More Ambience | Claire Cross : Sleep Cycle | Burl Veneer Music

 

Claire Cross - Sleep Cycle - electro-acoustic chamber music based on EEGs of sleepers

Claire Cross explores the different phases of sleep on her new record, Sleep Cycle. Inspired by the work of Jon Hassell, William Basinski, The Australian Art Orchestra and Skúli Sverrisson, Claire draws on the language of contemporary jazz, ambient music and minimalism to present a mesmerizing work that is as beautiful as it is ambitious.

“This record is a bit of a turning point for me in some respects,” explains Claire. “It’s my first attempt at flexing different composition and improvisation muscles I haven’t used before. I’ve previously been very much the kind of composer who arranges lots of parts or tries to have a lot of control over the writing, and this project has been about letting go of that and leaning into a more open approach to improvisation and composing.”
“By researching what shows up on EEGs during sleep, and the dominant frequencies/waves of each phase, I found limitations that could be applied to musical situations and create an overall composition arc - things such as different frequency ranges of brain wave activity feeding into note choices, the amplitude of brain waves suggesting certain dynamics, different tempos, and so on. By finding ways to differentiate each phase I was able to create 5 contrasting ‘pieces’ that moved fairly seamlessly from one to the other.”

“When performed live, we put a timer on and each section runs for roughly a set time that also loosely corresponds to the ratio of each phase per cycle. We also timed each section in the studio so that the album unfolds in the same way. This explains why some compositions are quite long versus others being a bit shorter. With all of this in mind, the music is quite repetitive and slowly unfolding, but with lots of interaction from the band and interesting textures being created. One thing I wanted to be mindful of was striking a balance between ‘following the science’ vs creating an interesting musical event - so sometimes I didn’t stick to all of my limitations so religiously.”

With Sleep Cycle, Claire Cross has brought to life an important new chapter in her already storied career. This is an expertly executed record, sure to appeal to lovers of minimalism, contemporary jazz and ambient music. 

Artwork and Design by Tornike Margvelashvili aka Mess_Montage

This record was made on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation and we pay respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.

Claire Cross - electric bass and effects
Reuben Lewis - trumpet and effects
Merinda Dias-Jayasinha - voice and effects
Kyrie Anderson - drums and bells

Now you will know I like ambient musics and keep banging on about Brian Eno being a visiting lecturer at times in Leicester Poly Art Department (now De Montfort University) under the tutelage of historian Fred Orton and the composer Gavin Bryars, so it leads me to explore this kind of musics and the John Hassell connection brings us full circle . . . . . lovely! this is lovely and I dedicate it here to Fred and Gavin both . . . . . 

New Musics | BURL VENEER MUSIC : Rich Ruth ‘Water Still Flows'

Rich Ruth - Water Still Flows - new album seems farther from his self-description of “ambient explorer” but it’s cool because on top of the ambient layer we get passages of heavy guitar, ecstatic sax, and powerful drumming

Oooh quite like this on a sunny hot day here and the breeze just trying to make it through the curtains . . . . . 

Burl Veneer Music

Alex Chilton ‘Big Star - 13 ‘ (he of The Boxtops 'The Letter' fame prolly played when we were thirteen . . . . . . )

americanprimitives 

shared from 

retropopcult

Now is this problematic? You write a song about first love and adolescent falling in love and yet somehow you are a grown man writing about a thirteen year old!?!???  Great song mind . . . . .

"Thirteen" is a song by American rock band Big Star.  Rolling Stone describes it "one of rock's most beautiful celebrations of adolescence", and rated it #396 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. It was written by Alex Chilton and Chris Bell.

The name of the album was #1 Record, which was bitterly ironic, as it ended up selling under 10,000 copies upon its initial release in 1972 (the name of the band also proved to be an unfortunate misnomer, because outside of critics and other musicians, they remained virtually anonymous during their brief time together).

Bell and Chilton wanted to emulate the Lennon/McCartney formula as much as they could, so they shared credit on many of their songs even though there was in fact little writing collaboration between the two. “Thirteen" was in fact entirely Chilton’s creation, and he also delivers the aching vocal that vacillates between hope and heartache and that many cover versions have tried to emulate but never quite matched.

The yearning acoustic ballad focuses on an age that is somewhat underrepresented in pop and rock music. Chilton found that bittersweet spot when innocence still lingers but more complicated emotions start to work their way into the picture.

Over tender guitars, he begins with a question that thirteen-year-old boys have been asking thirteen-year-old girls for generations: “Won’t you let me walk you home from school?” “Won’t you let me meet you at the pool?” he follows, again treading lightly so as not to scare her away. He eventually suggests a date at the dance on Friday; “And I’ll take you,” Chilton delicately sings, as if anything more forceful than a gentle plea will destroy his chances.

In the second verse, the narrator for the first time reveals an obstacle blocking the path to this girl for whom he is clearly falling hard: “Won’t you tell your Dad get off my back?” he asks her. His response to the doubting father is brilliant: “Tell him what we said about ‘Paint It Black.’” By drawing a parallel between his own musical tastes and that of the father, he’s hoping to show that he’ s not just some punk kid with bad intentions.

The final verse finds him struggling as she remains seemingly unknowable (“Won’t you tell me what you’re thinking of?”) resulting in his sweet but awkward follow up (“Would you be an outlaw for my love?”) His final lines redeem him in terms of his integrity and honor, even as they suggest that he’ s losing his opportunity with her in the process: “If it’ s no then I can go/ I won’ t make you.” The final “Ooo-hoo” that Chilton utters is a real killer, tinged as it is with the sting of implied refusal.

