Music: La nef des fous by Robert Cahen (Recollection GRM) / Film: L' entraperçu (1980) / Concrete Poetry: Get With It

 

Reissue of the Year? Already? Yes. GRM have just released La nef des fous (The Ship of Fools), comprising of pieces composed by Robert Cahen in the GRM studios between 1971 and 1974. He's now known as a filmmaker but his mastery of sound is evident on this album, as it is in his films. Beautiful, terrifying, ominous sounds blended brilliantly across five tracks in which any calm, Zen-like atmosphere is interrupted by transmissions from aliens whose messages, when decoded, promise the total takeover and rewiring of your neural pathways. You will be lost in 'music' and thankful that GRM have found this treasure for us to savour.

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Here's a piece I made recently.

RTomens, 2024

Collage: Coming Attraction / Le Group de Recherches Musicales de la R.T.F. prog beyond Prog / Vispo: Arbitrary

 

RTomens, 2024

The first collage of the year. 

2024 promises more collages....consisting of hope/despair/joy/sorrow/chocolate/coffee/excitement/boredom/sun/rain/books/films...in short, life.

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I start the year as I mean to go on...music-wise, with this: Musique Expérimentale by Le Group de Recherches Musicales de la R.T.F., from 1962. The date, however, seems irrelevant, except to state the obvious, namely that it is timeless and as progressive as it was possible to be in 1962. Progressive, that is, in a way that would render common musical 'prog' of later years quaintly of its time in retrospect, despite the artists' efforts to appear forward-looking (?). Not that I mind a bit of (early) Yes, now and then.

Yes, with some knowledge of musical history, it might be possible to place Musique Expérimentale in time, yet so much of what followed in this field did not radically change. How could it? So it could be from any following decade. The template for all sonic adventures via tape and electronics is here, traces having been laid down before, but these sounds define the shapes of things to come.

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RTomens, 2024

This from between Xmas and New Year, when I found time to type between stuffing chocolate and mince pies in my face.

Collage: Any Resemblance / My Year In Music on Spotify

 

RTomens, 2023

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It's the time of year people compile lists of their favourite books/films/albums of 2023, isn't it? Yes, I would...I might...if I had a memory left. Besides, my Favourite Books of 2023 would be a very short list. Ditto Film. Etc. So, thank god for Spotify because it can remember my musical year for me. or rather, it logs it. It knows everything about my listening habits. Slightly disturbing...slightly...in a way...the thought it 'it' keeping track...you know, the way technology does...

So because you're just dying to know, here's what I listened to and for how long and who etc...

Is this a long time spent listening to music? 

Surprisingly, my concentration is 'absolute'...well, I'm showing my age, I suppose. You know, I come from the pre-(computer)historic era, when we listened to albums all the way through...because we'd saved our money, gone to shops and bought the vinyl, therefore the effort required naturally meant we played the whole damned thing...no skipping through...no temptation to skip to another album...no easy way out...and sometimes, yes, the album hadn't been played in the shop and it turned out to be a dud so we had to skip back to the shop to change it...imagine that, kids! 

My top genres as burger contents - huh! It ain't fast food, y'know! Perhaps the burger graphic is apt for what most people listen to...yeah (he says, snobbishly) the musical equivalent of fast food! Seeing this I got to thinking that I may be on the rarer side of Spotify listeners, mainly, no, partly because the audience for Acousmatic music worldwide must be relatively small, but also because the types who listen to that and Experimental music are a snooty bunch who shun what they see as shameful streaming as opposed to buying vinyl or even CDs. Correct? I don't know. They're very serious about music...they support artists and labels...they relish the design, the type of card, the booklets that accompany albums...they have more spare cash than me too. I'm glad they do because they support labels with cash, whereas I just stream. Needs must.

It's not easy finding other people with similar taste...except for a few online, who I have a fake Friendship with. In ye olde days we naturally bonded over music, you know? Friends met in bars, clubs and gigs, naturally being into the same things, or similar. But they were real people, not names on a screen. It transpires that I should move to Berkeley, USA, if I want a good chance of bumping into musical soulmates. Spotify told me. I don't know what Brian Eno's doing in there because I don't listen to him that much. Sun Ra and Miles Davis, though, are two of my Most Listened To artists of all-time, probably.

