Olafur Arnalds – Brotsjor
Arvo Part – Fratres for Vi (Beats Antiqua remix)
L’Oniraunote – Scaphandre
High Tone – 7th Assault
Altan Urag – Ijii Mongol
Muslimgauze – Izlamiq Groupe
Nomadiqa – Birds of Babylon
Olafur Arnalds – 3326
Sleeps in Oyster – My heart, a hive for bees
Shiyugosha – Lune Rouge
Maria Tanase & Venetian Snares – Curse
Maria Tanase – Cantec de leagan (Lullaby)

On 15th of august, an explosion took place in the maternity ward of a Romanian hospital. 5 newborns were killed by a 200 degrees fire and 6 were badly injured. No one was guarding them. No one helped them for 12 minutes. No one got blamed. No one talks about the fire 3 weeks later.

Beauty. Chaos. Rage. War. Despair. Resignation. An infinite sadness

Part II

Part III

From the album The Resistance

Scott Joplin was an American musician and composer of ragtime music. He remains the best-known ragtime figure and is regarded as one of the three most important composers of classic ragtime, along with James Scott and Joseph Lamb.

When Joplin was learning the piano, serious musical circles condemned ragtime because of its association with the vulgar and inane songs “cranked out by the tune-smiths of Tin Pan Alley.” As a composer Joplin refined ragtime, elevating it above the low and unrefined form played by the “wandering honky tonk pianists… playing mere dance music” of popular imagination. This new art form, the Classic rag, combined Afro-American folk music’s sycopation and nineteenth-century European romanticism, with its harmonic schemes and its march-like tempos.  In the words of one critic,”Ragtime was basically… an Afro-American version of the polka, or its analog, the Sousa-style march.

In the late 1880s Joplin played pre-ragtime ‘jig-piano’ in various red-light districts throughout the mid-South.

In 1893 Joplin made his way to Chicago to perform at the World’s Fair, although not as an official performer. By 1897 ragtime had become a national craze in American cities, and was described by the Dispatch News as “a veritable call of the wild, which mightily stirred the pulses of city bred people.”

Joplin moved to Sedalia, Missouri in 1894 and began working as a pianist in the Maple Leaf Club and the Black 400, social clubs for “respectable [black] gentlemen”. He gained a reputation as a well-respected piano player, and began composing songs and teaching music. One of his earliest works in 1896 was The Great Crush Collision March, a “special… early essay in ragtime”, written after a staged train crash in McLennan County, Texas, at which Joplin may have been present.

In 1899, Joplin married Belle, the sister-in-law of collaborator Scott Hayden and sold what would soon become one of his most famous pieces, Maple Leaf Rag, to John Stark & Son, a Sedalia music publisher. It was an immediate success and was ragtime’s first hit, in addition to being the first great instrumental music hit in America.

Maple Leaf Rag:

Jazz Piano:

Joplin collaborated with Scott Hayden in the composition of four rags. It was in St. Louis that Joplin produced some of his best-known works, including The Entertainer, March Majestic, and the short theatrical work The Ragtime Dance.

In 1907 Scott Joplin moved to New York City, which he believed was the best place to find a producer for a new opera. In 1907 Scott Joplin moved to New York City, which he believed was the best place to find a producer for a new opera (Treemonisha). Though it encompasses a wide range of musical styles other than ragtime, and Joplin himself never referred to it as such, it is still sometimes incorrectly referred to as a “ragtime opera”. The music of Treemonisha includes an overture and prelude, along with various recitatives, choruses, small ensemble pieces, a ballet, and a few arias.

Overture from Treemonisha:

Prelude from Treemonisha:

Joplin and his fellow ragtime composers rejuvenated American popular music, fostering an appreciation for African American music among European Americans by creating exhilarating and liberating dance tunes, changing American musical taste. “Its syncopation and rhythmic drive gave it a vitality and freshness attractive to young urban audiences indifferent to Victorian proprieties… Joplin’s ragtime expressed the intensity and energy of a modern urban America.

Links: Wikipedia, MySpace, LastFM, Official page.

From the album Maškaradă of famous Romanian Gypsy musicians Taraf de Haïdouks.

In the early 20th century, many composers drew their inspiration from national folklore, often borrowing from Roma musicians to create their own vision of an exotic and largely imaginary Orient. Things have now been turned around, as one of the world’s leading Gypsy bands have taken hold of classical pieces by Bartok, Khachaturian, Albeniz & more, and have “re-gypsyfied” them, giving them an exhilarating make-over. Starting out in a concert hall, Maskarada takes us through various stages which inevitably lead back to the type of repertoire for which the Taraf de Haïdouks are known and loved.

MySpace, LastFM, Facebook, Wikipedia.

