transcending the universe, time, etc.

spinning trees from andrei tarkovsky's ivanovo detstvo, 1962

(best of 2007)

music:

-3/4hadbeeneliminated: theology (soleilmoon recordings)
-amiina: kurr (ever records)
-asher: in camera (homophoni)
-asher: untitled composition (for b) (leerraum)
-asher: the depths, the colors, the objects & the silence (mystery sea)
-william basinski: shortwave music (2062)
-william basinski: el camino real (2062)
-the beautiful schizophonic: musicamorosa (crónica)
-maurizio bianchi & jozef van wissem: das platinzeitalter (incunabulum)
-bonnie "prince" billy: ask forgiveness (drag city)
-bonnie "prince" billy: wai notes (sea note)
-james blackshaw: the cloud of unknowing (tompkins square)
-gavin bryars, philip jeck and alter ego: the sinking of the titanic (touch)
-vashti bunyan: some things just stick in your mind - early singles and demos 1964-1967 (dicristina stair)
-bill callahan: woke on a whaleheart and diamond dancer (dragcity)
-jefre cantu-ledesma: shining skull breath (students of decay)

-jefre cantu-ledesma: the garden of forking paths (spekk)
-michael cashmore: the snow abides (dutro jnana)
-celer: red seals (archaic horizon)
-celer: neon (s/r)
-celer: scols/sunlir (s/r)
-andrew chalk: the river that flows into the sands II (cd version, faraway press)
-andrew chalk: ghost on water & senshu (with daisuke and naoko suzuki) (faraway press)
-andrew chalk: goldfall (cd version, faraway press)
-andrew chalk: the days after (with daisuke suzuki) (faraway press)

-andrew chalk: time of hayfield (faraway press) (guessing, have not heard)
-richard chartier: fabrication (with asmus tietchens) (die stadt)
-sylvain chauveau: nuage (type records)
-sylvain chauveau: s (type records)
-circle: tower (last visible dog)
-jonathan coleclough & andrew liles: torch songs (die stadt)
-colleen: les ondes silencieuses (leaf)
-eric cordier: osorezan selected field recording 1993 - 2006 (herbal records)
-karen dalton: cotton eyed joe (reissue)
-taylor deupree & christopher willits: listening garden (line)
-nick drake: family tree (tsunami)

-marcel duchamp: musical erratum + in conversation (reissue, ltm)
-earth: hibernaculum (southern lord)
-fear falls burning: once we all walk through solid objects (tonefloat)
-fennesz/ryuichi sakamoto: cendre (touch)
-food: molecular gastronomy (runegrammofon) (i am guessing, have not heard)
-ben frost: steel wound (rerelease room40)
-ben frost: theory of machines (bedroom community)
-gogooo: à côté (moar)
-the hafler trio: an answer (die stadt)
-hala strana: heave the gambrel roof (music fellowship)
-tim hecker: norberg (room40)
-arve henriksen: strjon (runegrammofon)
-fovea hex: allure ep (die stadt/janet)
-john hudak: sunday (bremsstrahlung recordings)
-guiseppe ielasi: august (12k)
-islaja: ulual yyy (fonal)
-vikki jackman: of beauty reminiscing (faraway press)
-jgrzinich: minema (maaheli editions)
-jgrzinich: rudiment of two (edition sonoro)
-klimek: dedications (anticipate)

-christina kubisch: night flights (important)
-jean-françois laporte: soundmatters (23five)
-larsen and friends: abeceda (important)
-jasper leyland: fieldstone (benbecula records)
-francisco lópez: lopez island (elevator bath)

-m83: digital shades vol. 1 (s/r)

-machinefabriek: weeler (lampse)
-machinefabriek: zeeg (rutger zuydervelt & mariska baars & wouter van veldhoven)
-machinefabriek + leo fabriek: fabriek + fabriek (s/r)
-machinefabriek: koploop (w/ anne bakker & greg haines + alt. version) (s/r)
-machinefabriek: piano.wav (s/r)
-machinefabriek & aaron martin: cello recycling/cello drowning (type records)
-stephan mathieu: myspace transcriptions
-daniel menche: wolf's milk (utech)

-meursault: sleeping debris (students of decay)
-moljebka pvlse: driftsond (gears of sand)
-murmer: we share a shadow (helen scarsdale agency)
-joanna newsom: joanna newsom & the ys street band ep (drag city)
-bj nilsen: second childhood (with hildur gudnadóttir and stilluppsteypa) (quecksilber)
-bj nilsen: the short night (touch)

-alva noto: xerrox vol. 1 (raster-noton)
-yui onodera: suisei (and/oar)
-yui onodera: rhizome (gears of sand)
-ov: noctilucent valleys (soft abuse)
-panda bear: person pitch (paw tracks)
-steve peters: three rooms

-eliane radique: chry-ptus (schoolmaps)

-radiohead: in rainbows (s/r)

-steve roden: 9-sided room (touch radio)
-steve roden: dark over light earth (w/ jacob danziger) (new plastic music)
-steve roden: one stone. and arcs and ears. (new plastic music)

