Mar 30, 2008

Sundaze (25)

Hello, Sundaze ended up in 1981, unplanned . The albums today all have a dance element, in fact two were used by the Twyla Tharp dance troupe... Craig Leon has had a very long and wide ranging career as a producer, from punk to classical these days, that said this was his first of only 3 soloalbums... You can multiply that number by ten for my next artist, Stephan Micus. This world traveller has been expanding his vision of a transcultural music by learning to play numerous instruments and let them inspire him to explore the musical possibilities. His work too has been regularly chosen to dance too, this one Koan isin general maybe a bit too ambient but then ballet can display a storyline ...finally another Twyla Tharp commision, this time written and perfomed by David Byrne and friends..The Catherine Wheel...within a wheel..within a wheel..

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Craig Leon - Nommos (81   253mb)

Craig grew up in Florida, where he received private classical music training in keyboard performance, composition, and musicology. While working in local bands and on local rock and R&B records as a keyboard player and arranger he recorded in various studios including Criteria in Miami. He eventually built his own recording studio with the help of his friend, Alex Sadkin, another Floridian who also worked at Criteria at that time. After producer, Richard Gottehrer brought in Sire recording artists, he offered Craig an appointment in New York as his assistant. As a result, Leon moved to Manhattan in the early 1970s where he accepted an A&R position at Sire Records in New York under Gottehrer and his partner Seymour Stein. There he was responsible for the discovery and early development of the Ramones and Talking Heads amongst other artists. He produced the first Ramones album and also concentrated on licensing more adventurous European records which the majors were unwilling to release in the U.S. At Sire, Craig learned the skills necessary for the production, as well as manufacture of recorded music.

After producing the 'Live at CBGBs' compilation for Atlantic Records, Craig joined Richard Gottehrer and Marty Thau to set up a production company called Instant Records. Projects included the early Blondie records, Richard Hell & The Voidoids and Suicide. Other productions throughout the 70s included Chilliwack, Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band, Martha Velez & The Wailers (co-produced with Bob Marley and Lee Perry), Robert Gordon& Link Wray, Moon Martin (including 'Bad Case of Loving You' and 'Cadillac Walk'), Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark, The Roches(with Robert Fripp), Dwight Twilley, Sir Douglas Quintet, The Records and others. In the early 80s came The Fabulous Thunderbirds,The Bangles,The Beat Farmers,etc.
In the mid 80s Craig relocated to the U.K. at the request of Statik Records (an independent subsidiary of Virgin) where he produced Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Flesh For Lulu and others including mixing for The Chameleons and The Sound. Since that time he has been active in both the major and alternative music scenes in the UK with over 40 chart records.

He has always been concerned with the development of new ideas and working in alternative forms within contemporary music. He has written and performed on three albums of his own, including "Nommos" (a dance piece based on North African ethnic themes and electronic music, that was used by members of The Twyla Tharp dance troupe which was also used as the opening exhibit for the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art in 1981),and the full length score of the Kosh Dance Theatre piece, "Klub Anima", which deals with alternating classical and modern electronic forms. _Craig has recently produced a number of classical projects including "Wings of Song" for Sir James Galway and The London Symphony Orchestra,"Romance of the Violin" for Joshua Bell and The Academy of St. Martin In The Fields, an album of original compositions with Elysium (featuring members of Sequentia) and the Vienna RSO, three number one classical albums with new age/classical artist Izzy,an album of folk song transcriptions for Andreas Scholl,"Wayfaring Stranger", the debut recital album for soprano Natasha Marsh, a crossover project for Italian soprano Giorgia Fumanti, and a disc of the music of Italian Cinema with the composer Luis Bacalov including performances by Luciano Pavarotti, Sting, Deborah Harry and others. He has also produced 6 folk-electronic albums for Texas folk artist Cassell Webb.



01 - Ring With Three Concentric Discs (4:53)
02 - Donkeys Bearing Cups (5:57)
03 - Nommo (6:48)

04 - Four Eyes To See The Afterlife (11:17)
05 - She Wears A Hemispherical Skull Cap (6:48)

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Stephan Micus - Koan (81  195mb)

Born in 1953 in Germany, Stephan Micus made his first journey to the Orient at the age of sixteen. Fascinated by the variety of musical cultures around the world Micus has travelled in virtually every Asian and European country as well as in Africa and the Americas. Studying with local master musicians he learned to play numerous traditional instruments, many of them unknown in the Western world. However, Micus‘s intention is not to play these instruments in a traditional manner, but rather to develop the fresh musical possibilities which he feels are inherent in them. In many of his compositions, which he performs himself, he combines instruments that have never before been played together. The resulting dialogues further reflect his vision of a transcultural music. Many of Europe’s leading dance companies have chosen his work for their productions. He has performed hundreds of solo concerts over the last 30 years throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas

