Ivan's Choice - The Cinematic Orchestra - In Motion Vol. 1

VOLUME ONE : New 2012 collaborative album of string quartet arrangements of "imaginary soundtracks", inspired by avant-garde filmmakers! Contributions by Austin Peralta ; Grey Reverend ; Dorian Concept ; Tom Chant and others.

Yin & Yang Music System or Arjuna's Arrow and the Perfect Imperfection

I’m NOT an audiophile!

A dangereous sentence, I know… still I honestly consider myself more a music lover who uses audio to reach a better appreciation and enjoyment of music.

Nothing new, indeed…

… but new is what happened, yesterday… my studio is - thanking 16th century building know-how - naturally air-conditioned with a room temperature of 25° Centigrade, also in these hot, 33-35° C days… as I learned, the best listening sessions happens with cold, dry weather and outside temp of, say, 10/15° C…

Yes, beside all pseudo-scientific or technical arguments and arguing, I felt in the last week or so, sort of “disaffected” from my Gotorama music system… something sure not weather-influenced;-)

By chance, I was mostly grooving on cool, old vinyls, “Blonde on Blonde” or “Bringing it all back home”, both gorgeous mono pressings, Traffic 1st disc (mono again), Bob Dylan’s (again) live at Brandeis University (mono, of course) and some Bukka White and Son House’s blues discs on Takoma and Columbia or Duffy Power's "Innovations" on Transatlantic label, again and again a mono wax with John McLaughlin, Danny Thompson, Terry Cox... yeah!

Yesterday I decided: disconnected Elodis’ TGE bass-horn and its Hiraga 30W from TacT’s - which I switched OFF - and returned to my previous, ALL analog rig – i.e. Thomas Mayer’s 4-ways crossover, also for low-end way and full Mayer's combo - i.e. the mighty four chassis pre-amp - first disc, after the above changes was Jonathan Wilson’s last masterpiece (love "Silver Moon" track!)… all, ALL four sides (!) and some Joe Pass trio… and Anja Garbarek white vinyl with Mark Hollis producing and arranging and Robert Wyatt’s voice… Bjork's "Biophilia" and Jefferson Airplane’s “Thirty seconds over Winterland”.

It was something quite strange and subtle, BUT nonetheless real… I found myself stopping reading and concentrating on music, looking at the clock which was - weirdly enough - moving in half-an-hour steps… and I found an happier and more relaxed me swinging and tapping hands on my leg and whistling and, yes, also singing unison with the artist…

I'm still shocked, as the aesthetic - i.e. the beauty of the "digitalized" system - is completely different from the 100% analog rig: I mean, the perceived psycho-acoustic musical experience happens at different levels...

It's like I'm experiencing "with-ears-only" (TacT in-place) and "with-my-five-senses"... less fatiguing, more physical, yet reaching, how can I say... heart, mind, soul, I dare... sooner, better, straight and unfiltered like Arjuna's arrow;-))) in Mahābhārata.

Reconsidered last listening sessions vs. yesterday evening… was quite nervous and uninvolved if not listening to viola da gamba or lute or ECM disks, NOT enjoying so much any rock or jazz or vocals, female or male…

An uninvolvement case, I’d call it… now I know it.

Being a straight, honest dude, I followed my thoughts and guts feeling and returned on my steps… for music love, as the nine-some cleverly designed digital pre-sets on my TacT RCS 2.2 XP are still in my system, only temporarily turned-off and not in-use, BUT my musical pleasure is far, FAR more important than listening to a (someway) cold sounding - on some music it was – but flat frequency response system.

… not by chance, last supremely enjoyable and pleasant and cool and… WOW! disc was the live by Jefferson Airplane at Winterland… “Feel so Good” was - de facto - the track I had a musical orgasm with, where the digital-free system was singing and elegant, pouring purest music, not audio, anymore… Jack Casady’s Alembic bass and Jorma’s electric guitar and voice, the audience… super-duper!




Music… no cables, no gears… only music... and clock stopping and time having a different "weight", again.

A four-way, multi-amped system singing like a wide-band single speaker… and me, myself and I feeling happy and funky…

… again… that sense of wobbling inadequacy and unfriendliness... wooosh: gone!

