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Kyle Gann on music after the fact

Screw Conventions

December 30, 2015 by Kyle Gann

Liturgy_-_The_Ark_Work_coverLiturgy’s new album, The Ark Work, wins the number one “avant” album of 2015 over at Rolling Stone. They even mention John Luther Adams in the description. It is a remarkably original album, strongly compositional, and apparently controversial for ignoring some of the conventions of black metal.

 

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Comments

  1. John Luther Adams says

    December 31, 2015 at 12:53 pm

    Hearty congratulations to Bernard and is bandmates! I’m honored to mentioned alongside Liturgy.

  2. Michael Robinson says

    December 31, 2015 at 2:12 pm

    Congratulations. These were my published impressions of Liturgy after I learned about them here last March:

    Thanks for providing this introduction to some fascinating music and commentary. One of my initial thoughts was to discern any possible connection to earlier bands, and without knowing anything about the group, The Who first flashed through my mind, and I also had a glimpse of Mountain, and a British band that made innovative use of dramatically powerful drones. It also occurred to me to suggest to Jerry Brown to commission this group to compose and perform some form of rain chant here in California, which was a half-serious if complimentary thought. Then, unexpectedly, I heard rather dramatically in the music, raw pathos and rage for the manner which older generations are destroying Mother Earth with unnecessary forms of energy. As my late friend, Ray Manzarek’s friend and bandmate, Jim Morrison, once despaired: “What have they done to the earth? What have they done to our fair sister? Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn And tied her with fences and dragged her down.” I feel better knowing these guys are making their music.

Kyle Gann

Just as Harry Partch called himself a "philosophic music man seduced into carpentry," I'm a composer seduced into musicology... Read More…

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So classical music is dead, they say. Well, well. This blog will set out to consider that dubious factoid with equanimity, if not downright enthusiasm [More]

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American Mavericks - the Minnesota Public radio program about American music (scripted by Kyle Gann with Tom Voegeli)

Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar - a cornucopia of music, interviews, information by, with, and on hundreds of intriguing composers who are not the Usual Suspects

Iridian Radio - an intelligently mellow new-music station

New Music Box - the premiere site for keeping up with what American composers are doing and thinking

The Rest Is Noise - The fine blog of critic Alex Ross

William Duckworth's Cathedral - the first interactive web composition and home page of a great postminimalist composer

Mikel Rouse's Home Page - the greatest opera composer of my generation

Eve Beglarian's Home Page- great Downtown composer

David Doty's Just Intonation site

Erling Wold's Web Site - a fine San Francisco composer of deceptively simple-seeming music, and a model web site

The Dane Rudhyar Archive - the complete site for the music, poetry, painting, and ideas of a greatly underrated composer who became America's greatest astrologer

Utopian Turtletop, John Shaw's thoughtful blog about new music and other issues

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