Alan Licht

don't have any info on the duo disc.

He's putting on this installation in New York over the next few weekends. Please discuss:

Twilight of the Idols

This piece consists of a long fade out, followed
by a long fade in.
The fourth Led Zeppelin album, which is untitled,
is played. Side one
begins to fade out almost immediately, and by the
end of the side the
music is barely audible. Side two starts off at
this volume level and
then gradually rises in volume back to the
thunderous level the album
began at. The mix is stereo to recreate the
original album mix and
also the playback system with which the album is
always heard.

Hmm. Well, that's swell, but what, you ask, is
the point?

Is it an allegory for the changing of seasons, as
summer gradually
turns to a dark and cold winter and then
gradually turns into spring?
Or for the light of day fading as night falls,
and then returning as
the sun rises in the early morning?

Is it a time-stretched, super slow-motion aural
recreation of a
teenager turning the music down at his parents'
request and then
turning it back up when they're out of earshot?

Is it a comment on the fading glory of the
classic rock era, followed
by the reaffirmation of the music's continued
vitality? A comment on
the former ubiquity of side one's closer,
"Stairway to Heaven", which
was once easily heard on the radio several times
a day and in this
piece gets literally harder and harder to hear?

Is the title a reference to Nietzsche's book of
the same name, which
is itself a takeoff on Wagner's Goetterdammerung?
Or to Ragnarok
(Twilight of the Gods) in Scandanavian
mythology-the day of doom in
which the old world and all its inhabitants are
annihilated, and a
new world of peace is born? Does it have
something to do with grunge
replacing the hair metal of the 70s and 80s in
the early 90s? Or is
the piece a transcription of the end of the
current Piscean Age and a
premonition of the Aquarian Age?

You tell me.

Alan Licht
Brooklyn NY September 2003

Should I go see Alan Licht tonight? He is supposed to be playing from Currents and I liked the one song I heard. Will I regret not going? I'm definitely going to check out the rest of the album because it sounds totally lovely. What's up with this guy?

He has his own thread but it is so short and last updated 13 years ago

he's great -- Currents is really his first album in that vein, but he's just generally an interesting player overall (though I definitely haven't heard everything he's done. probably like 1/10 of everything, if that).

Saw him play at Union Pool and didn't find it too interesting really...

xp - yeah that's what i read. it reminded me of Richard Youngs when he did Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits. i am interested in Skip to the Solo too. i love the title!

https://alanlicht.bandcamp.com/album/three-chords-and-a-sword-solo-cover-versions-1988-2020

Heart of Darkness (Thomas, Laughner, Krauss, Wright, Herman) recorded live at the Cooler, NYC January 15, 1996. AL: vocal, chord organ

Jump (Van Halen, Roth, Van Halen, Anthony) recorded at home, Brooklyn, NY February 2021. AL: acoustic guitar

Stable Will (Rich/Oldham) recorded at home, Brooklyn NY February 2021. AL: vocal, acoustic guitar

Rocket USA (Rev, Vega) recorded at home during Love Child demo sessions, Short Hills, NJ, 1988: AL: vocal, cable buzz, loops

Tom Violence (Gordon, Moore, Ranaldo, Shelley) recorded at home, Brooklyn NY February 2021. AL: acoustic guitar

Everybody's Talkin' (Neil) recorded live at the Cooler, NYC January 15, 1996 AL: vocal, chord organ

Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie (Dylan) recorded live at Tonic, NYC August 17, 2003 AL: vocal

The VH cover alone is worth the price of admission tbqh

https://lovechild12xu.bandcamp.com/album/never-meant-to-be

alan's old band has a new compilation

Oh cool, I’ve never actually heard what they sounded like