Pan American

For waiting, for chasing
2006(mosz)


Following on from the magnificent 'Quiet City' album for Kranky (to this day one of the biggest selling titles on Boomkat), Mark Nelson finally returns with a new album under the Pan American moniker - and it's another triumph of sublime understatement. "For Waiting, For Chasing" is underpinned by delicately caressed and manipulated Flugelhorns, Tibetan Singing Bowls and Chinese Cymbals, processed, weaved and loved into a throbbing mass of neon loveliness. Opening 'Love Song' unfolds with a gentle cacophony of whirrs - like crickets trapped in a jar - juxtaposed with the most ethereal layers of ambience tripping over each other to create a cloud of harmony; this is absolutely classic Pan American territory. Nelson never confines his music to simple ambience, moulding in noisier elements which work as a counterpoint to the warm tones of the Tibetan Singing Bowls and synthesized whisps - a conceit which manages to keep his work ever-contemporary when so many of his past peers have been stuck in an endless loop of repetition. A work of calming restraint, it's really impossible to fault this musician and his ability, with this album, to craft another perfectly-formed microcosm of bliss. Essential purchase.
Link

Quiet City
2004


Quiet City is the fourth album from Mark Nelson's Pan�American project and combines the computer-centric approach of The River Made No Sound with the organic instrumentation that marked Nelson's work in Labradford and the first two Pan�American albums. Three of the eight tracks were recorded with Charles Kim (Sinister Luck Ensemble) and feature upright bass, drums, trumpet and flugelhorn. �Nelson even sings a bit. �The rippling electronics and muffled beats of the first three Pan�American albums are still there; distended into elegiac, resonant, wavering, and ambient song craft. �The CD edition of Quiet City comes with a DVD that contains a video essay shot and edited by Mark Nelson and Chicago visual artist Annie Feldmeier.

As Bob Baker Fish noted "Pan�American's forte is in the studio, crafting together all manner of disparate sounds with a patience and eclecticism rarely sighted in contemporary electronica." Pan�American has released singles and contributed to compilations on labels across the world, done remix work for artists like PSI Performer and Kid 606, collaborated with the artist Thomas Demand and toured with Radian and Low. ��He has a release coming up on the brand new Mosz label as well. �The full-length video that accompanies the album is a visual meditation on the theme of the quiet city; suitable for focussed viewing or accompanying everyday activity —�an ambient video if it helps to think of it as that.

Mark Nelson: �Electronics, guitar, voice and mix
with Charles Kim: upright bass, tracks 4 and 5
Tim Mulvenna (Vandermark 5, Jeb Bishop): drums, 4 and 5
Steven Hess (Hat Melter, Bosco & Jorge, Aluminum Group): drums, 7
David Max Crawford (Poi Dog Pondering, Wilco, Stereolab): trumpet on 5, flugehorn on 7

Link

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Vishwa Mohan Bhatt

Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (b. Rajasthan, India, 1952) is an exponent of Hindustani music (North Indian classical music). Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (also known as V. M. Bhatt) is one of the most celebrated shishyas (disciples) of the sitarist Ravi Shankar. Born in Jaipur in Rajasthan in July 1952, he is the younger brother of Shashi Mohan Bhatt, who was one of the first three students to study with Shankar circa 1949/50; Shashi Mohan Bhatt is the father of sitarist Krishna Mohan Bhatt. Much of his formative musical education came from his family. His father Manmohan Bhatt taught and as a boy Vishwa Mohan Bhatt soaked up his father's singing, compositions and ragas.

