most intimate aspects by monstrous

what fun, I, thought to hear this sequence of songs:

first, the scherzo from Lou Harrison's suite rhymes with silver. Lou Harrison is just the greatest & rhymes with silver (Silver was his middle name) is a dance piece commissioned near the end of his life. just everest, I mean really gorgeous. rhythms in his music sometimes seem to ghost harmony's usual role: it's not which pitches sound together, but the ways they relate to each other thru time -- that's also why his percussion can sound so lyrical. & I'm pretty sure that he cites can't take my eyes off of you by Frankie Valli. anyhow, give it a listen: with your eyes closed!

click here to hear &/or download the scherzo from Lou Harrison's rhymes with silver.

one song that has been a deep-years favorite is z datelin, by Pavol Hammel & Marian Varga, two men from czechoslovakia about whom I know nothing. the record is from I think 1968. now, listen: about 12 million people speak natively the czech language. (when I lived in russia, products often came labeled for sale in countries across evropa, with the same nutrition information in, say, polish, estonian, latvian, russiche, ukraingo, czech, & slovak, & these last two would generally be identical, or very utterly nearly so. that's a funny thing about politics, but also a roundabout way of saying: slovaks, this means you too.) please somebody tell me what the title means? because the obvious correspondence to russian would yield the gloss from the dative -- which is awesome -- but seems improbable. anyhow it's kind of a beautiful song but what's most wonderful is the dinkiness of it, in all its sincerity. the really silly kind of precision they have. pretty 60s europe organ. I kind of want to find Pavol Hammel & Marian Varga in praha in 1968 & just let them know everything's going to be ok. (tho: is it?) anyhow:

click here to hear &/or download the impenetrably-titled z datelin by Marian Varga & Pavol Hammel.

a song I was not expecting to become wanting to be hearing is friend of the devil. it's originally a grateful dead song (what do you want from me?!), but my favorite is singing it myself, and, when that's a pickle, I'll take Lyle Lovett doing it, for sure. it's not a fantastic song. it's not a fantastic recording. but it has charm & is lovely & on the right side of things. do not ask questions.

do click here to hear &/or download Lyle Lovett's version of friend of the devil.

& lastly, ice cream time: rise by Nick Didkovsky. this is one of the pieces he's made by setting parameters in a computer program of his own design. the music is luminous. it's something that stays as various & real as anything thruout, record of a real investigation. it something I feel I could live inside. & the subtle ways it changes, & the the sustaining mass of sound. scandinavia! the way it spreads itself out harmonically is just beautiful. I bet Terry Riley danced around the table when he heard it.

click here to hear &/or download ice cream time:rise by Nick Didkovsky.