Arvo Pärt - Kanon Pokajanen (Cappella Amsterdam directed by Daniel Reuss)

 

I think there are three or four different recordings of Kanon Pokajanen; this is probably the most recent one. It's really one of Arvo's best works, actually many choir melodies on this one could be black metal or d-beat riffs. 2016 cd on Harmonia Mundi.

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TQ Zine # 18, 19 & 20

Time's very limited for reading the latest TQ issues in depth, let alone write about them, but there's been some cool that is worth mentioning.

On #18 the most interesting piece was the interview with Bloxham tapes, which has released the stellar All Is Quiet At the Ancient Theatre by Alison Cotton, a superb album of pagan drone. There's also an interview of Graham Thrower of alt.vinyl, in which I discovered the amazing Vampire Blues tape Knocking on the Dragon's Door, an offering of ecstatic guitar drone folk. The free cd offered with the issue is a label sampler from Bloxham Tapes and its sister label Stars, Dots and the New Junk, showcasing experimental folk, drone, and ambient. Some tracks are really good; I distinguished Greenidge Lambourne's track. Check it out here.

#19 is dedicated to minimalism and is centered around Tone Quanta, a double-disc compilation of minimalist tracks offered by artists worshipped in the blog such as Posset, Chow Mwng, and Xqui. Proceeds from the cd's sales will go the Westgate Ark, an action providing homes for stray cats. Half of the issue is filled with artists reflecting on the tracks they created for the compilation, something TQ had done with its previous compilation, too, and I think it's a great way to get into the working styles of noise musicians. The most important part of the issue is a piece on Arvo Pärt, plus an interview with legendary French experimental composer Éliane Radigue, whose Triptych album I completely adore and crave for when I feel sleepy.

The new issue (#19) offers a cd of Sheer Zed featuring cool ambient soundscapes and field recordings, plus a free download of the album Glass In Your Ear by Robert Weis, which features electronic compositions generated by glass sounds. I like it because it has a Coil quality to it. The mainpiece in this issue is a bio of Eurock zine and label, keeping at promoting experimental music since the 1970s. I got to know Eurock through its collaboration with the amazing Urban Sax/Gilbert Altman, and of course the contributions of owner Archie Patterson to underground music cannot be diminished. His praise of Richard Branson, though, as a "music legend," without referring to his political activities, which now include a financing of a concert aid in Colombia which acts in support of US-backed self-appointed president of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, and aims to assist in the overthrow of the government of Venezuela, is kind of too naive and apolitical. Of course, this isn't TQ's fault, I'm just noting that music and politics cannot be completely separated.

As always, TQ Zine is a great endeavor that requires the support of undeground and DIY music fans, so go to http://tqzine.blogspot.com/, and land a subscription!

Schnittke & Pärt - Choral Works (Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir conducted by Kaspars Putniņš)

Latvian conductor Kaspars Putniņš in charge of Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir for a rendition of Alfred Schnittke's Psalms of Repentance. I know that Schnittke converted quite late in his life to Christianity and his music was often repressed in the Soviet Union, but I can't help feeling that his choral work that was written in 1988 possesses a Soviet spirit. There is a busy, dramatic, hellish, and agonizing tone in this material that might just as well have been included in the soundtrack of Soviet films or Tarkovsky's masterpieces; it also reminds me of the sublime music of Ligetti on 2001: A Space Odyssey. Check out the third psalm ("That Is Why I Live In Poverty") with a sustained note kept for many seconds by the choir for a completely unconventional approach to religious chanting. Coupling Schnittke's psalms we get Arvo Pärt's "Magnificat" (I think that its best version is on Te Deum but this one is good too, with a more ambient sound) and one of his very best psalms, "Nunc Dimittis," that is unbelievably heart-baring and humbling, even for someone who is a hardline communist coming from an Arab/Shia background like me. It's up to par with "Salve Regina," possibly the best piece of music ever written after Miles Davis's "He Loved Him Madly." I think that on this track Putniņš outdoes both Paul Hillier's version on Da Pacem (sung there by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir as well eleven years before) and Stephen Layton's more quiet one on 2003's Triodion. Check this cd out both for this amazing take on "Nunc Dimittis" and Schnittke's unconventional approach to religious music. 2017 SACD on BIS.

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Arvo Pärt ‎– The Symphonies (Tõnu Kaljuste, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra) (ECM)

End-of-summer laziness and boredom and the exhaustion of a very difficult winter are too overwhelming for me to write anything of substance and to scan/upload covers, etc. so there you go. A new recording of all 4 Arvo Pärt symphonies conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste and performed by the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, this is the first studio recording of the fourth "Los Angeles" symphony of 2010. People who have mostly come to Pärt through his beautiful choral work or his masterful solo pieces "Fur Alina," "Spiegel Im Spiegel" or Tabula Rasa might surprised by the sometimes aggression and darkness hovering over these symphonies, especially the first two, which have that ominous Shostakovich/"Soviet" style, while Symphony 4 is perhaps closer to the majestic choral work, and Symphony 3 has a more majestic and cinematic feel to it, more particularly in the third movement. 2018 cd on ECM.

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