Bhatt originally did not mean to pursue a career in music. He prepared for the security of the Indian civil service while studying sitar and violin. Around 1967 he found a Spanish Guitar left behind by a German student at his father's music school in Jaipur. Bhatt claimed it for his own and set about remodelling it. After experimenting with the instrument's structure, left and right hand techniques, various objects to produce the slide sound and strings, he modified the guitar with the addition of several drone strings and eight sympathetic strings, playing it like a Hawaiian slide guitar to get the sustained, sliding notes common to the vocal style of Indian classical music. Thus the 'mohan veena' was born, named after himself and Vina or Veena, the generic Sanskrit word for a stringed instrument. It is an instrument that appears to be a hybrid of a classical Spanish guitar and a sitar. The Mohan veena sounds somewhat like a Western slide guitar and is played with sitar mizrabs (wire picks) and a thumb pick and a polished steel rod for the slide. The combination of melody, drone, sympathetic strings and Bhatt's microtonal approach to melody, however, place it firmly in an Indian cosmos.

Although he had had established himself as a recording artist in India as early as 1970 and had toured and recorded with his guru abroad (including Shankar's ambitious Inside The Kremlin from 1989), his major international breakthrough came with the album A Meeting By The River, a collaboration with American slide guitarist Ry Cooder that would be awarded a Grammy award for Best World Music Album in 1994. It is for this album and other fusion and pan-cultural collaborations with Western artists like Taj Mahal, Béla Fleck and Jerry Douglas, rather than his own unique take on Indian classical music traditions that Bhatt is best known, although exposure such as an appearance on the 2004 Crossroads Guitar Festival, which was organized by Eric Clapton, does allow for this side of his playing to reach a larger audience. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2002.

He currently resides in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, with his two sons and his wife. His elder son Salil Bhatt is a renowed Mohan veena player (and also a player of the Satvik veena), while his younger son Saurabh Bhatt is a well known composer. His nephew, Krishna Bhatt, plays the sitar and tabla.

Ry Cooder & Vishwa Mohan Bhatt/
A meeting by the river



Link

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt & Simon Shaheen/
Saltanah



Link

Saradamani



Link

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François Rabbath - Carmen !

(1992)

Proto: Carmen Fantasy - Rabbath: Two Miniatures, Concerto No. 3
Rabbath: double bass, Frank Proto, Florence Bouchet: piano

This recording, recommended wholeheartedly, reunites the unique talents of Frank Proto (composer, bassist, jazz musician, pianist) with those of virtuoso bassist and composer François Rabbath. Rabbath combines a mellifluous and silky tone with supreme musicianship that is ideally suited to the works recorded here.

Proto composed the five-movement Carmen Fantasy in 1991 for Rabbath and used several of the popular arias from Bizet's opera in a lyrical and relaxed transcription. The Fantasy begins with a virtuosic Prelude for solo bass, leading into the Aragonaise including an improvisational passage that both performers play with relish. Micaela's Aria is treated as the slow movement of the Suite and Rabbath demonstrates the wonderful sonorities and expressive qualities of the double bass. The Toreador Song hints at Proto's love of jazz and the work ends with a lively and virtuosic Bohemian Dance.

The Two Miniatures for double bass and piano are atmospheric tone poems with an impressionistic quality well suited to the cantabile nature of the bass. Proto provides a simple but important piano accompaniment allowing the solo line to dominate. Rabbath and Proto perform with perfect understatement, producing a feeling of calm and serenity that demonstrates their exceptional musical rapport.

Concerto No. 3 is a romantic love duet between bass and piano and both performers play with great feeling and power. The one-movement work is divided into sections that are dominated by rhythmic vitality or lyrical interludes. This is an impressive performance in which Rabbath wears his heart on his sleeve.
"David Heyes"
"Double Bassist"

Link

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-Serein-

Serein was established on the 19th of October, 2005 as a venture for promoting musicians and their work online. A so called 'net-label', they release music in MP3 format under the creative commons license for free. Releases are grouped identically to how you would expect a record label's catalogue to be organised. In the music section you will find releases listed with a catalogue number (ser000) identifying each unique release. Within each of these are links to music files and artwork, with the option to download the whole pack as a compressed zip file.

