Ligeti

Holy cow - that looks awesome! Not cheap mind. Still, wow!

Well, Tim Berne is my favorite Jazz musician. I have everything from his five-disc Empire set through his ECM material. I have a love/hate relationship with ECM, and find their aesthetic a little dull - but obviously they record well. Mind you, just anything the guy appears on is worth your time. Biog Satan are probably my favorites - but I hate to pick.

It's fair enough. I don't listen to much straight-ahead Jazz, my main interest is avant garde, late Coltrane, Brotzmann, Time Berne, Marilyn Crispell, Anthony Braxton etc.

I think the issue here is that what's good for the label may not be best for the artist........ Also, it's a model that is once again okay for the Pop stars, but not good for more niche performers - like Jazz artists.

There is an excellent series of CD's put out by BIS - I have a few of them, here's one: SACD for those people interested in such things - the CD layer sounds great though.

Thank you, kindly. When Tom calls, we muster.

Sure is - and it's mighty lovely too. They have a few discs with Fernandez, including some trio dates. Sublime!

No no. You know what - I've got it all wrong. Read your post, and it reminded me of an awesome CD I have - and rather than check it by peering at the shelf, I responded to you. Topos is the title of a CD: Highly recommended. Apologies!

Well, I reached into my Sun ra section and randomly pulled: It's a little straight for me, and not adventurous enough. Still, on a cold wet night in the UK, it's better than most! Got to love the madcap cover art though.

Topos?

I am sure most of you know of Alvin Curran, he being one fo the founding members of Musica Electronica Viva with Frederic Rzwski, Teitelbaum, and Elliiot Carter. I wonder if I might recommend two release from his later work for your consideration. While I have 7 or 8 CD's by Curran, the two I go back to the most are there: This is a four disc set. Each CD is essentailly solo piano, played wonderfully by Daan Vandewalle. Four CD's, and almost 5 hours of solo piano might seem a lot to dive into, but it's very much worthwhile. This isn't actually one pieces, but 12 pieces that grown over time. The styles change, sometimes strident sometimes melancholy. It never fades into nothing though, and Curran's writing has perhaps never been better. It also benefits from aggressive pricing, so you shouldn't find it hurts your wallet too much. The accompanying booklet has a wonderful reminisce of being in New York, along with a short piece on the inspiration for the various segments - but the real beauty is in the notes. The other Curran to look out for is: This one is really terrific. The basic concept started with Curran making a radio show where he travelled the Eastern Seaboard, recording the sound of fog horns, lighthouses, ships, and even interviews with locals. Next he invited artists to come in and improvise over his recordings. These include one piece each from Steve Lacy, George Lewis and Leo Smith, plus fellow composers Pauline Oliveros, among others. It's really captivating, and has that little bit of "difference" that makes you want to go back and hear it again one more time. Curran has of course done alot of different works - but these two are probably the best of what I've heard..... well until the next time I play another of his CD's.

Do you mean this box set: ? I have this one. It comes in a 12-inch LP cover, with the CD's on a card insert. Strangely for something aping our beloved friend the Vinyl LP - it's a bit of a pain in this configuration because it doesn't fit well on my shelves alongside my other box sets.........

Hm, not sure how someone like Feldman can generate angst - the music is so.......... I have since invested in several more titles, Sub Rosa have some good ones I've purchased. The major work I got was his 2nd String Quartet, which at five hours long is something you really have to commit to. I had a choice of buying the DVD-A version, or the CD version. One of course plays right through, the other you have to change every now and then. I opted for the CD, figuring a break wouldn't be such a bad idea. I am definitely a fan of minimalism, although it's a long way from being my only passion (Reich's Music for 18 Musicians is coming to the island with me along with LeMonte Young's Well Tuned Piano). I'm also reminded that once heard, you own a bit of the music. That is, once it's left the composers mind and found its way before a performer, he gives up a bit of the work, and we fill in what we want. As such, I might thoroughly love String Quartet No. 2, and someone else might dislike it. To ME, it's beguiling, but that doesn't take away anything from any other performer. As such, I'm not sure it matters all that much whether Mr. Feldman was the real deal or just having us on. I mean, there are plenty of John Cage experiments I enjoy, but I accept they probably weren't meant to be over-analyzed, or even listened to in perpetuity. I do it anyway.

