If you ever want to hear "pure" chamber music with electric instruments, Terje Rypdal's EOS has to be in the collection. Beware to skip the first cut that was put in there to make sure you wanted to hear things, and is meant to take you out!

 

There is no better that I have ever heard, and in some cases, the list so far is a "quasi" type list for me.

 

But I always felt bad that many "progressive" or "prog" folks will not listen to ECM and give it the credit it deserves. Terje taught Jeff Beck how to do the soaring piece that flies ... and is not a solo for a stupid rock song! It's an actual piece of music that is composed and designed just like the Chamber Music of yesteryears!

 

This album, is likely too progressive and classical for the tastes of most folks here. The first cut, btw, is a metal assault, in case you don't think it was done in 1972 and doesn't fit the album, but I think it was a serious joke to throw off the jazz'ists and the folks that don't listen to music!

 

Two other versions of Eleanor Rigby that I think are better ... Esperanto in the "Last Dance" album, and Ides of March's first album. Both are fabulous and I think even better than the actual Beatles version.

 

 

Of course I remember the 1970 "Vehicle" single by the Ides of March. Very much in the style of Chicago Transit Authority's first album. Great song. It's been years since I've heard their version of "Eleanor Rigby" and I can't recall how it sounds. I must look into that.

 

 

Haven't listened to "Grand Hotel" in years. Will give a listen to "Fires (Which Burn Brightly) again.

 

 

Will seek out  Aranis, Julverne, DAAU and Arteria.

 

I've been listening to Five-Storey Ensemble's "Not That City" album on and off for the last few weeks....some of it has reached me and some I'm still in need of hearing more of.

 

 

 

So do I - but I wouldn't consider them chamber prog.

I don't think it's too controversial that this does indeed exist as a "sub-sub genre", as you say.  The term has been thrown around these parts for quite some time.  Certainly one of my favorite types of "prog" music.

 

Not in the sense of The Penguin Cafe Orchestra or early Art Zoyd or early Univers Zero. But I think there are enough Chamber Prog stylistic elements in their music to see them as Chamber Prog. Epecially songs like "touching II" and "i.b.too".

I'll have to listen to the album again, but I'm pretty sure I won't change my mind.

 

 

Chamber Prog.....the  words bring to my mind many great pop songs I listened to when younger that have very well written chamber orchestra parts.

 

Stuff like "Eleanor Rigby", "Strawberry Fields Forever", The live version of Procol Harum's "Conquistador", The Stones "Moonlight Mile".......

This is the problem with categorizing music so much and taking it seriously. It takes the ability to find and listen to different things that fit the description even better. And "Eos" (except the first cut maybe), is PERFECT chamber music, if ever there was one -- and this is something that the ECM group devoted its time and effort to a LOT. The stuff that Egberto Gismonti has with his guitar solo andthen with Charlie Haden and Jan Garbarek, and Nana Vasconcellos, is pure Chamber music ... but will never get that credit because we don't listen to music. We listen to idealistic definitions that specify three or four artists only!

 

It's fabulous music! End of story!

And where does this leave Prog Funk? 

That's part of the discussion.

 

I'm already thinking that the person is expecting Genesis with cellos and violins instead of keyboards! Or ELP!

 

I have to listen to some of these suggestions, but I'm waiting for METAL CHAMBER! I guess that Fates Warning is the owner of that one!

NOOOOOO ... wait for CHAMBER FUNK! That would be more fun!

 

Strictly imho, I think the archetypal Chamber Prog band is The Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

 

Muscians and instrumentation:

Simon Jeffes - guitar, cuatro, ukulele, violin, pennywhistle, piano, harmonium, various other instruments
Geoffrey Richardson - guitar, ukulele, viola, bass instrument, bongos
Steve Nye - cuatro, electric piano
Neil Rennie - ukulele
Peter Veitch - violin, accordion
Gavyn Wright - violin
Helen Liebmann - cello
Giles Leaman - oboe
Braco - drums, bongos, shaker
Julio Segovia - cymbals

 

Tull's "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles" is Chamber Prog.

 

I'll try to come up with a concise definition.......

 

 

 

 

 

After Crying

some Echolyn

some Gentle Giant

Pierrot Lunaire

some Terraced Garden

 

You do KNOW that he is one of the Caravan folks, right? And there is a lot in Caravan that could easily qualify as Chamber, if we were not so darn stuck on pop music!

 

 

No, I didn't realize that. Good stuff about Geoffrey:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Richardson_%28musician%29" rel="nofollow - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Richardson_(musician)

 

It's almost impossible for a person not to have a soft spot for pop music as it's what most of us heard as children.

 

Unless we're Tony Banks or Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman whose parents subjected them to a strict classical diet

 

 

 

Wouldn't that be Alamaailman Vasarat? 2 Cello's, trombone & saxaphone, plus keys & drums.

Here ya go:

ELO?

Generally speaking, 'chamber rock/prog' has little emphasis on drumming or any kind of beat (Art Zoyd never had a fulltime drummer for example). That Archaia album is an oddity in Zeuhl as there is no actual drumming (except for the bonus tracks on the CD version). It's the closest thing to 'chamber funk' I could think of; it wasn't exactly a serious post or anything. 