Airships

Four harts

Metal Berry

Snakes & Tea

Nighttime and morning with Anthony Hagerty

Desert Cathedral

Pale Dog

Disparu

Myspace

Pitchfork review for the Desert Doughnuts album

Utomlyennoye Solntse (russian):

“The Last Sunday” was composed by Jerzy Petersburski in 1936. It is a nostalgic polish tango with lyrics by Zenon Friedwald describing the final meeting of former lovers who are parting ways. The Polish title was “To Ostatnia Niedziela” (“The Last Sunday”). The song was extremely popular and was performed by numerous artists (best kown performance by Mieczysław Folg). Along the way, it first gained the nick-name of  ”Suicide Tango” due to its sad lyrics (although, the real „suicide song” in the 30s night restaurants of Eastern Europe was another sad „Sunday” -- the „Gloomy Sunday” by the Hungarian composer Rezső Seress (soon, an international hit; in the US sung by Billie Holiday).

In mid 30’s, Jerzy Petersburski was clever enough to have noticed how great was the popularity of “Szomorú Vasárnap” (Gloomy Sunday), the Hungarian ’suicide song’. He decided to write his own ‘last Sunday’ and probably had no idea at that time what a success was in store for that tango. With passing years, the legend of the ’suicide Hungarian song’ began to affect the reputation of the polish tango. “This Is Our Last Sunday” is about parting with the beloved person who “is a winner in that game” and is going to have, from that moment on, happy and bright days.  The unique unity of the melody and words was attracting listeners for years and made this number to be a Polish evergreen.

“This is our last Sunday,
today we shall say goodbye,
today we shall separate
for all times.
This is our last Sunday,
so share these moments with me,
look more tenderly at me,
this very last time.”

But the Polish „Last Sunday” was also a terrible omen. During Second World War the song was often played in the concentrations camps while Jewish prisoners were led to the gas chambers and ovens, to be executed.

Also during the Second World War its Russian version was prepared by Iosif Alveg and performed by Leonid Utyosov under the title of “Weary Sun” (russian: “Utomlyennoye Solntse”). After the war, the song remained largely successful and appeared in a number of films, including Yuriy Norshteyn’s 1979 “Tale of Tales” (considered by many international critics to be the greatest animated film ever made), the award-winning Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “White” (1994) and Nikita Mikhalkov’s “Burnt by the Sun” of the same year, as well as in Schindler’s List in 1993. The Russian title of the song also became the name-sake for the latter film and, as the result, even the more educated and worldly Russians nowadays consider the old tango from Warsaw their „Russian national song”.

“The weary sun
Bade a tender farewell to the sea.
At that hour you confessed
That you have no love for me.
I became a little sad
Without longing, without sorrow.
At that hour your words
Rang out.
We shall part,
I haven’t the strength to feel anger,
You and I
Are to blame.
The weary sun
Bade a tender farewell to the sea.
At that hour you confessed
That you have no love for me.”

Today this tango is still singed by many artists:

fragment from “Burnt by the Sun”:

fragment from “Tale of Tales”:

interpretation by Gidon Kremer:

interpretation by Eduard Artemyev:

interpretation by Alina Orlova:

interpretation by Sophie Solomon:

Links: Wiki, Mieczysław Fogg wiki, Jerzy Petersburski wiki, Leonid Utyosov wiki, Gidon Kremer wiki, Eduard Artemyev wiki, Alina Orlova wiki, Sophie Solomon wiki///  Mieczysław Fogg MySpace, Eduard Artemyev MySpace, Alina Orlova MySpace, Sophie Solomon MySpace///  Mieczysław Fogg lastFM, Jerzy Petersburski lastFM, Leonid Utyosov lastFM, Gidon Kremer lastFM, Eduard Artemyev lastFM, Alina Orlova lastFM, Sophie Solomon lastFM.

According to boomkat.com:

“Gabriel Prokofiev, grandson of the great composer Sergei Prokofiev and member of indie disco-ites Spektrum (no, seriously) returns for a second collaboration with the Elysium Quartet, which once again finds the composer setting about merging classical disciplines with contemporary production techniques. This time around Prokofiev has recruited the likes of Vex’d, Hot Chip, Starkey, Conboy and Earlyman to set about remixing the original quartet composition, but kicking off the disc we’re treated to the four movements of the piece itself. The first two of these in particular are characterised by a brusque staccato, jagged and lurching in all quarters. During the opening movement, the viola is played with such severity you’d swear someone had swapped the performer’s bow for a hacksaw. Meanwhile, while just as choppy, the second movement begins to open up towards the end, transforming into the kind of rhythmic piece that actually might lend itself rather well to reworkings from the aforementioned lineup of beat manglers. The Conboy track brings a mild percussive element to the table, preserving much of the original detail, while Vex’d is predictably less reverent, slamming down some padded bass sounds and vicious weeps. Next, Marcus Lancaster eschews using outright beats right until the final thirty seconds or so, instead choosing to contort the string sounds into a right old mess. Prokofiev’s own remix is one of the best, filled with diced-up granular edits and house-styled percussiion, and Hot Chip go even further down this route to produce some very disciplined string quartet disco, as only they could. A very weird album by any measure, but against all odds it works tremendously well. Highly Recommended.”

