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Artist: JOHN CAGE Title: Sculptures Musicales, Twenty-Six with Twenty-Nine, Twenty-Six with Twenty-Eight & Twenty-Nine, Eighty [DVD-A] Label: OgreOgress 96214 Country: USA Format: DVD Status: AVAILABLE $20.00
Description: Fourteenth in a series with previously unreleased works by well-known composers, this 121-minute 96kHz|24bit Audio DVD features the world premiere recordings of John Cage's Sculptures Musicales, Twenty Six with Twenty-Eight, Twenty Six with Twenty-Eight & Twenty-Nine and Eighty.
Featuring Christina Fong - violins & violas, Karen Krummel - cellos, Michael Crawford - basses, Glenn Freeman - percussion & bowed piano, the Prague Winds and The Chance Operations Collective of Kalamazoo. This lengthy (2-hour) DVD-audio features four later pieces by John Cage: "Sculptures Musicales", "26 with 29", "26 with 28 & 29" and "80" for different ensembles. Like Mode records, the Ogre Ogress label is dedicated to preserving the John Cage and Morton Feldman legacies.
"Sculptures Musicales" was written for an exhibition of sound sculptures and performed here by the Chance Operations Collective of Kalamzoo. It sounds as if it was recorded outside when it starts or in a factory with large amounts of silence to give one time to think. Eventually someone taps on the sound sculptures with odd plucked strings and the soft clanging of metal. Some of the sounds remind me of a ship going by with the long drone of a foghorn in the distance. After the long silences, the sounds that erupt really get our attention. "26 with 29" (from 1991) is performed by a quartet with violin & viola, cello, bass and percussion or bowed piano. This piece is a most effective drone piece with layers of textures on display, all shimmering together mysteriously. It sounds like a big church organ being played by the devil as it wheezes and the texture of the drone starts to twist and bend. "26 with 28 & 29" is for the same quartet. Once again, it is a drone piece for long tones, strings, percussion and bowed piano all stretched out. The overall sound is most effective and eerie. There are numerous layers of different lines all vibrating at the same time with certain lines becoming louder or softer or coming in or fading out of the cosmic dense drone. At 29 minutes length, we can take our time to listen closely to the different textures as they change slowly. The music feels like it is breathing, it sounds as if there is some sort of a life-force inside. The final piece is "80" (1992) for violins, violas, cellos and the Prague Winds. For this piece the mysterious drone is surrounded by silence as it fades in and out. The sound of the winds and strings is much warmer, rather vocal-like and somewhat soothing at times. Like the first piece, the silence gives us time to consider the sounds that we just heard. At nearly two hours, this is a pretty long disc and commitment. If you have the time, all four of these pieces are well worth exploring. Perhaps one at a time might be easier to deal with. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
| Artist: JOHN CAGE |
| Title: Sculptures Musicales, Twenty-Six with Twenty-Nine, Twenty-Six with Twenty-Eight & Twenty-Nine, Eighty [DVD-A] |
| Label: OgreOgress 96214 Country: USA |
| Format: DVD Status: AVAILABLE $20.00 |
| Description: Fourteenth in a series with previously unreleased works by well-known composers, this 121-minute 96kHz|24bit Audio DVD features the world premiere recordings of John Cage's Sculptures Musicales, Twenty Six with Twenty-Eight, Twenty Six with Twenty-Eight & Twenty-Nine and Eighty. Featuring Christina Fong - violins & violas, Karen Krummel - cellos, Michael Crawford - basses, Glenn Freeman - percussion & bowed piano, the Prague Winds and The Chance Operations Collective of Kalamazoo. This lengthy (2-hour) DVD-audio features four later pieces by John Cage: "Sculptures Musicales", "26 with 29", "26 with 28 & 29" and "80" for different ensembles. Like Mode records, the Ogre Ogress label is dedicated to preserving the John Cage and Morton Feldman legacies. "Sculptures Musicales" was written for an exhibition of sound sculptures and performed here by the Chance Operations Collective of Kalamzoo. It sounds as if it was recorded outside when it starts or in a factory with large amounts of silence to give one time to think. Eventually someone taps on the sound sculptures with odd plucked strings and the soft clanging of metal. Some of the sounds remind me of a ship going by with the long drone of a foghorn in the distance. After the long silences, the sounds that erupt really get our attention. "26 with 29" (from 1991) is performed by a quartet with violin & viola, cello, bass and percussion or bowed piano. This piece is a most effective drone piece with layers of textures on display, all shimmering together mysteriously. It sounds like a big church organ being played by the devil as it wheezes and the texture of the drone starts to twist and bend. "26 with 28 & 29" is for the same quartet. Once again, it is a drone piece for long tones, strings, percussion and bowed piano all stretched out. The overall sound is most effective and eerie. There are numerous layers of different lines all vibrating at the same time with certain lines becoming louder or softer or coming in or fading out of the cosmic dense drone. At 29 minutes length, we can take our time to listen closely to the different textures as they change slowly. The music feels like it is breathing, it sounds as if there is some sort of a life-force inside. The final piece is "80" (1992) for violins, violas, cellos and the Prague Winds. For this piece the mysterious drone is surrounded by silence as it fades in and out. The sound of the winds and strings is much warmer, rather vocal-like and somewhat soothing at times. Like the first piece, the silence gives us time to consider the sounds that we just heard. At nearly two hours, this is a pretty long disc and commitment. If you have the time, all four of these pieces are well worth exploring. Perhaps one at a time might be easier to deal with. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery |