la monte young

but most everything out there is leaked from his huge, unpublished tape archive.

I picked up an amazing bootleg 2 CDR set, 1 track on each: cassette transfers from a german radio special, playing 20 minute excerpts from various major works 65-72. the color xeroxed cover says 'Tony Conrad's Theatre of Eternal Music' but the image is that of the log cabin Young grew up in. Conrad's not on every track either, though he's a major force in the music whenever he is playing.

the 'day of niagra' CD on table of the elements isn't a very good recording.

What about 'trio for strings'? I'm guessing its the same idea as 'five small pieces' except its a trio and lasting an hour or so => must hear! Any boots in existence?

http://classicalconnection.blogspot.com/

Metallica. Jay-Z. Prince. The Damned. L.S.G. The Dandy Warhols. La Monte Young. What have these artists got in common? All have recorded albums called "The Black Album"! La Monte Young's The Black Album contains two more of his 60s minimalist compositions.

I can't find any information on it at all, let alone cover art or somewhere to buy it. Maybe it doesn't exist!

Please teach me!

(about LaMonte Young -- i.e. s/d mixed with a bit of rfi)

http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=2216

well tuned piano + good sound system + drugs + no sleep and 4am sunshine = bliss

one of his early pieces for guitar i've always been particularly fond of, name escapes me and i'm lazy. a lot of the recordings i've found don't really do his pieces justice. there's a book called "four musical minimalists" which is the most comprhensive thing on him i've found.

there's a great book called "Sound & Light: La Monte Young & Marian Zazeela" which has essays from contemporaries & scholars that's pretty freat. Hstencil borrowed my copy and never gave it back, then he moved to Kentucky.

Seems to be hard to legally obtain any of this stuff

so that's where he went

xp

"freat"

frebt

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/181/438070708_fba179b89a.jpg?v=0

here's the main ILM thread - Theatre of Eternal Music

search the 2 CD set 'Theatre of Eternal Music' recorded from German Radio if you can.

01 - intro 0:42
02 - Map of 49's Dream 18:28
03 - intro 2:31
04 - Sunday Morning Blues 11:52
05 - intro 0:43
06 - B Flat Dorian Blues 11:44
07 - B Flat Dorian Blues 10:11
08 - The Turtle, His Dreams And Journeys 20:41
09 - Map of 49's Dream 19:05

overall I think this 2 CD set has better performances than the 4 CD Der Zweck Dieser Serie Ist Nicht Unterhaltung that made the rounds a few years ago, though you need disc 1 of that for the original version of 'For Brass' (the original & superior version of what he later reworked as this

the version of 'Map of 49's Dream' on the 2 CD set features Jon Hassell and Lee Konitz, and though slightly lower fidelity, I think this performance cuts deeper than the longer version officially released on the Shandar Dream House vinyl

also search Theatre of Eternal Music WKCR archive, specifically for these tracks:

The Fire Is A Mirror 1965 14:47
X for Henry Flynt 25:16
Poem for Chairs, Tables, Benches, etc. 15:13
Two Sounds (with Terry Riley) 14:12 / 13:49

the last two are incredibly early 60's pure noise pieces, 'Fire Is A Mirror' is just ToEM at their best -- Conrad and Cale lock into a sound that makes it difficult to remain standing

2 IV 64, Day Of The Holy Mountain is a great 90 minute session where the arrangements still occasionally sound closer to free jazz, like a tempo-free John Coltrane circa 'India', than the later works. the main advantage is that it's the full session, so you can immerse yourself, unlike some of the other compilations that hop around session tapes & force a mental reset every 20 minutes

an old recording of Trio For Strings turned up online earlier this year, haven't spent too much time with it yet

those are my picks from what I've heard of the bootlegs. Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath, The Well-Tuned Piano, The Black Album are my favorites of the officially released albums.

Good luck searching, despite those poor Dream House interns who had no idea they'd be wasting their hours googling for blogspots to take down, you can still find this stuff readily

if you like Well-Tuned Piano I recommend Terry Riley's The Harp of New Albion

& Catherine Christer Hennix 's Electric Harpsichord finally turned up online a few months ago, shhhh

that c.c. hennix thing is amaaaazing.

I just scored a copy of the Well Tuned Piano LP box.
Wheee. I had to sell my John Cage "Sonatas & Interludes For Prepared Piano" on Dial to get it, but hoo-ee.

