Dominique Leone - A Wizard, a True Star

instead I am giving the 2008 debut album a listen. holy goddamn! just sat through 'the return' with a big grin on my face - this stuff fits SQUARELY in a very special bracket of wonky-sprite melodicism and scattergun sonic experimentation that contains a great deal of my very favourite music

I still have the CD-R Dom sent me many years ago. It rules.

Loving this EP as well. Very good stuff.

reading reviews of this online it just appals me how people can hate on anything that has 'too many ideas' as if this is a bad thing per se - or that because it has elements of prog or kraut it's flirting with embarrassment

if it's music made with blatantly wilful design by someone clearly in control of their own creative process, just tell me if you like it or not, don't justify its shortcomings unless you have a rock-solid argument as to why its narrative doesn't work

it is the fault of such critical tendencies, to carp rather than to describe the adventure, to sneer at perceived over-reaching rather than to perceive what is being reached for, that prevents more artists casting off their chains and making music with the exuberance and creativity they're capable of

the chains of good taste

(no zing implied to dominique btw, listening to the ep now and it sounds great)

I think this is an interesting topic. Obviously in many cases, exhibiting close control while concentrating on a more 'limited' set of ideas is ideal and makes for music that is both effective and thrilling - but if one's mode is adventure-pop, then why not wander, why not explode?

lol totally not surprised at louis loving this, it is absolutely yr thing. also he puts on a sweet live show! some truly heroic drumming going on when we played with him

Come to England, Dominique!

Have been listening to 'The Return' on repeat pretty much all day (with the occasional break for 'Nous Tombons Dans Elle'). I don't know if this makes me mad or simply a little askew.

Here's the Myspace of a guy I've met a few times IRL with a VERY similar set of interests to D Leone - much more classical pop, much less sonic wizardry, but worth a check if you like this stuff: http://www.myspace.com/muddysuzuki

I'm trying not to overdo this but I can't get over just how good 40/60 is - I've been rocking it almost non-stop for a couple of days now and running it through my head when I've not been near a computer - it's like musical crack to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eew38kFQtUY

haha thanks! just had first rehearsal w/august tour band, and this tune is gonna be fun!!

40/60 is magnifique....can't believe I didn't listen to it earlier.

In terms of 'getting the word out', I don't see how this won't appeal to the Max Tundra crew.

Mr Tundra played a track from this on his radio show on Sat and very good it sounded too. Must give the rest a listen; thank you for the link.

I keep not hearing Max Tundra's show...is there a place where they're all podcast?

new yorkers please come see me and my friends on saturday :)

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/5061/coco66.jpg

I will attend in spirit.

no longer has a beard fyi

fuck it, it's my thread

Today is Igor Stravinsky’s 129th birthday. Were the legendary Russian composer alive today, well, he’d probably be kept under constant watch, donned in thin layers of radiation-resistant cloth, and under many layers of glass. But were he functional, he’d likely be pretty curious about an event happening this summer in the Bay Area. In short, we’d like to formally announce a new recording of his classic Les Noces (The Wedding), and two performances that will be among the most unique and inspired recreations of the work.

So without further ado, here’s all the info about our Stravinsky cover thing!

NEW RECORDING

LES NOCES (2011)
http://dominiqueleone.bandcamp.com/album/les-noces

DOWNLOAD for FREE!

Produced by Dominique Leone
Kanoko Nishi, Regina Schaffer: pianos
Nicole Ginelli: cover art

ABOUT LES NOCES

Stravinsky (1882-1971) composed his ballet Les Noces (“The Wedding”) during 1913-1917, and as with The Rite of Spring, Petrushka and The Firebird, premiered it with the Ballets Russes group and choreography by Bronislava Nijinska. Its “story” is but scenes from a typical Russian wedding, with characters such as the bride, groom and surrounding family fretting about the event, and each other.

Unlike the composer’s previous works, Les Noces was originally realized through a decidedly non-symphonic arrangement of four pianos, percussion, and a vocal ensemble of four soloists and chorus. Stripped down to these most basic elements, the intensity of Stravinsky’s composition shines through like a razor-sharp beacon. Rhythms pound furiously, vocal lines criss-cross before the storm of percussion and pianos lest they be flattened by the fiery stomp. Les Noces is often considered the last great piece of Stravinsky’s “Russian” period, before the composer dove into other idioms, such as neo-classicism and 12-tone music.

