Categorie: december.org

in an effort to catch up with releases, there’s the third album in the years without history series

the series started out with moins de m‚àö√ßtre, assez de rythme (live in paris 1992), continued with in the absence of hindrance (live in gdansk 1998), and now there’s the third, cave musicam (live in brugge 1998). the albums combine to a nice overview of mertens’ work on live recordings.

live recordings for minimalist music (or the likes) always strike me as kind of odd. they often sound as clean as studio versions, with the only difference being the sometimes included applause. there is one huge benefit though, over say e.g. ‘best of’ cds, in that these live versions are often slightly different, more mature versions of the orginal work. and that is very true for this cycle.

whether you’re just getting to know mertens or already own a few albums, i’d highly recommend these albums to add to your collection. (if you don’t want to buy them all, my preferred order is three – one – two.)

is anyone else curious about the 13 album box that’s about to be released by the end of the month?

i’m currently finalizing a forum for the michael nyman website. it will be a basic application, with some membership functionalities, such as notification of responses, ability to participate in contests, maybe polls. in order to entice people to register for the forum, we’re giving away 10 promotional cds of facing goya. (caution: these are not the full (double) cds you’ll find in the shops, but a single cd containing track samples)

registration (and the contest) will start on monday; the forum should be live beginning december

i’ve decided not to opt for a ready-made forum, in order for me to be able to fully integrate the forum with the rest of the site. this means e.g. that at the bottom of each discography item, there will be a section called ‘feedback’, enabeling you to give your appreciation on a certain album (why only leave reviews to the press)

writing this gets me thinking about implementing a rating system for the albums listed, and since we’re doing some kind of membership project we might discern between ratings from by members and ratings by guest (non-members). or simply only enable members to rate albums.

membership will, of course, always be free. so why membership? people will have to register in order to post to the forum (not to view). the ability to rate albums. enter contests (draws). maybe notifications of news, new releases, a newsletter, why not; there used to be a (monthly) newsletter.

let’s get to work then.

as winter is fast upon us, i thought to choose a more appropriate colour scheme. it’s odd how this time of the year makes me want to become active again. things have more or less settled down, and i’m starting to listen to music as i used to. there have obviously been quite a few noteworthy releases during the last months, and i hope to pick this up again soon. december.org org will be about announcements, and will be teamed with a media library project i’m currently working on.

thanks for all the e-mails. as to not make your visit completely useless, i’ve decided to put up a few pointers to sites i like, and often visit. this list might or might not be expanded in the future. (i also might put the archive back up)

not wanting to sound like the doors, but it is. the end.

for the last few weeks (months ?!) i’ve been spending less and less time behind the computer every day (i still sit behind the screen more than 9 hours per day at work, but that is just a minor detail –everybody has to make a living).

i actually almost wrote that this will probably not be the last you read from me on the web, but i’ll stop kidding myself (and you, dear visitor). this is the last thing you’ll read from me that is december.org related.

i have a lovely wife (even though we’re not married, but again, details, details) and an adorable son.

i still love music and movies and reading and cooking.

none of this will ever go away. but it is time i end this site. time i quit stalling and go back to IRL. it’s been great. but it’s over.

What’s happening?

I’m really sorry about the downtime. The server that was hosting december.org (and other sites), has been victim of a hardware failure, compromising all sites and configuration.

Luckily I had backups of almost everything, and I’m taking to opportunity to get together the site I was intending for december.org

What will the changes be?

Several sites will be regrouped under december.org (just as it was in the early days). I’m talking about the sites for wim mertens, peter greenaway, and phillip glass

They will each go to their subdirectory on december.org: /mertens/, /greenaway/ and /glass/.

There will also be a general page with michael nyman info (on /nyman/), with unofficial information (the official Michael Nyman website will remain at michaelnyman.com

Each subdirectory will contain a weblog, a small biography and discography and hopefully a calendar. And I’ll need volunteers to help me with the weblog.

So… can I help / contact you?

Yes, please.

If you’d like to contribute, write articles, give feedback, submit ideas, send me an e-mail at bruno@december.org (works)

Staff wanted / open positions

First things first: is there any salary for these positions?

No. december.org makes no money, quite the contrary: we only pay money, to our ISP. Current credit line equals minus (months (current month to 1995) * monthly fee). Not counting hours, days, weeks, months of time invested.

Available positions:

• associate editor(s) & staff writers
• correspondent, great britain
• correspondent, france
• correspondent, latin europe (ouch –> italy, spain, portugal)
• correspondent, germany
• correspondent, (south) africa
• correspondent, japan / asia
• correspondent, middle east
• etc.

Feel up to it? Do contact me: bruno@december.org; i love you already.

We are jealous of

New Music Box. And others. Enough said.

The concert took place in the concertzaal de bijloke in Gent (BE). It was preceded by the presentation of the 2002-2003 bijloke programme, which probably explained why there were that many politicians and other civil servants in the auditorium. I shouldn’t complain though, since (1) they behaved very civilized for politicians and (2) we got our tickets from one such civial servant who got detained at the last moment. So thank you !

The auditorium is actually a 13th century hospital ward, with a brilliant roof made of oak wood. The building has been restored (10 year renovation), and all of the original settings were preserved. They love to describe the concert hall as a huge piece of furniture, that could be removed at all times, without any damage to the building. And it truly is a magnificent setting.

Anyway beside the policitiancs / civil servants and the splendid settings, I came to listen to the Kronos Quartet. David Harrintgon, John Sherba, Hank Dutt, and Jennifer Culp (who’s been with Kronos since 1999) offered a refreshing performance. The band members looked a bit tired though.

