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but most everything out there is leaked from his huge, unpublished tape archive.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

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" ?