Over the decades there have been some fine cover versions of this classic, with brilliant and diverse artists like Garbage, Wilco, and Elliott Smith taking their turns, among many others. But they’d likely all agree they were playing for second behind Chilton’s one-of-a-kind, haunting performance. “Thirteen” is as good as it gets for those looking to relive that moment when life is still rife with possibilities but love seems stubbornly impossible.

Music critic Simon Robinson rates it as Big Star's best song and one of the most important of 1972, praising the "catchy melody and jangly guitars that perfectly capture the carefree and optimistic spirit of youth" and the "simple yet poignant" lyrics that evoke the "experience of teenage romance and heartbreak."

american primitives

Other birthdays . . . . . HARRIET WHEELER of THE SUNDAYS

 Local girl our Harriet . . . . . 

Happy birthday to Harriet Wheeler, born in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on this day in 1963. It's that little souvenir of a terrible year which makes her eyes feel sore.

Route

Sounds of the past | The Louvin Bros - Must You Throw Dirt In My Face - (Guess I’m Dumb) vs The Delmore Brothers ( + Wayne Raney) Red Ball To Natchez

 I always placed the Louvin Brothers behind The Delmore Brothers (especially with Wayne Raney!) but they are worth a listen always. I liked this one from later in 1962 . . . . . 

The Louvin Brothers - Must You Throw Dirt In My Face (1962)

Their last hit single before they broke up. 

Why must you come back now and haunt me?

The Louvin Bros - Must You Throw Dirt In My Face - Guess I’m Dumb

Why do I prefer the Delmore Brothers and Wayne Raney?

This . . . . from earlier in the late forties!

Red Ball To Natchez!

Wayne RANEY and The Delmore Brothers 

Raney was born on a farm with a foot deformity and could not do heavy labor. After learning to play harmonica at an early age, he moved to Piedras Negras, Mexico at age 13, where he played on radio station XEPN. He met Lonnie Glosson, his longtime musical associate, in 1936, and together they found work on radio in Little Rock in 1938. Later the pair worked for WCKY out of Cincinnati and played on syndicated radio. They also established a harmonica mail order business which ended up being enormously successful; they sold millions of harmonicas and played a major role in turning the harmonica into a widely popular instrument. Raney played with the Delmore Brothers in the years after World War II, then launched a solo career in 1948; his first two singles, "Lost John Boogie" and "Jack and Jill Boogie", both reached the Top 15 of the U.S. country charts. His 1949 single, "Why Don't You Haul Off and Love Me", was a #1 country hit and also hit the Top 40 of the pop charts. Raney played the Grand Ole Opry in 1953 and also worked on the California Hayride and the WWVA Jamboree. Late in the 1950s he worked as a DJ, record producer, and label owner, starting Rimrock Records. He wrote the Christian revival song "We Need a Whole Lot More of Jesus (And a Lot Less Rock and Roll)" which has been covered by numerous artists in a variety of styles: People!, The Greenbriar Boys and Linda Rondstadt, to name but three. He recorded country music into the early 1960s, including for his own label, and ceased the mail-order business in 1960. After returning to Arkansas, he recorded a gospel album called Don't Try to Be What You Ain't. Eventually he went into semi-retirement, running his own chicken farm and performing only occasionally in the late 1960s and 1970s. While he appeared sporadically on Hee Haw in the 1970s, he lost his voice in the 1980s and ceased performing; in 1990 he published an autobiography entitled Life Has Not Been a Bed of Roses. He died of cancer in 1993.

 

Ska mi now! | My Girl - Prince Buster 1966 | Le Ramasseur De Mégots

1966

Le Ramasseur De Mégots

sunny you say!

The Cure - Glastonbury Festival 1990 | FLOPPY BOOT STOMP | A Silent Way Special

 Time for some Top Cure! and this will do the job nicely!

The Boss from Floppy Boot Stomp has turned up with this gem; Radio LA KROQ FM job so you know it’s gonna be good! Short and edited but heck you can’t have it all! (after all where would you put it?)

The Cure Glastonbury 1990 - Floppy Boot Stomp

The Cure - Glastonbury Festival 1990
Pilton, Worthy Farm
Somerset, England
Soundboard/FM Source @flac 

Recorded live at the 1990 Glastonbury Festival on June 23, 1990 Saturday 

 

Tracks:
01. A Strange Day
02. A Night Like This
03. Lullabye
[commercial break]
04. Just Like Heaven
05. The Walk
06. Primary
[commercial break]; 
07. Inbetween Days
08. A Forest
09. Disintegration


Robert Smith - vocals, guitar 
Simon Gallup - bass
Porl Thompson - guitar, keyboards
Boris Williams - drums
Roger O'Donnell - keyboards

 KROQ CONCERT VAULTS

Broadcast on 106.7 FM KROQ, Los Angeles, CA on November 21, 1990 Wednesday

Live tracks from BBC Transcription Services "In Concert - 500" LPs (CN 5628/S) &/or Westwood One transcription "In Concert - New Rock" (Show# 94-48) CDs

Notes: This is an incomplete recording;
- original cassette audio that was taped over is still audible at times

here . . .

The atheist posts Just Like Heaven The Cure - 1990