Thursday, December 8, 2016

foolish or unacceptable behavior


i am not sure if anyone gives a rat's fig but a year plus after hearing and working on these tracks, i found it interesting to hear the original james hamilton ghost track and then the ingenting kollektiva lovingly tom f*ckery of it :

original JH track


unacceptable IK version

great dark birds (instrumental variant)


the art of memory has not had internet in over a month. just got it today and posting a medley of forthcoming tracks from james hamilton, one of which has matthew swiezynski stumbles guitar on great dark birds (instrumental variant) & dust and water III (instrumental variant)

this is lovely business and glad to have taken part. looking forward to LP coming out

Saturday, October 1, 2016

radiance - it was a fine august day in the year 1913


1. which, remarkably enough, does not get any one anywhere.

there was a depression over the atlantic. it was travelling eastwards, towards an area of high pressure  over  russia,  and  still  showed  no  tendency  to  move  northwards  around  it.  the isotherms  and  isotheres  were  fulfilling  their  functions.  the  atmospheric  temperature  was  in proper relation to the average annual temperature, the temperature of the coldest as well as of the hottest month, and the a-periodic monthly variation in temperature. the rising and setting of the sun and of the moon, the phases of the moon, venus and saturn’s rings, and many other important phenomena, were in accordance with the forecasts in the astronomical yearbooks. the vapour in the air was at its highest tension, and the moisture in the air was at its lowest. in short,  to  use  an  expression  that  describes  the  facts  pretty  satisfactorily,  even  though  it  is somewhat old-fashioned: it was a fine august day in the year 1913.


listening to the new stephan mathieu album i thought back to the opening paragraph of robert musil's the man without qualities. sublime intricacies of jouissance obscured beautifully by fog and phenomena




selected works by stephan mathieu :

    - frequencylib - ritornell - 2001
    - sad mac studies - en/of/schwebung - 2001/2012
    - die entdeckung des wetters - lucky kitchen - 2002
    - on tape - häpna - 2004
    - the sad mac - headz - 2004
    - with janek schaefer - hidden name - cronica - 2006
    - with akira rabelais - quien era aquella - conv - 2006
    - radioland - die schachtel - 2008
    - the key to the kingdom - dekorder - 2009
    - with taylor deupree - transcriptions - spekk - 2009
    - remain - line - 2011
    - a static place - 12k - 2011
    - with caro mikalef - radioland (panorámica) - line - 2012
    - with sylvain chauveau - palimpsest - schwebung - 2012 (lp)
    - coda (for wk) - 12k - 2012
    - with david sylvian - wandermüde - samadhisound - 2013
    - the falling rocket - schwebung - 2013
    - sacred ground - schwebung - 2014
    - nachtstücke - schwebung - 2015
    - before nostromo - schwebung - 2015
    - with kassel jaeger & akira rabelais - zauberberg - shelter press - 2016
    - radiance series - schwebung - 2016

(design by caro mikalef for cabina )


Wednesday, September 21, 2016

the white rose

bruce conner the white rose - 1967

recently viewed at moma, and the wonderful bruce conner exhibition.
see bruce conner on jay defeo

Sunday, September 11, 2016

impressions en haute atmosphere

josé antonio sistiaga impressions en haute atmosphere - 1989

classic drone series
sound, sound design, music in film



music - waslaw s. beklemicheff

third time seeing the phenomenal film impressions from the upper atmosphere by the basque filmmaker and painter josé antonio sistiaga.

first at harvard film archives in the mid ninities, seen in the articulated light: the emergence of abstract film in america series, curated by bruce posner and introduced by stan brackage.

second in san francisco at the sf cinematheque, although the films were shown with music by savage republic.

third time the other night at the moma, in the from doodles to pixels: over a hundred years of spanish animation series. 

here is an excerpt of the soundtrack. i couldn't find out anything really about waslaw s. beklemicheff. he seems to be to be an unknown master. his work reminds me very much of thomas köner.  if any readers of this site have info on him, i would be much appreciative. here is the full film.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

the dragon rampant (surgical addiction)

michael mann manhunter - 1986

classic drone series
sound, sound design, music in film



will graham visits with hannibal lecter "to get the old scent back again". having left, he has trouble breathing and the grass goes out of focus, then focus regains with breathing.  freddie lounds photographs graham for tattler



taking freddie lounds



trembling in awe of tom noonan's voice


classic michael mann ending with violence, ellipses in editing, non-natural motion (raging bull), and extreme disorientation set to iron butterfly's in-a-gadda-da-vida, with a right channel guitar abstractions that starts with a roar appropriate to the red dragon

