This week's 120 minute, 25 track extravaganza brings you, in the main, tracks from discs which have entered Mr CBQ (who toasts you with his Diet Irn Bru in the pic below)'s collection over the last seven days or so...
And so, comprising, at times, extremely "difficult" listening, Mr Quartet presents classical pieces by Sehrbrock, Adès, Acantus, Gough, JS Bach, Schubert, Desprez, Sibelius, Frye, Beethoven, MacMillan, JC Bach, Bachmann, Van Ghizeghem and Dohl; a smattering of rock from Audible Silence (3 tracks), Jethro Tull, Steve Adey and Yes; some tasty jazz from Carsten Dahl (2 tracks) and Polar Bear; and, of course, as always, a smidgen of Cloudland Blue Quartet...
Also, over the last seven days, this...
...was created by light entering the CBQ camera...
You have around five weeks to download, at which point this podcast will become stream only via the Mixcloud player below - I am also gradually adding the back catalogue of deleted weekly podcasts to Mixcloud - slow laborious process - I am still only up to week 8...
You can play this Cloudland Blue Podcast in iTunes by clicking on the "subscribe" button on the player...
You can download the podcasts by clicking on the "download" button on the player...
Or try the Mixcloud Player - it does seem to show up on Apple devices (which Podcast Machine does not seem to do) - you can only stream from this, not download...
Press play (on either player) and away we go...
Sehrbrock - Static Music #9 5:10
from "Static Music"
We kick off with a delightful Reich-esque piece from German composer Georg Sehrbrock, featuring too, some tasty muted trumpet in the closing stages...
Adès - Arcadiana, 4. Et...(Tango Mortale) 4:02
from "Kuss Quartet : Bridges"
...and continue with a less than tuneful piece from the pen of wunderkind Thomas Adès, played by the Kuss Quartet, whom we will see perform later this year in Berlin...
Acantus - O Crux Fructus 4:49
from "Acantus (L'Italie medievale)"
Like the Sehrbrock disc and several of those that follow, this, by a septet of Italians, was acquired for next to nothing this week. The music is based on tunes sung by congregations at religious services in the middle ages...
Audible Silence - Unlimited 6:06
from "Three's Crowd"
...from where we move forward into the 21st Century and some heavy metal math rock from new discovery Audible Silence. This track comes from their just released second LP. A further two tracks by the band feature later...
Carsten Dahl - Dreamchild #6 4:35
from "Dreamchild"
There are also multiple tracks, or two anyway, from Danish jazz pianist Carsten Dahl today - both the featured albums are available from strange Danish retailer with a limited UK High Street presence, Tiger. Worth searching out at just £4 a pop. Much recommended...
Gough - Saeta #7 4:45
from "Message From The Border"
Orlando Gough's music, mainly written for dance performance, falls somewhere between serialist classical and jazz. Very enjoyable and, while in a similar vein to the Sehrbrock piece at the top of the programme, a little more complex...
JS Bach - Lute Suite In G Minor, BWV 995, Allemande 4:50
from "Works For Lute"
Some relaxing lute music from the pen of Johann Sebastian Bach, taken for the first of sixty CDs in the Vivarte Box Set which arrived last Saturday. At present, 57 of the CDs remain unopened...
Jethro Tull - The Waking Edge 4:47
from "Crest Of A Knave"
There's been a recent influx of Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull to Crispycat Towers but I am now in possession of the full Jethro Tull studio album discography following the arrival of this final disc. Anderson is a little more subdued on this Dire Straits sound a like in places disc - following throat surgery just prior to the recording....
Schubert - Piano Sonata In G, Op. 78, D 894, 3. Menuetto: Allegro Moderato 4:24
from "Piano Sonatas"
This piano sonata accompanied a breakfast this week, as we contemplated all the performances at the Edinburgh Festival that we might have attended but for which I've left it too late now to get tickets. Perhaps we can just listen to recordings at home...
Polar Bear - Held On The Tips Of Fingers 5:16
from "Held On The Tips Of Fingers"
With the huge amount of incoming material over the last few weeks, this album, acquired in May, slipped off the living room shelf this week. So I gave a it a wee listen before filing it away. Top notch...
Josquin Desprez - Missa L'Homme Armé, Sexti Toni, Sanctus & Benedictus 5:03
from "Josquin: L'Homme Armé Masses"
This is the most famous mass Josquin composed - the earliest printed collection of music devoted to a single composer, the Misse Josquin published by Ottaviano Petrucci in 1502, begins with it, written around 1495...
Audible Silence - Kiss Me 4:49
from "Audible Silence Live at Brunkfest 2012"
A juxtaposition of mood is created by this track from what is, presumably, an official bootleg. This, along with Audible Silence's two studio albums to date, is available to download for free for their Bandcamp site...
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Over Lake Noise (Detail) (Edit) 5:00
from "Twenty Four Paintings"
And so we reach the half way mark of what I hope is proving to be an interesting listen. It's time for this week's CBQ input, an edit of the ten minute detail of "Over Lake Noise" from the ongoing Twenty Four Paintings project...