… a final consideration: this early morning I reached my studio in the fresh, zest air, re-connected TacT’s, etc. and had an half an hour tasting with some harpsichord and Bach’s organ, both vinyl - i.e. a Telefunken and an Astree… and I was in tears… a different level enjoyment, an airy, subtle pleasure…

Different yet the same from yesterday gutsy, macho, beefy gorgeousness… with no petulant, lazy self-inflicting wrong sound for a given music choice... my system, now I know, owns two souls: one "perfect" and another "perfectly imperfect".

So what?

Nothing… it’s life… honestly, it’s not schizophrenic-audio, but - yes - yin and yang… it’s bycicle and motorbike, motorboating or sailing, sex and making love… recording with a Revox G-36 and Neumann U67 tubes mike or with digital gears and B & K mikes… black and white, rain and sun…

Yin and yang…

Satori.

Great Songs Dept. - Capt. Beefheart's "Human Totem Pole"

From last, freshly brewed "Bat Chain Puller" disk... do you remember on first, epic, mythical, seminal "Star Wars", when Han Solo is looking for Chewbacca and others for his spaceship crew?

Harrison Ford's character enters a pub where people... "people", i.e. octopus-like, dwarfs, aliens and freaks of every kind from everywhere in the galaxy is grooving on a weird musical combo playing a weird kind of music...

Strange, haunting...

Well, the above very scene accompanied most of my (musical) life... and sometimes, a disc, a music reminds me that human expression and inventiveness is, REALLY is, limitless and with no boundaries...

Musicians and artists of a special breed are needed...

The new old stock, recently issued for the VERY first time in its unfiltered, naked beauty after it was recorded by the late, still DEEEEPLY missed Don Van Vliet in 1974 is a masterpiece and a goldmine... it's the corner-stone of the building the Captain began with "Trout Mask Replica" and, most of all, "Lick my decals off, baby"... a true beauty, the highest peak, a companion to "Doc at the Radar Station".

A track, a piece like the "Human Totem Pole" is a weird, apparently crowdy and obscenely dissonant dialogue between two electric guitars, a growling voice and a bass guitar... the Captain was famous for whistling musical parts to his musicians, no music in written form from him... same as Gurdijeff and De Hartmann... whistle and piano, in this case.

The guitars are interwoving with a laid back, bluesy feeling, but the blues is nearer to above mentioned "Star Wars" pub than the Delta... the text, well, folks... it's... Wow...see here below.

The five or so minutes are longer, MUCH longer than the clock suggests... a low, very deep and modulating bass coming from that bass guitar is the zero-locator, and after some time tapping in the studio, the guitars begins and begins... and orgiastic, alien beauty...

David Grubbs, Tortoise, Gastr del Sol and many others... all owe to Capt. Beefheart a lot.

I love this record... it's beauty and weirdness and intriguing...

I love it.

Human Totem Pole

"The thousandth and tenth day of the human totem pole.
The morning was distemper grey,
Of the thousandth and tenth day of the human totem pole.
The man at the bottom was smiling.
He had just finished his breakfast smiling.
It hadn't rained or manured for over two hours.
The man at the top was starving.
The pole was a horrible looking thing
With all of those eyes and ears
And waving hands for balance.
There was no way to get a copter in close
So everybody was starving together.
The man at the top had long ago given up
But didn't have nerve enough to climb down.
At night the pole would talk to itself and the chatter wasn't too good.
Obviously the pole didn't like itself, it wanted to walk!
It was the summer and it was hot
And balance wouldn't permit skinning to undergarments.
It was an integrated pole, it was taking on an reddish brown cast.
Exercise on the pole was isometric,
Kind of a flex and then balance
Then the highest would roll together,
The ears wiggle, hands balance.
There was a gurgling and googling heard
A tenth of the way up the pole.
Approaching was a small child
With statue of liberty doll."

...

Pierre Bensusan goes South Korea

Cool and sad, at same time... as a TV interview like this one will NEVER happen in my Country... aehm, country.

Music and its tools - Bob Dylan's Fender Stratocaster at 1965 Newport Folk Festival

Iconic!

This could be enough... a young, definitely hairy (...) Bob Dylan stepped Newport's festival with "that" Fender's electric guitar... and music changed...