Another interesting aspect of Les Noces is that before deciding on his four-piano arrangement, Stravinsky had ideas of using the “pianola”, a mechanical piano that could play pre-recorded music via metallic rolls. Indeed, the pianola was closer to modern-day sequencer/synthesizer in that its player could record parts that were unplayable by a human being. As a composer, Stravinsky was naturally attracted to the instrument as a tool for composition and performance. Pierre Boulez premiered a version of the score using pianola in 1981, and though the definitive 1923 score with four pianos is the one most often performed today, it is easy to hear the multi-layered genius at work in the piece and imagine the possibilities off pulling it off with something rather less than a full-size orchestra and chorus.

ABOUT THE NEW RECORDING

Enter Dominique Leone, Kanoko Nishi and Regina Schaffer. With only two pianos, one singer and a computer, their Les Noces is realized as forcefully and true to its spirit as any prior recording. And note: this is no “redux” or re-imagining of the piece. Leone, Nishi and Schaffer have stayed entirely true to the score, but simplifying four pianos down to two, and with Leone singing all vocal parts with just a little help from a single pitch-shifter for soprano and bass parts. This is as inspired and magnificently irreverent performance of Stravinsky’s work as has ever been created—but don’t take our word for it, check the link!

PERFORMANCE DETAILS

Maybeck Recital Hall, also known as Maybeck Studio for Performing Arts, is located inside the Kennedy-Nixon House in Berkeley, California, USA. It was built in 1914 by Bernard Maybeck. The hall seats up to 50 people and was designed upon commission for the Nixon family, local arts patrons who wanted a live-in studio for their daughter Milda's piano teacher, Mrs. Alma Kennedy. The room is paneled in unfinished clear-heart redwood, which contributes to an unusually rich and warm, yet bright and clear acoustic quality. There are two grand pianos in the space: a Yamaha S-400, and a Yamaha C7. Maybeck originally designed the space to accommodate an 1898 7-foot Bechstein.

In 1987, the house was purchased by jazz pianist Dick Whittington, who opened the hall for public recitals. Between 1989 and 1995, Concord Records produced 42 solo piano recitals in Maybeck Recital Hall. Each recital featured a different jazz pianist, and all 42 recordings were released on CD. Concord also recorded 10 jazz duets at Maybeck during the same time period, which were also released as a series of CDs sold by Concord.

The Maybeck will host Les Noces on July 29 and 30, 2011 at 8 p.m.

dominique leone sounds so hot as a soprano

srsly tho this is awesome and you know it

Listened to this yesterday, very cool.

thanks ya'll!

tl;dr

But will try to listen to tonight ;)

Very exciting! Will listen soon.

love DL in, broadly speaking, zeuhl mode. so, I'm obviously all over this one. great stuff!

Absolutely loving this - looking forward to photographs/&c of the live performance as I'm in the wrong hemisphere.

"the return" is one of the best epics in recent years. damn

abstract expression is one of my favorite albums, full stop

one song a day for one year -- leaning into it now

http://dominiqueleone.bandcamp.com/album/february

It's been great. Snagged every one.

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

if you live in europe you can see dleone LIVE IN CONCERT this month

i miss him already

abstract expression's a great album, love her

you never her

I wonder if this guy has ever made a bad decision

pretty sure he's gotten at least one parking ticket, so yes.

if you live in europe you can see dleone LIVE IN CONCERT this month

Where tho? It's pretty big... Europe.

oh my god he actually did this

jan 1st and 2nd are both great. holy shit imagine every track is this good. what will I do? how will I cope? I wanna *reduce*, *compartmentalise*. guess this is the antidote to all that

if dominique's listening I'd also be very interested to hear about the creative process for this - how do you force 365 songs out while maintaining high artistic standards? do you simply have to enter an ultra-creative zone where every single musical idea is engaged with enthusiastically and constructively - almost as if the project is to turn any and every idea into a good song? and if so, does this get exhausting? has this been in the works for a while? do you fear slipping into formulas? what methods do you employ for creative invigoration? how difficult is it really - was the timescale stretched enough that only one or two songs composed per day was, given existence within aforesaid 'zone', not that strenuous a task? regardless of all of these questions, this project has my ultimate respect

jan 3 is even better than the other two. my god.