They largely concentrate on releasing experimental, ambient and electro acoustic compositions.

www.serein.co.uk/

Recommended releases:

Nest/Nest
ser013 (2007)

The Welsh Serein-Netlabel has always been a good address for undogmatic electro-acoustic music that combines expanded experimentalism with a certain amount of catchiness. Those who like Ambient music without an esoteric aftertaste will probably know about the label. 1.000 Hours Of Staring, Herzog or Neuf Meuf are just three names you once read if you’re a faithful consumer of this blog. Catalogue number thirteen is the latest addition to the label rooster and comes off as an self titled EP of the duo Nest. A special release, because 50% of Nest is Huw Roberts, the guy who founded and runs Serein.co.uk. He’s accomplished by Otto Totland of critically acclaimed Norwegian ‘engineers of emotion’ Deaf Center. Both are classically educated piano-players. Does this fact make you guess what their collaboration will sound like? Not really.

First track Lodge start with intimate piano chords. The microphone seems to be place very close to the strings, you can hear the dull beat of the hammers. You’re part of an exclusive family music-event while decent electronic noises arise from the adjoining room. Horns and strings stalk from the last row to your ears and create a dense ambient layer. A saw tooth synthesizer swells and ebbs away. Someone holds his breath. The second track is entitled Kyoto, and indeed, the first thing that came to my mind was Japanese folklore. Due to some decently pulsing drones and field-recordings that sound like Emil Klotzsch’ Tiefe Berge-composition, Roberts plays the Welsh Harp. A few piano tones at hand, the song comes up with some interesting and beautiful harmonies between art school and Popmusic. Clever composition, moreover. Reminds me of the Eve Future-releases of German intellectuals Kreidler. Same for Marefjellet. Track three joins the close piano-sound of the first song with the Asian flavours of the second one. The sound of distant rain and haunting string-arpeggios in the back make you think of film soundtracks, Arvo Pärt and Tom “Moondog” Hardiner.

We’re starting the b-side with a ray of light. Charlotte is introduced with loose field-recordings and cautious synthesizer drones. Back for good, the piano rushes in with a strong harmonic motive (probably Totlands’ play) that is accomplished with processed strings and synthesizers. Sweet! Maybe the track most songlike. My personal favourite is Cad Goddeu, though. A strange amorphous Ambient composition of slowly smouldering soundlayers it is, with filtered strings fixed like swarms of midges in the heat of the afternoon sun, concentric loops of solemnly clarinet-tones and sketches of a shady piano. Once again, references go out to Marsen Jules (see Yara) and the Grand Signor of suspension, Ennio Morricone. Finally, Trans Siberian is a fine fade-out for the EP. The track is composed around a steam train-recording and features some relaxed piano chords and smooth synth-layers.

Roberts and Totland fuse twinkle-toed Chamber Music and experimental Ambient. Though I’d have like to hear some more gutsy sounds, their EP is unearthly beautiful, ignores all genre-limitations and proves the huge amount of musical knowledge, and, even better, intuition, both Roberts and Totland invest into their compositions. Chapeau! ( Review by R U Bored)
Link


Neuf Meuf /
It's cold in space
ser009


"So, what of the music? 'It's cold in space' says the title, but I'm hard pushed to find anything cold about this album. Listening to it seems the perfect accompaniment to the hot weather that's finally found it's way to British shores; gently plucked guitars lilting in and out of the sun drenched picture Neuf Meuf paints. Snatches of vocals and the rattle and whirr of percussion and field recordings will have you melting whether the sun is shining or not. There are darker moments here too, though. 'Unrest unsave', featuring vocals from 'Sepia Hours' plunges you into darkness and will leave you feeling quite unsettled, before raising the mood once again with the epic and enchanting 'goldberry dreamstream'."
Link

Tony Hymas - Oyaté

1990(nato)

Tony Hymas is best known for his work with Jeff Beck on the Grammy-winning Guitar Shop album, and on many world tours as a cornerstone of Jeff's live band. Oyaté with its striking blend of Native American music and European jazz showcases Tony's talents as a composer and arranger.

