Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten is a short canon in A minor, written in 1977 by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, for string orchestra and bell. The work is an early example of Pärt’s tintinnabuli style, which he based on his reactions to early chant music. Its appeal is often ascribed to its relative simplicity; a single melodic motif dominates and it both begins and ends with scored silence. However, as the critic Ivan Hewett observes, while it “may be simple in concept…the concept produces a tangle of lines which is hard for the ear to unravel. And even where the music really is simple in its audible features, the expressive import of those features is anything but.” A typical performance lasts about six and a half minutes. Continue reading Arvo Pärt :: Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, BBC Orchestra, Edward Gardner, conductor, 2010
GERHARD RICHTER :: OCTOBER 18,1977 The Baader-Meinhof (RAF) Cycle
Gerhard Richters 15-painting cycle, October 18, 1977 is arguably one of the most important works of art of the second half of the 20th century. Now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the collection of black and white oil paintings drew from ubiquitous photographs of the Baader-Meinhof era. Angering the German public when it first appeared in the late 1980s, it has become recognized as Richter’s masterwork.
Continue reading GERHARD RICHTER :: OCTOBER 18,1977 The Baader-Meinhof (RAF) Cycle
A TRIBE CALLED QUEST :: WE THE PEOPLE
From November 2016 album We Got It From Here…Thank You 4 Your Service , the sixth studio album from A Tribe Called Quest. The album features guest appearances from André 3000, Kendrick Lamar, Jack White, Elton John, Kanye West, Anderson Paak, Talib Kweli, and the group’s most frequent collaborators Consequence and Busta Rhymes. The album features contributions from member Phife Dawg, who died several months prior to the album’s release.
THE COOL SCHOOL, THE STORY OF THE FERUS GALLERY, DOCUMENTARY, 85 MIN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEmmDOpL2NQ
THE COOL SCHOOL is the story of the Ferus Gallery, which nurtured Los Angeles’s first significant post-war artists between 1957 and 1966.”
I remember the word ‘Ferus’ outside had this kind of magic to it. Ferus had a much sparer approach to showing art. If you want to put a tiny painting on a single big wall, you’re welcome to it. And the artist is the boss.”
—Ed Ruscha, Ferus Gallery artist
The Ferus gang, 1962. L-R, Ed Kienholz, Allen Lynch, Ed Moses, Billy Al Bengston, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, John Altoon
In late 1956, medical-school dropout Walter Hopps met artist Ed Kienholz for lunch at a hot dog stand on La Cienega Boulevard. The two drafted a contract on a hot dog wrapper that stated simply, “We will be partners in art for five years.” And with that, the Ferus Gallery was born. Continue reading THE COOL SCHOOL, THE STORY OF THE FERUS GALLERY, DOCUMENTARY, 85 MIN.
Marcel Duchamp, 1968 BBC interview
BBC’s Joan Bakewell interviewed Marcel Duchamp in June 1968, just months before his death. Bakewell asks the artist about his life and relationship to retinal art and Dada, as well as his thoughts on more contemporary works by Happenings artists such as Allan Kaprow. Duchamp speaks about individualism in face of the group think that occurs in self-defined movements such as Dada.
Happy 70th Birthday to Marianne Faithfull
COSEY FANNI TUTTI :: TIME TO TELL, 1983
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HudSwX3aiyo
Cosey Fanni Tutti (born Christine Newby, 4 November 1951) is a performance artist and musician best known for her time in the avant-garde groups Throbbing Gristle and Chris & Cosey.
Time to Tell was a 1983 cassette-only release on the Flowmotion label (though it has since been rereleased on CD).
It came as a one-sided C60 tape with a newspaper magazine insert featuring articles, readings and interviews on Cosey, Throbbing Gristle and Coum Transmissions.
It was Cosey’s first solo release, a foray into early dark ambient territory,with sultry spoken word passages.
STAN BRAKHAGE :: CAT’S CRADLE, 1959, 6.5 min.
Stan Brakhage created Cat’s Cradle in 1959. The 19th film by Brakhage is a montage of two couples, a cat, and the inside of a house. The four people that were documented in Cat’s Cradle are Brakhage’s friends James Tenney, Carolee Schneemann, his ex-wife Jane, and Brakhage himself. Continue reading STAN BRAKHAGE :: CAT’S CRADLE, 1959, 6.5 min.
RICHTER 858, A Slideshow, Bill Frisell,composer/Gerhard Richter, artist
Richter 858 is an album by Bill Frisell of improvised music inspired by the paintings of German artist Gerhard Richter and performed by Frisell, Eyvind Kang, Jenny Scheinman and Hank Roberts. The album was originally released as part of a limited-edition volume of Gerhard Richter’s paintings which also contained poetry and essays by Dave Hickey and Klaus Kertess inspired by the artist’s work. The album was rereleased in 2005 on the Songlines label with a CD-ROM with MP3 music to accompany a slide show of the paintings, which can also be found reproduced in the booklet. Continue reading RICHTER 858, A Slideshow, Bill Frisell,composer/Gerhard Richter, artist
GERHARD RICHTER: The South Bank Show, ITV, 2006, 51 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLqPp6gIc2Y&t=1396s
A 2006 documentary on the artist Gerhard Richter, who talks about his life growing up in East Germany, attending the Dresden art academy and his escape to the west just before the Berlin Wall was built. Also considers his work and success.
The Incubator 