... despite and also if Pete Seeger tried (or did it) to unplug amp mains-plug and Bob, bemused, retried it, after three electric songs, with his usual acoustic guitar and harmonica...

After decades into oblivion from that far July 25th, 1965, the Stratocaster reappeared in the hands of Dawn Peterson, the daughter of Victor Quinto, the aircraft pilot hired at the time by (Columbia's) Albert Grossman's management who specialized in rock stars taxing around, including His Bobness.

The guitar-in-its-case was forgotten in aircraft back seats and returning it to its owner was tempted several times, without results.

The Fender which was kept stored for decades in its flight case with a "Property of Ashes & Sand Inc." label - i.e. a small management company which Bob himself used at the time... as a plus, some handwritten (Dylan's songs) music-sheets were also found inside the case.

Everything seems compliant with stated Dylan's ownership or using at Newport, Fender's serial # - a 1964 vintage - included... BUT Bob's entourage and estate do not confirm (or NOT...)

Anyway, folks... that's it... I wish Mrs. Peterson she owns the real thing:-) as the axe could be worth USD 1,000,000.00 (or so...)

Beloved Chicco passed away yesterday, July 5th, 2012

A mantra: Chicco, Pippo, Chiccomio, Chicchetto, Chicchettin, Tato Pippo, Chicco Pippo, Pipetto, tesorin, animettamia, tatin, Chiccomiomiomio, Pipi, Tatomio, il mio cagnetto... the several names for beauty, gentleness, elegance, friendship, tenderness...

Only a dog, folks?!?!

Chicco has been my best friend, my blonde hair four-legs brother for the last eleven years... his limited vocabulary was used soooo well, poetically and effectively: his hugging at my hand, every, EVERY morning we spent together... his moving ears, his smile... yes!!!... he was a lesson of expression and feeling parsimony, straightness and sincere friendship and purest love poured between us every day I spent with him...

He was possibly suffering and not in good shape - always non lamenting, unfortunately - since before we, my wife, Chicco and myself were so in need of some vacation... when we arrived at the seaside, he wasn't eating at all, and also his sooo loved peeing and sniffing and always so elegant walking around wasn't anymore...

He vomited a couple of times and looked REALLY sick... he only looked at me with his eyes, not searching for my hand as he loved to do, our beloved physical contact we both loved so much... I sometimes held his padded arm in my hands for looong minutes, and he moved it slightly, like he was dreaming, of sniffing and walking at the park... so sweet, tender and complete, pure sense of happiness... last Monday we brought him at a clinic where the diagnosis was "heavy kidney disease"

I left him at the clinic in tears and visited him every day... Chicco was faaar more important than stupid sun-tanning...

Yesterday morning the mobile rang and the doctor told my wife Chicco was dead...

I shamelessly screamed and was in tears... we drove to the clinic and picked him up... he suffered and I wasn't there when he died...

I drove back home yesterday and buried him in our garden, between two trees... and drove back to my wife, a 2.200 km round trip in less than 24 hours...

Chicco has been my pal and we lived in symbiosis... I was sick without him and, I believe, vice-versa...

Someone out there will smile at my silliness... I LOVED HIM A LOT LIKE I WILL NEVER DO AGAIN IN THIS LIFE... his little, sweet heart stopped beating unison with me and my wife yesterday at about 8 A.M.

... only a dog?!?

No, my Chicco, my beloved little lamb, my pup... I'll miss him enormously... cannot stop being in tears.

Self-healing yearly detoxing computerless vacation

Time has come!

Thanking my friend David for encouragement:-)))

Zen and the art of guitar-making

Superb... thanking Matt.

Leica M9

Maybe I'll use again my beloved Leitz Super-Angulon, Summilux, Elmar and Summicron lenses, after 6 years, as I left them and Leica M4P stored since then!!!

You could look at MUCH better quality pixes, soon;-)

Yeahhhh!

End of the World Music System

Franz Hinterlehner and his pal Emanuel came from Austria, last weekend... puffing and sweating, but also laughing and having good time, we worked for several hours... thanking Franz's skill and knowledge and friendship and Emanuel's patience and skill, Gotorama is finally completed, folks... a fully bloom reality.

