are Pure Nothing and Invisus Natalis.
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Sunday, 13 January 2013 23:18 (eleven years ago) link
Didn't he work on the first ASVA record? Jessika Kenney sang two incredible songs on there and Randall Dunn produced...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rioAfi5FJ8
― Nate Carson, Sunday, 13 January 2013 23:26 (eleven years ago) link
ya i just listened to this, snap judgement is that it's his best since virginal co-ordinates (which for me is v hard to beat). that particular portentous dissonance that floats through it surfacing more or less violently here and there seems something pretty new to his compositional voice, horrifyingly but brilliantly oppressive.― Boo-Yaa Too Rough International Boo-Yaa Empire (Merdeyeux), Monday, 9 April 2012 03:27 (9 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Boo-Yaa Too Rough International Boo-Yaa Empire (Merdeyeux), Monday, 9 April 2012 03:27 (9 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
This. It starts off with an almost New Age-y temperament and just as you think this is some hippie spa music bullshit, there'll be this terrifying point where, say, Indian chanting meets a Celtic battle-scene and it's a big maelstrom of awesome incongruity, a cryptic culture clash but never less than transfixing. I tried reading to this, but I was ripped away from my book by the time 2:45 on Pure Nothing rolled around, those vocals: "I cannot say whether if I am asleep or awake/Somebody tell me" - the slightly hackneyed psychedelic sentiment in the first line met with a panickiy plea in the second as the voices eddying and buffeting around each other.
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Sunday, 13 January 2013 23:29 (eleven years ago) link
whether if I am asleep
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Sunday, 13 January 2013 23:30 (eleven years ago) link
Kind of a spoiler, it being the last (and best) track on the album, but this is just...:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlhK1D-8o2g
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Monday, 14 January 2013 00:01 (eleven years ago) link
Eyvind and Jessika both contributed to the next album by a band I work with. Such monumental talents & awesome people.
― Oblique Strategies, Monday, 14 January 2013 00:07 (eleven years ago) link
dl that was my most played track from last year <3 <3
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 14 January 2013 00:11 (eleven years ago) link
love Narrow Garden, and I have also become completely obsessed with "Thick Tarragon" off of the Visible Breath LP. I really need to get the new one with Kenney.
― sleeve, Monday, 14 January 2013 01:35 (eleven years ago) link
Kang and Kenney's "The Face of the Earth" is really good too, obv more intimate and less of a grand statement than "The Narrow Garden" but very rewarding.
I haven't delved into the pre-2012 Kang back catalogue, guess I should read upthread for pointers.
― Five days left to vote in the ILM End of Year Poll! (seandalai), Monday, 14 January 2013 02:28 (eleven years ago) link
I need more music like Live Low To The Earth, In The Iron Age - basically, doom Frisell. Where to?
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Sunday, 20 January 2013 18:56 (eleven years ago) link
Probably this:
www.discogs.com/Dying-Ground-Dying-Ground/release/1193467
Although I have only heard live shows, not that CD, I think it comes closest.
"Live Low" is a lovely anomaly in his catalog... you could maybe also try the Theater Of Mineral NADEs or Virginal Coordinates CDs, but they are way less rock and more compositions for orchestra or small ensembles. The long track "10:10" on Story Of Iceland also rocks in a woozy kind of way.
― sleeve, Sunday, 20 January 2013 20:00 (eleven years ago) link
"it" being the band Dying Ground, that is.
I felt moved to write about Pure Nothing for my latest entry on the Johnny Fever-run STACKS blog: http://heystacks.tumblr.com/post/41304974426/eyvind-kang-pure-nothing-the-narrow-garden-2012
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 22:06 (eleven years ago) link
The recent Books of Angels is pretty good. I especially like Variel and Rachiel. It's a nice cross between the usual fourth-world classical aesthetic he goes for, with sort of a seventies synth/soundtrack vibe peeking through.
Wouldn't mind more recommendations about this guy. I absolutely adore the Narrow Garden but he's got quite a back catalogue, not to mention the collaborations and live albums.
― 3kDk (dog latin), Thursday, 31 July 2014 11:34 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB4HfSRq3fw
― 3kDk (dog latin), Thursday, 31 July 2014 13:17 (nine years ago) link
The albums he did with Jessika Kenney are well worth a listen.
― dem bow dem bow need calcium (seandalai), Thursday, 31 July 2014 13:37 (nine years ago) link
I've got a live one in Iceland and it's... okay. The stuff they did together on Narrow Garden is out of this world of course. I wonder if there's anything else that lives up to that standard.
― 3kDk (dog latin), Thursday, 31 July 2014 13:39 (nine years ago) link
do you not have Virginal Coordinates yet? Get that. Visible Breath is LP-only but also excellent.
― sleeve, Thursday, 31 July 2014 14:17 (nine years ago) link
we walked down the aisle to this at our wedding http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42yDPbo-rD0
― dilligaf escape plan (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 31 July 2014 14:22 (nine years ago) link
kang fans should check out terry riley's "salome dances for peace" (1989) neither kang nor riley exist in a vacuum & have both taken inspiration from various world musics, but there are a number of astonishingly "kang" passages presaged in riley's work. also riley's "cusp of magic" is a similar harmonic / rhythmic sound/moodworld
― massaman gai, Thursday, 31 July 2014 14:26 (nine years ago) link
Frustrating dude. I went through the bulk of his discography as a leader looking for something else that sounds anything like Live Low To The Earth, In The Iron Age (specifically the track "Binah," easily one of my favorite pieces of music of all time), and the more I dug in, the more I realized how anomalous that album is. Not that I haven't liked some other things by him (he seems to bring out the best in his collaborators), but the Zorn-y and / or neoclassical stuff he does is generally not my bag. I've also started to wonder how much Randall Dunn had to do with "Binah."
