Vexations, Meaning, Purpose

More music from a CD that came free with a magazine, this time (again) Mojo in 2020. The disc, titled The Cold Open, was a collection of tracks acting as a sampler for Belgian label Le Discques De Crepescule  Factory Benelux and took in several Factory related artists- Section 25, The Other Two, Shadowplay, Stephen Mallinder- plus some Factory adjacent acts- Paul Haig, LoneLady covering New Order's Cries And Whispers, Pauline Murray- and a bunch of others. Tucked away at the end are two low key and moving pieces of music. Firstly, Alan Marks playing Erik Satie's Vexations...

Vexations

Satie never performed Vexations in his lifetime- it only came to light in 1949. On the manuscript Satie left the note, 'in order to play the motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities'. Since the 1960s therefore it has been interpreted that the music on the sheet must be played 840 times but this may not be what Satie intended. I'll leave that decision up to you. 

The second piece of music is a recording of The Durutti Column playing at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham in 2004, Vini playing guitar for a few minutes in his own inimitable style. No day is ever worse for having a little Durutti Column in it. 

Meaning + Purpose (Live)

I saw The Durutti Column live a few times in the 00s, once at The Comedy Store in Deansgate Locks, Manchester (27th April 2003 according to the internet). Vini came on stage with a ghetto blaster, made a joke about telling jokes in a comedy club, and then played along to a tape backing.  After a couple of songs he was joined by Bruce Mitchell on drums and a keyboard player, possibly Kier Stewart. The venue, not a large one, was only half full. 

In December 2003 and again in April 2005 we saw them at Manchester Academy 3, a small room at the university student union that used to be called The Hop And Grape. Vini was in explosive form, building in volume and noise as the gig unfolded. I found this photo on the internet a while ago from the December 2003 gig. We saw Vini and DC play on a couple of other occasions too I think. At the time, like many things, we took it for granted that Vini would be playing small venues in Manchester to small but appreciative crowds of fans and that we'd be able to stand and watch him conjure up magic from his guitar. 

Piano In Triste And Dub

Two piano pieces for Saturday, one from the 1880s and one from the 2020s, both finding a stillness, sadness and a delicate beauty in single piano notes played slowly. 

The first is Gymnopedies No. 3, composed by Erik Satie in 1888 and played here by Reinbert de Leeuw in 1980. 

Gymnopedies No. 3 Lent et Triste

The second is thirteen minutes of Roger Eno playing piano, seemingly endlessly, while The Orb offer some background found sounds, FX and ambience. 

The Weekend In Rained Forever In Dub (The Waterbed Experience Mix)

a12.ab3 .215061

 

Soundcloud user18081971, Aphex Twin by another name, has posted another long lost track pulled from an old cassette. The track, catchily titled a12.ab3 .215061 is a superb piece of driving, fizzing acid recorded at some point around 1990. This piece of music, three decades old and not sounding at all like it, is four and a half minutes of buzzing 303 bassline, rattling snares and a topline that'll frazzle your head a little. There's a lovely breakdown part at two and a half minutes with a little tick tock melody playing, then everything else drops out for a while and then comes back in for the last minute with some loopy shit going on at the four minute mark. Proper lost in the strobe and dry ice of the backroom of a club stuff, wondering where all your friends have gone but deciding it doesn't matter, just stay near the speakers, it'll all be fine. The only problem with a12.ab3 .215061 is it's too short and ends abruptly, apparently because the tape ran out. It's on user18081971's Soundcloud page as a free download. 

Not entirely unrelated but written a century before is this by Erik Satie, Gymnopedie No. 1, one of Satie's modernist, minimalist piano pieces. As this was playing on the computer on Monday morning my daughter passed by and said, 'this sounds sad'. And it does but it's very nice too. 

I'm no expert on Satie. I need to explore further. Aphex Twin's 2001 album Druqks contained some Satie style piano pieces, interludes among some manic, rapid fire drum 'n' bass/ breakbeat music. Druqks was released after Richard D James left an mp3 player on an airplane and was concerned the unreleased music on it would be leaked and bootlegged. Alternatively, James had a load of music sitting on his hard drive and wanted out of his contract with Warp. Either way it made for a disjointed album, one which requires some dedication on the part of the listener (or as we'd do now, the ability to rip it yourself and pull out the ones you like into a playlist or a mix CD of your own- probably what he intended all along. I'm sure Satie would approve too).