View allAll Photos Tagged discogs
www.discogs.com/Haydn-Yo-Yo-Ma-Wynton-Marsalis-Cho-Liang-...
Backside Haydn - 3 Favorite Concertos - Cello Concerto op.101 - English Chamber Orch., Jose-Luis Garcia & Trumpet Concerto - Nat. Phil. Orch., Raymond Leppard & Violin Concerto No.1 - Minnesota Orch., Neville Marriner - Yo-Yo Ma Cello, Wynton Marsalis Trumpet, Cho-Liang Lin Violin, CBS IM 39310, 1981, 1984, 1985
1 of 2 copies
www.discogs.com/Haydn-Yo-Yo-Ma-Wynton-Marsalis-Cho-Liang-...
Haydn - 3 Favorite Concertos - Cello Concerto op.101 - English Chamber Orch., Jose-Luis Garcia & Trumpet Concerto - Nat. Phil. Orch., Raymond Leppard & Violin Concerto No.1 - Minnesota Orch., Neville Marriner - Yo-Yo Ma Cello, Wynton Marsalis Trumpet, Cho-Liang Lin Violin, CBS IM 39310, 1981, 1984, 1985
No Backside
www.discogs.com/Suzanne-Danco-Francesco-Molinari-Pradelli...
Rare Record. Gramophone Review:
This utterly charming recital, recorded in 1956, owes its origins to two men: the celebrated Milanese collector of antiquarian curiosities Natale Gallini and the man who first put the collection together, a certain Gioachino Rossini. It was in Paris in the early 1830s that Rossini had the idea of assembling a decorative and handsomely inscribed Song Book for the daughter of a well known Parisian impresario. The result: an "Album de Musique, offert par G. Rossini a Mademoiselle Louise Cartier, Mars 1835". Mme Benazet (as she was soon to become) later added to the volume; the Spontini song bears the inscription "Paris, 1839". But most of it was Rossini's doing.
Naturally, one looks to the great names who contributed to Mile Cartier's book: Bellini and Meyerbeer and the ageing Cherubini. They don't disappoint; the Bellini song is especially lovely and even the Cherubini has its own quirky interest. Some old lags turn up—Paer and the man who helped Rossini draft the original version of his Stabat mater, Giovanni Tadolini. The real surprises, though, are elsewhere. Just when you think the format is becoming a shade predictable—a chance perhaps to doze off whilst mademoiselle's mother isn't looking—along comes some small gem of a piece by Signor Morlacchi or Signor Bazzini. ("My dear, isn't he the famous violinist— the man that scallywag Paganini thinks so highly of'?") Indeed, he is. In fact, I would say Bazzini's Chi ami? is one of the highlights of the collection.
Suzanne Danco is the impeccable interpreter for all this. She neither indulges the music, nor condescends to it. Fine diction, elegant phrasing, vocal colour judiciously used. The same could be said of the conductor-turned-pianist Francesco Molinari-Pradelli: impeccable.
To complete one's pleasure, there is the recital's equally impeccable presentation: a recording that sounds almost new-minted, full texts and translations, and a set of beautifully written biographical vignettes of the various composers by Gallini himself. Rossini, I feel, would be touched—and gratified. The whole production has what was always for him an indispensable attribute: style. RO
Phoene Somsavath, a musician and DJ, originally from Paris, but now based here in Glasgow, enjoying the club night she helped organise.
Drawn entirely with a ball point pen, without the use of a predrawn sketch or an eraser. My intent was to create a design with the idea, like history, that cannot be erased.
---
portfolio: www.crazeone.com
---
www.discogs.com/Chor-Des-Klosters-Montserrat-Hispaniae-Mu.... Hispaniae Musica - Chormusik in Montserrat - Mateo Romero (Maestro Capitan), Carlos Patino, Miguel Lopez, Diego Duron, Juan Cererols, Sebastian Duron - Joaquim Garrigasa, Josep Torrescassana, Sebastia Bardolet, Michel Piquet & Heinrich Haas Barock-Oboe, Walter Stiftner Barock-Fagott, Herbert Mosheimer Posaune, Hans J. Zingel Harfe, Gregori Estrada Orgel Organ Orgue, Antoni Planas Violoncello, Werner Buchmann Violone - Basilika Montserrat 1967, DGG Archiv 198 452
Rare Record. www.discogs.com/release/7319885-Csajkovszkij-Anyegin-Euge... From Aug. 2009, Voix des Arts.com:
PYOTR ILYCH TCHAIKOVSKY / Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский (1840 – 1893): Yevgeny Onegin / Евгений Онегин, Op. 24: Y. Mazurok (Yevgeny Onegin), T. Milashkina (Tatyana), V. Atlantov (Lensky), Y. Nesterenko (Gremin), T. Sinyavskaya (Olga), T. Tugarinova (Larina), L. Avdeeva (Filippyevna), L. Kuznetsov (Triquet), V. Yaroslavtsev (Zaretsky); Chorus and Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow; Gennady Cherkasov [recorded in Radio Studio 5, Moscow, in 1984(?); alto 2007]
In 1979, the officially sanctioned record label of the Soviet Union, Melodiya, brought together four of the Bolshoi Theatre’s leading singers – Yuri Mazurok, Tamara Milashkina, Vladimir Atlantov, and Yevgeny Nesterenko – with Mark Ermler, a popular conductor at the Bolshoi who would briefly serve as the Company’s Music Director two decades later, to record Tchaikovsky’s towering masterwork of lyric theatre, Yevgeny Onegin. Both Mazurok and Atlantov had recorded their respective roles before, along with Tamara Sinyavskaya’s Olga, in a studio recording of Onegin conducted by the great ‘cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and featuring his wife, Galina Vishnevskaya, as Tatyana. Critical response to the Melodiya recording was largely unfavorable, particularly when the new set was compared with the Rostropovich recording and the 1956 performance conducted by Boris Khaikin in which the unsurpassed Tatyana of the youthful Vishnevskaya was preserved. The circumstances under which the present recording was made therefore remain somewhat mysterious. Released, according to the accompanying liner notes, for the first time outside of Russian by the alto label in an indisputably good mastering by Paul Arden-Taylor, this Yevgeny Onegin may be fresh to the field despite its vintage.
An examination of the forces involved in the recording and the venue in which the performance is said to have been recorded introduces further questions. An admired professor at the Moscow Conservatory for nearly fifty years, Gennady Cherkasov (1930 – 2002) was for an extended period the de facto artistic director of the musical enterprises of USSR Radio and Television, and the bulk of his recordings were made either with USSR Radio forces or the Moscow Philharmonic. The matter of the provenance of this recording is further complicated by the fact that the choral and orchestral forces of the Bolshoi Theatre, the cited performers in this performance, were most often recorded in that Theatre, their manners of singing and playing having been trained specially for the acoustical ambience of the Bolshoi. If truly recorded in Moscow’s Radio Studio 5 under Maestro Cherkasov’s baton, it would be far more likely that the chorus and orchestra would have been those of the USSR Radio.
