Sunday, July 15, 2007

music, melancholia

more encounters with musical melancholia:
(just a list of some things i have heard lately)

lou reed: hudson river wind meditations, 2007
for melancholic yoga

lou reed: berlin, the bed, sad song, and the kids from berlin, 1973

jason lescalleet: the pilgrim
homage to lescalleet's father that passed away from cancer

david lang: the passing measures, 2001

bass communion: ghosts on magnetic tape, 2004
"inspired by scientist konstantin raudive’s famous attempts to communicate with the dead and subsequently capture his efforts on magnetic tape" dustedmagazine

hala strana: heave the gambrel roof, 2007
further transformations of eastern european folk music by steven r. smith

david sylvian: praise, and darkest dreaming from dead bees on a cake, 1999

keith berry: soundtrack to 58º north, 2006 (more on this later)

ornette coleman: sound grammar, 2006 (esp. sleep talking)

animal collective: loch raven from feels, 2005

roy orbison: in dreams, crying, blue angel and others

the platters: smoke gets in your eyes, 1959

beirut: elephant gun from lon gisland, 2007

vetiver: on a nerve from to find me gone, 2006

exit in grey: nameless droplet, 2006
beautiful melancholic melodies from this russian duo (esp. track 2, which is quite overwhelming)

scott tuma: beautiful dreamer from hard again, 2001 (and many others)
guitar from a distant place.

fennesz/ryuichi sakamoto: cendre, 2007 (esp. cendre, and abyss)

max richter: track from brilliant noise sountrack

william basinski: el camino real, 2007

stars of the lid: and their refinement of the decline, 2007

tom waits: johnsburg, illinois, town with no cheer, in the neighborhood, just another sucker on the vine, soldier's things, and rainbirds from swordfishtrombone, 1983


hans memling maria portinari, c.1470

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

again a jolly fine list with even more stuff to check out.
how about the film 'feuerzangenbowle' for your alcoholblog? Plenty decent stuff to get drunk from, but it is nicer in winter.

the art of memory said...

that sounds like an amazing drink, i think maybe i had something like it germany, but not so complicated.
i think it would be impossible to find here, even at a german restaurant.
next time i am there though.....

Daniel Kasman said...

Memling sure is great, though I'm not sure I would have described or even thought of that portrait as melancholy. What grabbed you about it?

the art of memory said...

i think i see melancholia in beauty, maybe.
i love the netherlandish school for this reason, jan van eyck, petrus christus, all those fellows, and i am going to the met next week, so i can't wait to see them again. i would haunt the met and the frick if i lived in new york. i always head straight for them, and rarely look at anything else (maybe just a bit of vermeer and some italians...) so lucky for those who live there (i think you do?), a great city.

woolgathersome said...

A favorite Memling... (of course that's a fine list as well)

I especially love how Memling paints landscapes in the background; through tiny chinks and narrow passages, somehow the fragmentation really creates a longing and makes you want to leave the interior and wander out... And his sunsets are beautiful (and his veils)!! You should try to see the Frick Library while your there. Tell them you're studying melancholia and they'll let you in...

p.s. No, no, I can't believe that is Martin above...

the art of memory said...

frick library? that is a good idea, have you done that?
what do they have there?
i love that business as well in those paintings, the van eyck's they have in the louvre are like that, you feel like you are dreaming when you look into them.
i like to follow the dostoevsky method and get a chair and put my eyes right up to the painting.
with my hands behind my back....

woolgathersome said...

Yes, the Frick has an amazing library in the old building around the corner. They like you to be there for "serious" research, but you can do that... The collection is wonderful and they usually have a nice exhibit happening....