Saturday, December 28, 2013

La-la-la

My mind's ear re-bends to 'electronic' Musica con Spirito...
Re-re-remembering those late Sunday to Monday sunrises of my hometown Santa Barbara,
drawing/painting to SPR soundtracks cast from the heights of the Granada Theater (99.9 FM) thru a small mono clock radio...
Cosi fortunati.


Here amongst Moog tributes are 'Three Pipers at the Gates of Dawn':
Pete Namlook, Klaus Schulze and Bill Laswell,





Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Collage of Memories

A fragment of John William Waterhouse's 'Hylas and the Nymphs' painting gazes up on the cover of 'Symbol' by Susumu Yokota.
A Japanese composer, who mixes classic fragments from Beethoven, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Tchalkovsky and Saint-Saens to the moderns of Cage and voice of Meredith Monk.
Each song is a sound collage layered with Yokota's own instrumentation; piano, flute, percussion and samplings -
Ambient and trance-looping music that spark memories in my blinking mind's eye.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Rushing Red




My favorite color was red when asked when I was young.

I learned the planet Mars was red...

'Spirit Preparation' on 'Planetarium 2' New Composers with Pete Namlook (Koolman rev'd)
takes me to that sand pit behind the farm fence from the movie, 'Invaders from Mars'.
After I saw this 50's classic, I later noticed a mole on the nape of my Father's neck and was certain he was needled by the Martians because of his behavior that day...
I convinced my younger Brother Paul, Dad had been taken by the aliens.


A joke from 2nd grade (still instilled in me ol' grey matter)
 'Why are Fire Engines red?'
'Cause they're 12 inches in a ruler,
Queen Mary was a Ruler, she also was a ship,
ship sail in the sea, in the sea are fishes,
fishes have fins, Fins fought the Russians,
Russians are red...
and that's why they're rushin' all over the place'.


Enjoying the red Christmas bulbs' glow
and the green baby Jesus' halo.


Sunday, December 1, 2013

From Russia

I was introduced to much of my Eastern Euro music collection at Klasky Csupo, an animation studio that housed Hungarians, Bulgarians, Poles, Czechs and Russians with great taste and talent.
There we shared CD's amongst the cubicles and floors.
Yelena Tokman (last seen at a Holger Czukay performance), shared a St. Petersburg duo-
                                                             New Composers' 'Astra'

Brian Eno worked and produced with the new Composers as well as Russian Art Rockers
Zvuki Mu

One advantage of the Klasky Csupo's locale, was that its first studio's home was a block up from Aaron's Records on Highland Ave. Hollywood... a lost song would come to mind while drawing...oh,  time to take a break and search the bins. The studio then moved to the grand Sunset Blvd. across from Amoeba Records... 
There I found the works of Alexander Kopelkin, a Moscow experimentalist of sound and textures.
'Shadow Trap's tracks are listed as locations...
Eleven locations that place me well.