TS: Constance Demby vs. Lustmord

I do not claim to be a Constance Demby pro, but I really loved her track that was featured on the recent I Am the Center compilation ("Om Mani Padme Hum") and was compelled to check out the album that it belongs to, 1978's Skies Above Skies. It is amazing. Unlike "Om Mani Padme Hum", it features a fair amount of vocal accompaniment, but the singing manages to steer away from chants and predictability while at the same time blending in and complementing the instrumentation. There's also a fair amount of silence on the album. Patience. It's good!

I don't know anything about Lustmord but if it's in the same conversation as Demby I'll have to check it out!

Maybe Demby on the whole, but the best album by either being The Place Where the Black Stars Hang.

― simon diamond, Friday, July 22, 2005 5:27 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That is a great album. I'm a sucker for Stalker as well. But she and Lustmord are getting at very different states in their music. Demby's all through-composed symphonic religious light, Lustmord is mostly dark textural isolationist industrial drone.

I like Demby the most when the electronic sounds are abstract and untempered -- sometimes she leans on the presets a bit while assembling her space orchestras, and you wonder what they'd sound like played by a real one. But she can write!

Haven't heard Skies Above Skies but I like Sunlight (especially the opening track) and 'Radiance' from Sacred Space Music. The space-sequencer-Bach that opens side two of Novus Magnificat: Through The Stargate is burned into my mind forever from hearing it in a Berkeley crystal shop in the late eighties; I only found out it was her when I started working through the Hearts of Space catalog again five years ago or so and it was hilarious and wonderful to find it again.

Some of the later albums like really go overboard on the gregorian chant tension-free loveliness, but some of it is really, really bizarre. I'm pretty impressed with the avant opening track on Attunement.

20 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Two worlds of music, June 26, 2004
By John Cordero - See all my reviews
This review is from: Attunement (Audio CD)
First I would like to say that I greatly admire Constance Demby's talent. However, if you are interested in buying her CDs, be aware that her music falls into two vastly different worlds. Novus Magnificat, Set Free, Aeterna, and Sanctum Sanctuorum are rich in harmony and very uplifting. Attunement, Spirit Trance, and Sacred Space Music are atonal and reminiscent of a waking nightmare. Unfortunately Amazon.com does not make much of her music available for listening so it is difficult for someone new to her music to be aware that the mood of her work varies greatly. I would love to have her compose more music along the lines of Set Free and Novus Magnificat.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
John Cordero's nightmare April 5, 2008
By constance demby

I rarely do this, but because a reviewer has totally misunderstood the structure and harmony of the music, I am taking the time to make a correction here. John Cordero has stated that the music "falls into two vastly different worlds," stating that."Attunement, Spirit Trance, and Space Music are atonal." This is incorrect, and I recommend that John do more research to discover what is meant by "atonal," - as these albums are similar in tonal construction and harmony to the rest of the albums. When John mentions that they are "reminiscent of a waking nightmare," he may not realize that this music has a way of bringing one's issues to the surface, i.e. - his own personal nightmare issues have been revealed to himself through the music, for this music operates as a powerful mirror. Hopefully, this information will assist both John and others to understand that what appears to be one persons nightmare, can be another's bliss.
Sincerely,
Constance Demby

"John Cordero's nightmare"

hahahaha

Yeah I love her for that response. The reviewer has precisely named three of her edgier albums, but they all aim for the light. I didn't mean to sound down on some of her 'lovelier' albums, but to signal to anyone who's heard only those that she's got a large range.

Listening to Attunement again now on spotify. I forgot she takes a gorgeous nine minute long raw bowed steel solo in the middle! Sounds fantastic.

I was also quite taken by that comp track, not knowing her previously. Love that review response, A+ revive

Of the few I've heard, Sunborne is my favorite- it has singing! and then Novus Magnificat and Sacred Space Music. I've never heard Lustmord.

going through the Spotify selection, Sonic Immersion is an entire disc of beautiful bowed steel music, with occasional recitations. She plays relatively consonant drones, so it's closer to Francisco's Cosmic Beam Experience or Peter Warren & Matt Samolis' Bowed Metal Music than anything balls-out like Robert Rutman. Still, going to have to order a copy of this one.

respect

https://www.facebook.com/constance.demby/posts/10221335745395383

Constance Demby (May 9, 1939 - March 20, 2021) multi-instrumentalist and composer.

Constance Demby, pioneering composer and musician, died peacefully on March 20 at the age of 81. Her 1986 album Novus Magnificat: Through the Stargate, is regularly listed among the most influential New Age and ambient albums of all time.

Blending classical, New Age and electronic music, Demby’s compositions have influenced many generations of composers. She performed at events with the Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra, and Todd Rundgren, often in dramatic settings, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and Stonehenge.

Demby performed on instruments of her own creation. Stemming from her early training as a sculptor, Demby’s most prominent innovation was the Sonic Steel Space Bass, made of sheet metal with tuned steel rods, played with mallets and a bow. The Space Bass emits a wide variety of sounds that resemble wind chimes, thunder, whale cries, and human voices.
Constance Demby was also proficient on the hammered dulcimer, tamboura, and keyboards. Her travels to India, Spain, and Portugal, experiences with sound healing, and a love of Gregorian chants influenced her unique musical style.
Stephen Hill, founder of Hearts of Space, said, “Constance Demby was gifted with an intuitive musical sense of sound and melody that moved people deeply. Beginning in experimental improvisation and contemplative acoustic music, she incorporated classical orchestration, symphonic composition, and the expanded sonic dimensions of electronic space into her music. Her 1986 "cosmic choral symphony" Novus Magnificat elevated the standards of scope and production in the early New Age genre and has become a timeless classic.

She recorded over a dozen albums, including the landmark Constance Demby at Alaron, Sacred Space Music, Set Free, Light of This World, Skies Above Skies, Aeterna, Faces of the Christ, Attunement, Spirit Trance, Sonic Immersion, Ambrosial Waves, Live in Tokyo (also on DVD) and Sanctum Sanctorum.

Constance is survived by her son Joshua Demby, grandson Jonah Demby, and nephews Bill, Dave and Christopher Eggers.