There remains, too, the obvious question of why another recording of Yevgeny Onegin with the same principals recorded by Melodiya in 1979 (three of whom, as previously noted, had recorded their roles in 1970 for Rostropovich) would have been thought artistically necessary or commercially viable. A compact-disc reissue (from LP transfers) of the 1979 Yevgeny Onegin by an independent European label erroneously cited Gennady Cherkasov rather than Mark Ermler as the conductor of that recording, a mistake detected and revealed to the record-buying public by the French publication Diapason. Is it possible, then, that a similar unintentional corruption is responsible for the ambiguous information concerning the present release? Even if this is the case, what information suggested to the editorial staff of that small European label that Cherkasov could have been the conductor of the performance in question? Unfortunately, information concerning the recording’s principal artists is sketchy at best, as is often the case with singers whose careers were mostly made in theatres in the Soviet Union, and comprehensive discographies of Yevgeny Onegin offer few clues.
Sadly, the Rostropovich Yevgeny Onegin, originally recorded for EMI, was available only briefly on compact discs in France in a transfer by the Chant du Monde label, a release that was likely quite limited and is now virtually impossible to find. Though Melodiya have recently reissued many of their classic operatic recordings, the 1979 Ermler Yevgeny Onegin has thus far been passed over in justifiable preference for the Khaikin recording with Vishnevkaya’s near-ideal Tatyana. Having heard only murky-sounding excerpts from Ermler’s recording on a compact disc clandestinely transferred from a scratchy LP is a poor standard for comparison when trying to determine whether the performance issued by alto is, in fact, the Ermler recording in another guise. There is, after all, a precedent for this sort of duplicity in Melodiya’s catalogue: the voice of George London was dubbed over the master tapes of an earlier recording of Boris Godunov with Ivan Petrov, conducted by Alexander Melik-Pasheyev, in order to manufacture a souvenir of London’s triumphant Bolshoi performances as the troubled tsar. Comparing those dim-sounding excerpts from Ermler’s performance with the present recording, there are reference points that suggest both that the two recordings do indeed contain the same performance. Whatever the truth concerning this ‘new’ Onegin from alto may be, the recording presents the casual musical detective with a muddle of which Dame Agatha Christie could have been proud.
If this is the 1979 Ermler recording, resuscitated and re-attributed to Gennady Cherkasov, the performance proves more interesting than critical response to the original Melodiya issue indicated. Though a national institution, it must be admitted that the Bolshoi forces are not to Russian repertory what the orchestras and choirs of La Scala and the Wiener Staatsoper are to their respective national traditions. Precision of attack and accuracy of intonation are not always readily evident in Bolshoi performances, but instances of sloppiness are often easily forgotten when the results of imperfect execution are exciting, idiomatic performances. Except perhaps in the ball scene and the final confrontation between Onegin and Tatyana, Yevgeny Onegin is not a score in which overt excitement is paramount. An element of the irony inherent in the score is found in Tchaikovsky’s juxtaposition of the passionate emotional tempests that rage internally with the pastoral scenes, quaint country manners, and courtly demeanors that mask them. Even a scene as poignant as the duel in which Onegin kills Lensky is stark and bitter rather than outwardly impassioned. The Bolshoi forces understand this irony, the chorus taking particular care to sing with refinement and understatement that are not always obvious weapons in their arsenal. A few instances of suspect intonation and haphazard balance aside, the orchestra play very well indeed, the woodwinds especially making amends for many of the sins of their Soviet predecessors. Above all, the singing and playing are quintessentially Russian, a valuable quality even in a score by a composer as innately cosmopolitan as Tchaikovsky.
Based upon his pedigree, there is no reason to think that Maestro Cherkasov should not have had Yevgeny Onegin well in hand. His recorded work reveals a capable technician with a flair for handling complex orchestrations on large scales. Whether it is his work or Ermler’s, there are many fine points to this performance. The great third-act Polonaise is paced superbly and is integrated into the flow of the performance – as it rarely is – as music ideal for dancing. Atypically, the listener very much gets the sense of the curtain rising on a ripping party in progress. Prince Gremin’s aria also stays within the natural progression of the performance, avoiding the common pitfall of being an action-stalling star turn. The final scene builds momentum gradually, reaching its climax without running out of steam or seeming vulgar. Earlier on, there are occasional lapses in judgment: far too much is made of the couplets of Monsieur Triquet, for instance, which in this performance are treated almost as exalted utterances from a Gluck opera. The sense that tragedy looms is palpable, but the humor – ironic or otherwise – of the scene is lost, as well as its charm. Fortunately, such missteps are infrequent and largely afflict moments of lesser importance. If the Letter Scene is somewhat deliberate, it at least avoids the almost hysterical rushing heard in many performances. The performance as a whole, whether it is conducted by Ermler or Cherkasov, is effective and enjoyable without being exceptional. It gracefully avoids the idiosyncrasies imposed on the music by ‘star’ conductors, however. Despite some truly memorable vocal performances in the opera’s recorded history, it is interesting to note that no single maestro lingers in the memory as the ideal conductor of Yevgeny Onegin.
Smaller roles on this recording are mostly entrusted to capable artists, producing assured performances. Mezzo-soprano Tamara Sinyavskaya, another Onegin veteran, is a rather fruity Olga but one well within the drama, complementing her sister Tatyana rather than audibly seeking to outshine her. Tatyana Tugarinova and Larisa Avdeeva are authoritative as Larina, Olga’s and Tatyana’s mother, and Filippyevna, their nanny, as only singers immersed in the Russian tradition can be. As Monsieur Triquest, tenor Lev Kuznetsov sings his music as though auditioning for the Simpleton in Boris Godunov, but his voice is steady and pleasant.
The Prince Gremin of Yevgeny Nesterenko is less ostentatious than is often the case. In particular, Nesterenko sings the beautiful third-act aria with tenderness that, for once, meaningfully depicts the aging Prince’s affection for his young wife. Nesterenko’s voice is in good condition, and as with so many Slavic artists he is perceptibly more in his element here than in his recordings of non-Russian repertory. Nesterenko’s is not a Gremin who touches the heart with special insights or uncommon dignity, but the performance is refreshingly free of the disproportionate grandstanding that is as common among recordings of the role as among theatrical performances.
The Onegin of Polish-born baritone Yuri Mazurok is a well-documented creation: recorded in the studio for Rostropovich and Ermler, perhaps for Cherkasov, and again for Vladimir Fedoseyev (for Moscow Radio) and Emil Tchakarov, it is impossible to have explored the Onegin discography in the final quarter of the twentieth century without encountering Mazurok’s interpretation of the title role. In this performance, Mazurok’s seasoned familiarity with his role is evident, and admittedly an element of routine is discernible. Mazurok’s voice is well-proportioned for his music, however, and he does not over-sing the role. Onegin is a dangerous part in that it demands a careful balance of intellectual involvement and easy, beautiful vocalism: lured into the trap of focusing his attention solely or mostly on ‘interpreting’ the role, a baritone can easily overlook the fact that Onegin’s music is quite demanding. Though it is possible to question why Mazurok’s portrayal of Onegin merited preservation on so many recordings, it is a well-considered, idiomatic performance that, in this recording at least, impresses. The requisite arrogance is there, but not in quantities great enough to render the character unredeemably off-putting, and the abandon with which Mazurok sings the final scene appropriately conveys Onegin’s desperation. If not a bar-raising Onegin, this is nonetheless a very good one that outclasses performances by many baritones more famous for the role in the West.
