THE SIGNAL from David Katznelson
"The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens."-Rainer Maria Rilke
I watched a beautiful sunrise this morning, the sun coming up over Oakland, coming up with a dazzling electric pink sky. Since we had smoke-filled air in our breathing area unexpectedly yesterday, I am wondering if that might be part of the reason for this morning’s beautiful show. And I am thinking about the thousands affected by the new fires blazing through Southern Cal.
Yesterday a test pressing came of the next LP I am releasing, the soundtrack to the 2008 film LEAVE NO TRACE, written, performed and produced by Dickon Hinchlieffe of The Tindersticks. It’s no secret to those around me (who are forced to listen to the music I play around the house) that I have been very much into composers of ambient drones of late. William Basinski. Jóhann Jóhannsson. The Deep Listening Band (and the works of members Stuart Dempster and Pauline Oliveros). The Spacemen 3’s contemporary sitar music. There has been something needed for my soul found in these beautiful sonic landscapes. Hinchlieffe’s score is a perfect addition to this enthusiasm, using haunting string orchestrations to paint lush atmospheric forests. And the test pressing that arrived yesterday…which is the example the pressing plant sends you of what the final record will sound like...just sounds great.
Click on the names above to hear samples of the music I am talking about (I can always send more). Close your eyes and be taken away. And have a great weekend.
Steve McQueen's Small Axe Is a Revelation
On advice from a friend I watched LOVERS ROCK last night, the second installment of director Steve McQueen’s Small Axe short-film series and a love-letter to the at-home sound system parties of the late-70s/early-80’s London scene (and about the power of music). Just yesterday in the article posted about John Waters’ top ten new films, he named the first installment of Small Axe, Mangrove, a must-see. But I had to start with the music-centric episode….so I threw Lovers Rock on and went for one of the best rides a film has taken me on in a while. The above article captures the brilliance.
And the soundtrack to the film is a killer.
Barry Gibb Has a Mission: ‘Keep the Music Alive’
When Barry Gibb accepted the Grammy’s Lifetime Achievement Award for the Bee Gees, he took a breath “My brothers and I always thought we would grow old together and laugh and tell stories,” he said, “but sometimes life doesn’t work out the way you think it will.” The audience was paused, hearing the tragedy in his voice and his slow, quiet words. Sometimes life just doesn’t work out the way you think it will. A clip from the new Bee Gees documentary went up this past week and I am looking forward to digging in. I was never a fan of the disco years, but those first bunch of Bee Gees records are just great.
Throughout his career, Williams was known for jotting down poems on his prescription blanks.
Celebrating the Late Tamara Djurovic, AKA Hyuro, and Her Sincere, Monumental Murals
Hyuro’s building-spanning murals are such a force…such an epic spectacle. How did she do it? RIP.
WEEKEND LISTEN: Sam Burton “I Can Go With You”
Tompkins Square’s Josh Rosenthal releases another gem, this time with the somber, beautiful singer/songwriter Sam Burton. The opening track “Nothing Touches Me” which reminds me of The Tindersticks…Paula Frazer…lulls you into is peaceful space…and then you are taken away.
In Harbor
William Carlos Williams
Surely there, among the great docks, is peace, my mind;
there with the ships moored in the river.
Go out, timid child,
and snuggle in among the great ships talking so quietly.
Maybe you will even fall asleep near them and be
lifted into one of their laps, and in the morning—
There is always the morning in which to remember it all!
Of what are they gossiping? God knows.
And God knows it matters little for we cannot understand them.
Yet it is certainly of the sea, of that there can be no question.
It is a quiet sound. Rest! That's all I care for now.
The smell of them will put us to sleep presently.
Smell! It is the sea water mingling here into the river—
at least so it seems—perhaps it is something else—but what matter?
The sea water! It is quiet and smooth here!
How slowly they move, little by little trying
the hawsers that drop and groan with their agony.
Yes, it is certainly of the high sea they are talking.
