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late
adj. lat·er, lat·est

1. Coming, occurring, or remaining after the correct, usual, or expected time; delayed: The bus is late.

2.
a. Beginning after or continuing past the usual or expected hour: a late breakfast; a late meeting.
b. Occurring at an advanced hour, especially well into the evening or night: a late movie on television; the late flight to Denver.

3. Of or toward the end or more advanced part, as of a period or stage: the late 19th century; a later symptom of the disease.

4.
a. Having begun or occurred just previous to the present time; recent: a late development.
b. Contemporary; up-to-date: the latest fashion.

5.
a. Having recently occupied a position or place: the company’s late president gave the address.
b. Dead, especially if only recently deceased: in memory of the late explorer.

__________
Molly Nilsson
‘Last year, John Maus’ We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves LP included a song by a little-known, Swedish-born synth-pop artist named Molly Nilsson. “Hey Moon” was a lovely, downtempo duet, offsetting the claustrophobic intensity of Maus’ originals with a moment of understatement and calm. What many of us didn’t realize was that, aside from Maus’ vocals, it was an almost note-perfect rendition of a track from These Things Take Time, a CD-R Nilsson self-released in 2008. Since then the interview-shy, Berlin-based songwriter has written and home-recorded no fewer than three LPs, and put all of them out on her own Dark Skies Association imprint. Like Maus’, her songs are built primarily from vocals and vintage electronics, with a comforting patina of false age.’ — Pitchfork

‘I Hope You Die’

_________
Death Grips
‘When you are mining the darkest corners of underground music on a regular basis, you are occasionally going to find something awesome that no one seems to know much about. If you are a music writer, you now have two choices, wait for further information to come out or write about it and admit your own ignorance. I am going to go ahead and run with the latter; Death Grips is either a band, an electronica side-project, a rap group, or a band with a rapper in it. You tell me. Their music may have a genre, but if so, I do not know what it is. Someone called Zach Hill is involved and apparently he is a Sacramento drummer famous for both his chops and a bewildering array of side-projects and band associations (Hella, Holy Smokes, Goon Moon, Marnie Stern, The Ladies, and a ton of other groups).’ — cool’eh

‘Get Got’

_____________
Alexander Tucker
‘British avant pop artist Alexander Tucker has just released his much anticipated new album, Third Mouth. This album builds on the strengths revealed by his landmark debut for the label, Dorwytch released in April 2011, culminating in his finest work to date. Using songs written over a 12 month period he achieves his own inimitable blend of psych rock and ambient pop using a variety of studio crafted effects, rudimentary beats, guitar and bass, as well as synth and cello drones. He pushes himself even further however as he breaks new ground on the electronics only track “Rh” and heads further out into the deeper reaches of space with the sci-fi influenced cosmic meditation “Andromeon” as well as experimenting with more progressive song structures like those in “The Glass Axe”.’ — Thrill Jockey

‘Rh’

________
Anhedonist
‘Netherwards is a triumph of death/doom. For such an inherently simple style– death metal meets doom
metal in a ruined Gothic cathedral– there are an infinite number of ways to do it wrong: too sloppy, too forced, too wimpy, too bad. Luckily, we have bands like Anhedonist to carry the torch sparked by the likes of Disembowelment, Celestial Season, Skepticism, and Thorr’s Hammer and fan the flames with their own tormented take on the sound. Netherwards begins with silence, as “Saturnine” slowly slithers into earshot, then pulls the trigger with a merciless blast of crushing, lurching death.’ — Pitchfork

‘Saturnine’

____
Liars
‘Art-punk trio Liars will release their new album WIXIW in June, yet another record that ditches the previous model (in that case the more traditional rock structures of 2010’s Sisterworld) and moves immerses the band something almost entirely new: a world of computerized soundscapes and spooky synth-based songs. In the video for leadoff track “No. 1 Against The Rush,” we see a meticulous and creepy middle-aged man kidnapping all three members of the band and throwing them in the back of his van. It’s a masterfully rendered piece of deep atmospheric dread from director Todd Cole, and it’s also the rare music video that begs for a sequel.’ — Stereogum

‘No. 1 Against The Rush’

__________
Sean McCann
‘Sean McCann is a drone artist and a sound sculptor based in Los Angeles, California. McCann continues to establish himself in the circle of drone musicians since his wake in 2008. His vision is shaped by his approach, creating richly textured ambient drones and blissful synthscapes, each track with a unique instrumental axis. McCann’s orchestration has varied from banjo, violin, piano, electric guitar, to synthesizer and a plethora of other techniques throughout his catalog.’ — lastfm

Live at The Satellite, Los Angeles

_________
Spiritualized
‘After a four-year absence, Spiritualized are back, and the video for their comeback single “Hey Jane” is an appropriately epic one, a powerful ten minute drama about an Atlanta transvestite and prostitute struggling to provide for her son. Director AG Rojas has established a very specific, humanist style to date in his work with the likes of Gil Scott-Heron, and that carries over here; it’s not the most obvious fit for the track, but that makes it kind of brilliant, and we’d definitely peg Rojas as a potential to break out with a feature at Sundance or SXSW in years to come. Be warned, though, it’s a tough watch, and NSFW.’ — indiewire