Who did I listen to most in 2023? Well, look who it is...Conrad Schnitzler....I'm a Top 0.005% fan! I can't even work out what that means. Hello Conrad. 

So there it is, my musical year. 

Today I listened to another album all the way through...because I'm crazy like that. Here's a classic of electronic music from 1970 by Oskar Sala...

When Conor McGregor went Ultra Instinct / Anarchy magazine cover / Collage: Almost Human / Israeli Electroacoustic Music

 

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December, 1963

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RTomens, 2023

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What do you mean you never knew there was such a thing. Neither did I until I found it in the Folkways archive. From 1981, this is a first rate compilation.

Visual Poetry: Not Yet / Denis Dufour: Complete Acousmatic Works, Vol. 1 / On Self-Improvement / BERNARD PARMEGIANI L'Œuvre Musicale (12 CD Box Set) Reissue

 

RTomens, 2023

Made this morning whilst the wind kept whipping the page forward as it rushed down the alley into the back garden where the dazzling sun illuminated leaves moist from overnight rain. Its sound and power seemed to spur me on to type and compose even faster than usual. 

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Not yet.

Not ever?

Would I be capable of writing a review the length of this one by Michael Eisenberg at Avant Music News regarding Denis Dufour: Complete Acousmatic Works, Vol. 1 (Kairos, 2021). 

I sit on the loo contemplating my incapabilities...

My failings, I think for a moment, do a disservice to monumental box sets of such musical depth...yet...I AM WHAT I AM!

At the risk of sounding like one of those posters at train stations, it's OK to be what you are (unless you're an evil wrongdoer). Yes, sir, I know there's 'room for improvement'. That was a frequent message from my teacher on school reports. Huh, the story of my life? The story of many people's lives, surely. perhaps everyone's. A brain surgeon may have achieved the pinnacle of his chosen career, but I bet he could improve on his housework - ha-ha.

I do try. As proof, I can tell you that I'm further into Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow than I've ever travelled before. That, after several attempts where I got no further than about 30 pages. I'm currently on page 73. No great achievement? Perhaps not for you. Is that what they mean when they talk about 'self-improvement'? No. 

Perhaps in art we can attain 'greatness' where, for the duration of creation at least, there is no room for improvement. Yes, I think so. Some viewers may think otherwise. I have looked back through some typed creations of mine and, I confess, though 'Damn! I'm past my best! I peaked during that period!'. Ah, the old devil on our shoulders which shouts doubts in our ears. Bugger off! 

On the subject of epic box sets, BERNARD PARMEGIANI's L'Œuvre Musicale (12 CD Box Set) has just been reissued. I've had a copy for years and still find something to marvel at. How many artists can you say that about? Let's be honest though and make the obvious point, artists who compose sounds as complex as either Dufour or Parmegiani are in a minority. That's as it should be. As it must be. Brain surgeons are in a minority too. 

But as much as these artistic minorities are championed in magazines like The Wire, they really don't get the attention and support they deserve, do they? Yes or no? What do they deserve then? In my world, medals of honour and exposure in the mainstream media...perhaps. Why? Because depth, musical intelligence and profound imagination should be promoted where and whenever possible. Where is the movement that supports this minority, eh? Where are the organisations supporting and promoting these people, this music? Yes, yes, you can point to this or that website but...

Everyone's lives could be enhanced by listening to Parmegiani. How? Well, at least in the sense of reaching for something else beyond what is common. It's good to explore! It's good to engage the  noodle in tandem with the lug 'oles and be challenged. Although how much the brain has to do with listening I don't know because I'm not a psychologist. Must be something to it, right?

I won't say 'Pop has its place' (damn, I said it) because that's obvious. Besides, you're not the kind of snob who sneers at a three-minute single, are you? Of course you're not. I don't know who you are. I barely know who I am when I look in the mirror. Do you ever get that feeling? You see yourself and wonder who the hell that is staring back at you.

Before I foolishly step into the realms of the philosophical I shall stop writing and leave you with a promise that if you should spend around £50 on the Parmegiani box YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. Great art may have a price tag but, you know, it's also priceless.

Ta-ta.