Much to my own surprise, I am slowly developing an interest in Opera. I come to it from perhaps strange avenues. There is an electronic music guru by the name of Klaus Schulze, and my favorite album of his is Blackdance. One of the tracks begins with this haunting analog synth, with an operatic voice overlaid. Yeah, not your usual path, I suppose. My love of electronic music led my to electro-acoustic music, and my enjoyment of it led to Alejandro Vinao, whose Hildegard's Dream has Frances Lynch (Soprano) on it. From there I found my way to other vocal works (such as Stockhausen's Stimmung) and more opera from Unsuk Chin, whose Alice in Wonderland is something else. From there into Berio and the awesome Song from the Uproar written by Missi Mazolli (if you buy directly from her, as opposed to from say, Amazon, she has a wonderful package as opposed to the usual jewelcase. I have only sampled what is considered the classic Opera's, perhaps I'll develop a taste for it, but I'm not there yet. However, the more contemporary stuff has certainly got me hooked. I don't call myself an Opera fan only because I've heard so little, and understood even less. But I'm growing into it, and am definitely open.

Well, I am very late to the Sun Ra party. I was listening to Jazz for a long time before getting a taster of Ra's music. I stumbled upon a documentary on him, and was interested from the get go. I started by ordering the Artyard in a Box release, and went from there. I bought some of his work for Evidence, but didn't find that so much to my liking - I like my Sun Ra wild. Give me some Outer Spaceways Incorporated, is what I'm saying. To contradict myself immediately, the one release I constantly go back to though is Lanquidity. It's not too challenging, but it really works on every level. I've still got mountains of Sun Ra to sample, he strikes me as a performer who was all things to all men. He can groove, he can clay it straight, he gets wild. Also his discography is frighteningly large. With no expectation of owning it all, I'll try to funnel my funds and time into the edgier stuff.

Well, tonight I played Nerve Net through a couple times, and also dug out my copy of Shutov Assembly. This follows on from yesterday's airing of The Drop. I have to say, both The Drop and Nerve Net are fascinating pieces. Maybe the shorter tracks on The Drop hurt it some, but not significantly for me. There are a lot of ideas on it, which i suppose runs contrary to his earlier ambient albums, It shares some commonality with Nerve Net, albeit the latter is more strident and focused. Nerve Net just bops along. Some of it sounds rather mechanical at times, it's easy to forget that all of the pieces include myriad other performers bar two - one of which had a programmed drum session and the other being solo "Moon Piano" piece. One thing about each of these three releases is the presentation. Shutov Assembly as it currently stands has a booklet that runs only four pages total - and there's almost no information given. Actually - all you get are the track titles and running times. If you think that's bad, The Drop has a single sheet of paper in it with no notes at all. Nerve Net has your basic information included, but doesn't elaborate. What I'm trying to say here is - I'm very much looking forward to actually getting a booklet that might shed some lights on various things - inspiration etc. I'm grooving at the moment to Wire Shock as I write this. I hear Adrian Belew, Talking Heads, Fripp..... lots of bits of things from elsewhere. Great stuff, imo.

You keep telling yourself that. You're so easy - but then conceited people often are.

This is part of a 13 CD collection. I have three others, and look forward to getting the rest as and when. Essentially it's a series of works that use electronic music (in real time, or as a tape accompaniment) alongside acoustic instruments. Since they're all compilations you get a mix of things, along with excellent and informative booklets (the 13th and last volume comes in a slipcase to accommodate an all English booklet no less than 256 pages lin length!) Anyway, I am buying them randomly, just digging in where the mood takes me. This has a piece by Francois Bayle, which is reason enough to own it.