‘Hey Jane’

_________
Julia Holter
‘On the face of it, the classically trained Julia Holter would seem to be operating at the opposite, arcane extreme to yesterday’s perky Japanese Britpop revivalists. And yet, oddly, there are several occasions when the monastic chanting and decorative drones on her album Ekstasis drift towards pop. It’s at times like these when you could imagine Ekstasis drawing a wider audience than perhaps even Julia Holter anticipated for an album inspired by medieval manuscripts, featuring ghostly, wafting vocals and accompanied by music apparently designed to be experienced in church.’ — The Guardian

‘Four Gardens’

________
Tim Hecker
‘On Record Store Day (which went down on April 21), Double Six released Extra Playful: Transitions, an EP featuring remixes of material from art-rock elder statesman John Cale’s most recent release, last year’s Extra Playful EP. The new EP features contributions from Actress, Alva Noto, Leyland Kirby, Maria Minerva, and Tim Hecker, who turns in this very Hecker-y missive of static ambient noise. The record is cut on white vinyl from the Japanese future in packaging designed by audio satorialists Satomi.’ — Double Six Records

‘Suffocation Raga for John Cale’

________
Purity Ring
‘“Obedear” is the Purity Ring song that most mimics a Grimm’s fairly tale, though they’ve had plenty of jams that beautifully combine the dark and the light. But “Obedear” is so specifically spooky that, underneath vocalist Megan James’ sweet, cyborg-y voice, lies the menace of a deeply screwed demon of a vocal, a voice that pops up every now and then to answer her high notes with hellish ones. It’s Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf dueting, a robotic, 2k12 version of a story that’s been frightening kids for hundreds of years.’ — Fader

‘Obedear’

________
Lotus Plaza
‘Lockett Pundt has always been a terrific songwriter, with a knack for absolutely nailing the kind of complex and layered but still immediate and accessible melodies most of his contemporaries don’t touch because they don’t know how to amalgamate those two criteria. Pundt writes pop songs with six guitar tracks that are still pop songs – that’s what makes his music so interesting. That’s why you shouldn’t be surprised that Pundt made a record as good as Spooky Action at a Distance, his second release as Lotus Plaza. It is a revelatory record in the most literal sense of the word, in that it makes clear things that had not been clear: Pundt’s voice, instantly, obviously, but also the endlessly fascinating shifting complexity of his music.’ — Pretty Much Amazing

‘White Galactic One’

_________
Los Angeles
‘Michael Cameron (Waterlaso) brings his new musical project to Hollywood in style. With Los Angeles, Cameron can satisfy his electronica needs without worrying his Waterlaso fans, and that is what he did tonite, along with band members Christopher Dreisbach and Nick Cullen as the crowd liked what they saw and danced the night away… Much more than just a side project, Los Angeles is a collective of musicians and friends of Cameron, part the Mountain Fighting Records family and ready to take on the stagnant electronica scene in L.A. and the world!’ — Mountain Fighting