All of the concert was amplified –I’d spend a fortune to see e.g. Kronos Quartet or the Michael Nyman Band perform without amplification (come to think of it, I probably could if I’d spend that fortune)– some of the pieces required an aditional tape (?) to be played. This really bothered me at times.

The programme:

• Aleksandra Vrebalov: Pannonia Boundless
  Beautiful piece, I perceived it as rather classical in it’s construction.
• Rahul Dev Burman: Aaj Ki Raat (Tonight is the Night)

  Here’s where the tape really bothered me. The tape played Zakir Hussain on tabla, and it really seemed like Kronos was performing additional music to that. It just didn’t come over as live music.

• Severiano Brise√ío: El Sinaloense (The Man from Sinaloa)
• Agust√ån Lara: Se Me Hizo F¬∑cil (It was easy for me)
• Silvestre Revueltas: Sensemay¬∑
  That bloody tape with percussion again.
• Charles Mingus: Myself When I Am Real
  Mmmmmm. Mingus. Enough said.
• Steve Reich: Triple Quartet
  I was so looking forward to this. And don’t get me wrong, it was played to perfection. The triple quartet requires –as the name implies– three quartets for its performance. Now, I do understand that it’s not very feasible to have three quartets in, but it’s disappointing to have to listen to two of those quartets on tape, and the third accompanying that tape in a live performance. And they played it so perfectly that there wasn’t any difference between the sound of the quartets on tape vs the live performance. Might as well have been listening to the cd.
• Peteris Vasks: Quartet No.4
  Revelation of the day. This is a very beautiful piece of music. It started softly with an Elegy, turned really agressive in the second part (Toccata I), flowing into a dynamic Chorale. Raw again for the fourth part (Toccata II), with material from the second bit, and then the fifth part. Oh boy, the fifth part. Meditiation says it all. Dampened strings, referals to the first part, and then slowly ending in silence.
  The audience was very appreciative. The waited with the abundant applause until after the last unaudible (!) note had died.

And then two encores, Nacho Verduzco by Sanchez and Mini Skirt by Juan Garcia Esquivel, both taken from their new album, Nuevo. Mini Skirt is a hilarious piece, very jazzy, reminds me of Henri Mancini’s music. From the liner notes:

Now known as the king of Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music, the dashing Juan GarcÌa Esquivel was signed by RCA Victor in 1958, just as two-channel Hi-Fi stereo systems were being introduced into American households. Audiences were eager to try out their sound equipment with new recordings, and Esquivel?s compositions and arrangements pushed stereos to their limits. Born in Tampico but raised in Mexico City, Esquivel was a piano prodigy who organized his first orchestra at age 17. Shortly afterwards he was leading the orchestra at XEW, Mexico City?s most popular radio station. He constantly experimented with new instruments, and his recordings for RCA Victor included bells, xylophones, harpsichords, timbales, gourds, bongos and organs. Also present were vocal choruses that often left the lyrics behind, humming, whistling, and singing ?zu-zu-zu? or ?pow!? instead.

nuevo @ nonesuch

how’s this for some great news:

in late January IRE and MGM reached an amicable accommodation that will allow the re-release of KOYAANISQATSI and POWAQQATSI on DVD to occur as early as the Fall of 2002.

via camworld

if first learned about this series through the philip glass cds. iv’e seen koyaanisqatsi on tv (arte), and i am looking forward to getting them on dvd (and to seeing the last movie of the trilogy).

you might want to visit the koyaanisqatsi site for more info

good and bad.

bad: i missed the first adams concert on klara

good: it’s not the one i was waiting for. that one’s on tonight. *smile*

here’s a list of what was broadcasted last night –only caught the beginning. there was some talk about a possible commission by the new york symphony (?), and also about the boston symphony choir’s refusal to perform the death of klinghoffer last year.

more important, here’s the info on today’s broadcast. it starts @ 19:30 cet, and if you can’t tune in to klara on your wireless, just go to the klara website, and click on the “live audio” link

enjoy!

one more advantage of using the ipod. tired of your current [song | album]? just jog the dial and look for another. doesn’t require you to get out of your [bed | comfy chair | lounge seat]. doesn’t require a nervously long time to choose the right cd from your extensive cd collection. (the right cd, because you want to make sure you don’t have to bother with it again in the next fifty minutes –give or take).

so i was ipodding away, and finally settled on motives for writing [amazon uk] by wim mertens. even though it wasn’t the first cd i ever bought, it’s the first one i remember so well. i must have played it a million times. if it had any (real) lyrics, i’d now know them all by heart (pretty much like i know all the beatles songs by heart).

i did own cds before that: i received a stack of classical music cds –all conducted by herbert von karajan– from a business relation of my parents. at that time i didn’t have a cd player though, but the gift apparently was incentive enough for my father to get me one during the summer holidays (having performed well at school and all that –ok, ok, so i was a bit spoiled).

i loved the way in which mertens managed to build up a whole climax (which he then overdid by spreading it over three discs with alle dinghe). i could almost see a plot unfolding, unavoidingly leading up to the last track (aptly named the whole).

a slight warning perhaps: it also has mertens singing. some people don’t like it when he sings, but it’s really good. (hint: try out jeremiades [amazon us | uk])

for me motives for writing was what spurred my interest in [contemporary] classical music. after that i was hooked. i bought the soundtrack to belly of an architect [amazon us | uk], which in its turn, got me interested in peter greenaway, which then led me to michael nyman, etc.