Oyaté is a tribute to twelve great Native American Indian Chiefs. Great European rock and jazz performers such as Jeff Beck, Mike Cooper, Hugh Burns and Tony Coe (both of The Lonely Bears) join together with Native American luminaries like John Trudell, Carlos Nakai, Barney Bush, and Kevin Locke, to honor the spirits of Crazy Horse, Chief Joseph, Captain Jack, Geronimo, Sitting Bull and seven other great chiefs who contributed to the spiritual and political leadership of their tribes.
From the signature guitar sound of Jeff Beck on "Crazy Horse" to the gentle piano of Tony Hymas on "Say Tey Ti" to the inspiring flute of Kevin Locke on "Chief Song" (written by Sitting Bull), Oyaté rewards listeners with a variety of musical textures. The mixture of rock, jazz, modern classical and folk music will keep the attention of the listener as a serious musical concept, as well as an enjoyable listening experience.
Lyrics by John Trudell, Barney Bush and Tom Bee will provoke thought and discussion of the fate of the Indian tribes which were lead by these twelve great chiefs. Oyaté presents stories with insight into the lives of actual human beings who have survived great tragedy, and come out of it with a positive, spiritual attitude.
Recommended
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Terje Rypdal

-Whenever I seem to be far away-
1974 (ecm)



Terje Rypdal- Electric Guitar
Jon Christensen- Drums, Percussion
Sveinung Hovensj�- 4 & 6-String Bass
Pete Knutsen- Electric Piano , Mellotron
Odd Ulleberg French Horn
Members of Sudfunk Symphony Orchestra/Mladen Gutesha - Conductor on Track 3

Even the starkly beautiful cover photo of this 1974 gem by Norwegian guitarist/composer Terje Rypdal is something of the music contained within.
Shown here are but 2 sides of Rypdal's ever evolving muse. Let's deal with the first two songs. "Silver Bird.." and "The Hunt". Listening to these I can't help but think what it might've been like if Jimi Hendrix hooked up with the rhythm section from Magma (the heavy throbbing fuzz-bass, rippling electric piano and insistent drumming) and got someone from a 70's vintage King Crimson lineup to have themselves a good 'ol time on a mellotron ("just play it reeeeeaaallllll spoooooky man") and for really conveying that lonesome, windswept Norwegian wilderness sound, stir in the stark, melodious French Horn. Does it work, you may ask. Most certainly!!! "Silver Bird--" begins with an unsettling theme with French Horn and the spookiest Mellotron work you ever heard this side of King Crimson or Morte Macabre. From there, the whole band roars in and blurs the line between improvised and written out passages. There are several distinct themes that are cued in and out by Rypdal, in a manner not unlike late 60's to mid 70's Miles Davis or Gil Evans. What a ride!! "The Hunt" is more "written out", relatively speaking, but still has enough little surprises to keep you on the edge of your seat.
And now the title cut. Here, we abruptly shift gears and wind up with the formality of a chamber orchestra in a piece written by Terje, although quite formal in structure, it nevertheless conveys vivid colors and haunting emotions. Throughout it all, Terje Rypdal's guitar work clearly shows the influence of Jimi Hendrix, and filters it through the eyes of modern classical composers and avant-garde jazz and rock sensibilities alike.

Any prog or fusion fan should definitely have this in their library!! Just bundle up real good and be careful climbing those fjords!
(Progressive Ears)
New Link in comment.

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Electronic Music (Three EP's)

Statskcartsa - Untie (EP)
2006 (boltfish)

The only release by Greg Haines under the moniker of Statskcartsa, based on tracks made in the summer of 2005, plus a Statskcartsa remix of CHEjU's 'Pachinko' as a bonus track.
Also contains remixes by CHEjU, MINT and Greg Haines.
This limited release has now been deleted.