live
—-

*

p.s. Hey. ** Misanthrope, No, I know you like your rock catchy, so I’ll keep both of my ears and eyes open for bands that I think might fit your criteria, and I’ll try to remember to alert you. Well, that certainly isn’t my favorite Bill Kaulitz self-styling ever, but he himself still looks good to me. More lines, lines sweeter than the sweetest coke, I’m sure: excellent. ** Empty Frame, Jesurun tours, but not a lot. I don’t think he’s ever had his work performed in France, which is weird, but I’m using my post-‘TH’ ‘in’ to lobby the Pompidou to book him. DJ Spooky did some real nice work back when. I’ve found his more recent stuff that I’ve heard kind of quite blah. Mm, I think the only times I’ve read with music simultaneously other than in ‘Them’ was once, ages ago, with a punk/noise band, and it was horrible, and on a couple of long o.o.p. punk era albums of spoken word — ‘English as a Second Language’ and ‘Voices of the Angels’ — and for the collab EP I did with SAFE — but, in those cases, the sound/music was added later. Other than ‘Them’, I think reading live with music doesn’t function with my work. I think my work needs to be heard in isolation if it’s going to succeed aloud at all. That combo does work well with some writers for sure, the Acker/Mekons thing for example, like you said. Yeah, I guess it’s about the writer’s presence and theatricality, and I think the work has to have room in it and a somewhat flexible rhythm. I think my stuff is too locked down maybe. Hollande has an odd kind of charisma, and I think that, after Sarkozy, it’s the relief factor of his nerdy school teacher thing that appeals. Yeah, France might lose some multi-millionaires if Hollande wins, and a celeb or two, but I think they’re all saying they want to move to the US, so you guys may be spared. Thanks for the festival info. Yeah, SXSW-like, sounds that way. Could be very cool. That’s crazy about Elizabeth Fraser performing at Antony’s Meltdown. Does anyone know what she’s going to do? Could be incredible. I hope it’s not just her with an acoustic guitar or something. ** Dom Lyne, Hey, Dom. Yeah, funny how that works, right? I mean the best laid writing plans or non-plans in this case. I wonder if just removing the pressure on your writing triggers a flood of it or something. Yeah, I’ve been really loving the scrapbook pages that you’ve been posting on FB. They’re really beautiful and intriguing. So, kudos on the visual front too. Art making is pretty much the only way I know to keep the world’s wolves and rapists at the door. Not that it always works, but it can. Much love back to you. ** Cobaltfram, Hey! You’re half-real! Or I mean your new name is. My late Texan grandma mysteriously wanted us grandkids to refer to her as Fram instead of as Grandma or Gram or whatever. Maybe you and I are related, ha ha. I read something somewhere that was a sketchy but apparently official hint at what the new Kaufman film is like/about, but I just did a quick search, and I can’t find it, and I can’t remember what it posited. Me, I’ve been kind of wrenched from my downtime mostly ‘cos I have to start working on the new two pieces with Gisele. For the first/next piece, she wants me to write an actual, full-fledged short fiction piece based on the still sketchy elements of the piece that are in place — two characters (a woman and a young boy, maybe around 10 years-old) and the trippy Bulgarian disco-like set that I posted here a while back, etc. The idea is that I would write the fiction piece, and then the staged aspect of the piece would be based on the short story, and that the piece would conclude with the audience being given the short fiction piece, probably in a small book, which they would read afterwards to complete the piece/experience. A cool idea, but a lot of work. And I have to write out a scenario for the following piece — the big, long-in-process walk-through maze piece — to use basically to raise money to build it. And I’m working on two visual artist collabs. And I’m working my way (I hope) into a new novel. So, yeah, I’m kind of newly beset with a lot to do. Great news that you got work in on your novel. Well, the upcoming frustration can be great fuel to work on it in your head ‘all the time’. I always think the head work is one of if not the most important part, and that part can happen in-between everything else in an ongoing way. ‘The Weaklings’ is pretty hard to get. It was a limited edition book, and it’s been o.o.p. for quite a while. But I recently finished an expanded version that has all the poems that are in the ltd. ed. plus a bunch of other, newer poems, and I’m just about to try to find a publisher for it, so, if I can find one, that’ll exist and be easy to get. Awesome day and love to you. ** David Ehrenstein, I’ve already been reading some ridiculous, hysterical fear pieces in the US and in the UK about how France is about to destroy itself, Europe, the world with its scary Socialist government, ha ha. Well, as of this morning, it’s still looking very good for Hollande, although the gap between him and Sarkozy has narrowed a bit to 5-6 percentage points. Yesterday, the biggest centrist party’s head/candidate Francois Bayrou announced he will vote for Hollande, which is a very violent slap at Sarkozy because Bayrou, who might be characterized in US terms as the equivalent of a very moderate Republican, is no Socialist. Today is the last day of the campaign. France has this nice tradition of giving French voters a day to reflect on their own without any campaign input on the day before an election. The reason everybody is still nervous here is because no one really knows what the Far Right Le Pen voters are going to do. Polls say that most of them with leave their ballots blank as Le Pen has suggested, but there’s such a strong thing over