Scary.

two things -

1) I have to go to fucking work :(

2) Can I just pre-emptively award the whole project Album Of The Year? In as many senses as feels appropriate :)

What the ...

Scary is right, I got two weeks into February and every song, everything is obscenely good

mozart-satie-ilm-progression :)

i have to say that i accidentally started "UB313" in two different tabs, about 30 seconds apart, and it was awesome.

this...this is *phenomenal*

i can't even begin to say how happy this is making me

here's the info on dominique's tour!

FEB 2013 UNNATURAL WAYS EUROPEAN TOUR

Ava Mendoza- guitar/vox
Dominique Leone- synthesizers
Nick Tamburro (The Dead Science)- drums

2/6 TOURS, FR @ Le Petit Facheux w/ Shampoo Meuchiine
2/8 NANTES, FR @ Espace Diderot w/ Elwood & Guthrie
2/9 PARIS, FR @ La Societe de Curiosites w/ Berangere Maximin
2/10 WURZBURG, DE@ Immerhin, presented by Freakshow Wurzburg w/ Cowboys from Hell
2/11 VIENNA, AU @ Rhiz w/ Bulbul
2/12 LJUBLJANA, SI @ Menza (Metelkova)
2/13 GRAZ, AU @ Club Waakum, presented by Interpentration
2/14 VICENZA, IT @ Centro Stabile di Cultura
2/15 9 pm FREISING, DE @ Abseits
2/16 9 pm HANOVER, DE@ Sturmglocke w/ Sean Noonan Trio
2/17 MAINZ, DE @ Zitadelle Mainz, Gewolbekeller
2/18 OSTRAVA @ PLAN B w/ Massola (Jap)
2/19 CESKE BUDEJOVICE, CZ @ Ostinato
2/20 PRAGUE, CZ @ Nova Synteza

come to britain, yall can crash on my couch

onto february and it's arguably getting even better. although it has the almost-annoying habit of constructing something totally compelling and brilliant that's only 1 minute long. which isn't so bad, i guess, because wanting more and all that

my questions upthread stand, but i guess when you're clearly having this much fun making music the inspiration can't be hard to come by. also really glad that the DL track from beforehand that seems to be echoed most here is 'sometimes you've got to be happy', which is possibly (imo) the pinnacle of his art until now ('nous tombons dans elle' and '40/60' can play too)

february has been straight-up unbelievable so far (now onto 'paul and diane - i believe in you' after an astonishing 5-track run of jawdropping splendour). this might be my favourite music from the past few years. sorry to be going all multipost hypeman over this but i've got the fever, got it bad

ok techno heist of 'you can never, ever stop me from loving you' = i am hyperventilating

won't say any more. shouldn't. ok, will. i'm blown. i'm...i'm...(can someone else take this)

I know some of these go back to at least 2005-6 -- there were maybe three or four albums worth of tracks he had in the can right after finishing that 'debut' CD of his, all in the vein of that one. so while there's a bit of cleaning house going on, a lot of this stuff is daily brand new and I think some of the old tracks are getting a final few sprinkles before being mastered and sent out the door, so this is an intense effort

'debut' is in quotes because there are a few pre-2005 albums that are raw and utterly crazy and I'm looking forward to hearing them in the shuffle

signed, resident dleone archivist / pal

They

I saw her just last week at the Astoria Park Carnival bemoaning the fact that their little one wasn't tall enough for the rides, same as mine, not that mine is ready for the rides after a fateful trip on the Palisades Mall Carousel ("hold me tight, daddy, hold me"). Now my daughter likes to look at Carousels and discuss which figure she'll ride on when she's "older and ready". Dominique seemed happy with daughter and a unicorn won at a fishing amusement. /queens dad rock scene report.