sound mixer - john w. mitchell
re-recording mixer - don digirolamo, robert glass, robert knudson
sound - jim bridges
supervising sound editor - robert r. rutledge
sound editors - george h. anderson, david a. arnold, michael j. benavente, steve borne, ed callahan, susan dudeck, scott hecker, john a. larsen, bob newlan, frank serafine, charles ewing smith, jay wilkinson
looping editor - j. paul huntsman
stereo sound consultant - jim fitzpatrick
music - michel rubini, the reds


jonathan demme the silence of the lambs - 1991




clarice starling descents to speak with hannibal lecter. this drone sound plays again when starling returns to see lecter and a little more minimally the third time she visits



buffalo bill / jame gumb regards catherine baker martin with infrared goggles

billy in his lair with colin newman's alone (later covered by this mortal coil) playing softly under the sounds of the dog, sewing and baker martin.

tape of glenn gould's js bach's goldberg variations playing during lecter's slaughtering of sergeants pembry and boyle



music box with semi-lewd images to cat to birds. music box pitch modified/interrupted by discovery of said photos

ted levine doing his business to q lazzarus' goodbye horses. levine is one great actor. other notable rolls include heat, birth, shutter island, american gangster, and ray donovan. apparently malkovich turned down the jame gumb roll (thankfully).

sound designer - skip lievsay
re-recording mixer - tom fleischman
re-recordist - douglas murray, sean squires
production sound mixer - christopher newman
foley artist - marko a. costanzo, jörg klinkenberg
foley editor - frank kern, steven visscher
sound recordist - john fundus
dolby stereo consultant - robert f. warren
music - howard shore


having just read thomas harris' first two hannibal lecter novels red dragon (1981) & the silence of the lambs (1988), re-watching manhunter and the silence of the lambs seemed appropriate. presented are some moments of sound and music from the films. following are blake's great red dragon paintings. living now near the brooklyn museum, i was interested to read in the red dragon when francis dolarhyde visits and wreaks havoc at the museum to see the great red dragon and the woman clothed with the sun. (ps - i'm not much taken by bill blake's visual work, but these are quite interesting to me, at least for the subject matter)


1. the great red dragon and the woman clothed with the sun (also titled ...clothed in sun) in brooklyn
2. the great red dragon and the beast from the sea
3. the great red dragon and the woman clothed with the sun
4. the number of the beast is 666

entry titled from manhunter, when the red dragon talks with freddie lounds and the rather funny title of lecter's preoccupation while incarcerated

Thursday, August 25, 2016

séverine

luis buñuel belle de jour - 1967

classic drone series
sound, sound design, music in film



film's ending where the viewer finds themselves in the ambiguous area between dream and reality. 

this slowly unfolds with the sounds of a clock, rain, footsteps, a horse-drawn carriage, and a cat. and is interrupted occasionally with dialogue (which here has been edited out).


rené longuet - sound engineer
pierre davoust - sound assistant

in addition, rené longuet and pierre davoust did sound for le samouraï 

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

trains in cinema, part 10

- woody allen - manhattan - 1979

- woody allen - sweet and lowdown - 1999

- wes anderson - the grand budapest hotel - 2014

- ann biderman - southland - 2009-2013

- guy burt - the bletchley circle - 2012

- john carpenter - halloween - 1978

- scott cooper - out of the furnace - 2013

- anton corbijn - a most wanted man - 2014

- allan cubitt - the fall - 2013

- andrew dominik - killing them softly - 2012

- fennesz / wozencroft - liquid music - 2012

- kon ichikawa - odd obsession - 1959

- jim jarmusch - only lovers left alive - 2013

- wong kar-wai - the grandmaster - 2013

- tommy lee jones - the three burials of melquiades estrada - 2015

- mike leigh - mr. turner - 2014

- david lynch - twin peaks - 1990-1991

- jim mickle - cold in july - 2014

- michael mann - manhunter - 1986

- paul mazursky - harry and tonto - 1974

- alexander payne - nebraska - 2013

- nic pizzolatto - true detective - 2014

- roman polanski - frantic - 1988

- don siegel - dirty harry - 1971

- paolo sorrentino - youth - 2015

- götz spielmann - revanche - 2008

- françois truffaut - the soft skin - 1964

- william wyler - roman holiday - 1953

- andrzej zuławski - possession - 1981


dear readers (if there are any readers left),

the humble administrator of the art of memory has moved to the fine city of new york (specifically brooklyn) and has decided to make a new attempt at working through this website.

thanks for inspiration from danny at mubi.  i will try to make entries for as many filmic and sonic inspirations as i can find here (which are o the plenty).

i let the site go dormant in the past as i didn't think anyone was interested. in addition i got some complaints for putting up sound clips from films which was frankly quite offensive. hopefully there are some fellow pursuers of the light out there, and i will give it another go.

i started with some images i collected mostly around 2014-15 of trains. more to come....

ms