here about the importance of voting that it’s hard to tell if, when they’re in the voting booth itself, they might decide to just go ahead and vote for Sarkozy. That is basically the only hope Sarkozy has. Sorry to go on about this. I’m more than a bit obsessed with the election. ** 5STRINGS, Hey. Really? I like ‘pansexual’. But you know me and my love of puzzle solving. I think the only grave I’ve cried at was Rimbaud’s back in, uh, 1976. I haven’t cried at my mom’s, but it really freaks me out. Oh, sorry to trigger your Derrida collar. Well, not sorry at all, actually. I was was sleepy yesterday, but, anyway, the collar looks ripe on you, man. You know your shit, wow. I’m going to have to give what you wrote a close read after I take off my p.s. collar ‘cos it restricts the blood flow to some of the loftier parts of my brain. Anyway, looks fucking awesome. They don’t show those caveman ads over here anymore if they ever did. Doubt it. I swear to God, there are, like, 18 constantly running commercials here that have MGMT songs as their soundtracks. Those guys must be seriously rich. ‘Regards’: I assume that English word must have derived from the French word ‘regard’ meaning to look, observe. That’s interesting. Or, I don’t know, the unloftiest parts of my brain thinks so. Observes! ** Chris Dankland, Yeah, I saw that pic of Lil B and Roggenbuck. Hilarious. Man, that mix you made is great. I ‘spun’ it a few times yesterday, and now I think I’m really into Lil B, so it worked like a charm. Thank you! Oh, enticing link. Hold on. Everyone, here’s d.l. Chris Dankland speaking in semi-relationship to the post yesterday: ‘Philoctetes is such an amazing play, I haven’t thought about it in a long time…Philoctetes and his festering wound that smells like trash and corpses, abandoned by his friends, exiled to a lonely island…I started googling around and I found a play reading of Philoctetes with Jesse Eisenberg, it’s pretty good if anyone has an hour to kill…’ How did the serious writing go? Sounds delicious. Obviously, thanks for wanting to go back to ‘TMS’. The Blanchot connection with my stuff, for totally sure, although not many people note that. Man, that Blanchot quote you posted … maybe it’s just me, but, shit, dude says it almost all right there. Thanks a lot for that great pleasure. ** Statictick, Ugly toast. Over here, where toast is a weirdo and a big rarity, it’s such an enticing thing, so that’s why I said ugly toast. I’m sorry, man. Let me pass on your PS thing. Everyone, honorable d.l. Statictick has a gift for those of you who are inclined to consider his gift to be a gift. Here he is: ‘I know a few of the blogs readers are Patti Smith fans. This link was provided to me by an old friend right before the stupid laptop squeezed itself out of existence. This is 90 mins. of Patti in the late 70s. I’ve seen her do much better live. But, here’s either a curiosity or a huge love song. (I vote for the latter.)’ ** Ian Tuttle, Hi. That gift question is a big one, yeah, I see. One that will need to be dwelled upon. Off the very top of my head, and being someone who is fascinated by power dynamics and who feels, as a weirdo anarchist, that it is important to try to always consider them up front, I think it’s really interesting how power works in that situation. It’s very complex. The gift giver can have a very specific reason for giving a gift, but the gift itself presents the receiver, at least initially, with a totality of kindness, and, for the giver, there’s a combination of surrender and obfuscation in giving the gift, or something like that. Quick thought there. I would obviously be very interested to hear how the idea evolves for you when/if you’re inclined. Bon day! ** Killer Luka, Yeah, I think my stuff has some kind of suicide underlay in it always, which is very strange. Super interesting thoughts of yours on suicide there, of course. Louis … I’ll have to go look for him. I don’t remember offhand. Hair that is not only blond but long sounds very promising. Dude, awesome about all your art working. Can’t wait. ** Steevee, Third Thursday, okay, good. I’ll see if I can plan a trip accordingly. Thanks! I can see ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ on whatever day it is that the Cannes festival begins ‘cos it opens the festival and opens in France simultaneously. Can not fucking wait! ** Sypha, Would be very cool, obviously, if Rebel Satori wants to issue ‘Confusion’. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Thanks a lot, man. You get a ton of cred for the post’s existence. I tried a bit of June Brides online yesterday, and, yeah, it sounds pretty good. Oh, that’s what Cowboys International was! Keith Levene’s thing after PiL, I remember now, but I don’t remember their sound. I remember it not being what I had hoped for in the light of his work in PiL, but I’ll re-listen now that that aftereffect is extinct. Curious sounding. Mm, overlooked psychedelic records … There’s been this revival of interest in psychedelia in the last few years, as I’m sure you know, and some records that I would have immediately mentioned — the first Mad River album, Clear Light’s only album — are starting to get their due. I feel like maybe the first album by The Collectors — just called ‘The Collectors’ — is still too obscure. I would need to hear it again, but I used to really like Chad & Jeremy’s ‘Of Cabbages and Kings’, but I’m not sure how it holds up. I guess there would be a bunch if I kept thinking about it. As cult-revered as the band Spirit has become, I still think that their prime period albums — the first four — are too underrated, but they’re one of my all-time favorites. ** Postitbreakup, Hey. I don’t hate answering email, but there’s no question that doing the p.s. has caused serious damage to my discipline re: email because, yeah, it’s kind of like I spend my p.s. hours every morning writing ’emails’, and then I want to do something completely different afterwards. I still haven’t seen ‘The Avengers’. It’s been out here for a couple of weeks, but I’m going to really soon. Musicals? Mm, sure. Uh, ‘Threepenny Opera’ and pretty much all the Brecht/Weill works, if those count. I have a possibly guilty pleasure love of ‘The Music Man’. Sondheim’s ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘Sunday in the Park with George’. I guess there must be others. The South Park movie, ha ha. I imagine that Mr. E and Mr. Welt will now pop in with all kinds of titles, but it’s not a genre that calls to me particularly, I guess. And you? Favorite musicals? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben! Well, the videos are mostly just basic documents of Jesurun’s works that don’t do them any kind of the justice that they deserve, but see what you think. I think he’s pretty terrific. Take care! ** Bollo, More applications?! Dude, it’s for the best, as I don’t need to tell you, but, still, take a cyber temples massage and a … uh, manicure? What?! ** Okay. I decided to do a gig post that features samples of some stuff I’ve been listening to and digging of late rather than the kind of groupings-style gigs that I normally launch. Check it. See you tomorrow.

