Luc Ferrari S/D

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sad when you have to start a thread like this, but sadder there's no dedicated thread already

busy to the end, releasing two CDs a year for the last several. saw a fantastic, sharp concert two years ago in Berkeley.

He's up with Parmegiani and Bayle as one of the big three who were able to get down to the business of making fantastic music after Schaeffer wrote the manifestos, and after Henry spelled out the basic vocabulary. In the early 60's recording technology dramatically improved and musique concrete became considerably more transparent, the manipulations became somewhat more invisible, harder to tell the original from the transformed. When the splices stop showing, most audiences stop chinstroking and start listening... Ferrari's stuff was music.

The early pieces are explosively dense, hyper-edited carnivals, always shifting onto the next event, the next sound; the event-per-second aesthetic was already well established but Ferrari pushed this to a bafflingly colorful and distinctive extreme. Compiled on Early Electronic Works.

Transition pieces towards environmental sounds are compiled beautifully on Bhvaast's Acousmatrix 3.

Tonight I'm going home and listening to nothing but Presque Rien. No. 1 is the classic where all splices finally became invisible, presenting just field recordings of the world itself, but No. 2, 'the night goes on in my multiple head', where recordings of the world are gradually transformed until everything's become impossible is the one I'll probably set to repeat.

there's also the followup pieces, the manipulated orchestral revolving drones & tunes of Interrupteur/Tautologos 3. which spiraled back closer to traditional composition, leading to works for piano & solo piano... those are underrated & beautiful, his melodies do get caught in my head. Satie flourishes augmented by concrete sound events.

http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/interviews/ferrari.html

playing the music

(Jon L), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 17:18 (eighteen years ago) link

Ah. Thanks for that. I enjoyed reviewing his lovely summertronica, Les Anecdotiques, last year in Voice.

don, Tuesday, 23 August 2005 17:27 (eighteen years ago) link

RIP

Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 17:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Thanks Milton. I've wondered for a while where to start with Ferrari. I think I'll look for Presque Rien; you've made it sound irresistable.

Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 17:58 (eighteen years ago) link

rip, i'll be listening to a ton of this tonight. "presque rien" is definitely amazing.

hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 18:28 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.otherminds.org/shtml/Ferrarimusic.shtml

a live recording in real audio format is probably not the best place to get a taste... but...
m.

msp (mspa), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 19:24 (eighteen years ago) link

A true giant! He'll be missed

Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 19:32 (eighteen years ago) link

unheimlich schoen!
danses organiques!
that acousmatrix disc!

all amazing!

el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Cellule 75 on Tzadik - recommended! It sounds like Conlon Nancarrow meets Rhys Chatham!

RIP

Matt #2 (Matt #2), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:04 (eighteen years ago) link

merde! RIP, you dirty old man.

Beta (abeta), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:06 (eighteen years ago) link

i wouldn't destroy any of it but i would recommend his mid-late period electroacoustic/genre-defying works over the early manic cut-up stuff. presque rien is a masterpiece. him, bayle and parmegiani are still way ahead of their time. bummer about the news.

amon (eman), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 22:26 (eighteen years ago) link

the thunderstorm/electronic KAKRACCCKBLAM! section at the end of "presque rien no. 2" totally fucking slays. as does the b-side on the ina grm lp, "promenade symphonique a travers un paysage musical." def. if you ever see the lp, pick it up, exquisite packaging.

hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 23:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Eeeek. RIP! That reissue of the pretty Interrupteur/Tautologos 3 through Drag City (!) first piqued my interest, but he did such diverse stuff. "Genre-defying" OTM.

Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 00:42 (eighteen years ago) link

where's the love for Danses Organiques? or is love not the right word?

Beta (abeta), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 01:38 (eighteen years ago) link

where's the moany pants-creaming for danses organiques?

el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 01:58 (eighteen years ago) link

where's the amour wee wee monsewer for danses organiques?

amon (eman), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 02:36 (eighteen years ago) link

Jesus.

RIP to a true fuckin hero.

Danses Organiques is strange and beautiful of course, as is everything this great man did. yeah, you better believe his Acousmatrix disc rules. He is pretty much my favorite from the french mc crew. Presque Rien was such a headfuck. So glad I got to see him perform. God bless ya, LF.