By the time of this recording, whether it was 1979 or 1984, Vladimir Atlantov had a decade of experience in heavy dramatic tenor roles behind him. Atlantov was for nearly two decades the Bolshoi’s leading portrayer of Verdi’s Otello, a role he performed at the MET on three memorable occasions in the spring of 1994. Following in the tradition of the brilliant (if politically unsavory) Georgi Nelepp, Atlantov emerged in the early 1970’s as Russia’s finest spinto tenor, his voice blessed with an Italianate ring and a thrilling upper extension. Hermann in Tchaikovsky’s Pikovaya Dama, a role considerably more demanding than Lensky, was perhaps Atlantov’s finest role. Lensky, usually the property of more lyric voices (not least the fine Russian tenor Ivan Kozlovsky and, especially in German-language performances, the great Slovenian tenor Anton Dermota), was nonetheless a frequent role for Atlantov during the early years of his career in Russia. His singing in this performance is slightly too large for the music despite laudable efforts at reducing the thrust of the voice, particularly in the upper register. Unfortunately, this conscious attempt at singing the role on an appropriate scale leads to occasional insecurity and reliance on falsetto: to his credit, Atlantov knows that Lensky should have a modulated, honeyed tone in precisely the part of the voice in which Atlantov’s power and squillo were so impressive in dramatic roles. Atlantov’s Lensky is without question more passionate than poetic, but he is a credible presence in the drama. Though neither the great second-act aria nor the duel scene finds Atlantov at his best, his contributions to the scene in which Onegin incites Lensky’s jealous anger, leading to the duel, by flirting with Olga – Lensky’s most declamatory music in the score – are exhilarating. Though falling short of the standard of the finest lyric tenors in the role, Atlantov’s Lensky in this recording is an alert, convincing performance by one of Russia’s greatest singers.
This recording of Yevgeny Onegin brought Atlantov together with his wife, Tamara Milashkina, an accomplished and admired soprano for whom Tatyana was a frequent role during her Bolshoi career. Most of the critical commentary by Western observers throughout Milashkina’s career – or what was known of her work through her Melodiya recordings whilst she sang behind the Iron Curtain – was harsh, with writers objecting even in considering her early recordings to a voice that they heard as dull, matronly, and worn. She was a favorite with Soviet audiences, however, and in addition to earning acclaim in the expected Russian roles was for more than a decade the Bolshoi’s Tosca of choice. [She was, in fact, twice recorded as Tosca; in Russian in either 1964 or 1967, depending upon which source one consults, and in Italian in 1976, opposite Atlantov’s Cavaradossi.] Milashkina’s voice (as recorded, at least) was not an exquisitely beautiful instrument after the models of Marcella Pobbe and Renata Tebaldi, but her recordings are almost entirely free of the ‘Slavic wobble’ that infests the singing oTamara Milashkinaf many sopranos born east of the Danube. Like her colleagues in this performance, Milashkina approaches her role honestly and with complete preparation. The tingling intensity of Yelena Kruglikova and the young Vishnevskaya is absent, but subtlety informs Milashkina’s singing throughout the performance. If Tatyana does not undergo in Milashkina’s hands either the sexual awakening depicted by Kruglikova or the intellectual transformation so vividly portrayed by Vishnevskaya, she is a less reticent girl from the start, a slight hint of slyness asserting itself in the more inward moments. Milashkina does not attempt to create a complicated psychological drama in the Letter Scene but instead focuses on observing all of Tchaikovsky’s instructions and loading the voice into her lines with precision. Here and elsewhere in her performance a tendency to deliver expansive lines as a series of individual phrases is bothersome, and there is a slightly pallid quality to the highest tones (though this may result as much or more from the engineering than from Milashkina’s vocal estate). What Milashkina offers is a Tatyana sung without gimmicks, a straightforward performance that holds few surprises but also few disappointments.
As recently as forty years ago, opera aficionados expected to hear Russian operas sung in Russian only by Russian-born or –trained singers. Record collectors knew the classic Melodiya recordings sung in Russian and otherwise enjoyed local performances of Russian repertory in their own vernacular languages. This was likewise the case in Russia, where all performances at the Bolshoi – regardless of the origins of the scores – were sung in Russian until virtually the end of the Soviet era. Increasingly since the cultural and political liberation of the Eastern Bloc, however, artists from all nations, trained after a fashion that minimizes nationalistic distinctions, sing operas from all sectors of the operatic repertory in their original languages. Compelling arguments exist on both sides of the issue of preferring original-language performances in major opera houses, but there is an undeniable benefit in hearing an opera like Yevgeny Onegin sung in Russian, the linguistic rhythm of the music honored. A significant measure of the stylistic integrity of the score is lost when it is performed by non-Russian singers singing in Russian, no matter how well they sing or how meticulously they have worked out their diction. With that consideration in mind, this recording of Yevgeny Onegin is valuable as one of the last examples of the once-plentiful performances derived from the nationalistic, repertory-based system prevalent in the first three quarters of the twentieth century. Hopefully, the sophistication gained from the newer, international method of singing means that Soviet-era recordings are no longer summarily dismissed as provincial. There are to this recording of Yevgeny Onegin whiffs of the steppes and perhaps even of bourgeois frustration, but these would not have been foreign to Tchaikovsky. A committed performance such as this, idiomatically sung and enacted by singers who both knew their music and how to sing it, proves surprisingly competitive. All that remains is for some musical Miss Marple to sort out the precise details of the Who, What, When, Where, and Why.
www.discogs.com/Schubert-Elly-Ameling-Dalton-Baldwin-Herm.... Gramophone Review 1974:
On the cover of this record is the portrait of Goethe in the Campagna by his friend and companion on the famous Italian journey, Tischbein, and the recital opens with a pretty performance of Kennst du das Land. It is Wilhelm Meister which is at the centre of the choice of songs, with Elly Ameling singing the Mignon songs and Hermann Prey the three Harper's songs; and it is a pity that Karl Schumann's excellent, if too brief, note on Goethe and Schubert does not explain a little more about the novel. The Harper is a weird old man driven into madness by a mysterious crime committed in his youth, and compelled to wander the earth like a lost soul; Mignon, unknown to him, is his own daughter by an incestuous love: not until this is appreciated do the poems and hence the songs take on their full meaning. This is the import of the Harper's wonderful line, most beautifully and gravely sung by Prey, "alle Schuld rächt sich auf Erde" ("Every sin finds its punishment here on earth"); and this is the source of his mysterious grief, and his resolve to creep ("schleichen") from door to door, as Schubert's chromatic harmonies depict. Prey maintains a beautifully steady line, and of this third song in particular he gives a performance in which his soft singing and quiet declamation are charged with understanding of the strange, pathetic situation and Schubert's response to it.
EIly Ameling has a comparable grasp of the complexity of feeling that could be vested by Goethe and by Schubert in a very simple line, and of the discretion that reveals it more fully than a display of looser emotion. In the last of the songs, Mignon has been playing the part of an angel, dressed in white; she knows she is not long for a world that has defeated her, and she asks to be allowed to keep her robes. It is an idea that taken in isolation may seem merely sentimental; but Schubert did not find it so, and singing of this purity of line arid, within it, care for the real meaning of the words, relate the scene properly to the strange and moving situation in Goethe. Miss Ameling understands, moreover, how to handle strophic settings, so that with very little new scene-setting from the admirable Dalton Baldwin she can let the same music take on new meaning by the slightest new inflection of the melodic line. Another beautiful case in point is "Ich denke dein", most effective when sung, as here, not in a huge outburst but as quiet, self-contained rapture. The most potent emotional effects in Lieder singing are often won by simplifying.
Prey summons all his splendid tonal reserves for Erlkonig, which he enacts dramatically in the three voices without recourse to mimicry. Ganymed is not quite the success it promises: it needs a slightly more sensuous quality. And Ameling's Heidenröslein, charmingly sung though it is, has for once a tinge of manufacture in the simplicity. But this is a most attractive and intelligent recital.