In search of musical culture and context Micus has travelled extensively, in particular in India, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Afghanistan, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Thailand, Egypt, Burma, Sri Lanka, Turkey, USA, Canada, Israel, China, Gambia, Senegal, Nepal, Ladakh, Sinkiang, Venezuela, Tanzania, Argentina, Peru, Ghana, Mali, Jordan, Georgia, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Yemen, Cuba, Lebanon, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Cabo Verde, Mauretania, Armenia, Karabagh.
Micus used his travels to study a variety of instruments including guitar, concert-flute, sitar in Benares (India), flamenco guitar in Granada (Spain), shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) and sho (Japanese mouth organ) in Kyoto (Japan), suling (Balinese flute) in Ubud (Bali), Uillean pipes in Carna (Ireland), sinding (African harp) in Gambia, dondon (talking drum) in Accra (Ghana), doussn’ gouni (African harp) in Bamako (Mali), duduki (Georgian oboe) and Georgian polyphonic choral singing in Tbilisi (Georgia), hné (Burmese oboe) in Yangon and Mandalay (Myanmar), duduk (Armenian oboe) in Yerevan (Armenia), bagana (Ethiopian lyre) in Addis Abeba, nohkan (flute of the noh theatre) in kyoto (japan). Bulgarian polyphonic choral singing in Plovdiv (Bulgaria). In addition to his exclusively acoustic instruments Micus also uses his voice, at times – with multitrack recording techniques – creating whole choral pieces by himself.



01 - Part I (2:36)
02 - Part II (11:53)
03 - Part III (11:27)

04 - Part III Continued (5:42)
05 - Part IV (4:28)
06 - Part V (9:49)

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David Byrne - The Catherine Wheel ( 81  394mb)

Born May 14, 1952, in Dumbarton, Scotland, Byrne was raised in Baltimore, MD, he played guitar in a series of teenage bands before attending the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, where, feeling alienated from the largely upper-class student population, he dropped out after one year. However, he remained in the Providence area, performing solo on a ukelele before forming the Artistics (also known as the Autistics) with fellow students Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. After changing the name of the band to Talking Heads and enlisting onetime Modern Lover Jerry Harrison, the group signed to Sire Records; a series of LPs, including the debut Talking Heads '77, 1978's More Songs About Buildings and Food, and 1980's Remain in Light followed, establishing the quartet as one of contemporary music's most visionary talents.

During a band sabbatical in 1981, Byrne teamed with Brian Eno, the producer of much of the Heads' work, for the collaborative effort My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, a complex, evocative album which fused electronic music with Third World percussion and hypnotic vocal effects. That same year, Byrne also began exploring theater, composing The Complete Score From the Broadway Production of "The Catherine Wheel," a dance piece choreographed by Twyla Tharp. Byrne's score is always interesting and frequently brilliant; it draws on the instrumental talents of such session greats as drummer Yogi Horton, percussionist John Chernoff, guitarist Adrian Belew ,and Eno. Horton's drumming establishes a muscular funk foundation for much of the material, which also showcases Byrne's underrated guitar playing. Highlights of the program include "The Red House," with its eerie use of deconstructed vocal samples, and the lovely faux-juju "Ade."



01 - Light Bath (1:09)
02 - His Wife Refused (4:31)
03 - Ade (Byrne, Brian Eno)(3:22)
04 - Walking (Byrne, John Chernoff) ( 0:52)
05 - Two Soldiers (Byrne, Brian Eno) (3:31)
06 - Under the Mountain (0:53)
07 - Dinosaur (2:36)
08 - The Red House ( 3:17)
09 - Wheezing (3:12)
10 - Eggs in a Briar Patch (3:31)
11 - Poison (2:31)
12 - Cloud Chamber (2:50)
13 - Black Flag (2:29)
14 - My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks) ( 2:46)
15 - Combat (Byrne, John Chernoff) (2:45)
16 - Leg Bells (Byrne, John Chernoff) (2:40)
17 - The Blue Flame (3:25)
18 - Big Business (Byrne, John Chernoff) (5:06)
19 - Dense Beasts (3:11)
20 - Five Golden Sections (2:53)
21 - What a Day That Was (5:30)
22 - Big Blue Plymouth (Eyes Wide Open) ( 4:43)
23 - Light Bath (1:10)

David Byrne - The Catherine Wheel   ( 81 ogg 163mb)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for this.

Oozlum said...

Thank you very much for Catherine Wheel! Its wonderful!

Chris said...

can you please please please re-up the craig leon as the link is dead! you cant get it on discogs :( i would love to have it until it pops up somehwere I get buy it!

JC said...

Happy new year Rho! Keep up the fantastic work! :D

I'd die for a FLAC version of Craig Leon's Nommos.

JC

JC said...

Many thanks for the Craig Leon re-up! Exactly what I need for a Monday awaiting me like this today :)

JC

electriqueberceuse said...

Rho,
Thanks for the Craig Leon, among others re-up... and your amazing blog.
Cheers;
EL