No, not faulty ADSL, not non-anglophone repairmen, not sloth, vitriol, squalor, or winter, not even the breaking of the entire Internet in South Korea (happened Saturday) can keep me from sharing with you.
As a result of my month-long estrangement from this page I have some things to fill you in on.
First of all, Alan Silva and the Celestial Communications Orchestra is terrific. There's a 12 minute stretch that made the hair on the back of my arms stand and do the wave, or the lambada, or St. Vitus' dance or something. Other recordings that have gotten me jiggy lately have included:
Cosmos: Tears - Yoshida Ami and Sachiko M. doing vocals and sinewaves. And the vocals sound an awful lot like what I do on the trumpet and stuff. Despite that, it's fucking stunning. You can hear a clip if you click the link.
Yoshihide Otomo: Ensemble Cathode. Longy but goody. When the supersonic dogwhistle finally goes away it's like pulling out the ear-candle.
Just Music. Alfred 23Harth gave me this early recording. His first, I believe, and ECM's second. 2 cellos, bass, guitar, sexyphones, percussssion and flutes. Mmmm-mmmm, good, and out of print.
Concerti Grossi 1 & 5. Alfred Schnittke. I've listened to this more than anything else in the last 30 days, and I have nothing to say about it, and that's not a bad thing. Yo there's clips if you click.
I've also done a little reading. Some Korean History, some Lu Hsun. Uh, oh, Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco, which kept me interested for a few days until, after finishing it, I felt hungry again. Brainiac pulp.
I've been playing with Alfred Harth a bit, once with the estimable trumpeter Choi Sun-Bae joining. It was weird with Choi. He's more in a free-jazz vein than me, and I think Alfred felt like stucky in the middle of two poles, so to speak. But it was way fun and the recordings interest me it's like two people speaking different languages in the same voice and another trying to either translate or interpret in a different voice. The recent work with Alfred has been more substantial, however; we've got something going and fertile soil is where it's headed, I hope. Plans for site-specific recordings are in the works, possibly as soon as next weekend.
And...I'm returning to Portland for a week vacay on Sunday. Concert at Reed College Feb. 6 ++++ peevish, the trio, some ad-hoque and a solo are all on the docket. My lips might bleed, so that should be incentive for any of you in the Oregon area to show up.
Seoul is cold and icy. Work is busy busy. I had a moustache but now I don't. I had a fight with the construction workers next door (working at goddamn midnight? 1 AM? Yeah, I'll yell at that.)
Got, I think, this link from Ray: Jackson Mac Low who I didn't know about but now I do and it's a damn good thing, if a bit late. :LSerijd87DKfp0a9dspoj;ldks.dsds9eopew[ ;laks d;lkdid90osd90sd0:
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Nurse items therein time therein faces shoe forthwith antidotal;
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Thoughtlesssly down believe therein worm-shaped, uncancel somersaults mottled.
Forecastles while items shell-proof soakage falsetto wicken-trees unexplored wood-ashes
Disedged therein time offers tiers hymenopterally?
