Twittering Machines

Werner Herzog’s documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams based on the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in southern France is coming to a theater near you (well, maybe) in 3D. Discovered in 1994 by Jean-Marie Chauvet and his two friends, Éliette Brunel and Christian Hillaire, the Chauvet Cave contains the oldest cave art yet discovered determined to be between 30,000 and 40,000 years old (that’s like way way before Noah).

Apparently the cave, which lies 400 meters below the ground, was used as some sort of ritual site for thousands of years, a caveman destination resort, as scientists have recently discovered art dating to 10,000 years ago. There are also an abundance of abstract symbols used in the pictograms which means that we’ve had to re-evaluate and re-date our theories concerning when man first began communicating with symbols. “Because of near-toxic levels of radon and carbon dioxide [which cause hallucinations], nobody can stay in the cave for more than a few hours at a time.” Artists and drugs. Some things never change…

The Chauvet cave is closed to the public so this Herzogian-led view will be most people’s chance to see these amazing sites narrated by none other than the master narrator himself.

Miles Davis
Ascenseur Pour L’Échafaud

It’s 1957 and Louis Malle (it was his assistant Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s idea) asks Miles to provide the music for his film Ascenseur Pour L’Échafaud. Miles says yes and records this stunning 10″ on December 4 and 5, 1957 in Paris (he was there to perform anyway). Miles and his band (Barney Wilen – tenor saxophone, René Urtreger – piano, Pierre Michelot – bass, and Kenny Clarke – drums) went to the studio and improvised this music while watching scenes from the film.

I don’t yet own the original release from Fontana (France) from 1957 (pictured) but I will someday*. I did hear this record once and it literally stopped a group of people in their tracks and sat them down in a silent way. “the loneliest trumpet sound you will ever hear, and the model for sad-core music ever since. Hear it and weep.” ~ Phil Johnson

* note: there are 12 vinyl versions of this release according to Discogs

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This booklet was one of those stumbled onto finds from my days as a book hunter and I stumbled onto it at one of my favorite NYC book stores, Skyline Books (since deceased). Thaddeus Cahill was born 1867 in Oberlin, Ohio and by the age of 14 he’d built his first telephone receiver to play with and read Helmholtz’s On the Sensation of Tone, which set his fertile imagination on fire. He became an attorney and moved to Washington, D.C. where in 1895 he filed for a patent on his “musical machine” the Telharmonium – a “perfect instrument” whose electronic music would be distributed on the existing cable network (via leased phone lines).

“Get Music on Tap Like Gas or Water”

“The trouble about these beautiful, novel things is that they interfere so with one’s arrangements. Every time I see or hear a new wonder like this [Telharmonium] I have to postpone my death right off. I couldn’t possibly leave the world until I have heard this again and again.” ~ Mark Twain

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Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides
Low Fired Clay Escape

Percussionist Pascal Nichols and flautist Kelly Jones improvise over and are mixed deep into “electronics, tapes and old military communication systems” until the sounds they make and the sounds that are made fuse into ritual psychedelic delirium.

Low Fired Clay Escape creates a sound-world that’s so other-worldly, so foreign it hardly fits into any comfortable musical category – are you experienced, again?

Released on Carnivals in 2011 in an edition of 530. (mescaline-induced?) Cover art by Darren Adcock.

Gallerium/From the Top
Gwangwon Art Hall, Incheon, South Korea

Paragon / 1957
Hartsfield / 1953
EV Patrician  / 1983
Klangfilm Bionor KLL433/ 1950
ALTEC A-4 / 1945
Western Electric 16A, 555/ 1920, 30
MC 2500 / 1980
Cello Performance / 1986
Cello Strad Grand Master / 1991
Threshold FET 10e  / 1990
Audio research SP-8 / 1981
WESTERN ELECTRIC 46 / 1927
Marantz MODEL-2 / 1956
Marantz MODEL-7 / 1963
Mcintosh C-22 / 1963
COUNTERPOINT SA-5000 / 1990
Mcintosh MC-240 / 1960
Klangfilm 6S-ELA-2805
Threshold S/300/ 1983

PJ Harvey and her trio, John Parish, Mick Harvey and Jean-Marc Butty played two shows at NYC’s Terminal 5 on the 19th and 20th of April. John, Stephen and I were there for Wednesday’s performance which was in a word – restrained. Being a PJ Harvey fan is not easy. Even though you know which PJ you’re going to get based on her latest release, you still hope your favorite Polly Jean will show up.

