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Chamberry... I see you like Kronos Quartet.  Do any of your albums of theirs feature Osvaldo Golijov as a composer?

OOoooh, 'cello!  Let me know what you think, as I maybe tempted to order some Kronos Quartet.  I don't where the best place to start will be.  I don't listen to much classically orientated music, so I don't want to dislike it, of course.  I quite like my music to be upbeat and busy, so anything that fits that would suit me!

I'll have to come acquainted with them soon then!

Quick question: I have the first two Alamaailman Vasarat albums and I really enjoy them, but I was curious to know what the other two are like that feature a vocalist?  Any ideas?

Black Velvet wrote: The only other CD I have featuring them is the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack, which I think is outstanding but this could be a little biased considering my love for the music.

I have that one too. It's a thrill isn't it? I really need to get more by Kronos Quartet.

Adam, they have 4 albums altogether and the last two releases feature a male folksinger/guitar player.  From what I've read here on PA, they seem less proggy and more folk based.  Also the vocals are in Finnish.

Do check out Hoyry-Kone though, they are the forerunners of Alamaailman Vasarat.

I have both albums and the second of the two is my favourite, but both albums contain some real gems.  Definitely try and find yourself a copy.  Great klezmer infused RIO!

Hi guys! I feel so stupid for not dropping in here after my first few posts! I thought this thread had died and quickly drowned between the other threads, but while I was hiding away in the collaborators zone, I missed a lot of great dicussions about great music here! 

I quickly read a big part of the posts in the this thread and I must say I really missed a lot.   Below I will reply to a few posts, although a bit late.

Recently I got a lot of new RIO stuff, but I have only listened to a small part of it yet. I especially like the Boredoms records I have found (Pop Tatari and Seadrum/House Of Sun), but Univers Zero (1313, Hérésie) are great too! Bill Laswell's Invisible Design is also a winner!

I also got Deceit by This Heat and I found the rare Baby Sex demo from The Residents, but I haven't listened to those yet.

Apart from that I've been listening to a lot of jazz (Keith Jarrett, Steve Coleman, Ornette Coleman, Art Blakey) and I've been trying to listen to some more popular styles that had neglected most of my life : hardcore (Thunderdome; some will find this rediculous, but it's actually not that bad and quite funny), hiphop (Public Enemy). I also listened to some interesting prog metal. I once liked Dream Theater for a while, but their cheesy music is really not going to "win me back" . But there is also complex, intriguing prog metal out there. I do need to get used to the heaviness of it all though (I'm not really used to death metal). Well, anyways, I'm talking about Opeth, Meshuggah and Maudlin Of The Well, among others. (I also went to a Tool concert recently.).

In short, I have mostly broadening my taste, not "deepening" it.

Anyway, you will find on topic posts below.


Edited by Joren - July 06 2006 at 13:31

avestin wrote: Ok, friends, like I said here is what I have from the modern composers. First I must say I am new to these and still do not know this very well (except Martland which I keep on listening to). So I won't go into in depth description like Adam, since he, unlike me, knows whaty he's talking about. What I have so far (I will be getting more soon): Philip Glass - Kundun. So far, I like this. Slightly creepy music, not too much happening, but it is beautiful and passionate. I thought it would sound differently, though. Annie Gosfield - Flying Sparks And Heavy Machinery. Have only three tracks from here. Weird, industrial like in spirit, perhapse more of urban music or noise. I like her style. Glenn Branca - Symphonies no 1 & 6. No comment yet, sorry. Louis Andriessen - M Is For Man, Music, Mozart, De Stijl .  Somewhat similar to Martland, but a bit more pompous in sound (in a good way). Need more time, sorry. Steve Reich - Early Works. No comment yet, sorry. I also have several works by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Saint Saens and others which I love very much. Sorry, it's all I have tmime for right now. Apologies for this very short post. Have a good day/night all.

Apologies for this late post.

I am glad that you like some of the stuff I "recommended" to you. I don't know any of Glenn Branca's music though.