Sibelius - Sibelius: Canzonetta, Op. 62A 4:20
from "Scandinavian Serenade"
This music is one of six compositions created by Sibelius for his brother-in-law Arvid Järnefelt's play "Kuolema" (Death), first performed in 1903. The play was revised in 1911. Another of the pieces, " Valse triste", is the most famous of the six- it was later adapted by Sibelius into a separate concert piece...
Frye - Kyrie Alternatim (Missa Sine Nomine) 4:40
from "Marc Aurel Edition : Early Music 2002"
A piece from even earlier than the Josquin Mass above, this "Mass With No Name" was written by Walter Frye, who died in 1495. It's almost like a vocal version of much later written chamber music...
Steve Adey - The Field 5:18
from "The Tower Of Silence"
Picked up in HMV's bargain basement this week, Adey's follow up to his acclaimed 2006 album "All Things Real" was recorded live in a church in Edinburgh and then worked on meticulously for a number of years in his home studio. This slow, beautiful album, rewards close listening if you're willing to put in the work. Recommended...
Beethoven - Beethoven: String Quartet #12 In E Flat, Op. 127 - 4. Finale 6:49
from "The Late Beethoven Quartets Vol 1"
Wonderful playing from the Lindsays on this disc - again obtained for a stupidly low price - but who am I to complain. Beethoven's late quartets can be a difficult listen but, ultimately, you are rewarded with an insight into one of the greatest musical minds of all time. Can't say fairer than that really....
MacMillan - I Thirst (St. John) 4:57
from "Seven Last Words from the Cross"
This work was commissioned by the BBC (nice work if you can get it!) and first screened in seven nightly episodes during Holy Week 1994. The two words "I thirst" are set to a static and slow-moving harmonic procedure which is deliberately bare and desolate. The interpolated text from the Good Friday Reproaches is heard whispered and distantly chanted. It's rated as one of the most difficult pieces for a choir to attempt...
JC Bach - Bach (JCF): Viola Da Gamba Sonata In A - Larghetto 4:13
from "Sonatas for Viola Da Gamba"
Another piece from the 60 disc Vivarte Box and, as regular listeners will know, I am a sucker for the beautiful sound of the viol. On these recordings, the harpsichord part is taken by an organ, giving the pieces even more gravitas. Lovely...
Audible Silence - 17 Again Starring Zac Efron 4:42
from "An Instinctual Response"
The final piece of today's trilogy from Pennsylvanian instrumental prog rock outfit Audible Silence. This comes from their debut from 2011 - the full title is "17 Again Starring Zac Efron (Kiss Me And I'll Break Your Lips) Asterisk Lyrics by Ron Hoffman". Rock on...
Carsten Dahl - Papillon #3 4:11
from "Papillon"
Second piece from Dane Carsten Dahl - again from a disc of solo improvisations. Here he shows a Glenn Gould/Keith Jarrett propensity for singing along, not necessarily in tune, to what he's playing. I say - don't mike the pianist...
Bachmann - Rotation 90N : Musik fur Streicher (Opening) 5:00
from "Rotation 90N"
72 minutes of not much happening is very much in the vein of some of the pieces on my own upcoming project. This music for (low) strings, written during his stay at the North Pole by Austrian composer Robert Bachmann, for violas cellos and double basses, might be deemed by some as "going on a bit" but I like it. I have however, offered up a mere five minute excerpt as a taster...
Van Ghizeghem - De tous bien plane 5:12
from "Pastyme with Good Companye"
This piece, from a disc of music from the court of Henry VIII, is a French chanson, usually credited to Hayne van Ghizeghem, who wrote a 3-part version, published by Petrucci in 1501. Amongst other reworkings are a four-part version by Josquin Deprez and two 3-part versions by Alexander Agricola. The text is "My mistress possesses every virtue. Everybody pays her homage, for she is as full of worth as ever any goddess was." Apparently, this was the (enter name of One Direction hit here) of the age...
Yes - Light Of The Ages 7:39
from "Heaven and Earth"
Having had a download of the new Yes album for a few weeks, I bought the physical version this week and, despite all the negative reviews I have come to see this, in terms of the Yes canon as a whole, as a surprising and underestimated album. I feel the critics are not taking enough time to listen to the nuances - on the surface the music (from a Yes perspective) does seem fairly simple - but continued listening brings its rewards. Of course many will not give it that chance. Their loss...
Dohl - Sieben Haiku; No 7 Langsam Tag an Tag 1:40
from "Friedhelm Dohl Edition, Vol. 4 : Gesang und Klavier"
And so we bring matters to a close with a track from the fourth volume of the Friedhelm Dohl edition, from which some angular piano music from volume two has previously impressed here. This disc is hard going though, so just a minute or so to round things off...
OK that's it for another week, thanks for listening - I hope you enjoy the music and will come back again next week for more...
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