-sigur rós: hvarf - heim (xl recordings)
-valgeir sigurðsson: ekvílibríum (bedroom community)
-richard skelton: box of birch (s/r)
-richard skelton: riftmusic (s/r)
-steven r. smith: the anchorite (important)
-stars of the lid: carte-de-visite (s/r)
-stars of the lid: stars of the lid and their refinement of the decline (kranky)
-steinbrüchel: basis (room40)
-supersilent: supersilent 8 (rune grammofon)
-susanna: sonata mix dwarf cosmos (rune grammofon)
-david sylvian: when loud weather buffeted naoshima (samadhisound)
-tape & minamo: birds of a feather (ex-po/headz)
-tenniscoats: tan-tan therapy (hapna)
-tenniscoats: totemo aimasho (room40)
-tzesne: cliffs under the mist (mystery sea)
-christian wallumrod: the zoo is far (ecm)
-mark wastell: come crimson rays (kning disk)
-chris watson: oceanus pacificus (touch)
-wilco: sky blue sky (nonesuch)
-christopher willits + ryuichi sakamoto: ocean fire (12k)
-jozef van wissem: stations of the cross (incunabulum)
-peter wright: at last a new dawn (students of decay)
-peter wright / the north sea / agitated radio pilot: split (deserted village)
-robert wyatt: comicopera (domino)
-savvas ysatis + taylor deupree: the sleeping morning (12k)
-various artists: airport symphony (room40)
-various artists: yasujiro ozu - hitokomakura (and/oar)
-various artists: extract: portraits of soundartists (nvo)


dvds/movies:

-robert bresson: mouchette (criterion)
-paul robeson: portraits of the artist (criterion)
-vittorio de sica: bicycle thieves (criterion)
-sidney gilliat: green for danger (criterion)

-claude berri: the two of us (criterion)
-michael powell: 49th parallel (criterion)
-mikio naruse: when a woman ascends the stairs (criterion)
-kon ichikawa: fires on the plain & the burmese harp (criterion)
-jules dassin: the naked city & brute force (criterion)
-jean-pierre melville: army of shadows (criterion)
-kenji mizoguchi: sansho the bailiff (criterion)
-akira kurosawa: yojimbo/sanjuro (criterion)
-carol reed: the third man (criterion)
-lindsay anderson: if... (criterion)
-lindsay anderson: o lucky man! (warner home video)
-hiroshi teshigahara: three films by hiroshi teshigahara (criterion)
-billy wilder: ace in the hole (criterion)
-andrei tarkovsky: ivan's childhood (criterion)
-jim jarmusch: stranger than paradise & night on earth (armin mueller-stahl, rome and helsinki only) (criterion)
-georg wilhelm pabst: the threepenny opera (criterion)
-terrence malick: days of heaven (criterion)
-rainer werner fassbinder: berlin alexanderplatz (criterion)

-monte hellman: two-lane blacktop (criterion)
-criterion eclipse series (ozu, bergman, fuller, bernard)
-frantisek vlácil: marketa lazarová (second run)
-werner herzog: rescue dawn (mgm)
-david lynch: twin peaks vol. 2 (plus vol 1 + 2 boxset i am guessing) (paramount home video)
-abbas kiarostami: five dedicated to ozu (kino)
-evelina domnitch + dmitry gelfand: camera lucida (line)
-tony richardson: the loneliness of the long distance runner (warner home video)
-nuri bilge ceylan: climates (zeitgeist films)
-fritz lang: the return of frank james (20th century fox)
-nicholas ray: the true story of jesse james (20th century fox)
-john ford: ford at fox (twentieth century fox)
-kenneth anger: the films of kenneth anger (fantoma)
-sigur rós: heima (xl recordings)
-philip gröning: into great silence (zeitgeist films)
-david lynch: inland empire (theater + dvd)
-charles burnett: killer of sheep (theater + dvd)
-david cronenberg: eastern promises (theater + dvd)
-paul greengrass: the bourne ultimatum (theater)
-cohen brothers: no country for old men (theater)
-pt anderson: there will be blood (theater)

leather cover (1932) from

walter benjamin's archive (verso press)

books:

-walter benjamin's archive (verso)
-bergman interviews (univ press of mississippi)
-marco breuer: early recordings (aperature)
-paul celan: snow part (the sheep meadow press)
-thomas joshua cooper: ojo de agua / eye of the water (pace wildenstein)
-joseph cornell: navigating the imagination (yale university press)
-joseph cornell's dreams (exact change)
-gregory crewdson: fireflies (skarstedt)

-lorraine daston & peter galison: objectivity (zone books)
-leonardo da vinci: experience, experiment, and design (princeton univ. press)