J.W.
Vinyl LP (1966)
Label: Capitol Records
Catalog No.: ST-2459
Stereo
out-of-print
▶ Front cover: here.
▶ A fortuitous find —the vinyl in good condition— in a St. Augustine, Florida, thrift shop (2018).
**************
☞ Side 1
1. Stormy Monday 3:05
2. Southside Blues (Monologue) 2:50
3. Tobacco Road 5:55
4. St. James Infirmary 4:04
5. The Shadow of Your Smile 4:18
6. I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water 2:33
☞ Side 2
1. Goin' to Chicago Blues 2:53
2. In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down 6:21
3. The Girl from Ipanema 4:30
4. I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good 3:44
5. Street Corner Hustler's Blues (Monologue) 3:40
6. World of Trouble 3:30
*************
Bass – Jimmy Bond
Drums – Earl Palmer
Guitar – Herb Ellis
Piano – Tommy Strode
MC [Announcer] – Jay Rich, Johnny Mangus
Cover Photo– George Jerman
Producer – David Axelrod
**************
"It was a night to remember. The handsome young star was a big-time success on records and in personal appearances. He had been called by one critic, 'the greatest soul-jazz singer of the '60s;' by another, 'the entertainer with the finest phrasing since Sinatra;' by still another 'a bluesman who carries on the traditions of Nat Cole and Ray Charles.' And, as Low Rawls spontaneously demonstrated on this night, he is all this and more. He is an artist whose deep-moving performances take the audience with him wherever he goes ...from the bittersweet rhythms of his famous 'Tobacco Road' to the hauntingly romantic melodies of his eloquent 'The Shadow of Your Smile.'
The assembled audience was the challenging kind singers dream of. These were fellow jazz musicians, recording engineers, people 'in the business,' their wives and friends. They are hard to impress but when they are impressed, a performance becomes an event. And that's exactly what happened. Low Rawls' first session before a 'live' audience was an event long to be remembered by everyone there.
As the slim, tastefully-dressed figure stepped to the mike, Lou's group took up their instruments: James Bond, bass; Earl Palmer, drums; Tommy Strode, piano, piano; Herb Ellis, guitar. Their contributions from first set to last were to prove just what great backing is and what it means to a star.
But it was Lou Rawl's night all the way. He rocked the room with his big-beat rendering of those 'Going to Chicago Blues.' He edged his soulful blues with sadness (listen to St.James Infirmary'). And he chortled right through 'World of Trouble' happily he had the audience stomping for more.
That's how things developed through set after set on that memorable night ...a mutual love affair between the gifted young star and the audience who came to hear him. During an intermission, Lou is quoted as saying: 'I try to build my repertoire so it will complement the atmosphere. I'm trying to reach everyone, young and old alike.' He need have no doubts. The sensational LOU RAWLS LIVE! does just that!"
***************
▶ Photo by Yours For Good Fermentables.com.
— Follow on Twitter: @Cizauskas.
— Follow on Facebook: YoursForGoodFermentables.
— Follow on Instagram: @tcizauskas.
▶ For a larger image, type 'L' (without the quotation marks).
▶ Camera: Olympus Pen E-PL1.
▶ Commercial use requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.
Rare Record. www.discogs.com/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Ensemble-Vocal-De-L... record. Bach-Ensemble-Vocal-De-L.... Agnes de Crousaz, Claire Martin-Fiaux, Marie-Francoise Schuwey, Georges Bolay, Thomas Koechlin, Jean-Daniel Estoppey, Schola des petits Chanteurs de Notre-Dame de Sion, Pierre Wavre Marianne Clement Flute, Jean-Paul Goy Markus Haeberling Hautbois Oboe Hobo, Assav Bar-Lev Bassoon Fagott, Henri Revelli Jean Jaquerod Violin, Johannes Fink Viola da Gamba, Pablo Loerkens Maria-Jose Falcao Violoncello Cello, Francis Marcellin Fritz Widmer Contrabass Double-Bass, Philippe Corboz Andre Luy Organ Orgue Orgel,
www.discogs.com/Various-The-Rock-Machine-Turns-You-On/rel.... The Rock Machine Turns You On. - Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Moby Grape, Spirit, United States Of America, The Zombies, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, Blood Sweat & Tears, The Byrds, Taj Mahal, Simon & Garfunkel, The Electric Flag, Roy Harper, Tim Rose, Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera, CBS SPR22
www.discogs.com/Longines-Symphonette-Society-20-Star-Guit.... 20-Star Guitar - Songs of Dawn and Roberta Flack, Simon and Garfunkel, The Carpenters, Burt Bacharach, Michel Legrand, Kris Kristofferson and Cher, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Neil Diamond, John Denver and Helen Reddy, Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, Gilbert O 'Sullivan, Elvis Presley, Carole King, Jim Webb - Longines Symphonette Society, LS313A QUADRO, Box 7Lp
www.discogs.com/Stanislaw-Moniuszko-Peter-Tsjaikovski-Nik...
Paria Aria Paria - Stefania Woytowicz- Nat. Phil. Warsaw, Witold Rowicki,
Pique Dame- Galina Visjnevskaja-Peter Goegalov-Heinz Kruse-Fausto Tenzi-Bernd Weikl-Dimiter Petkov-Dan Iordachescu-Orch. Nat. de France-Mstislav Rostropovich,
Sadko-Aria Wiegelied-Rita Streich-Orch. Deutschen Oper Berlin-Reinhard Peters,
Mussorgsky - Boris Godoenov - Kim Borg - RIAS -Kammerchor-Horst Stein,
Britten - Peter Grimes - Jon Vickers-Heather Harper-Elizabeth Bainbridge-Teresa Cahill-Anne Pashley-Patricia Payne-Jonathan Summers-Thomas Allen-Richard van Allen-Forbes Robinson-John Lanigan-Royal Opera House Covent Garden-Colin Davis,
Penderecki - Die Teufel von Loudun-Tatiana Troyanos-Andrzej Hiolski-Horst Wilhelm-Ernst Wiemann-Kurt Marschner-Helmut Melchert-Heinz Blankenburg-Carl Schultz-Hamburger Staatsoper Chor & Orch.-Marek Janowski, Muziek onder Woorden Philips MOW 043-2
1 of 3 copies
www.discogs.com/Various-Romantiek-In-Klassiek/release/666...
Perpetuum mobile Bolshoi String Orchestra, Agnus Dei Irina Arkhipova Riga Dom, Fur Elise Tatyana Nikolayeva Piano, Menuet Violin Ensemble Bolshoi, Scherzo Midsummernights Dream Y Rejentovitch, Wiener Blut Waltz Wals Walzer Valse op.354 RSO Moscow Rozhdestvensky, Gounod Ave Maria, Anton Rubinstein Melodie in F op.3 Timofei Dokshitser Trompet Trumpet, Polonaise No.6 op.53 Michail Woskresensky Piano, Die Schone Galathea, Symphony No.40 KV550 Allegro Moderato Moscow Chamber Orchestra Rudolf Barshai, Tritsch Tratsch Polka op.214, AC Adam Pas De Deux Ballet Giselle A.Ziuraitis, Debussy Clair De Lune Emil Gilels Piano, Farandole L'Arlesienne Suite Moscow SO N. Anosov, Tchaikovsky Orkest Suite No.3 op.55 Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra Kondrashin, Mozart Piano Concerto No.21 Elvira Madigan KV467 Emil Gilels Piano, Piano Sonate No.14 Moonlight op.27 Maria Grinberg Piano, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in e op.64 Viktor Pikaisen USSR RSO, Brahms Hungarian Dance No.1 Ossipov Ensemble
1 of 3 copies. www.discogs.com/release/6669072-Various-Romantiek-In-Klas...
