Recorded in 1971, using a monophonic (i.e. only one note at a time) modular synth, this is one of the most amazing pieces of electronic music I have yet to hear.
via Wendy Carlos – Timesteps (Excerpt) – A Clockwork Orange OST on Vimeo.
With Patrick Moraz on keyboards!
Yes – Close To The Edge Live 1975 HD – A Celebration 2DVD set – YouTube.
DarwinTunes software 'evolves' music without composers – latimes.com.
Noise filtered through generations of listeners eventually becomes melodic, offering insights into how our tastes evolved.
Robert MacCallum of Imperial College London and his colleagues asked 120 undergraduates to listen to continuous loops of the computer-generated tunes and rate them on a 5-point scale that ranged from “I can’t stand it” to “I love it.” The tunes were also posted on the Web (at darwintunes.org/evolve-music), where anonymous critics added their feedback.
Each time tunes were rated, the half that came out on top were selected to contribute to the next generation of music. Each successful melody would mate with another successful melody, spawning similar-but-not-identical daughters before expiring from the collection.
Tunes that didn’t make the cut were relegated to the evolutionary trash heap without leaving behind any musical legacy.
Amazing. Peter Pringle playing Puccini on an RCA Theremin, fed through an Electro-Harmonix Talking Machine set on “AH”.
c/o Mark Ohlund
If you are new to Blues music, or like it but never really understood the why/wherefore, here are some very fundamental rules:
1. Most Blues begin with: “Woke up this morning…”
2. “I got a good woman” is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line like, “I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town.”
3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes sort of: “Got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher and she weigh 500 pound.”
4. The Blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch… Ain’t no way out.
5. Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don’t travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools ain’t even in the running. Walkin’ plays a major part in the Blues lifestyle. So does fixin’ to die.
6. Teenagers can’t sing the Blues. They ain’t fixin’ to die yet. Adults sing the Blues. In Blues, “adulthood” means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shot a man in Memphis.
7. Blues can take place in New York City or New Orleans, but not in Hawaii or anywhere in Canada. Hard times in Minneapolis or Seattle is probably just clinical depression. Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City are still the best places to have the Blues. You cannot have the Blues in any place that doesn’t get rain.
8. A man with male pattern baldness ain’t the Blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg ’cause you were skiing is not the Blues. Breaking your leg ’cause a alligator be chomping on it is.
9. You can’t have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot and sit by the dumpster.
10. Good places for the Blues:
a. Highway
b. Jailhouse
c. Empty bed
d. Bottom of a whiskey glass
11. Bad places for the Blues:
a. Nordstrom’s
b. Gallery openings
c. Ivy League institutions
d. Golf courses
12. No one will believe it’s the Blues if you wear a suit, ‘less you happen to be an old ethnic person, and you slept in it.
13. Do you have the right to sing the Blues?
Yes, if:
a. You older than dirt
b. You blind
c. You shot a man in Memphis
d. You can’t be satisfied
No, if:
a. You have all your teeth
b. You once were blind but now can see
c. The man in Memphis lived
d. You have a 401K or trust fund
14. Blues is not a matter of color, it’s a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the Blues. Sonny Liston could have. Ugly white people also got a leg up on the Blues.
15. If you ask for water and your darlin’ give you gasoline, it’s the Blues. Other acceptable Blues beverages are:
a. Cheap wine
b. Whiskey or bourbon
c. Muddy water
d. Black coffee
The following are NOT Blues beverages:
a. Perrier
b. Chardonnay
c. Snapple
d. Slim Fast
16. If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it’s a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So are the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a broken-down cot. You can’t have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or while getting liposuction.
17. Some Blues names for women:
a. Sadie
b. Big Mama
c. Bessie
d. Fat River Dumpling
18. Some Blues names for men:
a. Joe
b. Willie
c. Little Willie, Little Joe
d. Big Willie, Big Joe
19. Persons with names like Michelle, Amber, Jennifer, Debbie, and Heather, (or Justin, Joshua, Tyler, Keith) can’t sing the Blues no matter how many men they shot in Memphis.