Misha Mengelberg enjoys a bit of Tuba - he has a recording on Hat Art. I'm pretty sure I have a CD around here somewhere of another Tuba player on Hat Art... I recall the back cover had a shot of the guy playing - with all kinds of tubes and valves hanging out of his tuba...... not sure where it's filed though.....

That it? Shame.

I didn't see this thread, sorry guys! Yes, I came here from AAJ - I got an invite via PM, and decided to come try the place out. To mixed results. Is AAJ never coming back, or what?!? ps: My username at AAJ wasn't Ligeti.... but hey, you know that already or you wouldn't have known to PM me out of the blue.

You're spot on. There are as many reasons to use a PC as there are people using them. The OS shouldn't become entirely entrenched, because for the most part it's invisible. It's been true for more than 10 years that there is, in all practical senses, no difference between Apple and Windows. They do the same kind of things, and really who wants to worrying about the base OS anyway? it's what you do with it that matters. The idea that Windows is a buggy mess that is constantly infected with viruses and malware is silly. Tens of millions of people use Windows every single day - do you not think if the worst stories were true they'd have stopped by now? What's the rationale for them not changing - they didn't have the extra couple hundred for an Apple setup? Fundamentally - from a user perspective, it shouldn't matter too much - that is the goal of an OS. Microsoft don't do everything right, for sure. An example is Internet Explorer. I can't stand it. I changed to Opera, and then on to Firefox due to the amount of good plug-ins and add-ons it supports. I've never been able to get IE to perform as well as Firefox. Oh well, doesn't matter, just download something else. My wife - not a computer junkie - only needs a tablet. My tablet is a Windows based install, her's Android. The Android suited her, because it's lightweight and had better (read: simpler) access to key configuration tools. She's far better with Android than I. OS wars are a bit of madness really. Back in the day there was a real difference between them - but now? Not really, not in a practical sense.

We have to accept that there are people out there who just can't handle a PC. So they get viruses, malware, and unstable OS's. On the other hand if you're not opposed to actually learning something about the OS, and you install the necessary tools, you can live a trouble-free life on a Windows PC if that's your thing. My PC is a Windows 7 install - and it's never turned off. It runs great. But I'm not someone who clicks on links sent anonymously via email, or go to websites without adequate protection. Others can't resist. I also don't upgrade the OS unless there is a compelling reason to do so - which is strangely not what many people do these days, they install new OS's as though it's an email client. Apple and Microsoft took different paths. Microsoft, at the hardware level, is open. Anyone, anywhere can make parts, write drivers, etc. If you just look at motherboards alone there are dozens of different makers. Apple on the hand have a closed system. Their so-called stability comes from having complete control over the base hardware, The downside of this is pricing - Apple costs more because initially they were more expensive to make - the higher pricing seems to have stuck now though - since Apple machines aren't much different from a PC build at this point. There's also a certain lack of flexibility (Apple actually did try to let third-party vendors build their own versions of Apple computers a decade or so back, but it all ended rather badly.) Of course, the differences between Apple and a Windows box is much smaller now. Apple never used to be an Intel shop, fo9r example - but they jumped on it eventually. They also had OS's that had a more Unix-centric source, which has now changed. It's all a matter of taste. A PC can be every bit as stable as an Apple - you just have to configure it properly, and install the necessary safeguards (Anti-virus/Malware - which you can get for free of pay for premium services, plug-in's for your browser that restrict scripting on web pages, and alerts to click-thru dangers (all free)). I have no issue with whatever someone uses. At the end of the day the OS is less important than the use we put these machines too. A lot of myths build up about Apple and Microsoft both. For Apple there's the idea you're not affected by viruses and malware, but anyone who follows such things know that's false. For Microsoft based OS's there's the myth that you have to constantly reboot it, that you get viruses every five minutes. Again, not true - not if you pay attention. Again though - I sincerely don't think it matters. If someone is intimidated by Windows and are scared off by the horror stories - well an Apple computer will do the job. For someone who seems to sit online for the sole purpose of lecturing others about how superior they are and posting acerbic respnses at every opportunity - you've yet to actually pull your head out of your ass long enough to smell the roses. I mean, you're not very good at debating, are you? In order to make decisions, you get informed. You don't simply wake up one day and make a stance (which it looks like you've done just so you can can have more angst in your life). Still, trying to explain that to you is going to be an uphill task. For the record, IT matters, concerns, trends, have been part of my career for more than 25 years. I've written, and had published, books on various topics relating to technology. I've spoken at Security conferences in Las Vegas on four occasions (The MGM Grand is a fine place to hang). I was flown, literally, around the world to speak at conferences in Berlin, London, Sydney, and on both coasts in the US among others. I was a Director at a software development house which was eventually bought out by Symantec (they integrated our software into their core security suites). So while I may not know as much as you ( ), you'll perhaps give me credit for knowing where the ON/OFF button is, and forgive me for disagreeing with you. Stop pretending you know anything about running a Windows PC - because obviously you didn't if you ran into so many problems. Caveat emptor. It's amazing you have time to write on this board at all, what with your spinning the same CD 100 times per. Lucky your last purchase wasn't a huge box set, you may not have left your basement for months if you had. That whistling sound you hear constantly isn't tinnitus, it's the steam leaking out of the hole where your brain should be.

