Manafonistas

With this CD Nonplace releases the first edition in a series of instrumental soundtracks that were edited for film or television companies over the past decade or aim at being used in conjunction with moving images. All pieces were produced by Burnt Friedman or/and Hayden Chisholm as part of sessions with The Embassadors, or during Friedman´s numerous score recording sessions with Joseph Suchy on electric guitar amongst many others. You will discover an abundance of musical components throughout a dense, seamless mix of 25 short cinematic “scenes”. The musical styles featured range from odd dub rhythms, classical chamber orchestra arrangements and subtle, indescribable electro-acoustic soundscapes all of which could potentially serve as the ultimately remote archive for exceptional soundtrack demand.

(Lieber Bernd, ich freu mich auf dieses neue Album, aber ich werde es mir, nach dem Horrorerlebnis an der Algarve im Herbst, als ich nach intensivem Hören deines letzten spoken-word-Albums ein wenig die Erdung verlor, und bei roter Flagge zur zweiten Wellenbrecherzone schwamm, auf keinen Fall an einer Meeresküste anhören. Vielleicht kommst du ja auch zum Underworld-Konzert nach Köln, und wir trinken wieder mal am Eiglstein zwei Cappuccinos. So long, Michael)

Can you bewray something by writing about music? Reveal, yes, but bewray, betray? So that, by hearing, you already have the formula at hand, before your eyes, dissolved? Don’t think so. It’s different with plots. Storylines. So even a thousand words can only hint at the magic of a great record, something about its whereabouts, the structure behind the surface, hidden subtexts. Might be telling, but could never replace the act of listening. Always good then to have stories in the bag for wrapping them around the music like an invisble glove always prepared to fall apart, or – best case – to linger on Memory Lane like something your thoughts might recur to (for seconds) when listening. So here are two records that are, in my ears, really great records, and I won’t tell a thing. Though it would be easy. But for now, I’m just exercising restraint. You cannot program magic. So even the actors (musicians, producer) must have had their moments here where they didn’t trust their ears. Stunned, so to speak. True that! So, for the moment, I’m leaving you alone with the titles of two forthcoming ECM albums produced by Manfred Eicher at the Rainbow Studio in Oslo. Class performances. Awesome sequencing of tracks. Oh, sorry, I seem to sabotage my premeditations. The one is by guitarist Jakob Bro (guitar, bass and drums); and the other one by kantelele player and singer Sinika Langeland (with viola, saxophone and percussion). But, no, it’s not a song album, in the sense Eno’s „Another Green World“ is not a song album either.  Both reords wil be released on February 6th. All stories will be told on February 5th, in „JazzFacts“, and on February 21st in „Radionacht Klanghorizonte“, my next two appearances in the Deutschlandfunk. The titles of these Nordic pieces of excellence (the only one from outside Scandinavia is bass player Thomas Morgan): „Gefion“, and (well, some resonating sort of punchline at the end of not telling any stories!), „The half-finished heaven“.

Won’t be a big name, I think. Will come from the margins. Probably it won’t be Bob Dylan’s love affair with Frank Sinatra. I do like the new Belle and Sebastian, but its production is a bit too clean, too refined making its dark undercurrents shine a little bit too bright. 3 1/2 stars. And Diagrams, the second album of the amiable Sam Genders, ex-Tunng member, fails to live up to his first Diagrams effort: all a bit too shiny, sun-drenched. Nevertheless, some fine songs. 3 stars. But where is the first album with more than a handful of good songs, where’s that living beast (tender or wild, brilliantly sequenced) that sucks you in from the first to the last note? If anyone has made a discovery, please let me know! I’m  speaking of this oldfashioned thing called songs, songs, songs. Sleater-Kinney? No chance, sorry. And, with all due respect, the Flaming Lips and their re-invention of Sgt. Pepper is a decent affair, but not really uplifting anymore. The original  has created its own little universe of altered identities and glorious mono- and stereo mixes. So, I’m  still looking out  for the singer, for the band who and that intrudes  the tower of song after midnight, and starts to put on their vinyl on an old record-player. Some guys and women living their for quite a long time shake their bones and start to listen with their otherworldly ears. Heaven is a place where sometimes something really happens. But I still don’t know what. Who knows. Fuck knows.

Roy Orbison singt schoene Lullabays. Besonders LEA kann eindudeln und in anmutige Gefilde leiten. Es ist immer noch moeglich, anspruchslose Literatur dabei zu lesen.