Links: Nonclassical, Boomkat, Vex’d MySpace, Vex’d LastFM, The Elysian Quartet,  The Elysian Quartet MySpace, The Elysian Quartet LastFM, Gabriel Prokofiev MySpace, Gabriel Prokofiev Last FM.

Vid vorum smá

Himininn er ad hrynja, en störnurnar fara pér vel

More after the jump…

Haust

FOK

This is not his, but it sounds like a heavy, cold, mind blowing winter on your soul

Erla’s Waltz

Some heavy classical music

In April 2009, Iceland’s neo-classical export Ólafur Arnalds created the 7-song series ‘Found Songs’ –
recording a song a day for 7 days and instantly making each track available via Twitter. With artwork contributions
from fans via Flickr, this modern release awakens memories of a tradition that seemed lost in the digital age we live in.

You can listen to these tracks and also download for free here

Myspace

Twitter

Website

Wireless Fantasy (1960)

Vladimir Ussachevsky (1911-1990) who emigrated to the USA from Russia in 1930 (born in Manchuria), was one of the pioneers of “tape music”, created the first electronic music in 1951 with his teacher Otto Luening. In october 1952, a live concert of electronic music by Luening and Ussachevsky at New York’s Museum Of Modern Art was broadcasted live, and caused a sensation. It included Ussachevsky’s Sonic Contours (1952), which electronically modifies the sound of a piano.

Ussachevsky was one of the most significant pioneers in the compositon of electronic music, and one of its most potent forces. He produced the first works of “tape music,” a uniquely American synthesis of the French musique-concrète and the German pure electronic schools. He co-founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1959 and directed its course for the next twenty years as the leading electronic music studio in the United States. This release couples two of his most powerful and innovative scores: Suite from No Exit (1962), from the film of Sartre’s play No Exit directed by Orson Welles, and the soundtrack for the avant-garde film, Line of Apogee (1967).

Other legendary works that Ussachevsky composed in this period were A Poem In Cycles And Bells (1954) for tape and orchestra (one of the earliest electro-acoustic pieces), which was based on Otto Luening’s Fantasy In Space (1952) and his own A Poem In Cycles And Bells, and Piece for Tape Recorder (1956) for tape. In 1959, Luening and Ussachevsky founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (CPEMC), the first studio for electronic music in the USA, which featured the synthesizer “Mark II”. Creation Prologue (1961), Conflict (1971) and Creation Epilogue (1971), three parts of the multi-movement large-scale Creation, were scored for choirs and electronics, but his choral music was rather inferior. On the other hand, Conflict was his main composition of the 1970s.

Two Images for a Computer Piece with an Interlude (1969)

Links: Official page, LastFM, Wikipedia.

Born on May 23 1939, Michel Colombier began his formal musical education at the age of six. His father taught him piano, harmony, counterpoint and conducting. By eleven he started to improvise and at fourteen he discovered jazz and performed with small combos and big bands for which he wrote daring jazz arrangements. In the meantime, his father continued his education by adding the study of church organ and Gregorian chant. During his stint in the French Army he continued composing, arranging and playing the widest range of music from chamber orchestra to jazz band.

At the age of 22, he spent one year with French avant-garde composer Michel Magne and was hired as Musical Director of ‘Barclay Records.’ His first assignment was to arrange Charles Aznavour’s first album in English, produced by Quincy Jones, for release in the United States.

A few years later, he revolutionized the advertising world, introducing sounds and concepts never used before. Some of his jingles are still played today.

He entered the world of dance (in collaboration with Pierre Henry) for Maurice Béjart’s, “Messe pour le temps present.” This work was recently remixed under the title “Metamorphose” by the “Who’s Who” of DJ’s headed by William Orbit, Coldcut, Funki Porcini and Fat Boy Slim.

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Prologue/ Psyché Rock

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Jéricho Jerk

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Psyché Rock (Fatboy Slim Remix)

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Prologue (Chris The French Kiss Remix)

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Psyché Rock (William Orbit Remix)

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Jericho Jerk (St. Germain Remix)

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Teen Tonic (Dimitri From Paris Remix)

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Too Fortiche (Tek 9 Remix)

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Psyché Rock (Choped Up Coldcut Remix)

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Too Fortiche (The Mighty Bop Remix)

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Jericho Jerk (Funki Porcini Remix)

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Too Fortiche (Chateau Flight Remix)

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Psyché Rock (Psyched Out Coldcut Remix)

Pierre Henry &  Michel Colombier -- Psyché Rock (Ken Abyss Remix)

Colombier went on to co-write for many years with the legendary Serge Gainsbourg. He collaborated with some of the most prestigious artists in his native France including Charles Aznavour, Brigitte Fontaine, Jean-Luc Ponty, Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, and Stephane Grappelli.

Links:  Official page, MySpace, LastFm, Wikipedia.