The set consisted of Let England Shake in its entirety with some older tunes mixed in (see set list) and transformed to the current sound with PJ singing and playing mainly autoharp and guitar while the boys in the band backed her with guitars, keyboards, drums and vocals. The pace for the evening was set in motion by the title track which also served as the show’s opener in metronome time which varied little throughout the performance. She inhabited her character, let’s call her Polly Jean the pure of heart, in a glowing full-length milk-white gown, black high-heeled boots and a large headdress of black-as-crow feathers.

There’s a lot of war and death in Let England Shake, a lot of sadness and loss which PJ delivered with matter-of-fact precision. I wouldn’t call it a cool detachment rather a world-weary history-induced malaise. Her movement throughout the show was restrained and dare I say bird-like with her white dress’ decorative pleats mimicking ribs and bone and largely disguising any womanly form or flesh. Her gestures were also mechanical and jerky as if she was transformed into an elaborate and beautiful wind-up bird/bard automaton in order to deliver her scarred visions. At times her intensity and resolve were positively chilling.

While we were a long way from “Lick My Legs” (the hot to this evening’s cool), PJ Harvey the pure of heart still managed to transfix the crowd from the moment she walked on stage until for some, like me, days after. As a matter of fact, I find the afterglow of the evening’s performance to be much sweeter than the actual experience and if I have a real complaint its with the venue – this music demands attention and I believe it would be much better served with the audience seated setting expectations and focus up front.

Set list:

Let England Shake
The Words That Maketh Murder
All And Everyone
The Guns Called Me Back Again
Written On The Forehead
In The Dark Places
The Devil
Sky Lit Up
The River
The Glorious Land
The Last Living Rose
England
Pocket Knife
Bitter Branches
On Battleship Hill
C’mon Billy
Hanging In The Wire
The Colour Of The Earth

Encore:

The Piano / Big Exit
Angelene
Silence

*image from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927)

Press Registration lines

It had to be done. I finally got so fed up with all of the subjective nonsense involved in the typical hi-fi show report that I did what the everyone else is afraid to do – the first ever (at least to my knowledge) blind listening show report! No “ohs and ahs” over what something sounds like while being swayed by fancy looks and fancier price tags.

I wore the Musicmask product to ensure I couldn’t seen anything yet I could keep my eyes open and remain alert. So let’s get on with the show!

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Charlie Nothing
Outside/Inside

Reissue from the ever-wonderful De Stijl Records of  Charlie Nothing’s 2nd and last LP (he would go on to release singles and cassettes) originally issued by Everitt Enterprises in 1969. Outside/Inside is a perfect time capsuled slice and minimal meditation on hippie zen in flute (by Charlie) and bongos (by Tox Drohan). Turn on, tune in, drop out.

At the northwest corner of Union Square Park (at 17th Street & Broadway right near the old Factory and the Gandhi bronze) stands the new Andy Monument by Rob Pruitt on view until October 2, 2011-

“Every day, a thousand more kids come to New York propelled by Andy’s legacy … [making] this pilgrimage, coming here to make it big, to be an artist. Like Oscar Wilde’s grave at Père Lachaise, there should be a destination in New York to mark that journey. I think something needs to be in the streets of New York, something you could visit at four-thirty in the morning.” ~ Rob Pruitt from an article by Jerry Saltz in NY Mag.com

And from the Project notes:

“Like so many other artists and performers and people who don’t fit in because they’re gay or otherwise different, Andy moved here to become who he was, to fulfill his dreams and make it big. He still represents that courage and that possibility. That’s why I came to New York, and that’s what my Andy Monument is about.” ~ Rob Pruitt

I’ve read reviews that don’t like Pruitt’s Andy Monument and I’ve read reviews that do. Some of the negative ones get oh-so-catty because the writer’s appear to be frustrated by the lack of similarity between Pruitt’s sculpture and their own unmade, unrealized fantasy version. When it comes to Art, I always find that actually doing something is preferable.

Patti Smith
Horses

1975 debut LP from Patti Smith featuring a cover portrait by ex-lover and lifelong friend Robert Mapplethorpe and a damn near perfect two sides of songs.

Recorded at Electric Lady Studios, NYC featuring Patti Smith (vocals, guitar), Jay Dee Daugherty (drums), Lenny Kaye (guitar, bass guitar, vocals), Ivan Kral (bass guitar, guitar, vocals), and Richard Sohl (keyboards). Special guests  -Tom Verlaine and Allen Lanier. Tracks: “Gloria”, “Redondo Beach”, “Birdland”, “Free Money”, “Kimberly”, “Break It Up”, “Land”, “Elegie”.

