Ornithology Premieres: this nest, swift passerine
I often work with field recordings, but i don’t often work with chamber orchestras. I make recordings of rivers, trains, farms, cows, trees, wind, fog horns, church bells, traffic noise, and coffee shops. These mundane things yield the most rigorous and beautiful sounds that I use in installations, and compositions. When asked to work on a piece for wild Up, I jumped at the
Ornithology Premieres: Fake Palindromes
“Fake Palindromes” is the first song I ever heard by Andrew Bird, and it is my mind’s aural portrait of him. The title’s reference to palindromes calls to mind one of Messiaen’s trademarks: the “non-retrogradeable rhythm”, or a rhythmic palindrome. With the inclusion of Bird’s music on this wild Up concert featuring Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques [Foreign Birds], I knew I had to arrange this particular
Tholl/Misfits – Where Eagles Dare, featuring Maggie Hasspacher
wild Up | Tholl/Misfits – Where Eagles Dare, featuring Maggie Hasspacher Sean Robertson took this from the audience of our Nov. 19th show. wild Up | Barlow, punk rock and player piano music
Oh bondage…
I’m working on an arrangement of this: ”My mother said, little girls should be seen and not heard — Oh Bondage Up Yours” A great feminist manifesto. In terms of an aural analysis of the recording the fascinating part starts at that moment: for the next three minutes she proceeds to scream phrases about being dominated that go completely unheard. It’s as if the
So were August and September…
We’re back. Summer was beautiful, and we were all over the place. Now concerts are happening around town each week. We’re writing and rehearsing for our show in November: Barlow, Punk Rock and Player Piano Music at Beyond Baroque in Venice. Before that a number of our musicians are involved in this show at Cal Arts in a few weeks, Antheil and Stravinsky at
on the road.
July has been busy. We’ve adopted a therapy dog (see below), we’ve been in programing meetings, scheduling meetings, development meetings, and scotch meetings (where we drink scotch). At any rate, we’re all over the place. Here’s some of it: Chris Kallmyer has been at the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis, for his new piece: The American Lawn and Ways to Cut It. Last night,
Our new recording is here. It’s loud, live, and FREE.
wild Up: A New Shostakovich, Chamber Symphony Op. 110a
the wild-Up therapy dog might be a nihilist. – CK
Music Review 6.26.2011: Morton Feldman’s “for Philip Guston”
In attempting to review a concert like this one can only think: what I just heard, what I just experienced, is more than enough to make language submit, revealing its futility and clumsiness – particularly in its written form. Recalling Guildenstern’s pondering from Tom Stoppard’s play, though, it is verily so: “Words, words. They’re all we have to go on.” How does one write
chile relleno-tastic planning
damn. california beer + california food + california music = california band. we are making chile rellenos and planning for the new wild up season. very exciting stuff in the works with great music, tons of great beer, and perhaps a shared musical experience with our friends to the east… stay tuned!! – Chris Kallmyer and Chris Rountree
ojai // camping // sounds
5am :: deep fog // cows waking up // coyotes howling // birds chirping // dew falling from the oak above onto our tent. I escaped LA this weekend to Ojai (90 minutes from LA) to find a small campsite overlooking a field of blissed-out-cows. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys wine, grilled veggies, and sleeping in earshot of cattle. California.
New Music Concert – Practically Free
Yes, it is possible to hear a good performance of high caliber music and musicians for cheap. This coming Wednesday, June 22 at 8 p.m., you can hear a solidly full program of new and recent music at the illustrious Royal/T Café in Culver City. It is part of the $2 Shows recently instated New Music Series, and as advertised, the admission is indeed
The Clock @ LACMA
A few weeks ago I went to see Christian Marclay’s new work, The Clock, at LACMA. A departure from his more well known role as a sound artist/turntablist, Marclay’s The Clock is a 24 hour film, synchronized to the local time of the location at which it is screening. It is a collection of brief moments from thousands of films, assembled into a narrative
Happy Bloomsday
I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would
In the war for sock-less-ness, today the battle is won. Today, we are free. (day one Pitti Uomo)
#tuxonstage
Many folks weighed in late last week about the tuxedo via twitter. I had a hard time getting out some of these thoughts in 140 characters, so decided to write up some of my ideas here. I hope you enjoy, its a great discussion. The orchestra is a gigantic, antiquated, hulking, financially unsustainable, mannered, ceremonious, unapproachable, beautiful, opulent, complicated beast. Its like a manatee;
Music Review 6.10.2011: PARTCH @ REDCAT
The obligatory titular capitals of the event’s ensemble and venue could not be more appropriate for last night’s performance. From beginning to end, PARTCH exclaimed, cursed, laughed, wailed, and cavorted through several varied scores by the “iconoclastic American Maverick” Harry Partch (1901-1974). PARTCH, led by guitarist/composer/singer/radio-personality John Schneider, have been spreading the gospel of Partch since their REDCAT debut in 2004. The group is
On being at Ojai.
I’m sitting in the coffee shop across from St. Thomas Aquinas Thrift on the main drag in Ojai. It’s full of well dressed summer people holding rolled program booklets, bobbling around talking about electric string quartets and a dinner joint, Feast which apparently has fries described as ambrosia or something equally celestial. The contemporary music lover is everywhere. A gestalt animal identified by the
here i am bitches!
http://vimeo.com/12703545 about wild Up
about wild Up
…from the sheer joy of living.
Umberto Eco // Travels in HyperReality:
On Hearst’s Castle: It is like making love in a confessional with a prostitute dressed in a prelate’s liturgical robes reciting Baudelaire while ten electronic organs reproduce the Well-Tempered Clavier played by Scriabin. Unbelievable.
wild Up & Christopher Rountree – Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a: II – Allegro molto
wild Up & Christopher Rountree – Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a: II – Allegro molto A New Shostakovich Chamber Symphony op. 110a