Well I hate you now!

sorry guy ;_;

oh man

never heard this, is it awesome?

hahaha "The seller ended this listing early because of an error in the listing."

is it the well-tuned piano where they suggest once you've delicately found the optimum volume to enjoy it at, that you mark the volume on your amp like the word of god?

yeah, that's the one.
"loud enough so that the loud sections fill the listening space and the quiet sections can be heard clearly.)

or some shit like that.

just make sure you've got someone on hand to change the records over

yeah, i was thinking how much of an advantage it would be to have it on tape in a dual/auto-flip deck.

the first copy of well tuned piano i had came from a legit tape copy, so it was issued in that format - gotta get em all

dvd is different performance, longer

someday I'm going to break down and drop 120 bucks on that stupid purple DVD-R

yeah, i was thinking how much of an advantage it would be to have it on tape in a dual/auto-flip deck.

ha you crack me up, ANYTHING but the CD version for you

been wary of this box on LP, how's it sound with 30 minutes on a side?

purple dvd-r?

http://www.justdreams.com/JD_002_detail.htm
http://www.villagevoice.com/2002-09-03/music/pinned-down-by-the-piano/

it's awesome.

It sounds fine on LP! Even at 30 minutes per side you get a nice full/rich tone.

And, you know, I got a good deal on the LP box. If anyone was gonna sell me the CD version at a great price I wouldn't turn 'em down.

Unfortunately, the performance and recording on the DVD version don't quite live up to the Grammavision version.

best review (from rate your music):
La Monte Young uses this piano like a lesbian might her fantasy.

An extreme foreplay of alternate tuning has rendered this elegant instrument into a Partchian construct of singular purpose and Young spends eternity poking and rubbing the exotic beast until it groans and moans beneath his experienced fingers. Whenever it croons, he quickens and bares every nerve to his touch before the vibrations wash away the new, warm plateau splayed before him.
Roiled and sprung, it is a constant forging, a rough method and ginger delight. Young desires to become one with his love, to unify in gestalt, frantically and patiently. A lover has never been so sincere nor so alone.

Music of a More Exalted Sphere: The Sonic Cosmology of La Monte Young Jeremy Grimshaw

The second piece of circumstantial evidence relates even more closely to Young’s music: David Doty, James Tenney, and Ervin Wilson, three of the most prominent contributors to the modern body of just-intonational music and theory, all happen to be former or lapsed Mormons. Given the relatively small number of Mormon composers who have exercised substantial influence outside the Mormon community and the small number of composers who choose to write in alternate tuning systems, this coincidence comprises an unusually large overlap of seemingly unrelated Venn-diagram circles. Doty’s family converted to Mormonism during his childhood, and he practiced the religion for several years before becoming in active at age sev enteen. He eventually cofounded the Just Intonation Network and has
edited that organization’s publication, 1/1, since its inception in 1984; he is also the author of The Just Intonation Primer and an active com poser of just-intonational music. Tenney, a former Bell Laboratories researcher who now teaches composition at the California Institute of the Arts, is widely known for his groundbreaking work in acoustics, sound perception, and computer applications in music. He was born into a Mormon family in New Mexico. Ervin Wilson is a central figure among current microtonalist composers and theorists, known both for his innovative tun ing systems and the instruments he designs to realize them.

the fraternity of lapsed mormon microtonalists hiding in plain sight

I love this kind of lore. And I didn't know Tenney had New Mexican Mormon roots. (Where are all the New Mexican Mormons hiding anyway?) That adds a whole other layer to Joseph Franklin talking about Tenney and playing his music on University of New Mexico's radio station.

Just clicked on the link: we used to get this journal at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Not sure how they ended up subscribing to it given the extremely scant Mormon presence in that area.

Where did you find the text you quote there? Did you (gasp!) buy it?

free download once you register with the site as an 'individual'

whole article worth reading. author includes his picture of the log cabin Young was born in.

Thanks.

Someone sells Der zweck dieser series ist nicht unterhaltung vol.2? :)

Yes!!! I finally found vol.2 too! :)

I love La monte young's music ;-)

lol volcanic tongue

LaMonte Young
Drift Study/Poem For Tables, Chairs And Benches, Etc (1960)
The Amazing Horny Bone Recording Company H-12
Hand Cut Acetate LP
£229.99

Major score: original copies of this ultra-mysterious and hideously rare hand-cut acetate LP issued in an edition of only 25 (!!??) copies by The Amazing Horny Bone Recording Company. Two sides of higher-minded bliss w/incredible sound beamed direct from the source on some of the most historically potent minimalist/drone moves of the 20th century. The first sides is an excerpt from “Drift Study”, “31 1 69c. 12:17:33-12:24:33 pm NYC”, while the flip presents a portion of “Poem For Tables, Chairs And Benches, Etc (1960)”, “89 VI 8c. 1:45-1:52 am Paris Encore”. Unlikely to see these ever offered again.