Patti Smith was raised a Jehovah Witness (“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine”) in southern NJ then she moved to NYC in 1967.

At Home with Tim and Laetitia, Jane Magazine, November 2001

“I went to the Hi-Fi & Record Review show, they had all the new gear. I was shocked by all the appalling music, horrible modern cover versions or really lame, laid-back jazz. I heard this room full of Marc Levinson gear playing the most awful show tunes. If music can’t match the sound quality then it is a non-starter. You need the emotional and intellectual connection with the music first. Then you worry about sound. The good rooms were the EAR room, they played old-styled ’50s blues and classical; the Beauhorn room played Chopin; and the Caffrey horn (?) room. But you often come away thinking, “How can anyone buy anything hearing that music?” A system has to play normal music. Normal records recorded well, like an old Impulse! record. They sound fantastic. There is no point in having all these frequencies if it doesn’t suit the music. Digitally recorded blues just doesn’t work full stop as music.” ~ Tim Gane from an interview on Enjoy the Music

“The name “Mark Levinson” soon entered the common lexicon, synonymous with “ultra quality,” to such an extent that someone completely unfamiliar with audio might say something like “That’s a Mark Levinson motorcycle,” or “I love your Mark Levinson jacket,” meaning the referenced objects were not only of the highest possible quality, but were also exceedingly beautiful.” ~ from his bio available on the Daniel Hertz SA website

I’d say that’s a Mark Levinson bio!

What can you say about Mark Levinson that he hasn’t already said about himself? Pioneer, guru and living legend of hi-fi, recording engineer (“Among the cognoscenti, Levinson recordings are as revered as Levinson electronics.”), musician (he’s a “jazz musician” who played with Paul Bley and “sat in ” with John Coltrane among others according his bio), and sex artist (he co-authored Satisfaction, the Art of the Female Orgasm with his ex-wife Kim Cattrall which kinda puts a fine point on the importance of the female orgasm as it relates to the importance of marriage). There’s nothing that Mark Levinson has done that isn’t deserving of the highest self-praise.

A brief Mark Levinson time-line:

• 1972 – founded Mark Levinson Audio Systems which he sold in the early ’80s along with his name to Madrigal Audio Laboratories who has since become part of Harman International who continue to use the Mark Levinson name.
• 1984 – formed Cello Ltd. selling ultra-high-end/ultra-high-priced hi-fi. He left Cello by 1998.
• 1998 – opened Red Rose Music on Madison Avenue, NYC (next to the Whitney Museum) “to bring no-compromise performance to a wider audience” in part by re-branding Chinese-made hi-fi products (“We found ways of making great sound for less money”). He’s still listed as part of the Management Team on the the Red Rose website.
• 2007 – teamed up with LG, “LG Electronics and Mr. Mark Levinson announced their collaboration to develop products that deliver enhanced sound quality and a differentiated, stylish design. Over the past year, LG Electronics worked with the audio legend to develop and personally tune selected premium home theater systems.” ~ from the LG press release
• 2010 – founded Daniel Hertz SA catering to the ultra-high-end/price hi-fi market once again.

Daniel Hertz M1 Speaker

“The Daniel Hertz M1 speaker ushers in a new era in music reproduction. For the first time, listeners can enjoy the audiophile dream of the most natural sound, highest level of detail, and spacious sound, with the awesome impact, deep bass, lightning fast speed, and ultra-wide dynamic range that can only be achieved by new speaker technology using very high efficiency drivers.” ~ from the Daniel Hertz website (someone should introduce Mr. Levinson to Western Electric)

“Instead of designing to a price point, Mark Levinson Audio Systems designed to exceed all previous known playback limitations.” ~ from his bio on the Petrof website

“When Mark Levinson left Madrigal (and his name) back in the mid 1980’s, his goal was to create audio equipment that surpassed anything that had been done before (including the equipment that still bares his name), thus Cello Ltd. was born.” ~ from his bio on the Daniel Hertz SA website

I imagine its downright damned difficult to be condemned to a life where your highest goal is to surpass yourself.

Gold Face Cream, 350 €

Mark Levinson is also the only audio designer I’m aware of who also sells high-end face cream.

And finally, “For those with a passion for simplicity, and a love of music, there’s the Mark Levinson watch”, “water resistant to 50 meters, 100dB with a FR of 20Hz – 60kHz” (OK I added that last bit). Limited to 100 specimens per sex.

“Yet despite his greatness, Levinson remains humble…” ~ from his bio

Byron Coley
Beefheart

An ode to the good Captain. Longhouse, 2011. Very limited. Unsigned $8.95 / Signed edition $15.95