la monte young

need to bring mail the well tuned piano to work pete someday.

― one dis leads to another (ian), Friday, September 23, 2011 5:51 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

The Well-Tuned Piano in The Magenta Lights (87 V 10 6:43:00 PM ­87 V 11 01:07:45 AM NYC)

i.e. the DVD version, 6 hours 41 minutes, now up on ubuweb.

very, very different engineering on the 1987 version. more hiss and ambient room noise during the quiet parts (exacerbated on this version by DVD compression) -- you don't want to listen to this one on headphones probably -- but when it really gets going on the cloud formations, I much prefer this version to the 5 disc box of the 1981 version.

used a converter to rip the AVI to mp3.

Knew nothing about that site--amazing what's on there.

Its the best! I've watched a shedload of short films for the last 3 months on there.

Feel like we could easily have a Ubuweb thread for recommendations. Following their twitter is useful too btw.

I will so watch this LMY film, thanks for the head's up!

Oh it's audio, soz

VT touting some new price-gouging vinyl boot (would love to hear the ocean stuff, esp):

LaMonte Young, Marian Zazeela & The Dream Syndicate
s/t
No Label No Cat
LP
£31.99

Amazing vinyl archival edition of previously unreleased works from LaMonte Young, Marian Zazeela & the original Dream Syndicate: this is a revelatory unearthing, the A side presents “Day Of The Holy Mountain Part Two” aka “The Overday, 28 xi 63”,a live zoned drone ascension from 1963 featuring the original Dream Syndicate with a rare outing from LaMonte Young on sopranino. The slow, dark string drones, courtesy of John Cale and Tony Conrad, perfectly encapsulate Cale’s description of how the Dream Syndicate used ‘hypnotism mingled with malevolence’ and coupled with Angus MacLise’s (whose Year poem/art piece provides the piece’s title) fast, rainfall percussion the effect is absolutely mesmerising, black, magisterial urban/devotional drone with a unique ability to confuse time and space. LaMonte’s playing is phenomenal, generating endless circular tones that predate Evan Parker’s experiments in circular blowing while joining the dots between early free jazz reveries, dervish music and the sound of ‘holy minimalism’. The recording quality is great, affording a rare insight into one of the most legendary new music ensembles of the 20th Century at a delirious peak. But there’s more: the flip consists of an amazing never before issued recording titled “Oceans” from an aborted 1969 album session for CBS and it is one of the most elementally profound vocal/sound works to come out of the heroic early phase of minimalism, with LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela generating sustained/peaking vocal drones over the sound of waves crashing against the shore. It’s profoundly affecting, up there with Poetry Out Loud’s staggering “Ocean” in terms of an ascension ceremony for the sounds of nature, channelling the background roar of the cosmos through nothing but a field recording, complete with off microphone chatter that really serves to situate it in the moment, with LaMonte describing the microphones they’re using (the piece was reputedly recorded by David Tudor) as they work this ritual live on the beach, facing the ocean, literally singing in the waves. A stunning set, beautifully presented with full-colour paste-on sleeves, a super-enigmatic insert and nada in terms of information. A salutary reminder of the reality-warping potential of LaMonte Young’s minimalist project and a rare opportunity to hear these much whispered-about recordings. One of the all-time best selections of this historic music. Very limited pressing, strictly one per customer, highest possible recommendation!

Yeah, I was hunched over the 'add to cart' button on this one myself, but, man, that's like $50 USD. :(

i just popped into VT to check this out but they weren't open. i recently swapped a record for another lamonte young no label album but it wasn't this one (i wish they'd at least put some info on these things!). i really need to hear the ocean stuff too.

The Tamburas Of Pandit Pran Nath has been reissued!

http://www.melafoundation.org/LYrecscat.html

You just made a payment of
$27.98 USD

Oh, hell yeah! Great album! Thanks a million for bringing this to my attention!

ALL INTERNATIONAL ORDERS:
$46.00 registered delivery airmail with full insurance.

:-(

sweet thank u for the heads up

The British composer Cornelius Cardew wrote in ONE SOUND: LA MONTE YOUNG, MUSICAL TIMES, London, November 1966: “One further composition reached England in 1964 when the Merce Cunningham Dance Company were at Sadler’s Wells and the Phoenix Theatre for a season. Cunningham had choreographed a composition called 2 Sounds. The composer had provided two sounds on separate tapes, to be started at different points during the ballet. When the first sound starts you cannot imagine that any more horrible sound exists in the whole world. Then the second sound comes in and you have to admit you were wrong.”

funny

I love 'Two Sounds'. Early noise music landmark.

Geez, this album... pure brain massage.

Ward, do you want me to buy you a copy and send it from the US instead? Wouldn't be a big deal for me and I don't know how much it'd cost but it'd be significantly less than that I think!

So want to read the Cardew biog.

Liam, that's very kind of you but austerity measures currently preclude any disc expenditure (full confession: I do have a dece copy of Tamburas, but would like to own an original at some point - I just wanted the chance to moan abt the Mela Foundation's typically ludicrous pricing, really)

Oh, okay! Agreed, ha. 42$ is pretty ridiculous, really.

why is the tamburas packaged in a 1994-style double cd case

Yeah, I was wondering that myself ha. Maybe so they can justify 42$ international orders! The 40+ page booklet might be just a little too large. It talks in great detail about the instruments but no real pictures of them (though lots of live pics) which is also kind of strange!!!