How does Keenan sleep at night?

My favorite La Monte Young story, from when I lived in NYC some years ago: I was at the Dream House (I used to go there about once a week when I was really stressed out), and I was washing my hands in the sink there. While I was washing my hands, the entire sink fell out of the wall. Water flying everywhere at high velocity. Then an old guy with a long beard (La Monte, obviously) came dashing up the stairs, and he and I worked on trying to stem the endless flow of water. It was hilarious and terrifying.

My less traumatic La Monte-related story: In 2004, I think, I wrote an 'Epiphanies' essay for the Wire which talked about the Dream House and drones and Indian music and stuff, and after it was published I got one of the coolest letters I've ever gotten--a letter from a 15-year-old kid in Australia who wrote to me saying that he was really into the Theatre of Eternal Music and the other kids in his high school didn't understand him, but he felt like I understood him, or something like that. I've forgotten now. I remember I taped it to my desk to look at when I was writing, and it stayed there for years.

My La Monte Young story: I went to a gig he did at the Barbican in London some time in the '90s. I have no idea what was performed, but after the gig there was a Q&A session. I stuck my hand up and asked him why he persisted in refusing to allow the tapes of the Theatre of Eternal Music project he did with Cale and Conrad not only to be released, but even for the other two to get copies of them. He sniffily replied something along the lines of "why should I give away copies of my music?" I thought he was an asshole then and I think he is an asshole now.

How does Keenan sleep at night?

popsike says this has only ever come up for auction on ebay twice and both times it went for silly money. he's only asking the market rate.

Geeta: NZ not Australia but there's these kids:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vZfP0ou6tQ

ha ha, that is great, david! just watched it.

I just read Kyle Gann's journal article (Perspectives of New Music, 1993) in which he decodes the tunings in 'The Well Tuned Piano'. It is awesome, and awesomely nerdy, if you haven't read it. Recommended.

Basically, I'm trying to avoid what I should be doing right now--carrying crates of vinyl down four flights of stairs!

pretty sure that gann stuff is up on his website

his whole website is an excellent introduction into tuning and harmonic theory

It's not on there (I got the full text through JSTOR), but there's this summary: http://www.kylegann.com/wtp.html

and this guide to just intonation: http://www.kylegann.com/tuning.html

That video of the young folks in NZ doing Compositions 1960 No. 7 is wonderful - very funny but also insightful.

the effect...'there is a big word for it but i don't know it' :-D

best review (from rate your music):
La Monte Young uses this piano like a lesbian might her fantasy.

An extreme foreplay of alternate tuning has rendered this elegant instrument into a Partchian construct of singular purpose and Young spends eternity poking and rubbing the exotic beast until it groans and moans beneath his experienced fingers. Whenever it croons, he quickens and bares every nerve to his touch before the vibrations wash away the new, warm plateau splayed before him.
Roiled and sprung, it is a constant forging, a rough method and ginger delight. Young desires to become one with his love, to unify in gestalt, frantically and patiently. A lover has never been so sincere nor so alone.

― 69, Wednesday, November 4, 2009 11:40 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha i totally forgot this

need to bring the well tuned piano to work someday.

need to bring mail the well tuned piano to work pete someday.

― one dis leads to another (ian), Friday, September 23, 2011 5:51 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

The Well-Tuned Piano in The Magenta Lights (87 V 10 6:43:00 PM ­87 V 11 01:07:45 AM NYC)

i.e. the DVD version, 6 hours 41 minutes, now up on ubuweb.

very, very different engineering on the 1987 version. more hiss and ambient room noise during the quiet parts (exacerbated on this version by DVD compression) -- you don't want to listen to this one on headphones probably -- but when it really gets going on the cloud formations, I much prefer this version to the 5 disc box of the 1981 version.

used a converter to rip the AVI to mp3.

Knew nothing about that site--amazing what's on there.

Its the best! I've watched a shedload of short films for the last 3 months on there.

Feel like we could easily have a Ubuweb thread for recommendations. Following their twitter is useful too btw.

I will so watch this LMY film, thanks for the head's up!

