minimalism

The queen of drone & tape music, Eliane Radigue is now 78 years old. Important Records has reissued two of her earlier works, Triptych and Vice Versa, so that younger droneheads can experience the intensity of her sounds. 1970’s Vice Versa predates even her usage of synths and it’s composed of tape feedback!.

Van Wissem’s influences span the centuries, from Dowland to Deleuze, Tennyson to Sacher-Masoch. He also waxes lyrical about Lacan’s mirror stage theory. “Lacan describes the formation of the ego as a process of identification with one’s own specular image; the mirror leads to tension between the subject and the image. I wanted to find a musical parallel to that. Hence palindromes.”

Ah, Studio 1, but not the Jamaican Studio 1. Continuing our series on Early Minimal House/Techno, I had to post the definitive minimalist dance album, Mike Ink aka Kompakt boss Wolfgang Voigt’s Studio 1. Released from 1995 to 1996 and then pressed onto CD in 1997, this is by far the most repetitive (it’s almost unchangin) but true to the roots minimal techno/house you’ll ever get to hear.

The blending of free-folk, noise and drone into seamless blocks of musical vista has taken it out of its 60’s context and built something new atop. Most of the new psychedelic music remains in the rock / folk tradition yet Finnish Shogun Kunitoki has managed to create its own brand of chaotic psychedelia.

I’ve only been to London for a few times yet the “Rothko Room” in Tate Modern has a special place in my heart. Mark Rothko’s art is a mood changer one that invokes moments of silent contemplation. Accompanying music by UK ambient act of the same name which suits his work rather well!

After years of being a PC poweruser I’ve bought a macbook and changed ranks a few weeks ago. I’ve since become an itunes user after ditching my ultimate music playing setup of winamp & copernic desktop search, and I can’t say I’m happy at all. Seems the rating stars are the only welcomed addition and to commemorate this here are five 5 star tunes.

A short selection for a gray day.
* Stefan Németh – Film (Thrill Jockey)
* Fennesz – Black Sea (Touch)
* Edward Ka-Spel – The Painted River of Regrets… CDR (Trademark of Quantity)

For some reason even though undomondo readership has been fairly stagnant (about 10K people a month if you wonder) somehow the amount of PR material we get has increased exponentially. These are the songs that has trickled down through over 200 emails we got last month.