So dachte ich, als ich nach dem schmalen Baendchen von Byung-Chul Han griff: MUEDIGKEITSGESELLSCHAFT. Ich wurde hellwach, als ich zum Kapitel mit dem Titel „Die tiefe Langeweile“ kam. Dort las ich, dass Multitasking ein Regress sei. „Multitasking ist gerade bei den Tieren in der freien Wildbahn weit verbreitet.“ Ich machte meinen CD Player aus und las weiter: „Es ist eine Aufmerksamkeitstechnik, die unerlaesslich ist fuer das Ueberleben in der Wildnis. Ein Tier, das mit dem Fressen beschaeftigt ist, muss sich gleichzeitig anderen Aufgaben zuwenden. Es muss z.B. seine Fressfeinde von der Beute fernhalten …“

Der Philosoph Han spricht von dem Strukturwandel der Aufmerksamkeit. [S.27] Der Begriff hat mich sofort fasziniert, weil ich mich im Studium mit dem „Strukturwandel der Oeffentlichkeit“ von Habermas herumgequaelt habe. Heute lese ich in einem Artikel von Han in der FAS von gestern, dass Pegida die Oeffentlichkeit von dem Versagen der Politik ablenke. Sie sei kein politischer Diskurs, weil sie die Debatte verweigere. „Der politische Wille, einen oeffentlichen Raum, eine Gemeinschaft des Zuhoerens zu bilden, nimmt radikal ab. Die digitale Vernetzung beguenstigt diese negative Entwicklung … Der digitalen Kommunikation fehlt die Gegenwart des Anderen, die konstitutiv fuer den Dialog, fuer das Zuhoeren ist.“

Konkret heisst das fuer mich, was Uwe schon genannt hat: wenn ich mit auf Sylt sein koennte, wuerde ich ein HINZU von den Manafonistas bekommen. Dass Michael nach Sylt eingeladen hat, ist wirklich aussergewoehnlich fuer einen „Blogmaster“ :) Wir werden vorort anders erzaehlen als hier im Netz. Dunewhisper.

TODAY

Oh! kangaroos, sequins, chocolate sodas!
You really are beautiful! Pearls,
harmonicas, jujubes, aspirins! all
the stuff they’ve always talked about

still makes a poem a surprise!
These things are with us every day
even on beachheads and biers. They
do have meaning. They’re strong as rocks.

[1950]

Big Big Train is an English progressive rock band, founded in 1990. I’ve never heard anything from them, but I know now that Dave Gregory, known from his XTC-membership is part of this collective. I stumbled upon their name on the same day I found this photo. Maybe, if their music has a sense of humour and avoids grand gestures, this might be a nice cover for their next record.

More than 50 steam train-themed collectible objects and related artifacts are part of an exhibition to signify the widespread nature of railroading in popular American culture. An extensive variety of items is showcased, including a liquor decanter, cologn bottle, flower vase, ash tray, tea pot, bolo tie, candy container, to name a few.

Museum visitors might recognize an old Dylan song when entering the hall that repeats itself every thirty minutes: „Slow Train“ – Music critic Paul Williams has called it „the one track (on the album Slow Train Coming) that must be listened to again and again and again, inexhaustible, essential.“ Visitors might be inspired by it and challenged to examine these objects — often called „kitsch“ — more closely in an effort to understand how these items reflect popular culture and the period of time which they were created. No time travel activities requited, just find the right museum, and plan your next holiday. Manafonistas have free entry.

in which Joey and I were talking about the chance factor that lead to the quite weird name of this blog, manafonistas. He said, he sometimes dreamt of a more magical, sensual name, and so did I. Then the door bell rang, and the postman delivered a wooden box. We couldn’t open the box that looked a little damaged, because the dream ended when we saw the name written on it in old letters. We looked at each other, laughed out loud, and I woke up. The name was „Lonesome Fruit Company“.

 
les Belges … paff 4
 
 
 

 
 
 
Could be art but is reality … difficult for outsiders …, yes, …
 
 
 

 
 
 
but is part of daily live,
 
 
 

 
 
 
joie de vivre
 
 
 

 
 
 
garantiert fälschungssicher!!!
 
 

more of this HERE

Norwegian Grammy nominee, though unfortunately not a winner,
 
 
 

 
 
 
Arve Henriksen is thrilled to be awarded the Westerhus Award for BEST TEMPO 2014. The winner is awarded a full set of used strings.
 
 
© Westerhus Temptation Foundation