Oh it's audio, soz

VT touting some new price-gouging vinyl boot (would love to hear the ocean stuff, esp):

LaMonte Young, Marian Zazeela & The Dream Syndicate
s/t
No Label No Cat
LP
£31.99

Amazing vinyl archival edition of previously unreleased works from LaMonte Young, Marian Zazeela & the original Dream Syndicate: this is a revelatory unearthing, the A side presents “Day Of The Holy Mountain Part Two” aka “The Overday, 28 xi 63”,a live zoned drone ascension from 1963 featuring the original Dream Syndicate with a rare outing from LaMonte Young on sopranino. The slow, dark string drones, courtesy of John Cale and Tony Conrad, perfectly encapsulate Cale’s description of how the Dream Syndicate used ‘hypnotism mingled with malevolence’ and coupled with Angus MacLise’s (whose Year poem/art piece provides the piece’s title) fast, rainfall percussion the effect is absolutely mesmerising, black, magisterial urban/devotional drone with a unique ability to confuse time and space. LaMonte’s playing is phenomenal, generating endless circular tones that predate Evan Parker’s experiments in circular blowing while joining the dots between early free jazz reveries, dervish music and the sound of ‘holy minimalism’. The recording quality is great, affording a rare insight into one of the most legendary new music ensembles of the 20th Century at a delirious peak. But there’s more: the flip consists of an amazing never before issued recording titled “Oceans” from an aborted 1969 album session for CBS and it is one of the most elementally profound vocal/sound works to come out of the heroic early phase of minimalism, with LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela generating sustained/peaking vocal drones over the sound of waves crashing against the shore. It’s profoundly affecting, up there with Poetry Out Loud’s staggering “Ocean” in terms of an ascension ceremony for the sounds of nature, channelling the background roar of the cosmos through nothing but a field recording, complete with off microphone chatter that really serves to situate it in the moment, with LaMonte describing the microphones they’re using (the piece was reputedly recorded by David Tudor) as they work this ritual live on the beach, facing the ocean, literally singing in the waves. A stunning set, beautifully presented with full-colour paste-on sleeves, a super-enigmatic insert and nada in terms of information. A salutary reminder of the reality-warping potential of LaMonte Young’s minimalist project and a rare opportunity to hear these much whispered-about recordings. One of the all-time best selections of this historic music. Very limited pressing, strictly one per customer, highest possible recommendation!

Yeah, I was hunched over the 'add to cart' button on this one myself, but, man, that's like $50 USD. :(

i just popped into VT to check this out but they weren't open. i recently swapped a record for another lamonte young no label album but it wasn't this one (i wish they'd at least put some info on these things!). i really need to hear the ocean stuff too.

The Tamburas Of Pandit Pran Nath has been reissued!

http://www.melafoundation.org/LYrecscat.html

You just made a payment of
$27.98 USD

Oh, hell yeah! Great album! Thanks a million for bringing this to my attention!

ALL INTERNATIONAL ORDERS:
$46.00 registered delivery airmail with full insurance.

:-(

sweet thank u for the heads up

The British composer Cornelius Cardew wrote in ONE SOUND: LA MONTE YOUNG, MUSICAL TIMES, London, November 1966: “One further composition reached England in 1964 when the Merce Cunningham Dance Company were at Sadler’s Wells and the Phoenix Theatre for a season. Cunningham had choreographed a composition called 2 Sounds. The composer had provided two sounds on separate tapes, to be started at different points during the ballet. When the first sound starts you cannot imagine that any more horrible sound exists in the whole world. Then the second sound comes in and you have to admit you were wrong.”

funny

I love 'Two Sounds'. Early noise music landmark.

Geez, this album... pure brain massage.

Ward, do you want me to buy you a copy and send it from the US instead? Wouldn't be a big deal for me and I don't know how much it'd cost but it'd be significantly less than that I think!

So want to read the Cardew biog.

Liam, that's very kind of you but austerity measures currently preclude any disc expenditure (full confession: I do have a dece copy of Tamburas, but would like to own an original at some point - I just wanted the chance to moan abt the Mela Foundation's typically ludicrous pricing, really)

Oh, okay! Agreed, ha. 42$ is pretty ridiculous, really.

why is the tamburas packaged in a 1994-style double cd case

Yeah, I was wondering that myself ha. Maybe so they can justify 42$ international orders! The 40+ page booklet might be just a little too large. It talks in great detail about the instruments but no real pictures of them (though lots of live pics) which is also kind of strange!!!