Perpetuum mobile Bolshoi String Orchestra, Agnus Dei Irina Arkhipova Riga Dom, Fur Elise Tatyana Nikolayeva Piano, Menuet Violin Ensemble Bolshoi, Scherzo Midsummernights Dream Y Rejentovitch, Wiener Blut Waltz Wals Walzer Valse op.354 RSO Moscow Rozhdestvensky, Gounod Ave Maria, Anton Rubinstein Melodie in F op.3 Timofei Dokshitser Trompet Trumpet, Polonaise No.6 op.53 Michail Woskresensky Piano, Die Schone Galathea, Symphony No.40 KV550 Allegro Moderato Moscow Chamber Orchestra Rudolf Barshai, Tritsch Tratsch Polka op.214, AC Adam Pas De Deux Ballet Giselle A.Ziuraitis, Debussy Clair De Lune Emil Gilels Piano, Farandole L'Arlesienne Suite Moscow SO N. Anosov, Tchaikovsky Orkest Suite No.3 op.55 Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra Kondrashin, Mozart Piano Concerto No.21 Elvira Madigan KV467 Emil Gilels Piano, Piano Sonate No.14 Moonlight op.27 Maria Grinberg Piano, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in e op.64 Viktor Pikaisen USSR RSO, Brahms Hungarian Dance No.1 Ossipov Ensemble op. No Backside
www.discogs.com/Kiri-Te-Kanawa-Portrait-Of-Kiri-Te-Kanawa.... Puccini, Verdi, Humperdinck, Mozart, Faure, Walton, R.Strauss, Schumann, Schubert - Arias from Tosca, Gianni Schicci, Don Giovanni etc. - Kiri Te Kanawa Soprano, London Phil. & Gurzenich Orch., John Pritchard, Orch. Nat. Opera Paris, Lorin Maazel, LSO, Andrew Davis, Richard Amner Piano, CBS 74116, 1983
Alfred Harth - Discography
www.flickr.com/photos/a23h/sets/1738253/
alfred-harth-vinyl.blogspot.com/
laubhuettestudio.blogspot.com/
www.discogs.com/search?type=all&q=alfred+harth&bt...
JUST MUSIC,1969,ECM 1002
4.JANUAR 1970,Alfred Harth Quintet
CANADIAN CUP OF COFFEE,1974,FMP/SAJ 02
VIER FÄUSTE FÜR HANNS EISLER,1976,FMP/SAJ 08 + ReR,2007,London,2CD
VOM SPRENGEN DES GARTENS,1978,FMP/SAJ 20+ ReR,2007,London,2CD
ES HERRSCHT UHU IM LAND,1981,ECM/JAPO 60037
INDIANER FÜR MORGN,1981,Eigelstein/Riskant 4001
ZEIT WIRD KNAPP,1981,Eigelstein/Riskant 4014
FRANKFURT-PEKING,1984,Eigelstein/Riskant 4011
LIVE IN VICTORIAVILLE,1987,Canada,victo 04
GOEBBELS HEART,1992+1995,Tokyo,evva
SOGENANNTES LINKSRADIKALES BLASORCHESTER,1977/1980+1999,Trikont 258
SAXOFONORCHESTER FRANKFURT,1982,FMP/SAJ 40
MAN OR MONKEY,1982+1994,London,ReR
THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST,1984+1997,London ReR
THIS EARTH!,1983,ECM 1264
MACHANDELBOOM,1984,Eigelstein + 2005,SACD
MELCHIOR,1984,Biber Records 6240,Germany
DUCK & COVER,1986,London,ReR,Vol.1 Quaterly
NOUVELLE CUISINE,1985,Moers Music 2038
GESTALT ET JIVE,1986,Switzerland,CWR 1006/7
RED ART,1986,Switzerland,CWR 1004
ANYTHING GOES.1986,Switzerland,CWR 1005
PLAN EDEN,1987,Switzerland,CWR 1008
GO-NO-GO,1987,FMP 1150
DIE ZERSPLITTERUNG,1989,Wolke Verlag Hofheim
OH MOSCOW,1991,Canada,victo 015
THREE QUARKS FOR MUSTER MARK,1989,enja/Tiptoe 888803
SWEET PARIS,1991,free flow music 0291
POPENDING EYE,1992,free flow music 0493
DOMESTIC STORIES,1992,London ReR LSM
REALITY CHECK,1993,Cop International
STATE OF VOLGOGRAD,1994,FMP 57
POLLOCK,1996,FTF/OS 011
CYNOBER MANIFEST,1997,CD,JA.S.C.E. 021, Poland
A TWO THREE AGE,1997,Vinyl 11“,ttt
SECRETS OF DEVELOPMENT,1999,Blue Noises 56512
WAXWEBWIND@EBROADWAY,2002,Portugal,Trem Azul/Clean Feed 003
ESHIP SUM,2003,1000CD,Corea
NU:CLEAR RE:ACTOR,2004,O BACK CD,Corea - doubleCD
HEART/PO$TER,2004,rasbliutto CDR,Portland
ONJO,doubtmusic,Japan
T_ERROR + kr ./. jp,2005,Slowalk 01,Corea - DVD + CD
SEOUL MILK,2005,Slowalk 02,Corea
OUT TO LUNCH,doubtmusic,Japan
NUN, 2006, O BACK CD, Corea
EXPEDITION, 2006, ESP 4031, USA
ONJO Live Vol.1 "series circuit" ,2007,doubtmusic,Japan - doubleCD
ONJO Live Vol.2 "parallel circuit" ,2007,doubtmusic,Japan - doubleCD
HOMURA,2007,off note,Japan - DVD+CD
SORA,2007, EWE, Japan
7000 OAKS, 2007, die schachtel, Italy
TRIO VIRIDITAS : Live at Vision Festival VI,Clean Feed 115, Portugal, 2008
TASTE TRIBES, 2008, for4ears, Switzerland
ENTELECHY, 2011, die schachtel, Italy
MICRO_SAXO_PHONE III + IV,2011+2013, KSE, USA
GIFT FIG, 2012, KSE,USA
GESTALT ET DEATH, 2012, Al Maslakh, Libanon
THE EXPATS, 2013, KSE, USA
AS YVES DREW A LINE.ESTATE,2013,Re-Records,Hong Kong
CASSIBER BOX,2 013, ReR, UK
CHINA COLLECTION, 2014, KSE, USA
FIVE EYES, 2014, Moloko+, Germany
STELLENBOSCH, 2015, KSE, USA
CAMELLIA, 2015, KSE,
CONFUCIUS TARIF REDUIT, 2015,sporeprint, Germany
KEPLER 452b EDITION, 2016, KSE, USA
MALCHA, 2016, Moloko+, Germany
A23H's BERLIN ENSEMBLES, 2016, KSE, USA
SHANGHAI QUINTET, 2017, KSE, USA
CAMPANULA, 2017, Moloko+, Germany
LAUBHUETTE PRODUCTIONS, SIDE A, 2018, play/rec, China
WHEN THE FUTURE WAS NOW, 2018, KSE, USA
KIRSCHBLUETEN MIT VERSTECKTEM SPRENGSTOFF, 2019, Moloko Plus,Germany
LAUBHUETTE PRODUCTIONS, SIDE 1, 2020, Moloko Plus,Germany
SWEET PARIS/SWEET PARIS RELOADED, 2CD, 2022, Moloko Plus,Germany
NISCHEN, 2023, Moloko Plus,Germany
LIVE IN RHEIN-MAIN.FOR HOLLI, 2025, ADN, Italy
STREAMING (ON BANDCAMP):
MICRO-SAXO-PHONE, 2010, on KSE, USA
INVOCATION ORHK, 2013, Hong Kong
Archive works:
LAUBHUETTE PRODUCTIONS, SIDE A, 2018, on play/rec, Shanghai
NEOWISE, 2020, on Al Maslakh, Beirut, Lebanon
WHO SHOT THE RABBIT?, 2021
Y NOT, 2021
MEMORIA ESCHATOLOGICA, 2021
FILM AND THEATER MUSIC COMPI II, 2021
SAM LANG, 2021
55 QUINTETS, 2021
WENN GOTT TOT IST, DANN IST ER IM HIMMEL, 2022
AXIOM, 2022
SIN:NED + ALFRED 23 HARTH LIVE, 2022
METTE RASMUSSEN + ALFRED 23 HARTH LIVE, 2022
REKLAME DER WIRKLICHKEIT, 2022