Steve Reich's Early Works is a mindblowing dics IMO, you can actually hear the historical value of these experiments. I also have Reich's Music For 18 Musicians, but I haven't lsitened to it yet. I HAVE listened to his Drummings album though (my dad owns it). Great minimalistic stuff with percussion!

Philip Glass has done some great stuff as well. I really like Kundun. The problem with Glass is that some of his music jsut sounds too much alike, IMO.

Terry Riley is another good minimalist composer. I only know his "In C" though. It's a nice and very influential piece of music.

I absolutely LOVE Annie Gosfield's Flying Sparks And Heavy Machinery. I only paid 8 euros for it I think. It was in a second hand section in a record shop in The Hague. I had never heard of Gosfield before; I bought it solely on the strength of the TZADIK label. It really seems you can't go wrong with an album released there!

When I was a kid, I hated classical music (it made me feel down), but there were two albums with (modern) classical music that I liked: Louis Andriessen's De Stijl/M Is For Man, Music, Mozart, and Possessed by the Balanescu Quartet. Louis Andriessen is one of the most well-known dutch composers and his music is influenced by the American minmalist composers, but more agressive and also incorporating popular music and jazz influences. Highly recommended. "Possessed" is a great CD of The Balanescu Quartet playing Kraftwerk covers and some of Balanescu's own works (and a David Byrn cover, if I remember correctly). The Kraftwerk covers work wonderfully well. I may be a bit biased though, because when I first heard these covers I had never heard any Kraftwerk so I thought these pieces were written for this string quartet. Here's the cover:



It is also here (in the "scene" of Andriessen and Balanescu), where The Rosa Ensemble belongs somewhere, I think. Combining elements of "new music" (I believe this is called musique nouvelle in France, and also incorporates late [electronic] Art Zoyd) with popular music, they have a certain relation to the progressive rock genre. I once saw them perform Captain Beefheart songs, trranslated into Dutch. Great concert (they also played some Zappa). I also have these versions on CD.

About older 20th century music: I really love "Le Sacre Du Printemps" from Igor Stravinsky and I also like his "Pétrouchka". Apart form that, I own the Complete Works of Edgard Varèse (definitely less accessible), two CD's from Arnold Schönberg (even more difficult, at least for me), and a CD with sonatas for prepared piano from John Cage.

Phew, that's about everything I had to say about 20th century "classical" music.


Edited by Joren - July 06 2006 at 13:53

About Taal not fitting into the RIO/Avant-Prog category (at least I remember some people saying that in this thread):

I just listened to their sample track in the Archives (I have yet to listen to a full album of theirs) and, while I understand why people would think Taal could also fit into progressive metal or maybe art rock, I think they are not really out of place in the RIO/Avant subgenre. So I would say let's keep them where they are. Nice stuff, anyway!

Black Velvet wrote: Joren wrote: About Taal not fitting into the RIO/Avant-Prog category (at least I remember some people saying that in this thread):I just listened to their sample track in the Archives (I have yet to listen to a full album of theirs) and, while I understand why people would think Taal could also fit into progressive metal or maybe art rock, I think they are not really out of place in the RIO/Avant subgenre. So I would say let's keep them where they are. Nice stuff, anyway! Hello, and welcome back ... I don't think we have crossed paths before but I guess you have picked up I visit this thread a lot. Anyway now having heard both Taal albums in there entirety I would definately have to agree with their inclusion in the RIO/avant section. I couldn't be seeing them in prog metal and luckly they are not as they would be overshadowed by the wealth of bands now in that sub-genre. You will have to get listening to a full album, I'm rather new to them as well. Though I was not overly sold as of yet on Skymind I'm rather enjoying Mister Green which I think is a good start.      I also have been getting into Steve Martland and Louis Andriessen's work, which is you are indirectly responsible for. So thank you

Joren is the one responsible for introducing me to Martland, Andriessen and Gosfield.
In addition he is the RIO/Avant team leader.
And thanks to him we have Zorn here and he will be completing his (huge) discography and related projects in the near future.