I guess the album speaks for itself, but I love to turn it up really loud and just listen. You hear all these mirage kind of sounds inside the endlessly shifting hologram drone. I find my self singing it after listening, too, which is funny and bizarre: kee-ya-wow-err-umm. The phasing of the strings is so dramatic that after a while you start hearing all these backwards sounds! And one of the harmonics that sounds off continuously sounds exactly like the cha-ching of my phone which is funny. So about once a minute they line up and I think someone is sending me a text message. And it also sounds exactly like Tibetan monk throat singing in the lower registers. What an amazingly controlled performance.

yeah I think the size of the booklet is what necessitated the double case

this thing is def one of the highlights of an amazing body of work

http://www.vulture.com/2015/06/la-monte-young-dream-house.html?mid=fb-share-vulture

“We will leave our souls to her. She will inherit our kingdom,” Young says, which means, among other things, Choi will decide what music to release from his invaluable private archive of recordings. “We’ll die, and she’ll carry on. I can’t see putting it any other way.”

sure would be nice if some of those tapes could come out. people approach young, but his terms financial and otherwise are utterly disconnected. it's not only his works he's sitting on; alternate sources seem to have turned up for some of richard maxfield's pieces (still need to hear this: http://www.discogs.com/Richard-Maxfield-Richard-Maxfield/release/6987058) but we are still waiting on an accurate depiction of terry jennings

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/30/la-monte-young-dia-chelsea-exhibit

a mention therein of a possible reissue of the well-tuned piano dvd

Couple of reissues of dubious legitimacy about to drop early next year, including The Well Tuned Piano 5LP box set:

https://www.normanrecords.com/artist/34525-la-monte-young

There's been some discussion of those on twitter; apparently they are not legit. (You can tell 'cause they don't cost a mortgage payment each!)

He's gotta die first folks!

Press release for TWTP presumably employing reverse psychology / 'negging' avant-heads.

The music itself, to the extent that one can dissociate it from the theory involved, is where things get a bit chancy. The themes tend to alternate between idyllic ruminations and rumbling, pulsating passages, each of which more than a bit reminiscent of the often overindulgent solo work of Keith Jarrett. The titles to the sections may impart an idea of the new age-y drift that sometimes occurs here. There's simply not a great deal of meat to it, as though Young expects that the sheer beauty of the tuning system is enough. Once one gets acclimated to it and accepts it as an alternative (and quite attractive) way to tune a piano, inevitably one comes back listening for deeper meaning and structure.

And there's not much there. Indeed, there's more than a whiff of arrogance to the project

Can't these avant-heads take some time out and listen to Hindustani classical instead?

Hours of ragas at their fingertips. Fuck a velvet underground.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06ttrxp

Just received the following from Norman Records:

We've just found out the La Monte Young LPs aren't being pressed. Initially the label received permission to press them from Gramavision but La Monte's lawyers stepped in and have stopped the records from being pressed. Here's what we received from the distributor:

It is with regret, that these two important titles have now been cancelled. Whilst a provisional yes was received from the licensor, after a month of going through the relevant departments they have now been declined for the following reason…

“Unfortunately your request has now been refused due to publishing issues. Apologies for any inconvenience caused”

There is also another one being advertised on a different label:

http://aguirrecords.com/Shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=441

but I guess that one might end up being nixed as well.

Think Aguirre have legitimately acquired the rights to all the Shandar albs, not sure that La Monte can block that one so easily

grrrr

Genuinely don't get what Young's game is. Why does he want to keep his music off the market?

perfectionism iirc

I mean, from a sound quality perspective, I get it - vinyl blows. But from a getting-your-art-in-people's-hands/ears angle, he's fucking it all up.

I think he also sees himself as part of the 'art world' as much as the 'music world' and so believes his CDs/albums should be treated as 'art objects' - and priced accordingly. He's therefore always resisted overtures from record labels that want to issue his music as 'ordinary' albums for sale at 'ordinary' prices.

The cynical view is that so long as his music remains elusive and legendary, it will maintain a holy grail status that would evaporate, along w/ his exalted reputation, as soon as it becomes widely available. Having of course acquired most of his music from illegal sources, I don't share this view, and genuinely believe that a properly organised and promoted reissue program would only enhance his reputation.

But the simple truth is probably that he is a deeply deeply eccentric figure who operates on a different plain from us mere mortals - and that he can do whatever the fuck he wants to do.

Dead? No? OK, can't be too careful these days.

Twelve days left to "listen again" to TWTP on the BBC.

impressive that a dude who's been high for like 60 years can be so business minded!