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‘How do musicians communicate emotion? Performers have often answered this question in terms of what the performer should think and feel. According to the eighteenth-century keyboardist C. P. E. Bach, “a musician cannot move others unless he too is moved.” For nineteenth-century pianist Johann Nepomuk Hummel, emotion came from the performer’s “ability to grasp what the composer himself has felt, expressing it in his playing, and making it pass into the souls of the listener. This can be neither notated nor indicated.”

‘Musical performance emerged as an object of scientific study around 1900, when for the first time physiologists and psychologists were able to record the fleeting processes of performance. Of course, you might think, that’s when the phonograph was becoming available. But it wasn’t the phonograph the early scientists of musical performance turned to. These scientists wanted to analyze not sound, but touch – the magical touch of the expert pianist.

‘To analyze pianists’ touch, Parisian psychologists Alfred Binet and Jules Courtier developed an apparatus that registered the time and pressure at which the pianists pressed the keys, recording this information in the fashion of a seismograph. Binet and Courtier used their graphs to show that the best pianists had the greatest regularity in execution. Around the same time (the 1890s), pianist-turned-research Marie Jaëll developed another method for register touch: covering the keyboard with strips of paper and coating the fingers with printing ink, she recorded the placement and quality of the fingers’ touch upon the keys.

‘Then, in the 1900s, the player piano hit the market. The player piano changed everything by introducing piano performance without keyboard touch. At first, piano rolls contained only metrically exact renditions of the notes of a musical score. Such performances were considered mechanical and soulless. Soon, timing, dynamics and pedaling too were automated with the piano rolls of a new type of instrument: the reproducing piano. Unlike the player piano, which played piano rolls generated straight from the score and had no mechanism for automated dynamics, the reproducing piano played piano rolls made from actual performances, complete with the performer’s temporal and dynamic nuances. The result was a new scientific instrument for the study of musical performance.’ — Spooky & the Metronome

_____________
Conlon Nancarrow
‘Composer Conlon Nancarrow was a dedicated socialist, which made him politically unacceptable in the United States. This was brought plainly home when he applied for a passport and was denied. Angry at such treatment, he moved to Mexico City in the early 1940s, becoming a Mexican citizen in 1956. He died there in 1997. Nancarrow composed for the player piano partly because of Mexico’s extreme musical isolation. Another more compelling reason was his long-standing frustration at the inability of musicians to deal with even moderately difficult rhythms. He goes so far as to say that “As long as I’ve been writing music I’ve been dreaming of getting rid of the performers.” With the advent of the phonograph, the player piano has been relegated to the status of an object of nostalgia. But not so for Nancarrow, who since the late 1940s composed almost exclusively for the instrument.’ — Other Minds

‘Study for Player Piano No. 21’

_____________________
Black Sabbath (on Synthesia)
‘Black Sabbath are cited as pioneers of heavy metal. The band helped define the genre with releases such as quadruple-platinum Paranoid, released in 1970. They were ranked by MTV as the “Greatest Metal Band” of all time, and placed second in VH1’s “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock” list, behind Led Zeppelin. Rolling Stone called the band “the heavy-metal kings of the ’70s”. They have sold over 15 million records in the United States and over 70 million records worldwide. Black Sabbath were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, and were included among Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.’ — Wiki

‘Iron Man’

______________________________________
Bill, Brian and Stefan of Olin College of Engineering
‘Much of Olin College’s curriculum is built around hands-on engineering and design projects. This project-based teaching begins in a student’s first year and culminates in two senior “capstone” projects. In the engineering capstone, Senior Consulting Program for Engineering (SCOPE) student teams are hired by corporations, non-profit organizations, or entrepreneurial ventures for real-world engineering projects. In the Arts, Humanitie
s, and Social Sciences (“AHS”) or Entrepreneurship (“E!”) capstone, students work on a self-designed project relating to their focus. Olin College allows students to receive funding and non-degree college credit for “Passionate Pursuits,” student-defined personal projects that the college recognizes as having academic value. Until 2009, the college offered full tuition to all students.’ — Students Review

‘Chopsticks’

__________
Tom Johnson
‘Tom Johnson is an American minimalist composer, a former student of Morton Feldman. His pieces are most often based simply on mathematical and logical processes, such as tiling, which he attempts to make as clear as possible. His works include: The Four Note Opera, An Hour for Piano, Rational Melodies, the Bonhoeffer Oratorio,Organ and Silence, Riemannoper, and Galileo. Johnson received the French “Victoires de la Musique” prize for contemporary composition (the French equivalent of the “Grammies”) in 2001 for Kientzy Loops. He lived 15 years in New York, but in 1983 settled in Paris, where he lives with his wife, the artist Esther Ferrer.’ — lovely.com

‘Study for Player Piano #1’