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Thursday, 31 July 2014 15:14 (nine years ago) link
oh the Jürg Wyttenbach "Scelsi: Oeuvres pour choeur et orchestre" box set is usually available at a snip of a price and if you like the psychedelic haunt/ritual classical side of Kang. it is some truly transcendent music that, erm.. transcends all that bowtie opera house classical baggage. again kinda antecedent? i'm presuming.this is one thing that ain't on that box but hopefully for the uninitiated will give entry to the Scelsi rabbithole:http://youtu.be/x16cFMksuKM
― massaman gai, Thursday, 31 July 2014 16:32 (nine years ago) link
^^^^^^^I have been listening to some of that Giacinto Scelsi box set and it is incredible, thanx m g.
― xelab, Thursday, 31 July 2014 20:51 (nine years ago) link
HI DERE
A gorgeous set of new tracks by the brilliant composer and multi-instrumentalist Eyvind Kang. It took him a decade and a half to revisit the vibe concocted on his masterpiece from 2001, Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age, but the wait was worth it. It features an array of spiritually intoxicating instrumentation: tamboura, electric guitar, organ, trumpet, oboe, trombone, and Korean traditional instruments. Eyvind Kang on Plainlight: "In 2002 I wanted to make a kind of sequel to my first solo record on Abduction, Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age. I found that the 'weight' of sounds seemed to evaporate the compositions. The last thing I wanted to make was a traditional shoegaze recording. 15 years later, I had a strange dream: a voice said 'Because a plainlight has fallen in Heaven, heartbreak would cease.' This statement then became a kind of guiding image and method. Thus, with Korean traditional instruments playing the ostinato and drone, things fell into place. I would like to thank all the musicians, Randall Dunn, Alan Bishop, and each and every listener." Limited edition, one-time pressing; Edition of 400.
as usual this comes out far too late in the year to make it onto any lists... why, dude?
― sleeve, Wednesday, 13 December 2017 19:18 (six years ago) link
Eyvind Kang is one of the last people I'd expect to care about, or even be aware of, year end rock crit lists. But I agree with the sentiment, the man's work should be distributed and pressed in bigger editions of 400. speaking of which, got a link for that?
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 13 December 2017 19:25 (six years ago) link
it's available through Forced Exposure:
http://forcedexposure.com/Catalog/kang-eyvind-plainlight-lp/ABDT.060LP.html
― sleeve, Wednesday, 13 December 2017 19:26 (six years ago) link
and honestly I'm more bemoaning the fact that interested ILXors probably won't be able to hear it for our poll, since Abduction doesn't do streaming or digital.
― sleeve, Wednesday, 13 December 2017 19:28 (six years ago) link
ahh, this sounds nice, thanks for the heads up.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 13 December 2017 19:30 (six years ago) link
this is an incredible album, buy it now if you're interested cuz it's gonna vanish soon
― sleeve, Saturday, 23 December 2017 17:41 (six years ago) link
It might go without saying but Eyvind is one of the greatest orchestrators
Monoliths And Dimensions is on right now and the details are excruciatingly beautiful
― flamboyant goon tie included, Thursday, 28 March 2019 06:02 (five years ago) link
<3 <3 <3 agreed, I forgot he worked on that record
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Thursday, 28 March 2019 13:53 (five years ago) link
new album out on an Italian label, vinyl limited to 500, no US distro that I know of but you can buy it digitally on bandcamp
https://idischidiangelica.bandcamp.com/album/chirality-2
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Saturday, 18 May 2019 17:23 (five years ago) link
OMG NEW ONE
I missed this in 2020, thanks seandalai!
https://ideologicorgan.bandcamp.com/album/ajaeng-ajaeng
― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Thursday, 7 January 2021 00:09 (three years ago) link
I also missed this newer live one, incredible of course
https://aspenedities.bandcamp.com/album/sonic-gnostic
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, 16 September 2023 22:51 (eight months ago) link
I've got a live one in Iceland and it's... okay.
― 3kDk (dog latin)
DL cna u send me those files pretty please? I can't find that one anywhere.
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, 16 September 2023 22:53 (eight months ago) link
I... do not remember this at all. I'll have to check my archives and get back to you. Don't let me forget
― Stomp Jomperson (dog latin), Monday, 18 September 2023 01:10 (eight months ago) link
OK thank you!
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Monday, 18 September 2023 14:56 (eight months ago) link
gorgeous new Kenney/Kang collab
https://ideologicorgan.bandcamp.com/album/azure
― Surfin' burbbhrbhbbhbburbbb (sleeve), Saturday, 10 February 2024 00:51 (three months ago) link
what a lonely thread, this guy deserves more ILX love
― Surfin' burbbhrbhbbhbburbbb (sleeve), Saturday, 10 February 2024 00:52 (three months ago) link
as does Ms. Kenney