Thought this was what hippies were like.

So what's the story with TWTP being available on the BBC. Thought Young could stop it all.

i uploaded 'tamburas of pandit pran nath' to youtube and it got taken down based on LMY's request. honestly just wanted people to hear it...

Er, yeah, I don't think a guy who's committed to a 33 hour sleep wake pattern gives a shit about what makes business sense.

Thought this was what hippies were like.

Never trust etc etc.

what the hell is going on here, now it is back on?

http://aguirrecords.com/Shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=441

http://brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10781:la-monte-young-a-marian-zazeela-qdream-house-7817qq&catid=13:albums-and-singles&Itemid=133

That one was never in doubt aiui, it was the Pure Pleasure ones that were nixed. As Ward noted upthread, Aguirre have the rights to 'Dream House'.

damn like $40 shipped. pricing to do the mela foundation proud.

xp thanks, that makes much more sense

and almost 40 minutes of music on each side of vinyl?

this needs to be on CD tho

agreed

Tyler, yes:

For the maximum fidelity on Side 2, reduce the treble controls on your pre-amplifier to minimum. Since the sine waves have no harmonic content, and all are below 202.5 Hertz, this will reduce the surface noise which is normal on most discs. Note: Be sure to keep the treble controls normal on Side 1.

from Discogs review:

With each side being so long the fidelity was never going to be good on this record. Shandar pressings were a bit dodgy at the best of times. It doesn't really bother me but if you're a hi-fi nut or a cd fan craving absolute purity then don't get this record.

iow Whiney OTM

It comes with a download code - someone should buy it and if there's a WAV option available, slap together a bootleg CD version and sell it for like $5.

oh that's cool! I think I have this pre-ordered through Wall Of Sound, need to double check.

Of course, the download code could just get you needle-drop MP3s, which would be one of the grand and glorious perverse gestures of all time.

or download code could be 128kbps mp3s. just ordered this but also have a sneaking suspicion i pre-orderd this somewhere too.

Has anybody seen/received a copy of the Aguirre reissue yet? Their website says that the release date was 24th Feb, but that the album is now out of stock (the simultaneous Reich reissue is still in stock) - I reserved a copy at my LRS, but they've not contacted me about it yet. Hmmm...

yes, my copy arrived yesterday.

TY, good to know it actually exists...

Heh, Monorail just rang me to say my copy has arrived.

just got an email from FE confirming my order :)

(I double bought this sucker from both FE and Wall Of Sound, would rather have two copies than zero)

No wonder it's sold out at source :-)

a thousand wasn't enough, for sure

The Well-Tuned Piano has been reissued on DVD. $89 for the standard edition (admittedly, it comes with a 52-page booklet); $307 for a signed copy.

http://www.melafoundation.org/store.html

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DifeWj8VQAAiedv.jpg

!!!

hey, so, they (La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela) need some money to keep the dreamhouse open. and the NYC arts community seems useless.

https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/save-the-dream-house-keep-our-dream-alive/melafoundationincdreamhouse?utm_campaign=ocdonate&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=crowdrise&fbclid=IwAR2hA8LF6DemHCSsHy89tjsS5kIWc2EX2sXVedPEQgWxazr9qaK2_dXJz9w

Oh wow---how are any of those other CDs and DVDs?

hey la monte, here's an idea, RELEASE THE FUCKING DREAM SYNDICATE TAPES. YOU'D PROBABLY BE GOOD

do u seriously think an artist could net $150K from *any* reissue campaign. sheesh. just donate or share.

why not both

A reissue campaign could raise decent money. I sold my Well-Tuned Piano box for $600 back in 2011. There’s so much that isn’t available.

xp lol sorry, yes both

How does that place not have a major grant by this point? I donated but it feels like some serious mismanagement that they aren't more stable.

https://www.discogs.com/La-Monte-Young-Draw-A-Straight-Line-And-Follow-It/release/6290435
https://www.discogs.com/La-Monte-Young-Draw-A-Straight-Line-And-Follow-It-II/release/9812249
https://www.discogs.com/La-Monte-Young-Draw-A-Straight-Line-And-Follow-It-III/release/14667006
https://www.discogs.com/La-Monte-Young-Draw-A-Straight-Line-Follow-It-IV/release/14667041

YSI?

you're telling me. on the lookout.