Stormy Davis (diamond), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:18 (eighteen years ago) link

danses organiques is ok for faux-lesbian porn. unheimlich schoen definitely works for me though.

going to have to ysi some bits of his classical-tribute piano work Collection 85 (the flip side of the original recording of Cellule 75). it's beautiful.

hoping the film documentaries he directed on Messiaen, Varése, etc. from the late 60's can see a DVD release, I'd love to see them.

milton parker (Jon L), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:25 (eighteen years ago) link

where's the love for Danses Organiques? or is love not the right word?

i still don't have 'em. there's a buncha gaps in my collection. mp, we need to talk about those gaps.

hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 04:12 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Luc+Ferrari

my collection has a lot of gaps too, the two at the top of the want list are Brise-Glace & Matin Et Soir. I've heard a handful of the things from the last few years: worth hearing, though best in context with the earliers.

I've got a lot of the rest of it, my favorites are the four I mentioned, and as of tonight, Collection 85 is really hitting me right

milton parker (Jon L), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 05:34 (eighteen years ago) link

the Early Electronic Works are amazing, though these are bite sized pieces each of which are built to pulp you in minutes, so best taken in bite sized doses. also, they're in chronological order so the disc gets stronger as it goes along. Visage V has been compiled a lot but the opening really makes its point

Presque Rien can't be excerpted without doing damage, you have to hear the whole thing.

Here's the final movement of Tautologos 3, for 11 instruments and tape, lines blurred

Collection 85 parts 1-5 - piano minatures with concréte & very silly synths, dedicated to Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, etc. the main opening theme at the beginning keeps coming back through the piece, each time augmented and buried under stranger layers of sound.

milton parker (Jon L), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 05:37 (eighteen years ago) link

au revoir, bon voyage monsieur f

Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 05:41 (eighteen years ago) link

thanks for those tracks, milton. i really need "Hétérozygote," on vinyl, tootsweet.

hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 06:33 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah, i was pondering some ysi stuff, until i realized his most stunning works are 23+ minutes ("Heterozygote" "Presque Rien No.1" "Place des Abbesses" "Petite symphonie..."). i find that every CD i have of the man is shockingly different, too. he really needs a box to even begin to corral all his tentacles. about the only things i don't love are "Strathoven" and that Blue Chopsticks disc, "Cycle de Souvenirs."

Beta (abeta), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 13:43 (eighteen years ago) link

> I'll be streaming a continuous selection of
> Ferrari's music on my
> site from now until Friday 8 AM PDT, In Memorium.
>
> http://www.sukothai.com/v.2/streaminfoON.html
> ----
> Carl Stone http://www.sukothai.com

milton parker (Jon L), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 19:49 (eighteen years ago) link

RIP

blunt (blunt), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 20:21 (eighteen years ago) link

Just as I was getting into him, I find out that he passed away less than 2 weeks ago! RIP. If anyone could please YSI me Presque Rien No.1 I would be most grateful. Thanks in advance.

Jena (JenaP), Friday, 2 September 2005 05:39 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.moistworks.com/2005/08/visages-v-pt.html

Beta (abeta), Friday, 2 September 2005 13:04 (eighteen years ago) link

forced exposure has it too; it's definitely a keeper

http://www.forcedexposure.com/artists/ferrari.luc.html

milton parker (Jon L), Friday, 2 September 2005 17:33 (eighteen years ago) link

those insects BITE!

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 2 September 2005 20:50 (eighteen years ago) link

three months pass...
RIP! I had no idea.

Jeff-Beetle (Jeff), Saturday, 17 December 2005 17:59 (eighteen years ago) link

four years pass...

Ina GRM released a 10-CD Luc Ferrari boxed set last year, and yes, it's incredible, and yes you need it immediately. Apparently, it's only 40 Euros from the Ina site (if you know French): http://boutique.ina.fr/cd/musique/electroacoustique/PDTINA001667/luc-ferrari.fr.html

...or $20 from Amazon (MP3 downloads): http://www.amazon.com/Ferrari-L-uvre-électronique/dp/B002C1F5T6/

...but I ended up ordering the set from an English-language site (Canadian), for $80 Canadian: http://www.electrocd.com/en/cat/ina_g_6017/