I'm in tears (of joy)... using the someway user unfriendly, yet supremely effective, transparent and... why not, perfect, I dare, TacT RCS 2.2 XP... well, now Gotorama uses Thomas Mayer crossover for Goto's three upper ways and TacT's 2.2 crossovering feature: Franz and myself choose the cool 10th order (yes, it's 60 db/octave) slope between GOTO SG 570 and S-150 horn and Elodis' TGE bass horn and THE RESULT IS SIMPLY, PLAINLY SAID STUNNING... the Mayer's crossover uses as a (not so cheap:-)) "buffer" the Mayer's 801A line-stage preamp, while the WE 437/Tango EQ 600 LCR phono stage goes straight to one of TacT's analog inputs.

TacT is also used as a 192Khz DAC... maybe I could also squeeze a nice coffee from it:-)))!

The sound is, on the best of the nine pre-sets saved and stored in the RCS, superb, right, airy and extremely dynamic, speedy as the light, low-end is clean and natural, unboomy as it can be... and I'm lacking words to describe how such a system is able to sound virtually everything, from a solo acoustic guitar harmonics to Taiko japanese BIG drums and large orchestra or organ at 120 db SPL.

I reached Hakata!

My goal...

My vision...

...

N.O.S. - New Old Stock Dept. - Hector Zazou's Quadri+Cromie

Using time machine backward to 2002... this nice disk - a collective effort with David Sylvian, Ryiuchi Sakamoto, Brian Eno and video/visual art by Bernard Caillaud - is a low-end dream... it's sound more than music (...) and the attached DVD makes music and visual matching even stronger, a deeper experience.

As Ivan the Pusher told me this morning... yes, you'll probably enjoy it as you like (musically) wound and bruise yourself...

Indeed...

BTW, Reinhard... this is also for yours or Klauscope music systems... a very, VERY nice digital recording.

No Jokes!!!

Stop kidding, folks... here is how's going...

Reagan's hedonism is over... and crisis countdown globalized, as well!

Whole humankind thanks Harvard University, McKinsey, PWC, Bocconi University, Standard & Poor's, Fitch's, Moody's and everything and everyone which made - under "profit first" flagship - beloved planet Earth... Flat Earth, again!

Thanks!

ALT - Van Der Graaf Generator's last disc

THE NEW PROJECT FROM VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the latest release on their frontline label, ESOTERIC ANTENNA, dedicated to new releases by both new acts and established artists. ALT is a new studio project by the legendary VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR and follows on from the release of A GROUNDING IN NUMBERS in 2011. ALT is no ordinary Van Der Graaf Generator album (if the term ordinary could ever be applied to this visionary group). PETER HAMMILL explains; Instrumental Improvs & Experiments - Most of the music on ALT was made while we weren't really looking, or perhaps only while the left side of our collective brain was engaged. The album is a mixture of improvisations recorded at sound checks and in the studio and more considered sonic creations which often verge on Musique Concrete. The fourteen pieces here offer a fascinating glimpse into an alternative Van der Graaf Generator sound world. Perhaps the closest comparison would be with the second CD of "Present", but even the link with those recordings is tenuous. Even by Van der Graaf Generator standards, this stuff's at the wacky end of the scale! This instrumental album is another side of Van Der Graaf Generator, a truly unique listening experience.

Summertime palindrome

21/06/12... well, NOT really a palindrome, yet... hey, it's Summer...


Thanking Escher.

Little Red Speedy Riding Hood

... the wheel, first, but better thinking about it, everything is spinning at a given speed...

Earth spins, stars and nebulaes, too: speed rules, we can - sometimes - choose our living speed, our pace... but for a music lover, "speed" is the R.P.M. a disc spins, period.

The above was as mysterious as an aechidna for yours truly; when I was a kid, mom bought a nice Dansette-like italian made gizmo, with a small platter good for 45 r.p.m. discs, but also good for my dad's 33 r.p.m. of vocal music.

Mom was very fond of music, she was always singing when fixing meals, caring for my small brothers or simply walking with me in the then cars-free streets.