I only recognize about three quarters of this. sequencing is wildly arbitrary but I can see the logic / listenability to it. I would have preferred putting all the Theatre of Eternal Music stuff on one volume rather than distributing it evenly across them all, it does kind of reenforce Young's claims of authorship doing it this way but that's what ID3 composer tags are for. inclusion of pieces by Maxfield / Goldstein / Byrd is interesting (no Jennings sadly, Young still hoarding those). pretty bold having vol 4 be a straight up bootleg of the official releases.

jesus

https://www.discogs.com/label/305189-Otherside-Recordings-2

I was looking at the Keiji Haino related releases and wondering what the story is... especially with the late-70s recordings. I'm very out of the loop nowadays, but where is all that stuff coming from? Is it things that are available via file-sharing being burned to cd-r and released, or someone with next-level access to a bunch of cool sources that no-one else has?

I'm not sure if they're on dimeadozen or not (because i've lost my login years ago) but I am guessing the Haino/Fushitsusha releases are soundboard recs that made their way out. They're not mentioned on Haino's discography website, though tbf I think Haino himself long lost track of his own releases, too.

sounds about right, there has been a TON of Haino, Rallizes, etc on dime

Looking at the label's discography I keep imagining Volcanic Tongue write-ups for each release. Highest possible recommendation!

lolll so true

whut

LA MONTE YOUNG IS ON BANDCAMP

http://justdreamsnyc.bandcamp.com

― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, June 17, 2021 7:02 PM (one hour ago)

I appreciate the pricing, I would expect no less.

Whoa!!!

Ned otm

I appreciate the playback suggestions:

The Well-Tuned Piano covers an exceptionally wide dynamic range; some sections are extremely loud and other sections are extremely soft. In order for the soft sections to be loud enough to hear the inner resonances of the piano, ii is appropriate to set your volume control so that the loudest sections actually fill the listening space with sound and are as loud as you can comfortably enjoy them. The first few times that you listen to the work, you will find an optimum setting for your volume control which you may eventually want to mark in order to avoid adjusting the volume control as you listen.

those prices!

but yes, Ned otm.

$49 for six hours of music is reasonable.

When did La Monte Young start being Purple? I'm trying to figure out whether he or Prince did it first...

He was the first one in Western Civilization to wear purple, iirc.

He beat the Phoenicians several centuries last i checked.

Ha, exactly.

Lol yeah I know it's a silly question (obviously Young predates Prince) but seriously why is he aesthetically fixated on purple/magenta? Has he ever explained why his installations are lit with deep purple/magenta light (which extends to his album art, website, and beyond)? I would assume it has something to do with the frequency of the light as it relates to the frequencies of sounds he produces...

some context in this Alan Licht interview:

“The Dream House {is} a sound and a light environment… It's a time installation measured by a series of frequencies in sound and light. The idea was that the frequencies are continuous… We can think of the Dream House as a way in which we can find another environment that can influence our lives. Imagine generations being born in the Dream House. Children born there knowing almost nothing else… But the fact that they were born in the dream house, that they lived there for lifetimes and their parents lived there and their grandparents lived there, it would allow a new way of thought processing and it would allow people to transcend beyond the kind of life that we live.”

https://www.vice.com/en/article/4xqn33/ragas-and-ratios-6-things-we-learned-from-legendary-avant-garde-artist-la-monte-young

Marian Zazeela deserves most of the credit for the purple, imho

walking into the la monte young exhibit ‘dream house’ in nyc and the only other person in there was Larry David https://t.co/ZQnBygSFiq

— Jeffrey Silverstein (@futuremyth) January 26, 2022

Absurdly priced 4LP box set now up for preorder:

https://www.soundohm.com/product/trio-for-strings-4lp-box-1

Yeah, I’m torn on pulling the trigger. Would much rather have on 2 CDs

We've been putting on the Well-Tuned Piano when going to bed. Amazing how great it still sounds.

slightly cheaper direct from the DIA bookshop, but still $$$.

Really liked his look in the VU documentary.

xxxp it's 3 hours long! so 3 CDs, but yeah agreed

a lossless continuous single file is also available on Bandcamp but it's like $50

link?