SUPERDELUXE 2000 - 2007, 2022
DUO GOEBBELS/HARTH SPECIAL, 2022
SAX PRESIDENT, 2022
MOTHER OF PEARL, 2022
HOERSPIELE 1987, 2022
HALE PEAT - THE SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE OF HALE BOPP, 2023
TRIBOLOGY, 2023
FOXFUR, 2023
HONEYMOON AFTER 1ST WORLD MARRIAGE 1984, 2023
TATTOO, 2023
WORK IS LOVE MADE VISIBLE, 2023
EMT 1973, 2024
NEW THING 1968 - 1972, 2024
Frankfurt - Seoul via New York 1999 - 2004, 2024
Composer: Gian Carlo Menotti
Vinyl LP (1952)
Label: RCA Victor Red Seal
Catalog No.: LM 1701
Monophonic
out-of-print
Number of Discs: 1
▶ On YouTube: here.
***************
▶ MORE IMAGES
☞ Album cover: here.
☞ Vinyl: here.
☞ Booklet (front): here.
☞ Cast members: here.
☞ Gian Carlo Menotti (composer): here.
☞ Image from television broadcast (1): here.
☞ Image from television broadcast (2): here.
☞ Image from television broadcast (3): here.
**************
▶ RECORDING
☞ Side 1
1. Part 1 (20:39)
☞ Side 2
1. (2) Part 2 (25:50)
***************
▶ CAST
Amahl – Chet Allen (soprano)
His Mother – Rosemary Kuhlman (mezzo-soprano)
Kaspar – Andrew McKinley (tenor)
Melchior – David Aiken (baritone)
Balthazar – Leon Lishner (baritone)
The Page – Francis Monachino
Conductor – Thomas Schippers
NBC Opera Theatre Orchestra and Chorus
***************
▶ "Amahl and the Night Visitors is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer. It was commissioned by NBC and first performed on December 24, 1951, in New York City, at NBC studio 8H in Radio City Music Hall, where it was broadcast live on television as the debut production of the Hallmark Hall of Fame. It was the first opera specifically composed for television in America."
— Discogs.
***************
▶ Photo by Yours For Good Fermentables.com.
▶ For a larger image, type 'L' (without the quotation marks).
— Follow on Facebook: YoursForGoodFermentables.
— Follow on Instagram: @tcizauskas.
▶ Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 II.
▶ Commercial use requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.
www.discogs.com/Michel-Banabila-VoizNoiz-Urban-Sound-Scap...
WAX MAGAZINE:
A thoroughly engaging, amusing and charming debut from new Pork signing Michael Banabila. Slightly more random than your usual Pork output, but still retaining the essential ingredients, Banabila strings together 20 soothing skunk funk oddities that delight and bemuse in equal portions. Tender beats, oddball samples, live instrumentation and vocal snippets weave together to make a warming abstract picture, one of those ones that looks good whichever way you hang it.
(Nov 2000)
ALL MUSIC GUIDE:
The strength of this fascinating found-sound pastiche will be enough to send fans of musique concrete, advanced turntablism, and trip-hop scouring the import bins. Most of the material that comprises these 20 tracks comes from field recordings of human voices speaking, singing, declaiming, and arguing, all of them reportedly made in the streets, buildings, and train stations of Holland and Yemen. The recordings are cut up and pasted together in sometimes eerie and frequently downright funky ways: the result sometimes sounds like a collaboration between Jon Hassell and African Head Charge (as on the danceable "Do Something About It" and the even more Hassell-ish "Sorokin Blues") and sometimes like a cross between Tricky and the Residents (as on the darkly funky and melodically quirky "Chickensoap). On "Where?" the snippets of speaking and singing are arranged by pitch, and the result is a sort of techno version of hocketing; it's an example of medieval technique meeting 21st century technology, and the result is wonderful. This is an exquisite album by an artist who deserves much wider recognition. (Rick Anderson).
KORTEX Electronica:
VoizNoiz c'est avant tout, des collages sonores mélodiques et urbains. C'est aussi Michel Banabila et une fantastique collaboration de musiciens de Rotterdam. L'ensemble ainsi crée s'aventure dans des territoires voisinants l'Acid Jazz, le trip hop et la peinture sonore abstraite. VoizNoiz c'est un film qui défile dans notre tête : l'ambiance cinématographique propagée par les différentes pièces de l'album s'impose à notre esprit et nous fait voyager un peu partout à travers le monde à l'aide d'un fond musical riche doublé de différents échantillons hétéroclites. Chaque mouvement est pourtant bien clair, et on peut facilement associer les pièces à tel ou tel événement fictif. VoizNoiz est un album diversifié qui bénéficie pourtant d'un solide fil conducteur qui permet à l'auditeur de ne pas se perdre au sein des myriades de sonorités exploitées par Michel Banabila et ses copains. Une belle et amusante expérience auditive. (Yanik Trudeau)
ALTERNATIVE PRESS:
Post modern assemblage of found sounds and vocal fragments. Sound collage can often be more conceptually interesting than listenable. Michel Banabila handily avoids this on the unclassifiable VoizNoiz. He uses location recordings from Holland and Yemen, along with live guitar, voices, bass and percussion to construct what he calls "urban sound scapes". Banabila assembles riffs from found-sound and vocal fragments into oddly conversational grooves. This approach recalls Coil, but without their inward-looking menace. VoizNoiz is every bit as post-modern as the work of today's DSP-terrorists, but it's a much easier listen. (Kent Williams).