-declaring space: mark rothko, barnett newman, lucio fontana, yves klein (prestel)
-rainer werner fassbinder: berlin alexanderplatz (schirmer/mosel)
-edward hopper: an intimate biography (rizzoli) (still need to read)
-edward hopper (mfa boston)
-silent theater: the art of edward hopper (phaidon)
-anselm kiefer (skira)
-anselm kiefer / paul celan: myth, mourning and memory (thames & hudson)
-edvard munch: signs of modern art (hatje cantz)
-the painter's garden: design, inspiration, delight (hatje cantz)
-richard pare: the lost vanguard: russian modernist architecture 1922-1932 (monacelli)
-as in a dream: odilon redon (hatje cantz)
-richard serra sculpture: forty years (moma)
-richard serra: rolled and forged (steidl)
-instant light: tarkovsky poloroids (thames & hudson)
-j.m.w. turner (tate publishing)
-vincent van gogh, painted with words: letters to emile bernard (rizzoli)
-vermeer (the overlook press)

mouchette and some french field recordings

robert bresson: mouchette, 1967

examples of french field recordings:

the work of yannick dauby,

sound artist:

select discography:

-songs of a few cicadas from taiwan, kalerne temporary editions, 2007

-songs of a few crickets from europe, kalerne temporary editions, 2007

-songs of a few amphibians from taiwan, kalerne temporary editions, 2007

-février, cherry music, 2006 (my favourite from the list)

-sarus cranes circling above, boxmedia, 2004

-symetry never happens in nature (entrelacs project with michael northam), s/r, 2004

-low valley, edition..., 2004

-bruissements (on another kind of language: dedicated to andrei tarkovsky comp.), and/oar, 2003

-une topographie sonore... (from thomas koner's zyklop), mille plateaux, 2003

-sundew (on infernal proteus comp.), the ajna offensive, 2002

-descendre cinq lacs au travers d'une voilé (with alio die), aqua, 1998

the work of eric la casa, sound artist:

select discography:

-air.ratio, 2007

-cci 1 (on intransitive twenty-three comp.), intransitive recordings, 2004

-fonderie. paccard, collectif & cie, 2001

(based on recordings from the site of a foundry for making bells in annecy, france)

the work of eric cordier, sound artist:

select discography:

-osorezan: selected field recording 1993 - 2007, herbal international, 2007

-breizhiselad, erewhon, 2006

("yvonne loriod would accompanied birdsong expeditions with a tape recorder." from messiaen by peter hill and nigel simeone)

the ornithological activities of olivier messiaen (bird notation and recording):

"the catalogue d'oiseaux ostensibly returns to the naturalist intentions of portraying birds- all french birds- in their habitats, but there are the same structures of alternation and palindrome, along with further infiltrations of non-birdsong material. usually this material is justified as illustrative, but the mechanisms of illustration are codes peculiar to messiaen, the most important being his equivalence of colour and harmony."

(from modern music and after: directions since 1945 by paul griffiths, page 124)

"in his transcriptions, based on notation in the field, he tried to convey the melodies, rhythms and timbres of many different bird songs, and some of his later works were created very largely from this natural material.

the catalogue d'oiseaux for piano (1956-8), for example, is a collection of pieces, each painting a sound picture of a bird in its habitat, together with its companions, often at a particular time of day."

(from modern music: a concise history by paul griffiths, page 125)

"for me, the only real music has always existed in the sounds of nature... the harmony of wind in tress, the rhythm of waves on the sea, the timbre of raindrops, of breaking branches, of stones struck together, the different cries of animals are the true music as far as i am concerned." (this passage describes the bresson soundtrack very well)

(from olivier messiaen: music and color, conversations with claude samuel, page 135-139)

bell recordings:

jean-luc herelle: pastoral bells (clarines et sonnailles), sittelle, 1996

(recordings of bells worn by herds of cows and goats)

(i encourage listening to the robert bresson soundtrack while reading this post, "discovered" using techniques pioneered by steve roden)

fire, void and ashes

the presence of fire in the void, monte hellman's

two-lane blacktop, 1971

words from pierre restany's book yves klein: fire at the heart of the void

only, the fruit still has to avoid being eaten

some examples from robert motherwell/george wittenborn's documents of modern art (1944-1972), covers and typography by paul rand.

titles include:
guillaume apollinaire: the cubist painters (1944)
piet mondrain: plastic art and pure plastic art (1945)
lászló moholy-nagy: the new vision (1946)
louis henry sullivan: kindergarten chats (1947)
wassily kandinsky: concerning the spiritual in art (1947)
jean arp: on my way (1948)
max ernst: beyond painting (1948)
robert motherwell: the dada painters and poets: an anthology (1951)
david-henri kahnweiler: the rise of cubism (1949)
marcel raymond: from baudelaire to surrealism (1949)
georges duthuit: the fauvist painters (1950)
carola gideon-welcker: contemporary sculpture (1955)
marcel duchamp: the bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even (1960)
paul klee: the thinking eye + the nature of nature
k. malevich: essays on art (1971)

motherwell/wittenborn also published another series: problems of contemporary art (1945-1954). motherwell edited the documents of twentieth-century art with viking press (1971-1993).
46 titles (47 volumes) total

(title from duchamp's volume)

days of heaven (thirteen)

terrence malick: days of heaven, 1978

cinematography: néstor almendros with additional work by haskell wexler, camera operator: john bailey

hieronymus bosch: the temptations of st. anthony

mysterious and invisible

last film of 2007. filmed in 2 parts. part one with magic hour, fireflies and piano. part two with wasser and light. sound discovered and realized by asher and rendered by m swiezynski.