20. Make your own Blues name starter kit:
a. Name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.)
b. First name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime,Kiwi, etc.)
c. Last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)
For example: Blind Lime Jefferson, Jakeleg Lemon Johnson or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Well, maybe not “Kiwi.”)
21. I don’t care how tragic your life: if you own a computer, you cannot sing the blues – even when it blows up & you lose all that data…
Excellent BBC 4 documentary on the Krautrock musical movement of the late 60s and 70s. Features Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Neu!, Cluster, Can, Faust and others.
Sure, Beethoven has been dead for almost 200 years, and his music is in the public domain. That doesn’t mean you currently have the ability to share the 9th Symphony with friends, or use the Moonlight Sonata as the background music for your YouTube video. The problem is that there are no public domain recordings of his work. The “Musopen” project is attempting to change this.
From Ars Technica:
A radio host recently “referred to me as a Communist,” says Musopen’s Aaron Dunn. Music professors berate him by e-mail because his project is “like Napster.” Dunn’s crime? Setting music free.
In fact, though, Dunn’s version of “freedom” looks little like Napster. Instead of distributing a recording without permission, Dunn raises money, hires orchestras to record terrific classical music that has fallen into the public domain, and then makes those recordings available to anyone, for any reason.
To drum up the excitement and donor base needed to give Musopen ongoing life, Dunn put the project on Kickstarter, seeking $11,000 to “hire an internationally renowned orchestra to record and release the rights to: the Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius, and Tchaikovsky symphonies. We have price quotes from several orchestras and are ready to hire one, pending the funds.”
See Musopen.com for more information and to donate.
How cool is this?
Iggy and Williamson in Detroit in 1973
Offices are full of people with past lives — and for more than two decades James Williamson kept his a secret. Before retiring last year, Williamson was the vice president of technology standards at Sony Electronics, where he traveled around the world developing compatibility guidelines for products. Former colleagues describe him as calm and analytical. He looks the part of a Silicon Valley exec — short white hair, suit jacket — and enjoys vacationing in Hawaii and playing tennis. A few years ago he took up the ukulele and the slack-key guitar. It was his first time picking up an instrument, he says, since the 1970s, when he played guitar for the Stooges, one of the most famous punk-rock bands of all time. (That would be his secret.)
C, an E-flat, and G go into a bar. The bartender says: “Sorry, but we don’t serve minors.” So, the E-flat leaves, and the C and the G have an open fifth between them. After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished: the G is out flat.
An F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharp enough. A D comes into the bar and heads straight for the bathroom saying, “Excuse me, I’ll just be a second.”
An A comes into the bar, but the bartender is not convinced that this relative of C is not a minor. Then the bartender notices a B-flat hiding at the end of the bar and exclaims: “Get out now! You’re the seventh minor I’ve found in this bar tonight.” The E-flat, not easily deflated, comes back to the bar the next night in a 3-piece suit with nicely shined shoes.
The bartender (who used to have a nice corporate job until his company downsized) says: “You’re looking sharp tonight, come on in! This could be a major development.” This proves to be the case, as the E-flat takes off the suit and stands there au natural. Eventually, the C sobers up and realizes in horror that he’s under a rest. The C is brought to trial, is found guilty of contributing to the diminution of a minor, and is sentenced to 10 years of DS without Coda at an upscale correctional facility.
On appeal, however, the C is found innocent of any wrongdoing, even accidental, and that all accusations to the contrary are bassless. The bartender decides, however, that since he’s only had tenor so patrons, the soprano out in the bathroom, and everything has become alto much treble, he needs a rest and closes the bar.
This is the action figure that I’ve been waiting for!
Next I need a Robert Fripp action figure with adjustable stool…
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