Tony Conrad

http://www.touscene.com/files/program/bilder/conrad.jpg

High Zero Festival

Friday Night, September 19th

Special Set
Tony Conrad: violins
Dan Conrad: inventions, light

i've seen his bro perform with his homemade light instrument, it's pretty cool. can't wait to see them perform together

Tony's the acknowledged genius of the family, I suppose, but people are going to be catching up to Dan's work for years to come.

"Flicker" is almost like a drug.

@ issue project room in mid oct w/ Neptune

Anyone go to the HZ show? I wanted to but couldn't, and would appreciate a report.

Eff, nevermind, got my weekends mixed up. There's still hope.

i bought a ticket

btw this was killer. life-changing even. i think maybe dan conrad stole the show. too bad he's leaving maryland but i'm guessing if he wants to focus on his art this isn't the place to do it

Is this really the only thread we have? Need more input!

Straight & Narrow is almost as good as flicker.
also, search: Fantastic Glissando

Outside the Dream Syndicate is pretty crucial, too, imo.

not positive but i think dan conrad might still be living in baltimore

always hear repeat broadcasts of an interview he did on Resonance.

such a great voice to listen to.

There are some great pictures in that Unterberger book of The Primitives.
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/loureed/theearlyyears/theprimitives.jpg
Can't tell at all but this picture features Conrad, Reed, Walter De Maria, and John Cale. And maybe one of the producers from Pickwick.

Does everyone already know the story about The Ostrich guitar?

How about the Early Minimalism Volume 1 box set - anyone have that?

tell us of the Ostrich guitar

The Ostrich
Lou tuned all the guitar strings to the same note for recording the song "The Ostrich." Someone (fuzzy on the details) invited Cale and Conrad down to Pickwick to "audition" to be the band that would tour around this novelty single that Lou recorded at Pickwick. Reed told Cale and Conrad about the unusual tuning of The Ostrich guitar and that sounded to them like some of the stuff they'd been doing in their experimental ensemble, so they thought they'd give being in a rock band a try.

Reed is credited with Ostrich Guitar on VU and Nico.

How about the Early Minimalism Volume 1 box set - anyone have that?

― krakow, Wednesday, October 14, 2009 11:08 AM

its good but its 4 discs of just solo/multi-tracked violin so just know what you're getting into. volume 1 of that set is probably the best. i'd recommend:

slapping pythagoras
outside the dream syndicate (w/ faust)
an aural symbiotic mystery (w/ charlemagne palestine)
joan of arc

never liked fantastic glissando or thunderboy but others might tell u different

an aural symbiotic mystery (w/ charlemagne palestine)
Would like to hear this!

Even though the Primitives w/ Conrad & Cale never recorded anything (right?), the very fact that they existed makes me happy.

>How about the Early Minimalism Volume 1 box set - anyone have that?

I don't spend that much time with the CDs recorded in the 90's that reconstruct his 60's pieces, but it's still the only place you can get 'Four Violins' from 1965 on CD, and 'Four Violins' is my favorite Conrad moment outside of the Theatre of Eternal Music tapes

& am0n's picks are all pretty golden (but haven't heard joan of arc yet)

ha ha ok great put on headphones at the office to listen to:

Fundamental Db Group (Charlemagne Palestine, Tony Conrad & Rhys Chatham, 22-23 April 1972)

and listened to this loud for about five minutes before someone peered around the corner with a completely baffled expression and I realized that the speakers were also on, just as loud

(track is just ok -- it's what I bought the CD for, and it's good but I think Young's singing sends a deeper trance than Palestine's)

milton you'd probably like joan of arc. organ piece from '68, similar to some of the cale 'new york in the 1960s' stuff

had to cherrypick the three 'new york in the 1960's' CDs but the good tracks are great. I'll look for 'joan of arc'

though really, the best of all of this stuff is the Theatre of Eternal Music bootlegs, anything from 1963 to 1974.