______
Batman
‘The Dynamic Duo are tied to a conveyor belt of a hole punching machine that creates paper music rolls for player pianos. Batman observes how the machine operates, and deduces a clever way of evading perforation by calculating the notes necessary to make the plunging punches miss and then overpowering the sound of the piano. When he and Robin capture Harry, Harry squeals that a guy named Fingers is the ring leader. Batman deduces that Fingers and Chantell are the same man, and soon unravels the rest of the evil plot.’ — TVRage

‘The Dead Ringers’

__________
Annie Gosfield
‘Annie Gosfield lives in New York City and divides her time between performing on piano and sampler with her own group and composing for many ensembles and soloists. Her work often explores the inherent beauty of non–musical sounds, and is inspired by diverse sources such as machines, destroyed pianos, warped 78 records, and detuned radios. She uses traditional notation, improvisation, and extended techniques to create a sound world that eliminates the boundaries between music and noise, while emphasizing the unique qualities of each performer. A 2012 fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, and the recipient of the 2008 Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ prestigious “Grants to Artists” award, Gosfield’s essays on composition have been published by the New York Times and featured in the book Arcana II. Active as an educator, she has taught composition at Princeton University, Mills College, and California Institute of the Arts.’ — anniegosfield.com

‘Shoot The Player Piano’

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Györy Ligeti
‘Gyorgy Ligeti was, along with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis and Pierre Boulez, one of a group of composers which revolutionised postwar music. Rejecting classical musical forms and creating often sparse and atonal works, they continually withstood the derision heaped upon them by generations of critics. Like Bela Bartok, Ligeti was fascinated by folk music and initially produced a number of arrangements in that idiom. Perhaps his most notable, certainly his most famous, piece was Atmospheres from 1960. This work featured, along with Ligeti’s Requiem and Lux Aeterna, on the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey.’ — BBC

‘Étude pour Piano No. 9’

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Trimpin
‘Trimpin, a sound sculptor, composer, inventor, is one of the most stimulating one-man forces in music today. A specialist in interfacing computers with traditional acoustic instruments, he has developed a myriad of methods for playing, trombones, cymbals, pianos, and so forth with Macintosh computers. He has collaborated frequently with Conlon Nancarrow, realizing the composer’s piano roll compositions through various media. In describing his work, Trimpin sums it up as “extending the traditional boundaries of instruments and the sounds they’re capable of producing by mechanically operating them. Although they’re computer-driven, they’re still real instruments making real sounds, but with another dimension added, that of spatial distribution.”‘ — Other Minds

‘Ratatatatatt’

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Mario Bros. (on Synthesia)
‘Synthesia is a video game and piano keyboard trainer for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, as well as Linux using Wine, which allows users to play a MIDI keyboard or use a computer keyboard in time to a MIDI file by following on-screen directions, much in the style of Keyboard Mania or Guitar Hero. It was originally named Piano Hero due to the similarity of gameplay with Guitar Hero; however, Activision (the owners of the rights to Guitar Hero) sent a cease and desist to the program’s creator, Nicholas Piegdon. Synthesia was originally an open source project, but seeing the potential commercial value of the program, Piegdon decided to stop releasing the source code (version 0.6.2), however leaving the most recent open-source release available for download. While the basic functionality is still currently free, a “Learning Pack” key can be purchased to unlock additional features, such as a sheet music display mode.’ — synthesis.eu

‘Medley’

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Marc-André Hamelin
‘Marc-André Hamelin began his piano studies at the age of five. He has made recordings of a wide variety of composers with the Hyperion label. He is well known for his att
ention to lesser-known composers especially of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century (Leo Ornstein, Nikolai Roslavets, Georgy Catoire). Hamelin has also composed several works, including a set of piano études in all of the minor keys, which was completed in September 2009. Although the majority of his compositions are for piano solo, he has also written three pieces for player-piano (including the comical Circus Galop and Solfeggietto a cinque, which is based on a theme by C.P.E. Bach), and several works for other forces, including Fanfares for three trumpets.’ — guardian.co.uk

‘Pop Music for Player Piano’

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Dan Deacon
‘Dan Deacon is a Baltimore, Maryland-based electronic music composer/performer. He attended the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College in Purchase, New York, where he played in many bands, including tuba for Langhorne Slim and guitar in the improvisational grindcore band Rated R. Dan Deacon’s compositional style is best classified in the future shock genre along with videohippos, Santa Dads, Blood Baby, Ecstatic Sunshine, Ponytail, and other bands in the growing Baltimore music scene. Since 2003, Deacon has released eight albums under several different labels. Deacon also has a renowned reputation for his live shows, where large scale audience participation and interaction is often a major element of the performance.’ — discogs.com

‘Demonstration’

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Minecraft
‘Minecraft is a sandbox-building independent video game written in Java originally by Swedish creator Markus “Notch” Persson and now by his company, Mojang. Minecraft is focused on creativity and building, allowing players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world. Gameplay in its commercial release has two principal modes: Survival, which requires players to acquire resources themselves and maintain their health and hunger; and Creative, where the player has an unlimited supply of resources, the ability to fly, and no concept of health or hunger. A third gameplay mode, named Hardcore, is essentially the same as Survival, but the difficulty is locked on the hardest setting and respawning is disabled, forcing the player to delete his or her world upon death.’ — minecraft.org