WTF I coulda sworn it was here:
https://diaart.bandcamp.com/releases

maybe I'm confusing it with the download that came with the box (yes I bought it from Dia) which is continuous, but I swear it was up there before

How is the box?

pretty lavish and well pressed, huge booklet of a lot of stuff that I guess has appeared in other places but was new to me

lots of LONG pauses between "movements" or whatever they are, up into the 2-3 minute range

definitely a better listen as a whole piece but the individual sides also work well as standalones, generally keeping the pauses within the beginning/end of the side

maddeningly, the 8 sides are auto-coupled (sides 1&3 on LP1, 2&4 on LP2, etc, which is even more annoying in practice than it may sound here)

I'm a big fan of Charles Curtis so I was all over this, but the piece definitely has more in common with "The Second Dream Of The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer From The Four Dreams Of China" than it does with "The Well Tuned Piano" - it's very minimal, for real

keep misreading this thread as "is la monte young" and thinking "no, he's even older than me"

maddeningly, the 8 sides are auto-coupled (sides 1&3 on LP1, 2&4 on LP2, etc

lol whaaaaat? do they seriously think there are still ppl using those stacking record players?

haha exactly

even tho this is pretty austere as far as composition/variation, the tones of the instruments sound really great and vary considerably between the various parts or movements or whatever they are, someday when I am bored I will count the number of sections in the whole piece but a creative person could probably track them out into something that treated the individual movements as individual tracks

do they seriously think there are still ppl using those stacking record players?

Maybe they expect you to play continuously over two turntables?

keep misreading this thread as "is la monte young" and thinking "no, he's even older than me"

The Devil is keeping him young.

Maybe they expect you to play continuously over two turntables?

that makes more sense than anything else I've thought of!

https://media.sandiegoreader.com/img/blogs/entry_img/2011/Jun/01/cue_mark_locket.jpg

I’m a big Charles Curtis and La Monte fan but I have to draw the line at $50+ per LP for a 4LP box set. I’ve never used the words vinyl and bubble in the same sentence before but I can’t help but think that something is going to pop.

This is standard LMY pricing though, nothing to do with the "vinyl revival".

Ha, was just posting the same thing. The Well-Tuned Piano in the Magenta Lights DVD sells for $89 on his Bandcamp, $307 for a signed copy.

V true and solid points, that’s the exact reason I’ve never bought any of that stuff.

never thought I would see a reissue of The Black Album in my lifetime, let alone on CD. sweet mastering by Dubplates & Mastering (Basic Channel), sounds fantastic.

(I have the LP which is flawless, I assume the CD is as well)

I think of this La Monte Young quote pretty often. pic.twitter.com/furVRoaXMV

— Liam Cagney (@LiamCagney) April 4, 2023

Can confirm that the The Black Album CD also sounds fantastic - or at least, a significant upgrade on my CDR of an old vinyl rip. Can hear lots more detail in the second side especially, which now sounds pleasingly evil and none more black.

yeah it was side 2 that really stuck out to me as well, the texture is so rich

i'm pretty excited to check it out

yeah I got the LP over the weekend and agree it sounds DEEEEP. I don’t know how often I will be in the mood to listen to this (c/f drift study on 78:17) but I was so excited to see official La Monte and I always like supporting Superior Viaduct

it sounds WAY better than the 2015 (bootleg?) version. Night and day!

I have an OG and it sounds better than that!!

Is this release downloadable?

no, but checking Bandcamp I realize that a few more released are available there now:

https://lamonteyoung.bandcamp.com/music

*releases*

LMY and the Theatre of Eternal Music playing shows at the Dream House, May 19 and 21:

MELA is pleased to present two live concert performances of La Monte Young’s Akash Devi Blues for Marian in celebration of Marian’s 83rd birthday and the 180-degree half cycle of La Monte’s 88th birthday. The Theatre of Eternal Music Ensemble will perform this historic and extraordinary piece, one of Young’s earliest works in a new configuration, which will include only the unmetered alap.

The legendary composer and vocalist La Monte Young and the foremost performers of his music—Jung Hee Choi, voice; Jon Catler, just intonation guitar; Hansford Rowe, fretless bass; Ben Neill, trumpet—will improvise in just intonation in the style of Young’s Dorian Blues but without a fixed rhythmic cycle.

Hahn Rowe!!!! man jealous

xp I am not seeing that on the MELA website, can you share your source for this?

MELA sent out an email this afternoon. Tickets here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-monte-young-youngs-dorian-blues-by-the-theatre-of-eternal-music-tickets-617988388907

thank you!

No Zazeela thread, so will post here for now... but maybe we should have one for her?

https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/marian-zazeela-artists-space-review-1234699983/

RIP Marian Zazeela.

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/marian-zazeela-artist-dead-1234701465/

discussion here: RIP Marian Zazeela

maybe we should have one for her

maybe we could rename this thread "la monte young and marian zazeela" ?