Download: mediafire

Keith Fullerton Whitman - Lisbon (EP)
2006 (kranky)

The works of Whitman have veered from minimalist compositions that are reminiscent of the dampened sounds of the Arctic gale to the dark, unfettered thrashings of Krautrock. This document stands out from past efforts for the simple fact that, rather than following his tendency to rework compositions until every element is polished and impeccable, here he allows the original effort stand on its own, blemishes and all.
This having been said, Lisbon is a far cry from being muddled and rudimentary. To the contrary, this single forty-minute piece demonstrates a careful build from smooth, serene sine-waves, high stinging tones - sounding not unlike the shrill chirp of newborn birds - and long-held organ chords to metallic scraping noises, erratic single note guitar lines that pulse like blood, and delicious smears of pure sound.
The arc of this composition also warrants further inspection, for rather than opting for marked contrasts, and more or less abrupt shifts, Whitman nurses this music along ever so slowly, and, as a result, the ensuing tension is all the more palpable for the care that went into its development. Whitman also demonstrates power within this self-imposed confinement, planting within each phase a plethora of detail - from the muted percussive sighs and low frequency static vibrations of the earlier moments to the pockets of fuzzed out, decaying feedback that are splashed about the latter half. While perhaps not arising from a stern zealousness, one imagines that the care evident in the unfolding of these events is the result of the appreciation and awe Whitman felt over his recent surroundings in Galeria Ze Dos Bois, where this piece was recorded. Not surprisingly, an unencumbered imagination brimming with sprightly moods runs rampant throughout this charming album.(Max Schaefer)

Download: mediafire

Telefon Tel Aviv - Immediate Action #8 (EP)
(2002)

Telefon Tel Aviv is a Chicago-based electronic music group (relocated from New Orleans in 2001) primarily known for their work in the intelligent dance music genre.

Formed in 1999 by Charles Cooper and Joshua Eustis, their first album was released in the fall of 2001 to positive reviews. In 2002 they released an EP under the Hefty Records Immediate Action label where vocalist Lindsay Anderson (from L'Altra) was added to the group.

Download: mediafire

Trygve Seim

Different Rivers
2000(ecm)


Trygve Seim tenor and soprano saxophones
Arve Henriksen trumpet, trumpophone, vocals
Håvard Lund clarinet, bass clarinet
Nils Jansen bass and sopranino saxophones, contrabass clarinet
Hild Sofie Tafjord french horn
David Gald tuba
Stian Carstensen accordion
Bernt Simen Lund cello
Morten Hannisdal cello
Per Oddvar Johansen drums
Paal Nilssen-Love drums
Øyvind Brække trombone
Sidsel Endresen recitation

An extended band deliver a remarkable sequence of tone-trances, at times faintly suggestive of Carla Bley and Gil Evans, but based on very small melodic motifs, given strength and mesmeric fascination by progressive harmonic overlays and tonal variation. Ulrikas Dans is a six-note ascending figure that turns into a surging clamour of sound, Intangible Waltz like Carla Bley drifting through musical dry ice, African Sunrise like exuberant Gild Evans and For Edward and Breathe as still and focused as a yoga meditation. Wonderful.
John Fordham, The Guardian (Jazz CD of the week)

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Sangam
2004(ecm)



Trygve Seim tenor and soprano saxophones
Håvard Lund clarinet, bass clarinet
Nils Jansen bass saxophone, contrabass clarinet
Arve Henriksen trumpet
Tone Reichelt french horn
Lars Andreas Haug tuba
Frode Haltli accordion
Morten Hannisdal cello
Per Oddvar Johansen drums
Øyvind Brække trombone
Helge Sunde trombone
String Ensemble
Christian Eggen conductor