‘Ode to Joy’

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Igor Stravinsky
‘The Russian-born American composer Igor Stravinsky identified himself as an “inventor of music.” The novelty, power, and elegance of his works won him worldwide admiration before he was thirty. Throughout his life he continued to surprise admirers with transformations of his style that stimulated controversy. Stravinsky died on April 6, 1971, in New York City and was buried in Venice. His approach to musical composition was one of constant renewal. Rhythm was the most striking ingredient, and his novel rhythms were most widely imitated. His instrumentation and his ways of writing for voices were also distinctive and influential. His harmonies and forms were more elusive (difficult to grasp). He recognized melody as the “most essential” element.’ — igorstravinsky.com

‘Étude pour Pianola’
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p.s. Hey. ** Wolf, Hi, W. Oh, I see. Yeah, do your best to get your relatives on board. It’s kind of scary. Sarkozy is already pandering like mad to the FN voters. It’s really grotesque. I read this thing yesterday by some guy who’s supposed to be a big expert on the FN, and he said Le Pen’s goal is to destroy the UMP and then take up the mantle of the French right, and that she wants Sarkozy to lose, and he thinks she’ll ask her people to abstain in the second round, but it’s all speculation, and it looks like it’s going to be really close, so, yeah, it seems important that people vote for Hollande, misgivings and everything. Ugh. That Krasznahorkai novel is pretty fantastic, yeah, and I’m going to start another of his soon, I think. Good question about Hungary. You got me. Right, about the Proust pooh-poohing. There is a certain punkish fun to it. Anyway, lots of love to you on this gloomy looking (Paris) morning. ** Kiddiepunk, Yes, sir. Great seeing you yesterday, and more of that any minute, yeah? ** Cobalt91, Hi! Thanks about the posts. It does mean a lot when people acknowledge them and say that they find them interesting, of course, so hugs. Well, better to have problems sticking to genre writing’s outlines than the opposite, I guess, but of course I would say that, ha ha. That story you’re pitching to ‘Outside’ sounds fantastic, as a piece and as a real world adventure too. Here’s hoping they’re wise. I find it helpful to think of only writing one more novel, but I won’t know if that’s the deal until I write it, so right now it’s just part of the scheme, I guess, and it feels right at the moment. Mm, no, I don’t kill my internet off when I’m writing, but there definitely is a lot of discipline involved in making internet surfing into more kind of a little reward or a ‘lunch’ break or something. The thing that was really hard for me was writing a novel while maintaining this blog. “TMS’ was the first one I’ve written since starting this project, and I think trying to figure out how to write and do this at the same time is one of the reasons it took me years to start ‘TMS’ but I managed to do both, although in hindsight I don’t know how the hell I did that. Yay about you getting back to your novel this weekend. I’ll be interested to hear how that goes and about anything in the process that you’re interested to share. My phone is finally back, thanks. No, I haven’t seen ‘Shame’. I’m interested to hear that you like it ‘cos I’ve heard so many bad reports, and I think that’s why I haven’t made an effort to see it yet. Bon day and love to you. ** David Ehrenstein, Ha ha, yeah, I guess I’m kind of a bit with Wolf in that I kind of like pooh-poohing Proust just to be mischievous or something, but I’m basically positive that he must be great. It’s just that when I was a young writer hanging out with the big, older dogs like the Violet Quill guys and James Merrill and so on, they were always like ‘Proust, Proust, Proust’, and it instigated my rebellious side, I guess. One of these years, I’ll read him. Oh, so I saw ‘Twixt’. Mm, see what you think, but I thought it was really lame and mediocre, sort of like a subpar episode of ‘Tales from the Crypt’ or something. I haven’t seen the recent Coppola films, so I don’t where this one stands in relationship to them, but I came away thinking, What the fuck happened to him?! It was just kind of an artsy, cliched supernatural film, as far as I could see. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Thanks, Jeff. Totally, about that piece being by James Wood.
I did a serious double take when I checked the byline. Weird. I think ND is putting out ‘Satantango’ quite soon. That’s exciting. Oh, I see, about the short pieces. Right, I remember when you were struggling to shape the novel out of a lot of material. Anyway, cool. During the Cycle, like you said, yeah, I used castoffs as places to begin the next novel in Cycle quite a bit. Since then, no, ‘cos I’m determined to totally reinvent my voice with each new novel now. The castoffs can be useful for short pieces. A bunch of stuff in ‘Ugly Man’ was either novel castoffs or experiments for a new novel that I liked but which didn’t have legs. ** Killer Luka, Ouch, ugh, sorry about the diligence of your illness. Reading ‘Period’ when sick … it just might work, ha ha. Sounds like you’re ‘in danger’ of eclipsing me as the world’s