Discovering November...

Playlist

Coldplay - Ghost Stories

Tiles - Pretending 2 Run

Fauré - Piano Quartets & Quintets

Various - Gatecrasher Anthems Paul Van Dyk

Van Nostrand - Voyage in a White Building I

John Cale - Slow Dazzle

Various - The Best Of Hallyday, Rivers, Mitchell, Anthony & Vartan

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Greatest Hits

Einaudi - Waves The Piano Collection

Black Widow - Black Widow III

Various - Know Your Enemy

Amsterdam Guitar Trio - Plays Music by Debussy, Fauré, Chopin

Rachmaninov - Symphonies ･ Orchestral Works ･ Concertos

Various - Anthologie De La Chanson Française

Bobby Womack - Everything's Gonna Be Alright - The American Singles 1967-76

Martin Tchiba - Linkages

Chicago - Live In Japan 1972

David Bowie - Acoustic Bowie (Earthling Promo Tour 96/97)

The Marvelettes - The Essential Collection

Moondog - Moondog 2

Barber - Solo Piano Music

Pärt - Piano Music

Ferguson - Piano Sonata in F minor

Various Composers - Deutsche Grammophon : Original Masters : The Singles

Igor Levitt - Bach, Beethoven, Rzewski

David Lloyd-Jones - English String Miniatures, Vol. 3

Nordic Union - Nordic Union

Thunder - All You Can Eat

Beethoven - Diabelli Variations

Alpha Rev - Greatest Thing I've Ever Learned

Beck, Bogert & Appice - Radioshow

Gubaidulina - String Quartets 1-3 & String Trio

Alpha Rev - New Morning

Lachenmann - Ausklang

Gabi Delgado - 2

Grateful Dead - American Beauty

Takashi Hirayasu & Bob Brozman - Jin Jin/Firefly

Tchaikovsky - The Sleeping Beauty

Rawsthorne - Cello Concerto, Oboe Concerto, Symphonic Studies

Lunatic Soul - Walking on a Flashlight Beam

Various - Dancing In The Streets - Motown's Greatest Hits

Various - Tamla Motown: Big Hits & Hard To Find Classics, Vol. 2

Muungano National Choir, Kenya - Missa Luba: An African Mass - 10 Kenyan Folk Melodies

Tippett - Stravinsky: Apollon musagete & Tippett: Concerto for Double String Orchestra

Everything Everything - Get To Heaven

Montrose - Jump On It

Beck, Bogert & Appice - Live

Haken - Affinity

Brahms - String Quintets

Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells III

Derek And The Dominos - Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs

Schubert - Die Schöne Müllerin

Various Composers - Les incontournables du baroque

The Revivalists - Men Amongst Mountains

Krauze - Piano Works

Stockhausen - Kontakte

Feldman - For Samuel Beckett

Perahia / Rupu - Mozart; Schubert: Sonatas For 2 Pianos

Blind Faith - Blind Faith

Murray Perahia - Béla Bartók

Axel Rudi Pell - Game Of Sins

Matthew Friedberger - Winter Women / Holy Ghost Language School

Pet Shop Boys - Super

Jason Moran - Modernistic

Dave Douglas - Convergence

Earth, Wind & Fire - The Box Set Series

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Soul Legends

Sardelli - Concerti, Psaumes, Musique De Chambre - Modo Antiquo

Françoise Hardy - The Real... Françoise Hardy

Bach, J S - English Suites #2, 4 & 5

Mendelssohn - Piano Concertos

Boxhead Ensemble - Dutch Harbor: Where The Sea Breaks Its Back OST

Gabi Delgado - 1

Chopin - 4 Ballades

Commodores - The Very Best Of The Commodores

Stockhausen - Telemusik / Mixtur

Circle - Paris Concert

Stockhausen - Oktophonie

Cloudland Blue Quartet - DDHR40

Johnson - November

The day commenced around 6:30 with work on my tax return and correspondence with our accommodation provider for a trip to Hamburg later this year...

This was followed by some locating and commencement of downloading of much music by Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, following conversations on Thursday evening with Sid Smith...

Although I had a goodly number of Stockhausen works in the collection, those being spoken of in particular were not there...

Over the course of the day, this situation was rectified, as the pieces witnessed by the Exec Producer, Dr Prog, Count Brodski, Jim Park, David Bann and your correspondent in April 2005, when this diary was but a month or so old, "Kontakte" and "Oktophonie", along with Sid's first two acquisitions back in the 70's, "Telemusik" and "Mixtur" joined the fray...

In addition to this, I partook of recordings by the jazz quartet Circle, their "Paris Concert" on ECM, which Sid had eulogised over, having purchased an immaculate copy of the 2LP set in Edinburgh during his trip...

In all then, around four and a half hours of new music...

I left the computer doing this as, around midday, Anne and I set out on a walk, starting in the sunny garden...

...and down the hill...

...over the main road and took the scenic route...

...where this inquisitive wee monkey was spotted...

...as was Anne's mum's house...

Our goal was the tram stop...

...said machine taking us to The Gyle...

...where some time was spent provision shopping re a tasty tea and on the purchase of birthday cards for brother in law Senior, Ross of Lynn and Ross and Lady Penelope, who turn 60, 50 and 40 this week respectively...

A number 12 back to the foot of the hill and a walk up, still under good skies...

The rest of the afternoon and early evening was taken up with the first three episodes of "The Night Manager", which was gripping - looking forward to the last three...

Between this and the enjoyable return of "The Musketeers", some music work...

Around an hour of guitarscaping in preparation for some new recording or gig or other which may or may not materialise...

I attemped updated versions of my 1977 compositions "Landscapes" and The Drone Effect"....

Late on, my final musical discovery of the day, by complete chance, was a five hour composition from 1959 by Dennis Johnson, a college mate of La Monte Young...

It seems Young's famous 1964 composition "The Well Tuned Piano" was much influenced by Johnson's "November" of which, until a few years ago, the only rendition existed on an old C120 cassette tape - two of the, proposed by the score, five hours...

The story of how the composition was restored and eventually recorded is over on Bandcamp, from where the recording can be purchased...

I managed to find a very reasonably priced new copy of the 4CD box set on Amazon (made even more reasonable by the recent acquisition of a voucher with regard to work carried out).  And so this is now winging its way to Crispycat Towers from Switzerland while I plug the wait with a download from the tube of you...

This recording sets the template for minimalism and ambient at least five years before the previously believed point of departure...

And, as a bonus, the music is actually excellent!

Ended the day with work in relation to transferring funds to Europe without having to pay extortionate bank charges...

All in all then, a busy Saturday...

Highlight of the Day : Discovering Dennis Johnson...