For a composer whose work produces such fundamental tones, and sounds so eerily familiar, the Norwegian saxophonist Trygve Seim often seems to be discovering the possibilities of sound-making instruments for the first time. Though Seim’s albums rely on a broad sound canvas now almost routine in European jazz-influenced contemporary music, his work since the millennium has been remarkable for its exploratory freshness. … Sangam continues the line of development Seim introduced with 2000’s Different Rivers and 2002’s free-jazzier The Source. An 11-piece jazz ensemble is joined to a classical string group here, with the soloists including the imaginative trumpeter Arve Henriksen, clarinettist Havard Lund and accordionist Frode Haltli. … Seim’s subtle and sumptuous overlaying of textures creates a sense of constant evolution none the less, from the lonely musings of the clarinet against arco bass at the opening, to the stately ascent of the band against Henriksen’s first trumpet appearances. …
Eerily hymnal contemporary jazz from a unique ensemble long overdue for a trip here.
John Fordham, The Guardian

NEW Link:
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The Source
2006(ecm)



Trygve Seim tenor and soprano saxophones
Øyvind Brække trombone
Mats Eilertsen double-bass
Per Oddvar Johansen drums

This is more explicitly jazzy, with sax/trombone/bass/drums group the Source exploring a lazily animated, free-swing music influenced not only by Garbarek’s ghostly meditations but also by the more urgently quirky lines of Ornette Coleman. Trombonist Oyvind Braekke, a Coleman fan, has a bigger influence on this set than on previous ones, and drummer Per Oddvar Johansen and bassist Mats Eilertsen stir in fluid, restless undercurrents. For Seim stalwarts, however, there a re plenty of long trombone notes, spacey bass figures, whispering sax, cymbal washes and even some perkily assertive swing. This may be the most creative band at the sharp end of the north European scene.
John Fordham, The Guardian

New Link

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Ravi Shankar & Philip Glass - Passages

(1990)

This historic collaboration brings full circle a process which began when promising young American musician Philip Glass met Indian master Ravi Shankar in Paris in 1965. That week Glass, studying with the great Nadia Bulanger, was earning pocket money doing notation and conducting a recording session for the soundtrack of Conrad Rook's film "Chappacqua." The score's composer, Ravi Shankar, was directing his ensemble from the sitar.
Ravi recalls, "From the very first moment I saw such interest from him -he was a young man then— and he started asking me questions about ragas and talas and started writing down the whole score, and for the seven days he asked me so many questions. And seeing how interested he was I told him everything I could in that short time."
"It was possible to graduate from a major Western conservatory, in my case Juilliard, " remembers Glass, "without exposure to music from outside the Western tradition. World music was completely unknown in the mid-60's."
"What the young Glass heard which lay beyond his conservatory hermeticity was RHYTHM, long out of fashion in the world of American academic post-Webernism, with its almost exclusive concern for harmonic organization. Indian music is based on melody, which would get you laughed at Princeton or Columbia, and rhythm, which, despite Stravinsky's efforts in works like "Le Sacre du Printemps" or "Les Noces" was considered "incidental" to constructing 12-tone rows and other serious contrapuntal matters.

So for someone to play for the budding composer an expressive, vital, respect-worthy music — based on 4,000 years of refining the interaction between the two forgotten elements of Western music— must have been mildly astonishing at the very least. He realized that one could construct music on a rhythmic, as opposed to a harmonic, base.
Also, unlike most of the composers Glass had met up till that time, Ravi Shankar was a player, a composer/performer, whose authority arose from intimate hands-on contact with the music itself, and the other musicians, with whom he regularly shared a vibrating column of air. Glass became a student of Shankar's, Philip Glass today acknowledges "I owe a lot to Ravi; he was one of my teachers. "
The movement Philip Glass helped to create was called "Minimalism," and the founding Minimalists are all fine performers. Whatever differences they may have had in the mid-60's, what they had in common was the dynamic re-assertion of the primacy of rhythm.
They chose different sources: Steve Reich was drawn by African drumming and Balinese gamelan (as well as Be-bop); Terry Riley by Northern Indian vocal techniques under the guidance of the legendary Pandit Pran Nath, as well as blues and jazz improvisation; and in the next generation, John Adams points to rock and roll as well as the early Minimalists, as his seminal influences.
Pandit Ravi Shankar went to collaborations with Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Jean-Pierre Rampal and the much-publicized master/pupil relationship with Beatle George Harrison that served to introduce Indian music (and its inherent spirituality) to a generation of rock fans. Film scores such as the legendary Apu trilogy, "Charly" and "Gandhi" as well as additional cross-cultural excursions into other musical traditions, have enriched his palette, all the while he has remained pre-eminent in the classical Indian music which traces its history to at least 2,000 B.C.