biggest VK fan among notable figures in contemporary culture. We can be his King and Queen, or his Court Painters or whatever they were called. Okay, I’ll try to download ‘Mr. Nobody’ even though watching Jared Leto act is a lot to ask. Sure enough, that Youtube full-length version you linked to is blocked in France. Wtf?! I hope we block stuff from you guys. ** Ken Baumann, Ken! Oh, the festival was at USC? What is that? They do one now too? Crosstown rivalry stuff? Yeah, the UCLA one is the one I know. LA is becoming a literary hot spot? Book festival hot spot, I mean? Weird, I just read Blake’s thing about Twitter not ten minutes ago. Gosh, I still feel like I need some time to start reading Bolano. I’m still feeling a trendy chip on my shoulder when I see his name. That’s irrational, I know. I mean, I will, if nothing else for the same reason I want to see ‘Hunger Games’. He’s kind of the ‘Hunger Games’ of the bright new writers set, if nothing else. Still, saying ‘I haven’t read him’ can only get one so far. Dude, I so incredibly dig that Kickstarter link thing, holy shit! I so want to go to see those events. I so believe in what those guys are doing. I so think I’m going to fork over a little moolah. Thank you! You know me way too well. ** Steevee, Hey. I’ll go look for that download. You’ve intrigued me. That’s weird about the library-only status. Why? Does that mean they only have one copy or something? Do they have more than one copy of most books? It’s not like that book is rare or delicate to handle or something. I have not seen that Riff Raff video, but you can bet that I won’t be able to say that tomorrow. Thanks! ** Misanthrope, I tried that joke on three people, and they didn’t even roll their eyes. They stared for a second then crinkled up their noses as if to say, Why? Yes, I like that you ate Mexican, motherfucker. There, are you happy? Can’t wait for ‘The Avengers’. New Whedon! Maybe the Wines got the rapping gene instead. Have you tried? You could form a kind of like Osmonds of the rap world maybe. I don’t think that’s been done yet, has it? That could be money in bank maybe. Oh, nice, now that song is back in my mental treadmill again. I’ll be singing it in the shower in a few minutes. I actually got the singing gene. Did you know that? I was the lead singer for three bands before I hung up my vocal cords. If I started singing to you, which I will never do, I would break your heart, man, even if I was singing ‘Firework’ You’d be bawling like a big motherfucking baby. ** Sypha, Hey, J. Yeah, I actually think ‘Firework’ is kind of a masterpiece of the fascistically catchy crap pop genre. I could even write an essay proving its mini-genius if I wanted to, which I don’t. It’s overplayed here too, which is why it keeps getting stuck in my head. Westerns? Hm, any good? I hope the psychiatrist visit goes interestingly. You know that I dug my time in therapy. See what you think. Cool about ‘Grimoire’! Everyone, Sypha aka James Champagne’s marvelous novel ‘Grimoire’, much lauded in these parts, is now available in hard copy/book form via Amazon and Barnes & Noble if you haven’t gotten your copy yet. If not, choose your conglomerate. Here’s it at Amazon, and here’s it at B&N.; ** 5STRINGS, No, I didn’t. It wasn’t me. But I’m all about being your comrade re: Blanchot and R-G. I am your French echo with an American accent. James Jones? Hm, truly? Don’t know. A painter’s flat and a hole in the wall are the same thing here. That’s why you never hear about contemporary French painting. I agree that you’re ready. I don’t think there’s much doubt about that. Me, I’m not ready. Teach me. It’s hard to fuck a different boy every night unless you have really wide standards, so I think writing might be the option. There are writers who claim they do both, but never trust a writer. ** Frank Jaffe, Hey Frank! Yeah, one week, whoo-hoo. I saw Oscar and Kiddiep yesterday, and we were counting down the days as well. Blast, here we come! Ugh about Luke not getting into the schools. I’m sorry. But you don’t need school when you’re a writer. That’s just an old wives’ tale. On Malick, well, he has a very particular style — pacing, the acting, the camerawork, and especially his use of voiceover. All his films share it, but, within that, there is a lot of variety, and I would say that ‘The Thin Red Line’ and ‘Tree of Life’ are quite different. You have to like what Malick does to get into it. But I’m not wildly objective because he’s my favorite living filmmaker, and ‘The Thin Red Line’ is in my top 10 all-time favorite films, so … Great about ‘Cabin in the Woods’. It opens here the day after you arrive, I think. Excited. Sure, we can plan stuff. I’m pretty free when I’m not doing the blog, which is most of the time. So, let’s plan. How should we do that? What do you absolutely for sure want to see/do? ** Rewritedept, Yeah, I think the new Spiritualized is definitely the best one since ‘Ladies and Gentleman … ‘. It’s pretty stellar. I could diagram those sentences today if I wanted. But I’m good at diagramming sentences, not on paper but privately in my ether. Hope your sleep took total control, man. ** All right. I ask you to consider the player piano as an unexpected font of very interesting things today. That’s all I ask. See you tomorrow.