HARRY PARTCH - BBC DOCUMENTARY

A documentary on composer, theorist and instrument builder Harry Partch. Enjoy!

The Return of Jim O'Orourke

My mom, of all people, alerted me to this New York Times piece on Jim O'Rourke, just as I was finding it for myself. He talks about his exodus to Tokyo and his new album, "The Visitor," which the Times tells us "runs through chapters of folk, chamber-pop, progressive rock and jazz bucolia, and it’s crazily broad: a Leo Kottke fan might like it, a Pat Metheny fan might like it, a Morton Feldman fan might like it."

New audio at Compost and Height, and Mike Bullock

The fine web label Compost and Height has some new free audio from sundry figures, including recordings of beehives from Patrick Farmer, a live trio of PSF-vets Mike Shiflet and Brendan Murray (with Ben Owen), Mike Bullock, and more.

I don't typically like unprocessed field recordings (or at least not over the course of a whole album), especially with such a limited palette, but Farmer's album has been really engaging. There's a certain surface static dynamic, but with just enough variation and richness to remind me of good quiet electro-acoustic music. I find these bee sounds work very well in the classic sense of ambient music - I start to not even notice them but then have a start when a track ends. Really pleasurable and interesting stuff

Mike also kept a terrific blog during his stay at STEIM in Amsterdam (scroll down for those entries). He's got photos, some brief writings, and some great audio clips.

Lasse Marhuag interview

Nothing at all timely here, but I found myself today reading an insightful interview with Lasse Marhaug, one of my very few favorite noise artists. None other than our pal Thomas Bey William Bailey conducted it and posted it over at Belsona Strategic.

Listen to Marhaug here, or work through over 20 hours of audio in his MP3 archive here. For what it's worth, I recall the duo with Carlos Giffoni being a winner.

flat grey marked suspended pole holds tree, take 2

I wrote somewhat skeptically a few months ago about the "flat grey marked suspended pole holds tree" blog. Well, today I actually spent some time listening to the newest audio clips and found myself getting really lost in them. Strange sounds erupt from silent beds, completely blurring instrumental voices (and I'm not even sure who is playing what - Abbott and Drew both seem to utilize sundry tools). It didn't really work on headphones in a coffee shop, but in the right (quiet) atmosphere, it can get quite absorbing.

Take a listen.

Lengthy Keith Rowe interview at All About Jazz

(photo: York Wegerhoff)

I know we feature Keith Rowe a lot, but great videos and articles with him keep popping up. The latest is a rather insightful and in-depth interview conducted in London in June by John Eyles.


(photo: John Eyles)