Philip Glass, in part through re-emphasizing the role of rhythm in his music (influenced by non-Western forms including Indian Raga) has created a uniquely affective music for opera [Einstein on the Beach (1976), Satyagraha (1982), Akhnaten (1984), The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (1988) and Hydrogen Jukebox based on the poetry of Allen Ginsberg (1990)], film (Koyaanisqatsi, Mishima and The Thin Blue Line), ballet and concert hall.

Peter Baumann, founder of Private Music, (who had been a member of the Minimalist / Rock band Tangerine Dream and an admirer of all of the above) responded enthusiastically when the record company's President/CEO, Ron Goldstein, suggested in the summer of 1989, that they bring the now-famous Philip Glass back into musical contact with the ever expanding world of Ravi Shankar.

Unlike previous Shankar "collaborations" (actually elaborate sessions with masters of other musical traditions joining Ravi to "jam" on his own music) the Glass encounter was rare instance of classical music reciprocity, each composer presenting thematic material to the other as raw material from which these finished pieces were fashioned. Passages contains four such co-ventures: two Glass compositions on themes by Shankar (Shankar / Glass); two Shankar compositions on themes by Glass (Glass / Shankar) as well as one piece from each composer completely of his own devising.
(Martin Perlich)

Website: Philipglass.com

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Pass= culturepas
Download(Mpc@"extreme"): mediafire

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Tartar Lamb - Sixty Metonymies (2007)

Toby Driver in the past two years has been quite the prolific artist. Releasing his debut solo album, a collection of intensely precise and planned compositions, in late 2005 on Tzadik was his first attempt to distance himself from the extremely epic release "Choirs of the Eye" that had made his band Kayo Dot a critical and underground favorite. Kayo Dot also released their second LP in early 2006; "Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue" was an experiment in the subtle and drawn out. Sure, "Choir"'s strong emotional crescendos were present in "Dowsing", but gone were their epic conclusions. These spots were instead replaced with explosions of noise or ten minutes of drifting guitar work. As Toby himself stated, he felt "Choirs of the Eye" was perfection in what it had attempted to do, so instead of following what most "metal" bands would've done and staying put in his popular musical formula, Toby tried to do something different.
With the release of "Sixty Metonymies", Toby has finally reached the full sound he has been hinting at since his solo release almost two years ago. A sonically sparse and repetitive listen that is referred to by its own composer as a composition built "in such a way that each figure can be heard as metonymical to each other", "Sixty Metonymies" is a dizzying recording that cycles through such a vast cycle of arrangements in such a short time that it'll certainly leave the listener bewildered upon first listen. Certainly Toby's other projects have also had this stigma attached to them, but moments like the intense full band explosion in "The Manifold Curiosity" left the listener some memorable or familiar portion of the song to latch on to on further listen. "Sixty Metonymies" is devoid of these trigger moments and almost completely removed from vocal performance. To describe it as "catchy" would be the overstatement of the decade.
On this recording Toby and Mia Matsumiya's excellent performance is accented by "extended percussionist" Andrew Greenwald and horn player Tim Byrnes of the group Friendly Bears. Greenwald's style of percussion is a fantastic addiction to the bizarre composition of "60 Metonymies". Rarely relying on the traditional, his implication of various objects such as stray metals flavors the more "compositional" parts of the piece with an urgency of modernism. While Greenwald's performance is one of a kind, trumpet player Byrnes is seemingly invoking the kind of playing that was a staple on Kayo Dot's "Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue" It gives the trumpet performance a sort of "we've already heard this" feel and while it isn't necessarily distracting it is somewhat disappointing. Toby's guitar playing is mostly focused on seemingly replicating a piano but his subtle implication of selected chord phrasing gives the piece a more varied feel. Toby is able to prolong an otherwise excessive repetitiveness by always casually advancing into more beautiful and interesting melodies. Mia finally seems to expose her prowess as the group's most experienced player. Her usage of various extended techniques is at the same time virtuous and restrained. Tartar Lamb once again shows her as a key player in any setting, not unlike say a musician like Eric Dolphy who even in his performances of other's works added so much to the playing that without him or her in Mia's case the piece would fall apart. Finally, while Toby's vocal performance is not featured very often when he does add slight breathing, whistling or the final monologue it is a breath of fresh almost childish air.
"60 Metonymies" is yet another emotionally and compositionally brilliant addition to Toby Driver's resume. It is obvious that Toby has mastered his own vision of minimalism with this record and it'll be interesting to see where he goes next. Conquering one's perception of the both the entirely bombastic and entirely reserved is not an easy task but one has to question where Toby will go from here. Kayo Pop? I'm sure like many of his gracious fan base, the next release associated with one of the most interesting composers of our time will not only challenge my sense of music but Toby's own. And that is where Tartar Lamb succeeds, they are not saturated in the idea of pleasing fans but instead just themselves. On the way to record this album Tartar Lamb performed a variety of shows across the north half of the U.S. I was lucky enough to persuade them to come to my home town of State College, Pennsylvania and after the performance Toby, Mia and I listened to an unmastered copy of "60 Metonymies". Where most artists would've grown bored or unimpressed with a piece they'd been working of for two years, Toby and Mia seemed just as fascinated with the recording as me. Pointing out subtle percussion parts, discussing each others' techniques, and even joking about the conclusion, it was obvious that the same devoted and massively appreciative fan base of Toby Driver is such because it reflects his same feelings towards his music. Few artists' work resonates in me the way Toby's does and Tartar Lamb is no different; emotional, interesting, and original.
(sputnikmusic.com)
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Convert mpc files:

Mpc2aiff

mpc2aiff is a front-end interface for the command-line utility mppdec (by Frank Klemm), which will decode mpc files (musepack's mpeg plus; other supported extensions are "mpp" or "mp+") to aif format.
If you usually surf the web and share music, then you should know what is this format (or at least the mac-unplayable ".mpc" extension), a high quality compression algorithm based on MPEG.
mpc2aiff will convert these files to ".aif", suitable to burn to a CD or whatever other utility you give them (such as convert them to mp3).
Link

Play Mpc files:

Cog
free open source audio player for OS X


Currently it supports the following formats:

• Ogg Vorbis
• Mp3
• Flac
• Musepack
• Monkeys Audio
• Shorten
• Wavpack
• AAC
• Apple Lossless
• Wave/AIFF

Link

Arild Andersen Group - Electra

2005 'ecm'

Arve Henriksen trumpet
Eivind Aarset guitars
Paolo Vinaccia drums, percussion
Patrice Héral drums, percussion, voice
Nils Petter Molvær drum programming
Savina Yannatou vocal
Chrysanthi Douzi vocal
Elly-Marina Casdas chorus vocal
Fotini-Niki Grammenou chorus vocal
Arild Andersen double bass, drum programming

A modern score for a new production of the Greek tragedy Electra describes Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen’s latest ECM release, but that doesn’t give the whole picture. Electra is another lush-sounding offering from the Scandinavian contingent, which, at times, blends Asian and Nordic influences in equal measure. … Featuring drummers Paolo Vinaccia and Patrice Héral, the shakuhachi-like trumpet of Arve Henriksen and some haunting vocals underpinned by Andersen’s bass and Eivind Aarset’s textural guitar, this is a truly magnifincent CD.

Download(Mp3@Vbr'extreme'): rapidshare part1 & rapidshare part2

Like what you hear, buy it! And support the artists that really need it.