... being fond of music wasn't being an electronic engineer;-) - so mom, when she first bought some records for her and us, the kids, she bought tales, Little Red Riding Hood, for example... and some for her pleasure - i.e. The Moody Blues, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Adamo, Wilson Pickett... these were the discs I inherited when growing up...

... but "that" Little Red Riding Hood little disc remained carved in my memory: I still remember, in mid sixties, in those warm, home-cocooning, long winter evening with no TV to pollute our life, we - me and little bros - were enjoying mom reading some paper fairy-tales... then came the turntable... and MORE fun;-)))!

... enters The Little Red Riding Hood's disc... when sapphire cartridge tip landed on the little, 45 r.p.m.-like disc, we immediately began to laugh and laugh and laugh... the first word were read at a supersonic speed... like "onceuponatime..." (transl. -c'eraunavolta...) and the reader with a childish, high pitched voice continued to read the classic tale of the girl and the BIG wolf and grandma and the biiig eyes to better see you and all...

The voice was strange, funny... also if so speedy, the words were still intellegible and everytime we played "that" disc in "that" way we enjoyed... also if mom was someway doubtful;-)

She later explained to me she was thinking something was wrong with this supersonic reading... yet wasn't aware of something she discovered some couple weeks later... the disc was 45 r.p.m. sized, BUT, being speech and not music, it was cutted at 33 r.p.m.... the result, when mom left on 45 r.p.m. like her pop music discs was the above;-)))

A kind, yet bemused and amused salesman - I imagine, now - explained to mom how to change turntable speed... and she laughed and laughed, at the shop and, later, at home...

Also dad smiled... that evening, we were all - mom, me and my bros - around the Lesa (The Dansette-like gizmo...) on the kitchen table, I remember...

She played some pop records, can't remember... THEN, drums & fifes, we asked for Little Red Hood disc... mom gently moved a little lever on the turntable and the record label changed its colours from a melange of pink to being able to see there was also some yellow and writings...

Then... the magic;-) - a beautiful, round, deep baritone voice began to read the tale... C'eeraaa unaaa vooolta, Cappuccettoooo Rooosssoooo... (transl. Oooonce upoooon aaaa tiiiimmeee was a girl naaamed Liittle Reeeed Riiiidiiing Hoooood....)...

The impression was soooo strong, folks... we listened to the whole side, in silence, without laughing...

You'd bet it, pals?!?!

The next days, mom, with a smile, moved again that little lever on the turntable... and we laughed, and laughed and laughed again and again... for mom, me and my bros, "our" very Little Red Riding Hood was a 33 r.p.m. disc played at 45 r.p.m. wrong speed... thus "Little Red Speedy Riding Hood";-)

... and we enjoyed this a lot when we were all younger and foolish and world was, maybe, a better place.

Getting older, we never enjoyed so much and dad was playing his BIG records at right speed... BUT never laughing as we used to;-)))

High definition tracks...

... aehm... not as sexy as (best) analog playback or cool and enriching and deeply satisfying at more levels as vinyl collecting:-)))... nonetheless... after recent liquid music experience in Koln, well... why not?!?! It's music, anyway.

Ingenting Kollektiva - Fragments of Night

From July 2012 MOJO magazine:

"Inspired by Bitches Brew, In a Silent Way and the brooding cinematography of Sven Nykvist, this debut collaboration of sound artists Diane Granahan, Matthew Swiezynski and Kirston & Tarry Lightowler, was recorded in latter couple's barn in 2009, with bell, Tibetan prayer bowls, guitar, harmonium, psaltery, shakuhachi, tenor sax, cello and old 78 samples all fashioned into the kind of hovering, meditative drone suite that suggests a bereft Teo Macero scoring the soundtrack for Ingmar Bergman's Hour of the Wolf."

'nuff and well said... aehm, written.

Worth a listen in vinyl format... on Invisible Bird label.

Imre Peemot

Imre Peemot is a well kept secret in music... my friend Luca Nardon, percussionist extraordinaire, played with him and he's guilty he introduced Peemot's harmonic singing to me...

Browse his name on the WEB, and you'll discover beautiful, BEAUTIFUL soundscapes of seldom heard deepness and amazing beauty.

WJAAS - Satori in Nara

Thanking Fede...

Richard Sinclair

(right/left) An angel and a man!