Sorry this has been temporarily removed to make way for Weekly Playlist No 21 but it will return shortly for streaming - watch this space...
There are also a couple of blues numbers, a little out of the ordinary for Mr Quartet and, perhaps more par for the course, some cracking prog...
The jazz contingent is down to just two tracks this week but both are top notch...
And we've got some pop from Erasure, atmospherics from The Alvaret Ensemble, Mogwai, Laurie Anderson and CBQ (as always - hey, it's my show after all) and a couple of great songwriters called Paul...
Once again, no chat from me (other than the notes below), just the music - hope you enjoy it...
Golijov - Tenebrae - Sound and Silence : Remembering September 11 - 15:06
A beautiful piece by the Argentinian composer Golijev. This recording is taken from the concert held in New York on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. A long but rewarding listen to open this week's podcast...
Subsignal - Feeding Utopia - Touchstones - 5:24
All of the pieces in this edition have been selected from tracks which came up via shuffleplay during the week. This is an album I've had for a while without ever having listened to it properly (like too many in the collection). This is the opening track from the German band's 2011 album...
Adrian Belew - e2 - e - 7:57
The intricacies of this piece demonstrate just what Adrian Belew brought to King Crimson between 1981 and 2008. He's not included in the new line up, due to debut later this year. Time will tell if that's left a hole or not. In the meantime, Mr Belew continues to wow the crowds with his Crimson ProjeKct outfit, which includes two members of the current KC line up in Tony Levin and Pat Mastellotto...
The Alvaret Ensemble - Eac - The Alvaret Ensemble - 4:20
Another gorgeous quiet piece by Berlin based improv outfit The Alvaret Ensemble, whose music turned me on to the output of the Denovali label, whose experimental music festival I am attending in London this weekend...
Thomas - Eagle at Sunrise - Ying Quartet: Life Music 2 - 6:18
Another album not properly listened to upon its acquisition. This piece is by the American composer Augusta Read Thomas, whose works are championed by the likes of Barenboim, Rostropovich, Boulez and Knussen...
Mogwai - Eagle Tax - Les Revenants - 3:22
A short electric piano based piece from the Glasgow outfit's soundtrack to the hit French science fiction TV series Les Revenants...
Fernstrom - Strakkvartett #6, Op. 81B - 1. Allegro - Fernstrom String Quartets 3, 6 & 8 - 5:07
Fernström was one of the most productive Swedish composers of his generation. His composition is characterised by technical expertise, skilful counterpoint and instrumentation combined with fantasy and a rich inventiveness. This is the opening movement from his 6th quartet, written in 1946...
Ginastera - Cello Concerto #1, Op. 36 - II. Presto sfumato - Ginastera Cello Concertos - 10:07
A long and fairly complex piece by another Argentinian composer, Alberto Ginastera, whose work was famously covered by Emerson, Lake and Palmer on their No 1 album from 1973, "Brain Salad Surgery"...
The Butterfield Blues Band - Work Song - East-West - 7:56
As is often the case on these podcasts, we go from the sublime to the ridiculous (but still good), with a track from one of Alice Cooper's favourite bands. If I'm going to listen to the blues, this is one of my bands of choice. Preceding the Doors' debut by around a year, the album was co-produced by Paul Rothchild, who produced the first five Doors albums - you can compare and contrast...
Hindemith - In Einer Nacht VI Sehr Lebhaft - Toros Con Piano - 0:53
A frenetic piece from the hands of Paul Hindemith, a recent favourite in my quest for ever more tuneless complex classical work...
Paul Simon - Leaves That Are Green - The Paul Simon Songbook – 2:34
Poignant lyrics from Paul Simon on a solo recording of a song later recorded by Simon & Garfunkel. The inevitability of what waits us all is well related here...
Stockhausen - Stier R1 - Tierkreis – 3:58
A wonderful stately piece from Karl-Heinz Stockhausen's work based on the signs of the Zodiac. This, my own star sign, Taurus. I'm not even sure how some of these sounds are made...
Grachan Moncur III - The Reason Why - Mosaic Select – 6:53
One of my favourite Blue Note artists and avant garde wizard of the sixties is Grachan Moncur III. This track comes from a quite excellent but pricey if you can find it, three disc compilation of previously released and previously unreleased works from the master of the trombone...
Ligeti – Premier Etudes #3 Touches Bloquees - Hommage à György Ligeti – 1:51
Another short piano piece, this time from György Ligeti, who's probably most famous for his choral work used so effectively on the soundtrack of the Kubrick classic “2001 A Space Odyssey”. His piano music though is a whole different thing – wonderful stuff and I recommend searching out his books of Etudes, from which this piece comes...
Rubbra - String Quartet #2 Op.73: 3 Cavatina - Edmund Rubbra The Four String Quartets – 7:20
A new discovery this week was the work of British composer Edmund Rubbra, who died in the mid eighties. He was composing at the same time as many of the so-called “Twelve Tone” composers but, rather than follow their example, he devised his own system. This is the beautiful and desolate slow movement from his second string quartet, written in 1951...
Kurtág - String Quartet #1 con moto - Arditti String Quartet Kurtag Lutoslawski Gubaidulina – 1:49
A frantic short movement from Kurtag's 1st string quartet, expertly relayed by the Arditti's, from a disc featuring a further two favourite purveyors of tuneless wonder, Lutoslawski and Gubaidulina...
Graham Bond Organisation - What'd I Say? - There's A Bond Between Us – 4:17
...followed by some more blues based stuff, this time from the UK and Graham Bond's Organisation, featuring future members of Cream. Let's party...
Laurie Anderson - Dark Time in the Revolution - Homeland – 5:15
And now some thought provoking work from the latest LP by probably my favourite performing artist of all time – I well remember travelling to London in 1982 with the Exec Producer to see the eight hour extravaganza that was the future Mrs Lou Reed's “United States Pts I-IV”. Mesmerising inventiveness with what seems like a touch of Scotland thrown in at the close...
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Terminal IV - Twenty Four Paintings (Short Details) – 3:02
It wouldn't be a Cloudland Blue podcast without something from Cloudland Blue Quartet and this week's offering is a short edit from “Terminal IV”, a 33 minute track from the forthcoming “Twenty Four Paintings” project...
Paul Buchanan - Tuesday - Mid Air – 2:13
...which leads in nicely to a song from the Blue Nile songwriter's debut solo album, released in a special box set almost two years ago already. Beautifully understated work indeed...
Erasure - A Little Respect - Total Pop – 3:32
Into the closing strait now with a wonderfully happy party song from electro favourites, Erasure. It doesn't get much better than this...
Gary Husband - The Sixteen Men of Tain - The Things I See – 5:20
As I mentioned earlier, I'll be in London this weekend for the Denovali Swingfest. I was down for the same fest this weekend last year and the first CD I bought on my travels was this, from drummer and pianist Gary Husband (whom I 'd seen the year before drumming for UK). This is a solo piano album of Allan Holdsworth material. Top stuff...
Rush - The Garden - Clockwork Angels – 7:00
And so the two hours has veritably flown past. Old chum Paul Reynolds e-mailed me this week to advise this had turned up on his own shuffleplay - and he'd thought of our recent travails. A wonderful piece from Canadian stars Rush, based on the writings of Voltaire and his classic “Candide”. “It is up to us to cultivate our garden”- it's Rush's very own "Comfortably Numb"...
Hope you enjoy the podcast and will pop by again next week...
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