conrad fans should search specifically for the track '17 XII 63 The Fire Is A Mirror (Young / Zazeela / MacLise / Conrad / Cale / Jennings)'

Fundamental Db Group (Charlemagne Palestine, Tony Conrad & Rhys Chatham, 22-23 April 1972)

^^ where does one find this?

one of those thread revives where i was, 'oh shit'

wld def rep also for the 'Outside the Dream Syndicate Alive' (recorded at Queen Elizabeth Hall London in (jesus) Feb 1995) disc w/ Conrad, Werner Diermaier, Jean-Herve Peron and Jim O'Rourke - I was there, and its one recording that actually captures some of the sonic thunk memory of the perf (tho' obv at a much much reduced volume level, shit was well loud.) Peron, in particular, was just a lunatic that evening, by the end the strings on his bass were snapped and his hands were bleeding. Also, it lasted almost exactly the right amount of frozen time - when I saw Conrad perform solo in Glasgow abt 10 years later, he went on and on and on on... His duo w/ Keiji Haino at Instal was great, tho' Keiji was def doing most of the HEAVY lifting..

This year I also saw THE FLICKER, one of Conrad's 60s short films, and spontaneously, after it had finished, one of the friends I went with and I both said "that was just like experiencing the starfield section of 2001", total compliment obv. This was at the Tramshed, which was insanely hot, so the whole thing was like some kind of sweltering tropical hallucination...hot in every way!

http://www.soundohm.com/charlemagne-palestine-terry-jennings-tony-conrad-rhys-chatam-/sharing-a-sonority-terry-jenning-tony-conrad-rhys-chatham-/alga-marghen/

buy nearly everything else by all of these artists first though

xpost 'Outside the Dream Syndicate Alive' is a pretty great CD

maybe this link will work

milton, is there much else by terry jennings out there (legit or o/wise)?

there's still almost nothing. young's sitting on all of it & we're all just going to have to wait. the jennings / moorman track on ubuweb is golden.

had to cherrypick the three 'new york in the 1960's' CDs but the good tracks are great.
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, October 14, 2009 2:29 PM

agreed. specifically its like 'ex cathedra' but calmer. could even be the same organ. similar sound quality recording-wise too, muffled lo-fi

actually scratch that last part, the cale piece is a pretty clear recording

whatever happened to Early Minimalism, Volume 2?

tony conrad and charlemagne palestine in brooklyn last night was two bros jamming out very sweetly. it all felt very warm and intimate and cp was wearing a hawaiian shirt. a+

Last nights show was everything I wanted it to be.

Think Conrad shows up on some Faust threads?

I'm exceedly envious. What instrument was CP playing?

it was in a church, he was up in the balcony playing the pipe organ for most of it (behind the audience). then the organ kinda drifted out of the mix and we heard cp's occasional chanting start to move and there he is walking down the aisle, arms raised in a sort of salutation, chanting away as he approaches conrad. he then gets real close up, his face almost in tc's violin strings, still chanting (unamplified), kinda looked like he was (gently) fucking with him a little bit, then to the piano.

Amazing.

RIP

aw man

kind of agree with Morbs that it's no longer worth changing thread title to reflect this, otherwise they'll all have 'em sooner or later

what, really? didn't he just give a big interview?

:(

and yes leave thread title as is imo

Big interview was terrific fwiw

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/22/people-thought-we-were-on-drugs-and-we-were-tony-conrad-the-great-avant-garde-adventurer

his work brought me nothing but happiness for many years, rip

last year at his 75th birthday thing at the unitarian church in brooklyn heights he played with charlemagne palestine. charlemagne spent most of the time upstairs playing the organ but toward the end came down to the stage, chanting, and the rapport between the two of them was very apparent and affecting

That show with Charlemagne last year was one of the best performances I've seen. Gutted by his passing.

RIP

Lucky enough to have seen him perform a number of times - with the two Faust guys and O'Rourke doing the Dream syndicate material, a long solo performance in a small venue in Glasgow, and best of all, a duo with Keiji Haino where Conrad was playful, committed, utterly distinctive even when pitched against the Haino onslaught.