COOL AND STRANGE MUSIC:
Holland's Michel Banabila is one of those rare musicians who can take an avant-garde conception and turn it into a highly entertaining work of art. VoizNoiz is a masterpiece of found sounds and voices used rhythmically and humorously with obvious nods to Jean Michel Jarre's classic collaboration with Laurie Anderson, Zoolook, without the dark psychological edge, and Coil, without the homo-erotic magick. VoizNoiz is an update of the genre into contemporary trip-hop, with touches of exotica and Asian house music. There is a slight Carribean edge in some parts, but the jack-hammer editing of the sound montage is so intense that by the time one is able to digest an influence, it has been replaced by something completely different. Think of a tropical island version of Tipsy, only more cartoony (which is no surprise as the executive producer is the legendary animator Gabor Csupo.) Though the CD is separated into 20 different tracks, I defy anyone to figure out which one is which without looking at the track indicator. It's like a lovingly unified vision of schizophrenia done Tex Avery style. (Wilhelm Murg)
PITCHFORK:
The Pork folks discovered Banabila and flourished this remarkable disc with "Mono/Metro," a holler-sampling-and-contorting fragment of genius that Moby would stomp Fairfield County, Connecticut into the subsoil for. (Paul Cooper).
DIGITAL ARTIFACT:
Twenty wonderful tracks with a modern feel and surprisingly organic feel. The first half of the CD made me feel like I was in one of those old 50's beatnik surrealist movies that usually didn't have soundtracks. The flowing narrative, workings of Banabilla make for a great score to such silent surrealist flicks. It's also very danceable. Not to say you'd expect to find this in a dance club but dance in the performance arts meaning pairs nicely to the composition. The second half slowly started more and more like the present until it seemed to be a musical commentary on life in the urban setting. This release is quite refreshing not only because of its mature, precise stylings and fine production value but also because of its extremelyexpressive feel. A wonderful and most recommended listen . (Kae)
NORMAN STAFF REVIEW **** (8/10)
"A new borderless music. The way in which he takes disparate elements and creates such coherent tracks is magnificent." (Ant)
www.discogs.com/Jerry-Lee-Lewis-The-Session-Recorded-In-L.... Tony Ashton, Andy Brown, Delaney Bramlett, BJ Cole, Tony Colton, Drew Croon, Matthew Fisher, Peter Frampton, Rory Gallagher, Pete Gavin, John Gustafson, Chas Hodges, Joe Jammer, Kenny Jones, Mickey Jones, Mick Kellie, Albert Lee, Alvin Lee, Kenneth Lovelace, Brian Parrish, Pete Robinson, Steve Rowland, Ray Smith, Gary Taylor, Thunderthighs, Klaus Voormann, Gary Wright,
1 of 3 copies. www.discogs.com/release/6669072-Various-Romantiek-In-Klas...
Perpetuum mobile Bolshoi String Orchestra, Agnus Dei Irina Arkhipova Riga Dom, Fur Elise Tatyana Nikolayeva Piano, Menuet Violin Ensemble Bolshoi, Scherzo Midsummernights Dream Y Rejentovitch, Wiener Blut Waltz Wals Walzer Valse op.354 RSO Moscow Rozhdestvensky, Gounod Ave Maria, Anton Rubinstein Melodie in F op.3 Timofei Dokshitser Trompet Trumpet, Polonaise No.6 op.53 Michail Woskresensky Piano, Die Schone Galathea, Symphony No.40 KV550 Allegro Moderato Moscow Chamber Orchestra Rudolf Barshai, Tritsch Tratsch Polka op.214, AC Adam Pas De Deux Ballet Giselle A.Ziuraitis, Debussy Clair De Lune Emil Gilels Piano, Farandole L'Arlesienne Suite Moscow SO N. Anosov, Tchaikovsky Orkest Suite No.3 op.55 Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra Kondrashin, Mozart Piano Concerto No.21 Elvira Madigan KV467 Emil Gilels Piano, Piano Sonate No.14 Moonlight op.27 Maria Grinberg Piano, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in e op.64 Viktor Pikaisen USSR RSO, Brahms Hungarian Dance No.1 Ossipov Ensemble
soundcloud.com/bureau-1/bb227-michel-banabila-early-works
www.discogs.com/Michel-Banabila-Early-Works-Things-Poppin...
Michel Banabila, born 1961, is a sound artist, composer, and producer. Banabila releases music since 1983 and has produced musical scores for numerous films, documentaries, theatre plays and choreographies. This album collects 11 songs from his early years, released on tape, vinyl EPs or limited CD editions: beautiful minimal loop-based electronica, neo-classical pieces and ambient drone music. A true discovery ! (Bureau B)
liner notes:
Numerous threads run through the music of Michel Banabila, whose contemporary work ranges from adventurous electronic cross-breeding of chamber instrumentation, to industrial rhythmic sampling, to outward-bound modular synthesis, to deeply elegiac drones.
What is remarkable about this collection of early pieces is just how many of Banabila’s ongoing fascinations had already taken root, when he was barely half his current age. The child apparently is not merely the father to the man; he is also his music tutor. In particular, there are extended sequences of neoclassical loveliness and dense patches of Fourth World exploration that, matters of specific equipment aside, could have been recorded yesterday. Except that they weren’t.
The classical activity heard here constitutes a romantic attachment to the Old World, filtered through a contemporary sense of proportion. Banabila’s piano, its atmospheric gestures bringing to mind the proto-minimalism of Erik Satie, echoes with a disarming simplicity. The sweetness of the tune masks his determined compositional focus on loop-like repetitions, on the ever so slight variations between pulses, on training the listener’s ear to hear inside the notes, between the notes, to be receptive to matters that are more tactile than tonal. The melody could easily be an additional hundred years old — except for fact that the refined patterning is something that likely only could have been pursued in light of the music of Michael Nyman and Philip Glass. Similarly, a solo harmonium performance circles around a song that could be a maudlin street-corner serenade in a benighted district of a nameless Eastern European city — and yet it has a self-consciousness of the instrument’s breath-like quality that marks it, however subtly, as modern music.
And, of course, this isn’t modern music. This is music several decades after the fact. It is no longer of our time. The equipment on which it was made, notably an early sampler, was limited in various ways, key among them the relatively circumspect set of capabilities, especially in terms of memory storage, and the lack of received performance techniques. The equipment was simple and it was new, and neither factor limited Banabila’s ambition; to the contrary, the tools concentrated his imagination.
If the classical pieces represent the Old World as framed by the new, then the more recognizably “electronic” work here is likewise most at home in a fictional place, an idealized zone. That zone is a quiet neighborhood in the Fourth World, to borrow Jon Hassell’s terminology, one in which digital tools render something that is, for all its technological dependency, ultimately a form of folk music — an otherworldly folk music for another time. At that time and in that place, a percussive guitar figure lends momentum to ethereal synthesized choral vocals. Fidgety percussion plays amid a fierce but restrained guitar line (there are echoes of Laurie Anderson and Adrian Belew). An ambiguous and elongated drone, thick with subliminal activity, beautiful in its toxic anxiety, suggests dire activity on the horizon.
And yet the horizon wasn’t dire. Quite the contrary, what was ahead for Banabila was a long string of releases, a healthy and well-documented career in which so many of these individual threads have been provided time and space to have entire records dedicated to their pursuit. This album of archival works is a document, and what it documents is the continuity inherent in Banabila’s music. It is a map in musical form, and the path it traces is one that crisscrosses back and forth between the Old World and the Next.
Marc Weidenbaum
San Francisco, California
February 2016
Reviews / quotes:
DAMUSIC.BE
De kans dat de naam Michel Banabila een belletje doet rinkelen, is eerder klein. Maar zoek de Nederlandse geluidsdesigner even op bij Discogs en besef dan dat er zomaar eventjes drieënvijftig albums op 's mans naam staan! Voer voor het Duitse label Bureau B dus, dat gespecialiseerd is in het opgraven en afstoffen van lang vergeten opnamen uit het krautrock- en ambientelektronicamilieu!
