CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE- PIANO PIECE FOR SIMONE
ILLUMINATIONS (2010, ALGA MARGHEN)

The Simone referred to in the title here is Simone Forti, choreographer and occasional collaborator of Palestine’s. Illuminations is credited to them both and primarily consists of two recordings of the duo, but this piece is Palestine alone at the piano. Recorded in 1971 but unreleased for nearly 40 years prior to its appearance in 2010, these are fascinating sessions. The title track and “Wed Oct 13th 1971” feature the pair conjuring sound from bells, glasses, and a molimo—“a corrugated tube meant for connecting the gas stove,” state the liner notes—amongst the assorted yelps and yawns of their own voices. It’s pretty out-there and challenging to listen to, but grounded in what seems like a sincere mix of exploration and humor.

Appearing after the manic din of what came before, “Piano Piece for Simone” is a sort of palette cleanser. If you’ve heard his “Beauty Chord + Voice” (from the Voice Studies LP), this is in the same vein—almost heartbreakingly fragile, it is grounded in Palestine’s patient, gentle piano work and then elevated by his ghostly falsetto. Unlike “Beauty Chord + Voice,” “Piano Piece for Simone” has a genuine climax to it, as those early arpeggios turn into a wash of glissandos and his wordless incantations find themselves edging closer to the ecstatic. This recording is a great reminder that Palestine has never warmed to the use of the term “minimalism” when discussing his music—he’s much more comfortable with “trance,” regardless of whatever connotations it might already have.

I’ve made this out-of-print LP available here. Apologies for the crackly transfer—it’s actually from a brand new copy. (Though I’m grateful for Alga Marghen’s archival work, google “alga marghen” and “pressing” and you’ll discover that many of their LPs suffer from surface noise, which is a shame, especially when it comes to music like Palestine’s or Eliane Radigue’s.)

LA MONTE YOUNG & MARIAN ZAZEELA- OCEANS
LA MONTE YOUNG / MARIAN ZAZEELA (1969/2012)

Two La Monte Young bootlegs surfaced at the end of last year—one was an LP featuring two excerpts of a Raag Bhairava purportedly from the Theatre of Eternal Music era, accompanied by no artwork and only the barest information. It’s very good, but the other that (suspiciously?) appeared around the same time holds far more fascination for me. The A-side is part of what has been labeled Day of the Holy Mountain—specifically, part 2a of this set, which I just reblogged from Doom and Gloom from the Tomb. Especially when excerpted here as a 20-minute side (as opposed to when absorbed as part of an 80-minute session), its impact is immediate and remarkable. I’m sometimes a little skeptical of David Keenan’s messianic proclamations, but his observation that this music is “joining the dots between early free jazz reveries, dervish music and the sound of ‘holy minimalism’” feels accurate and well-articulated.

The B-side though, which is given the title “Oceans (aborted session for a 1969 CBS LP),” is the real discovery. To my knowledge, this has not appeared on previous releases of Young’s, official or otherwise. It’s extremely, almost elementally basic—a recording (done by David Tudor) of Young and his collaborator/partner Marian Zazeela overlapping their voices in a series of reedy, mesmerizing drones as they sit on the edge of an ocean. In between extended passages of vocalizing, there are disarmingly mundane asides muttered by Young to Tudor about the minutiae of microphones. 

Though this is pure speculation, the idea of Young and Zazeela cutting a record for CBS in 1969 makes sense, especially coming off the success of Terry Riley’s success for them with In C just a year earlier. “Oceans,” as presented here, was never meant to stand on its own, but when experienced as such, it becomes the most profound eavesdropping you’ll ever do.

CHRISTOPHER WILLITS- FILTERED LIGHT,
FOLDING, AND THE TEA (12K, 2002)

I’m not sure if it’s too early for a glitch revival, but I’d imagine/hope that if one does arise down the line, Folding, and the Tea would stand as a benchmark. Warm and melodic compared to some of the more minimal, clicks-&-cuts material coming out of Europe at the same time, Willits “folding” guitar technique and MSP processing is still a cousin to the work of Oval and Pan Sonic. (There’s a shared interest in Deleuze, at least.)

Arguably the centerpiece of the album, “Filtered Light,” allows for extended immersion in the gently hiccuping rhythms and “folded” phrasing of the guitar work—which, it should be noted, is essentially unrecognizable as such. The leaps and reversals from note to note that result from Willits’ process allows the listener to fill in the gaps as the scattershot clipping provides a percussive push forward.

TERRY RILEY & DON CHERRY- DESCENDING MOONSHINE DERVISHES
LIVE KÖLN 1975 (bootleg, 1975)

The recent appearance of this set as a bootleg LP has brought another round of (always-deserved) attention on it. The interplay is truly affecting and remarkable, hitting In a Silent Way-style peaks for me. (Riley’s interpolation of “Shortnin’ Bread” on the final improvisation is a nice touch!) This music is very much worth your time; that said, don’t go crazy spending $30 to $70 on the vinyl when the mp3s (which probably were the source for the LP anyway) are still very much available.