Also went to a screening of his film The Flicker a few years ago, completely sober, in a very warm venue, and had a kind of out of body experience - like entering the 2001 stargate, reaching for the infinite in the same way as his music.

:-(

Oh man, heavy news. RIP.

RIP

and best of all, a duo with Keiji Haino where Conrad was playful, committed, utterly distinctive even when pitched against the Haino onslaught.

Sounds amazing!

whenever i've seen 'the flicker' i get real nervous for the projectionist

shit.

rip :-(

Several things showing up on twitter, like

David Grubbs
‏@blackfaurest
A 40-minute excerpt from Tyler Hubby's film of a 1997 perf of Tony Conrad's "Ten Years Alive on the Infinite Plain": https://vimeo.com/73885160

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8kpwVtlPcg

Recorded 1963

La Monte Young
Marian Zazeela
Angus MacLise
Tony Conrad
John Cale
Terry Jennings

La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, and John Cale are still with us. Angus MacLise, Terry Jennings, and Tony Conrad have passed.

I guess it's a miracle that they all didn't go the way of Angus MacLise: stranded after finding his way to a remote area, too spaced out to maintain sustenance for himself.

Thank you for posting that "Ten Years Alive on the Infinite Plain" clip via Grubbs, really enjoying it.

yeah that is great! such a bummer, conrad really was one of a kind.

thought this pic that alan licht posted was kind of hilarious
https://instagram.fsnc1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/t51.2885-15/e15/12912547_1567939100201884_1333404464_n.jpg?ig_cache_key=MTIyNDc5NzU0MzU0NDMzMTg5Mg%3D%3D.2

Hah hah that is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jICWY7JbyA

I was at an experimental film festival in Albuquerque when the news came in; the afternoon saturday screening started with a 10 minute remembrance from students and friends and it made a deep impression being immersed in a community that remembered him as a pioneering structuralist filmmaker. By the afternoon my Facebook feed had turned about 90% Conrad; between the film makers, musicians and teachers who all had fun or caring or genuinely bizarre anecdotes, it was kind of Bowie-level affection for a while there

That WKCR FM archive that crüt posted yesterday is pretty critical for the title track that starts about 15 minutes before the end, 'The Fire Is A Mirror', the microphones were particularly close to Conrad & Cale that day and they were just burning. Young may make weird claims about authorship but the quote that circulated most often yesterday was how his music wouldn't have been what it was if Conrad hadn't introduced him to the harmonic series.

Tom Erbe posted his 'ratemyprofessor.com' page and it was exactly as you'd want it, a 2.5 average split down the middle between total respect and intolerance. You can have a 'professional' teacher, or you can study with an artist.

Listened to 'Four Violins' last night followed up by the 'Mystery Sonatas'.

"This guy has no idea how to teach. The only thing we ever did was watch whacked out videos that made no sense whatsoever and then listen to him rant on about nothing for two hours. Oh, and he hates anything you do if its not weird and abstract and meaningless."

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=214817

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACtDWQSDOZ4

http://cdn2.walkerartcenter.org/static/cache/f5/f5cdaf2577c82779d6071fdaeebcbfc8.jpg

he could lecture on a freeway :D

https://vimeo.com/73885159

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/12/tony-conrad-five-of-the-best-moments-dream-syndicate-drone-pioneer

Whoa, pretty much my ideal collaboration: Tony + Pelt! Only a snippet (a ten minute one) but hopefully the full set exists somewhere, and may even get released? Sure hope so:

https://soundcloud.com/vhfrecords/pelt-with-tony-conrad-exceprt-2142010-issue-project-room-nyc

Can't believe that I lived in NYC when this happened and had no idea. Not to dwell on the negative. Tony + Pelt are the best and this recording is a true thing of beauty.

This is so damn good.

very late but this is indeed really good

I am sincerely hoping to hear the whole performance at some point. I had it confirmed that there is a full recording of the set, so maybe it will surface at some point!