Filmmuziek, neoklassieke sfeerplaten, repetitieve synthesizerambient, industriëel experimentalisme … noem het en het past wel ergens in het kraam van Michel Banabila. Zoals zijn titel verraadt, grijpt dit album dus terug naar de bron: de huiskamertapes, op viersporen recorder opgenomen muzikale vindsels waarbij minimalisme en atmosfeer versterkt worden door de ruis van de beperkte technische faciliteiten. Het echte spul van in de beginperiode zeg maar, meestal zelfs zonder definitieve titel. Of dat nu gaat over een donker, droevig pianothema dat in al zijn soberheid een erg broos, filmisch gevoel oproept (Piano N° 2) of een drijvend ambientgepingel op synthesizer en gitaar met een wat Oosterse inslag (October), Banabila vindt steeds een mooie esthetiek in eenvoud, warmte en melodie en beroept zich op grote namen als Brian Eno of Erik Satie. Slechts af en toe verlaat de klankcomponist en producer zijn aardse eenvoud om in een ander universum te glijden. Luister maar even naar The Lost Drones Tape No. 3 met zijn ijzige soundscape, reverb, spacebubbels en gekke broebels, dat effectief een stevige trip is richting ander melkwegstelsel. Zelfde verhaal trouwens met The Workers (Des Traces Retrouvées III), een fantasie met krakende samples, verre gitaarhalo’s en een waas van neerdrukking en mysterie. Wat vooral ook in de meest eenvoudige stukken opvalt, waar enkel piano of gelaagd kerkorgelspel op synthesizer een filmische sfeer oproepen, is dat Michel Banabila echt een man van toetsen is en een mooie lyriek in zijn spel legt. Dat verklaart waarom minimalisme en simplisme hier zo sterk overkomen. Het is de voorbode voor de neoklassieke ontwikkeling van de Nederlander. Tegelijkertijd zet het afsluitende The Lost Drones Tape N°.#2 met zijn meer dan acht minuten sfeer en gemoedelijkheid via een flinterdunne drone en zachte droomscapes de weg open naar een mooie ambienttoekomst. ‘Early Works (…)’ biedt een breed inzicht in de beginjaren van deze erg productieve en veelzijdige artiest. Naast een leuk tijdsdocument, is het echter ook een fijne en afwisselende plaat die gerust een keertje extra mag beluisterd worden. (Johan Giglot)
SUBJECTIVISTEN:
Af en toe is het goed om terug te blikken. Veel van zijn eerste muziek is op cassettes, vinyl of gelimiteerde cd’s uitgebracht. Dit overzichtswerk bevat stukken uit zijn beginperiode, zoals van zijn albums Des Traces Retrouvées I en III en The Lost Drones Tapes, alsmede vier niet eerder uitgegeven stukken. In totaal krijg je 11 tracks, die ook nu nog staan als een modern huis en afwisselend drones, ambient, neoklassiek, minimal music en experimentele elektronica laten horen. Het is een prachtige ontdekkingstocht door zijn vroegere werk geworden en waarvan je enkel hoopt dat er nog meer van zal verschijnen. (JanWIllem Broek)
OEDIPE PURPLE:
Alors que son album Marilli figure en bonne place dans notre wishlist, le label Bureau B a eu la bonne idée de ressortir du placard les splendides harmonies de Michel Banabila. Une invitation à la rêverie qu’on ne peut refuser, à l’instar du premier morceau October… On repeat.
NOWAMUZYKA:
Niemiecka wytwórnia Bureau B opublikowała płytę z bardzo rzadkimi utworami Michela Banabily, które powstały na początku jego kariery.
Nie tak dawno recenzowałem podwójny album „Tapu sampler” holenderskiego muzyka, kompozytora i producenta, będący zbiorem jego nagrań z lat 2007-2015. Można potraktować ten materiał jako szybki sprawdzian z tego, co w ostatnich latach prezentował Banabila. W przypadku longplaya „Early Works / Things popping up from the past” cofamy się w czasie jeszcze dalej gdzieś w okolice lat 80., ponieważ z tego okresu pochodzą kompozycje. Przypomnę, że artysta aktywnie działa od 1983 roku. Na „Early Works…” znajdziemy jedenaście różnych utworów nie tylko pod względem brzmienia czy użytych instrumentów, ale przede wszystkim pokazujących szeroki wachlarz możliwości tego utalentowanego kompozytora. W takich fragmentach jak „Harmonium improv #1/improv #2” i „Piano No. #1/#2” można doszukać się – jak trafnie zauważył Marc Weidenbaum w swoim tekście – inspiracji twórczością Michaela Nymana oraz Philipa Glassa. Ale na tym krążku są też takie nagrania, które mogłyby być zarejestrowane dosłownie wczoraj, choćby dwa ambientowe „Des Traces Retrouvées I, No. #4”, „The Lost Drones Tape No. #2” i bardziej eksperymentalne „The Workers”. W lekko etnicznym „A Sharp Silver Line” z kolei mamy solówkę gitarową Banabily bliższą stylowi Adriana Belewa z King Crimson. Niesamowite jest to – jak już wspomniałem – że większość utworów z tego zestawu nie kojarzy się z kiczem lat 80., nawet nie ma przepychu jeśli chodzi o syntezatory, a jak już są to raczej w aranżacjach z pogranicza minimalizmu i muzyki klasycznej. Mimo dużej rozpiętości stylistycznej, „Early Works/Things popping up from the past” słucha się jako całości. (Łukasz Komła)
www.discogs.com/Jerry-Lee-Lewis-The-Session-Recorded-In-L.... Tony Ashton, Andy Brown, Delaney Bramlett, BJ Cole, Tony Colton, Drew Croon, Matthew Fisher, Peter Frampton, Rory Gallagher, Pete Gavin, John Gustafson, Chas Hodges, Joe Jammer, Kenny Jones, Mickey Jones, Mick Kellie, Albert Lee, Alvin Lee, Kenneth Lovelace, Brian Parrish, Pete Robinson, Steve Rowland, Ray Smith, Gary Taylor, Thunderthighs, Klaus Voormann, Gary Wright,
www.discogs.com/release/5037742-Various-Pianoboeket Pianoboeket -
Bach - Jesu, joy of man's desiring - Gerard Hengeveld,
Anton Rubinstein - Melodie in F op.3 No.1 - Alexander Petrov,
Rachmaninov - Prelude op.3 No.2 - Yuri Boukoff,
Paderewski - Menuet in G op.14 - Marinus Flipse,
Schumann - Traumerei op.15 No.7 (Kinderszenen) - Hans Richter-Haaser,
Dvorak - Humoresque in Ges op.101 No.7 - Alexander Petrov,
De Falla - Rituele Vuurdans ( Danza ritual del fuego, El amor brujo) - Cor de Groot,
Liszt - Liebestraum No.3 - Hans Richter-Haaser,
Beethoven - Fur Elise - Hans Richter-Haaser,
Mendelssohn - Fruhlingslied op.62 No.6 (Lieder ohne Worte) - Hans Richter-Haaser,
M.Durand - Wals No.1 in Es op.83 - Juan Salvato,
Debussy - Clair de Lune (Suite Bergamasque) - Hans Henkemans,
Brahms - Wals in As op.39 No.15 - Hans Richter-Haaser,
Chopin - Etude in E op.10 No.3 - Alexander Uninsky, Philips AS 042