I checked my credit card bill, and it ended up being $80 USA for the set. You order from Canada, but they ship from France, actually. They also have the unbelievable 12-CD Bernard Parmegiani set for the same price (nod to Soundslike/Musicophilia for the recommendation): http://www.electrocd.com/en/cat/ina_g_6000/

ernestp, Sunday, 24 January 2010 14:18 (fourteen years ago) link

four months pass...

http://www.soundohm.com/luc-ferrari/ephemere-i-ii/algen/

^^ super wow. first release of two tape pieces from 74/75 -- first one is okay, but second one, 'ephemere II, lyon 1975', is sprawling 51 minute long tape-delay piece in the vein of all the Terry Riley organ improvs he was prone to doing in Paris around those years. I would have thought that the last ten years worth of bands abusing their Line6 pedals would have made the idea of a 51 minute acoustic-guitar-through-delays piece seem besides the point but this thing is sprawling psychedelic awesomeness -- even though it sounds like a casual real-time improv this is out of nowhere one of my favorite Ferrari pieces

Milton Parker, Monday, 21 June 2010 20:17 (thirteen years ago) link

better link

Milton Parker, Monday, 21 June 2010 20:27 (thirteen years ago) link

love luc ferrari so will try this

nakhchivan, Monday, 21 June 2010 20:28 (thirteen years ago) link

four months pass...

Deleted Tautologos off my HD today, tried for many years to "get" it, failed.

i love you but i have chosen snarkness (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 3 November 2010 02:20 (thirteen years ago) link

not one of my favourites of his

Terminal Boredoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 3 November 2010 02:25 (thirteen years ago) link

Really? It's up there with Presque Rien for me.

Fetchboy, Wednesday, 3 November 2010 07:49 (thirteen years ago) link

reiterating Milton's "super-wow" on that Ferrari piece.

beta blog, Wednesday, 3 November 2010 13:23 (thirteen years ago) link

man, i really want to hear ephemere, leonardo... anyone?

Crackle Box, Wednesday, 3 November 2010 13:34 (thirteen years ago) link

^^

am0n, Wednesday, 3 November 2010 14:28 (thirteen years ago) link

eight years pass...

A labour of love put together by his long-term partner:

https://cafeoto.co.uk/media/thumbnails/uploads/img-5363-1024x1024_page_image.jpg

https://cafeoto.co.uk/shop/luc-ferrari-complete-works/

Great to hear live diffusions of 'Petite Symphony' and (especially) 'Presque Rien II' plus a new realisation of 'Ephemere 1' on a multi channel speaker system at Cafe Oto last Thursday. My first exposure to Ferrari's music.

Jeff W, Sunday, 17 February 2019 17:52 (five years ago) link

I was there during the week. Should really have bought that box set.

Wee boats wobble but they don't fall down (Tom D.), Sunday, 17 February 2019 18:31 (five years ago) link

.. last week rather.

Wee boats wobble but they don't fall down (Tom D.), Sunday, 17 February 2019 18:31 (five years ago) link

sorry I didn't see you dadismus, should have shouted out beforehand, was there for most of it

liked that jim o'rourke quintet version of 'éphémère' (sounded like a mashed cover of both versions, I and II). but 'presque rien II' is always the showstopper, made sense to end all eight days with that one.

that 'complete works' book is worth it. his records/cds aren't even a third of his works; the book gives you a walkthrough of all his live theater / films, and an overview of the scores for live performance. + many interviews.

the other merch table revelation was this: https://www.discogs.com/Luc-Ferrari-Avec-Otomo-Yoshihide-Les-Archives-Sauv%C3%A9es-Des-Eaux/release/1623011 -- liner notes from otomo uncharacteristic & emotional; in 2003 he'd mostly moved on from sampling / referential turntablism, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to work with ferrari so bent his own strict aesthetic rules to do so, and then the work with mr heterozygote himself, who spent his own career breaking every/any formal process possible, led to the late-period avant-big band otomo where he just began allowing himself to incorporate & move between all of his previous styles

Milton Parker, Sunday, 17 February 2019 22:55 (five years ago) link

Hi, Jon, I was working late all that week so could only get to the Apartment House performance, I don't know if you were there, I didn't see you. Next time!

Wee boats wobble but they don't fall down (Tom D.), Monday, 18 February 2019 00:48 (five years ago) link


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