No one has mentioned Godspeed You Black Emperor or the related A Silver Mt. Zion yet who sometimes fit the description. Basically, the term 'chamber rock/prog' refers to groups like early Art Zoyd/Univers Zero and/or more recent groups like Aranis, etc. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He also appears on some Art Zoyd albums too but he generally is not a time-keeper.

It's like saying one can be amplified and one can't.

I'm not sure that is a good justification for a definition these days. DSO, for me, is more of a satire on things and a throw back to the 20's and 30's in music (put on Pasadena Roof Orchestra!), than anything else for my ears, at least in that one piece.

Fun stuff to listen to, but I honestly do not see anything actually "progressive" about either of these. But they are fun to listen to and enjoy.

 

Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks were far more entertaining and progressive than any of these! Of course, I was really ripped at the time, though!

Oh, and I recognize this perpetuum mobile! A bank used on a tv commercial!

Another stuff, do you know where can I download some Estradasphere music?

 

Chamber Prog can be acoustic or amplified. I do not believe in limiting music with such restrictions.

 

Regarding amplified Chamber Prog....I did listen to the Terje Rypdal "Eos" album you suggested and like most of it.  

 

DSO....are, hopefully, making money with their music and surviving and growing successfully. They have an interesting sound, not Prog as such as Opeth or Riverside, but fun and prog enough.

 

Penguin Cafe Orchestra....I wish Simon was still around. By giving PCO a listing here at PA they were able to reach a bigger audience. They aren't Prog like Yes or King Crimson, but, imho, they are Prog enough to have a home here at PA.

 

 

 

Back in 2011 a group called Avicii sampled "Perpetuum Mobile" and had a hit with the teenage audience in a song called "Fade into Darkness".  It's on Youtube if you want to hear it.

 

Estradasphere has Myspace, Facebook and lastfm pages, so, you may want to look them up to hear more.

Thank you! 

Mr Toad would be a shoe-in for this fuzzy category

Shout out to incredible Neoclassical/Chamber Prog bands Cicada (Taiwan), After Crying (Hungary), Five-Storey Ensemble (Belarus), and new AltrOck Francesco Zago/Paolo Botta/Elaine Di Falco project, Empty Days (Italia).

 P.S. Great discussion thread!

 

Sad to see this in so many ways.

 

It's ahrd for us to accept the meaning of that album when it came out, when we see this, and the song is about communication and not be heard, and it was an anti-establishment thing at the time, with folks not listening, and sending out cops instead to bang people's heads, either at Hyde Park or in Chicago or the streets in LA.

 

For me this is sad. I do NOT want to idolize a bad situation, that didn't get better, specially as all the sh*t got stuck under the carpet instead, other than the IRA which I suppose we could say that things are better now than they were before when even U2 was singing about it.

 

The song is about a whisper, or a breeze that passes by you ... what does it mean to you?

 

Nothing? Something? Did you acknowledge it? Do you care? ... and that visual is nice and pretty ... but it distorts the reality grossly! And it TAKES AWAY THE 3RD DIMENTION THAT MAKES THE MUSIC BETTER AND MORE VALUABLE!

 

It might add something else to it, but it's hard to believe that an idea will suplant the truth anytime soon! Even hundreds of years later. We still know that Symphony was written for her and she walked out the door without caring.

 

I'm not criticizing the video, which is beautiful. But it would go better with David Parsons music about/on the Himalayas, for example. Or Guy and I on top of Gibraltar Peak in Santa Barbara, listening to a tape of Space Pirate Radio at midnight and hearing the wind hitting the sides of the mountains with a thud and roll .... something magickal that we do not understand or see or hear very well at all.

 

While it is important to illuminate people's visions, realizing they are different is the most important part.

 

The song itself was written as part of a reaction to a time and place that a lot of other music was all over it, except top ten and grossly out of it pop music, and bubble gum sh*t. What I hate to see, is the visual turn this song into some sort of new age bubble gum wrap for your children ,,, and ignore history.

 

I'm a writer. As much as the "intent" is not what I write for, I write what I see, and you end up creating/inventing "intents" in it, that I never EVER even thought or considered, I tend to think that it is really tough ... and difficult on the inside, when someone steals your vision to create something else. I guess you could say I don't like it, but I better start saying that the "vision" is not "mine" ... it's universal! The inevitable "City of Lost Children" ... how appropriate it is for today's view on things!

 

It was also important as a song for me, that it was discussing "listening" and "hearing" each other and it was doing so in a very peaceful and quiet way ... which was totally counter what was happening outside! When you add up all that stuff, the song is a lot better and stronger than we even considered or thought.

 

But, please, do not let it take away from that video. But I would have liked to see that video done with David Parsons work instead!

Forgive my pedantry, but the word you're looking for is pedantry.

Xylophone, piano, violin, and a surprising vocalist

Yes, sir! 

Why? You have a fantastic school of Classical music; connects a pair of these students who are gifted and intoxicated with prog, & who have an idea to follow, and that's it. The result can be as big as Russia.

Yea of course I meant Russian prog musicians.