I have found trying to have a critical discussion with bashers of Apple products is not too fruitful. But that's generally the case with any sort of technology-specific religious wars. I'd suggest that anyone who finds Apple users intolerable needs to have a chat with a few Linux bigots to put things in perspective. About the only thing that I use iTunes for regularly (on a Windows box) is for local backups of my iDevices and iOS upgrades. I've ripped a few CDs with it, but when I finally get around to ripping all of my CDs, I'll almost certainly be managing that library with something other than iTunes. I prefer FLAC for archival/backup purposes, which can then be downsampled to mp3 for portable listening devices. I've never purchased any music through iTunes, and although I hesitate to say "never", it's unlikely that I will, absent a really compelling reason to do so. That would be the entrenched views I mentioned earlier. Frankly, as long as people are buying music, and first and foremost enjoying it, it's all good. I understand concerns about artists getting a fair share - at the same time if I see a secondhand CD that i want then I'll pick it up. Of course, artists get nothing from that sale.....

I think this is a good post. Even old gits like me have to accept that the way music is consumed these days is rapidly changing. The biggest problem the music industry has had up until now is that they're far too slow to get with the needs and wants of its audience. That would be bad enough, but they compound it by continuing to be backwards in their thinking. This is pretty transparent when it coems to the contracts they offer artists - they're mired in 1960. Then new technology money came in and pulled the carpet out from under their feet - now they're followers, not leaders. It boggles the mind that no-one in the industry knew this was going to happen...... Piracy is always the whipping dog, and of course on many levels it is indeed the bane of the industry. But it also speaks to the desire of the audience to consume music quickly, online, and on the move. I will feel much more comfortable turning to digital if I can access the open market for my purchases, rather than being driven to a specific storefront. Consumer choice needs to be paramount from a user perspective. Arguing against Spotify seems like a simple thing, but in the end you're talking about renumeration based on the music made. Well, artists have been given 20% to the manager/promoter, a huge slice to the record companies, and then there's studio costs, marketing, blah blah blah. It's not surprising that the new media hasn't really helped the artists. As Townsend said - storefronts like iTunes has invested nothing in the artist, to them it's just product. At least the record company provides access to recording studios, pays up front for the recordings and productions, the design, manufacture, and distribution etc. In other words, the record labels are invested in the success of a release. The storefronts don't really care - it's all unit sales based on bits of data.