I guess the album speaks for itself, but I love to turn it up really loud and just listen. You hear all these mirage kind of sounds inside the endlessly shifting hologram drone. I find my self singing it after listening, too, which is funny and bizarre: kee-ya-wow-err-umm. The phasing of the strings is so dramatic that after a while you start hearing all these backwards sounds! And one of the harmonics that sounds off continuously sounds exactly like the cha-ching of my phone which is funny. So about once a minute they line up and I think someone is sending me a text message. And it also sounds exactly like Tibetan monk throat singing in the lower registers. What an amazingly controlled performance.

yeah I think the size of the booklet is what necessitated the double case

this thing is def one of the highlights of an amazing body of work

http://www.vulture.com/2015/06/la-monte-young-dream-house.html?mid=fb-share-vulture

“We will leave our souls to her. She will inherit our kingdom,” Young says, which means, among other things, Choi will decide what music to release from his invaluable private archive of recordings. “We’ll die, and she’ll carry on. I can’t see putting it any other way.”

sure would be nice if some of those tapes could come out. people approach young, but his terms financial and otherwise are utterly disconnected. it's not only his works he's sitting on; alternate sources seem to have turned up for some of richard maxfield's pieces (still need to hear this: http://www.discogs.com/Richard-Maxfield-Richard-Maxfield/release/6987058) but we are still waiting on an accurate depiction of terry jennings

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/30/la-monte-young-dia-chelsea-exhibit

a mention therein of a possible reissue of the well-tuned piano dvd

Couple of reissues of dubious legitimacy about to drop early next year, including The Well Tuned Piano 5LP box set:

https://www.normanrecords.com/artist/34525-la-monte-young

There's been some discussion of those on twitter; apparently they are not legit. (You can tell 'cause they don't cost a mortgage payment each!)

He's gotta die first folks!

Press release for TWTP presumably employing reverse psychology / 'negging' avant-heads.

The music itself, to the extent that one can dissociate it from the theory involved, is where things get a bit chancy. The themes tend to alternate between idyllic ruminations and rumbling, pulsating passages, each of which more than a bit reminiscent of the often overindulgent solo work of Keith Jarrett. The titles to the sections may impart an idea of the new age-y drift that sometimes occurs here. There's simply not a great deal of meat to it, as though Young expects that the sheer beauty of the tuning system is enough. Once one gets acclimated to it and accepts it as an alternative (and quite attractive) way to tune a piano, inevitably one comes back listening for deeper meaning and structure.

And there's not much there. Indeed, there's more than a whiff of arrogance to the project

Can't these avant-heads take some time out and listen to Hindustani classical instead?

Hours of ragas at their fingertips. Fuck a velvet underground.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06ttrxp

Just received the following from Norman Records:

We've just found out the La Monte Young LPs aren't being pressed. Initially the label received permission to press them from Gramavision but La Monte's lawyers stepped in and have stopped the records from being pressed. Here's what we received from the distributor:

It is with regret, that these two important titles have now been cancelled. Whilst a provisional yes was received from the licensor, after a month of going through the relevant departments they have now been declined for the following reason…

“Unfortunately your request has now been refused due to publishing issues. Apologies for any inconvenience caused”

There is also another one being advertised on a different label:

http://aguirrecords.com/Shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=441

but I guess that one might end up being nixed as well.

Think Aguirre have legitimately acquired the rights to all the Shandar albs, not sure that La Monte can block that one so easily

grrrr

Genuinely don't get what Young's game is. Why does he want to keep his music off the market?

perfectionism iirc

I mean, from a sound quality perspective, I get it - vinyl blows. But from a getting-your-art-in-people's-hands/ears angle, he's fucking it all up.

I think he also sees himself as part of the 'art world' as much as the 'music world' and so believes his CDs/albums should be treated as 'art objects' - and priced accordingly. He's therefore always resisted overtures from record labels that want to issue his music as 'ordinary' albums for sale at 'ordinary' prices.

The cynical view is that so long as his music remains elusive and legendary, it will maintain a holy grail status that would evaporate, along w/ his exalted reputation, as soon as it becomes widely available. Having of course acquired most of his music from illegal sources, I don't share this view, and genuinely believe that a properly organised and promoted reissue program would only enhance his reputation.

But the simple truth is probably that he is a deeply deeply eccentric figure who operates on a different plain from us mere mortals - and that he can do whatever the fuck he wants to do.

Dead? No? OK, can't be too careful these days.

Twelve days left to "listen again" to TWTP on the BBC.

impressive that a dude who's been high for like 60 years can be so business minded!

Thought this was what hippies were like.

So what's the story with TWTP being available on the BBC. Thought Young could stop it all.

i uploaded 'tamburas of pandit pran nath' to youtube and it got taken down based on LMY's request. honestly just wanted people to hear it...

Er, yeah, I don't think a guy who's committed to a 33 hour sleep wake pattern gives a shit about what makes business sense.

Thought this was what hippies were like.

Never trust etc etc.

what the hell is going on here, now it is back on?

http://aguirrecords.com/Shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=441

http://brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10781:la-monte-young-a-marian-zazeela-qdream-house-7817qq&catid=13:albums-and-singles&Itemid=133

That one was never in doubt aiui, it was the Pure Pleasure ones that were nixed. As Ward noted upthread, Aguirre have the rights to 'Dream House'.

damn like $40 shipped. pricing to do the mela foundation proud.