-----

the band Hazari from Belgrade, Serbia.

the band Naked from Belgrade, Serbia

the band Mothership Orchestra from Pozega, Serbia

Indeed.

I'm starting to think, now that even things like Gryphon and Third Ear Band, also fit in an area like this, though.

If we take the traditionalist vision of "chamber music" (all string instruments I think!), then the synthesizer/sequencer in this one is unusual, but it plays the same thing that another string instrument would play, which made it kinda different. 

Takes it away from rock music some, but I'm ok with it.

The combination they have here is cool, and all the women are excellent players. Most of the problem with "prog" and "rock" is that most folks are not even good players!

That's a good question. I don't know to invent an exact definition of the "genre" but imo it can be anything what is magnificent but not a "spectacle"; I mean, as an ingenious miniature painting by famous painter. Of course, a "chamber prog" ought to contain some of  that Classical music's "feeling" and (or) to have the acoustic instrument(s) on it.

 

I don't think we can, because there isn't one!

 

On top of it, someone chose a term, and changed its pre-defined meaning and applied it to "progressive" something or other, and basically distorted the discussion and the meaning of the term.

 

If we take the "classical definition" of the term, the number of things shown here do not fit at all. A lot of the ECM stuff, DOES fit, because it's original design and concept was one of "chamber", or as it was originally joked about, here is the white room, I'm shutthing the door, see you later! A lot of the early Rypdal, Gismonti, Jarrett and many folks fit in this area perfectly regardless of the fact that it is "jazz" or some other god-forsaken stupid definition that many progressive board folks will use so they will not go listen to something or other over there!

 

Again, the suggestions here went so far that I even suggested Gryphon and Third Ear Band. And as much as Third Ear Band would fit as "chamber music" by the classic definition, I almost doubt that anyone here will even consider going to listen to it, to find out why for themselves.

 

What I can not explain, or define, is the one thing that tends to throw off the equation between popular and other music. Pop music is not "known" for being "chamber music" in any of its formats, although you and I would say immediately that it would in folk music! But was folk music as developed as we have it today, some 400 or 500 years ago? I don't think so!

 

Without a doubt I am an aficionado of Progressive Music. Artists like Loreena McKennitt (Celtic), Porcupine Tree (Rock), Future Sound of London (Electronic/Folk/Rock), Philip Glass (Classical) and Panzerpappa (Chamber). 

 

Why limit one's taste to Prog Rock only?? For sure PA is the ultimate Prog Rock resource but it seems like they are taking it to the next level by including artists like Penguin Cafe Orchestra, North Sea Radio Orchestra, Aranis, Julverne and Rabih Abou-Khalil.

 

Strictly imo, PA has a solid foundation of Prog Rock but as one grows older it's nice to be able to have other genres included here at PA to make it easier to expand and grow as a person who appreciates the art of music in all of its various forms.

 

 

I've only heard the track "Valse Chinoise" by them. I like it.

 

 

Nonsemble is a chamber group which draws on eclectic musical influences to fill a space somewhere between the conservatoire and the underground. It tips its hat equally to Mogwai and Ligeti; Autechre and Philip Glass.  Formed in 2012 by composer Chris Perren (of Mr. Maps, lofly/hangar), Nonsemble features some of Brisbane’s most talented young players, including Hik Sugimoto on percussion, Sam Mitchell, on piano, Flora Wong and Sam Andrews on violin, Kieran Welch on viola, and Briony... Luttrell on Cello. In the short time since their inception the ensemble have performed at Restrung Festival at Brisbane Powerhouse with some of Australia’s top classical and new music ensembles, and were selected to play at Harvest Festival 2012 alongside acts such as Beck, Sigur Ros and Grizzly Bear. Practical Mechanics is an ode to technological optimism, and playfully explores the belief that science can solve all human problems. The titles and text excerpts are taken from the tattered pages of vintage issues of Practical Mechanics Magazine, a home science and technology magazine published between 1933 and 1963. The collision of hard scientific law with domestic human life, is reflected by the juxtaposition of mathematical and rule-based compositional approaches and the ineffably chaotic nature of human musical intuition. Practical Mechanics employs various rational and rule-based pattern-making techniques, including Schillingerian methods, list structures, additive and constructive techniques and others devised by the composer. This machine-like nature is especially prominent within the rhythm of the piece, and imbues the work with a complex yet controlled sense of mechanical determinacy. The harmony on the other hand is immediate and expressive, referring more to popular and folk music and reflecting the human needs central to the development and use of technology. For more information go to http://nonsemble.com.au/" rel="nofollow - nonsemble.com.au released 06 July 2013 Composed by Chris Perren in Collaboration with Nonsemble Percussion: Hik Sugimoto Piano: Samuel Mitchell Violins: Flora Wong and Samuel Andrews Viola: Kieran Welch Cello: Briony Luttrell Guitar/Synth/Samples: Chris Perren Recorded at UQ Nickson Room in December 2012 by Briony Luttrell and Chris Perren. Mixed and Produced by Chris Perren. Released on lofly recordings.

 

Looks very interesting. Will give it some ear time. Thanks.