Eyvind Kang: S&D / rfi:

i saw him play with bill frizzell in what i think was a converted conference room in a hotel in 1997 and part of the NADEs record was done in the music tech lab at the college i attended around that time.

that's about all i know.

oh yeah! he played on mr. bungle's california.

The Tzadik ones seem to be the compositional statements, the others document his chops. 'Sweetness of Sickness' I've heard once, much more up the alley of Sun City Girls low-fi documents of sprawling jams (Scott Colburn recorded it.)

Granted, I work at the company that distributes it, but I'd recommend it to anyone. Happy to be associated, I am. I will always look for those records in the future.

'Theater of Mineral NADEs' is quite an odd record: more high production instrumentals, taken one track at a time you'd mistake this record for an ethno sampler: begins with 5 tracks of Medevial instrumentation & melodies. Then things go coffee bar thailand. Then reggae. Then rock. It's all impeccably produced and there are a few bits with nice melodies and playing, and the opening in particular is quite nice and kept this from the sell pile altogether, but I can't see listening to it again anytime soon.

His next record's coming out on Recommended, so looking forward to that. Will also look out for 'iron age'.

Does mitlon still dj in bars???

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

I did no such thing!

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?).

I'll certainly check out the above recommendations, whether more difficult or not, but is there another release that's like Virginal Co Ordinated?

Thank you MiltonParker!

new album Athlantis, has anyone heard it?

http://www.ipecac.com/bio.php?id=27

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Virginal Co Ordinates is one of the best records of the decade for reals.

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. . .

http://www.outpostspace.org/node/741

That is an amazing lineup!

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.

i really dig Virginal Co-Ordinates, and just got (and really like) the Dying Ground album.

what should i seek out next?

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.

His newest one, Visible Breath, is quite good. I reviewed it for The Wire. All droney 'n' purty.

What is this Orchestra Dim Bridges thing on Spotify?
It's really cool.

I talk about it a little bit upthread, yes it is very good!

it is. interesting stuff. a shame they removed a lot of his other albums.

new album "The Narrow Garden" on Ipecac is fucking incredible, very masterful mood shifts from ominous to light & pretty and back to doomy again

It is an incredible album indeed. Invisus Natalis is just wonderful.

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.

argh Kenney with an e not an i

"narrow garden" is grand. not perfect but grand, still.
still smacks a little of colonial "exotica"

The Narrow Garden is maybe my favorite album of the year so far. wrote a review here. love love love!!

I share your enthusiasm!

yeah this is top 5 of 2012 for me so far

Rules

ok ok I'll buy it today, sheesh.

<3 u all

I'm appreciating guy's voice more and more

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.

new one is on spotify. this is damn good.

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.

Discovering the Narrow Garden has led to me seriously reconsidering my EOY ballot. Totally enchanting. My favourites are Pure Nothing and Invisus Natalis.

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

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

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.

whether if I am asleep

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

Eyvind and Jessika both contributed to the next album by a band I work with. Such monumental talents & awesome people.

dl that was my most played track from last year <3 <3

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.

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.

I need more music like Live Low To The Earth, In The Iron Age - basically, doom Frisell. Where to?

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.

"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

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB4HfSRq3fw

The albums he did with Jessika Kenney are well worth a listen.

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.

do you not have Virginal Coordinates yet? Get that. Visible Breath is LP-only but also excellent.

we walked down the aisle to this at our wedding http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42yDPbo-rD0

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

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."

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

^^^^^^^
I have been listening to some of that Giacinto Scelsi box set and it is incredible, thanx m g.

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?

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?

it's available through Forced Exposure:

http://forcedexposure.com/Catalog/kang-eyvind-plainlight-lp/ABDT.060LP.html

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.

ahh, this sounds nice, thanks for the heads up.

this is an incredible album, buy it now if you're interested cuz it's gonna vanish soon

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

<3 <3 <3 agreed, I forgot he worked on that record

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

OMG NEW ONE

I missed this in 2020, thanks seandalai!

https://ideologicorgan.bandcamp.com/album/ajaeng-ajaeng

I also missed this newer live one, incredible of course

https://aspenedities.bandcamp.com/album/sonic-gnostic

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.

I... do not remember this at all. I'll have to check my archives and get back to you. Don't let me forget

OK thank you!

gorgeous new Kenney/Kang collab

https://ideologicorgan.bandcamp.com/album/azure

what a lonely thread, this guy deserves more ILX love

as does Ms. Kenney