[65.3] SEE THE MUSIC

In Brighton tonight the London Sinfonietta arrives at the Dome with its sell-out QEH concert featuring Magnus Lindberg's stunning 'Related Rocks' (choreography by the Akram Khan Company), Edgar Varese's 'Deserts' (with a film by Bill Viola, famed for 'The Messenger' installation at Durham Cathedral in 1999), and two sonimations ('Daylights' and 'Grunt Transisitor') by British sound artists and animators Elise Chohan / Sarah Waterman and Richard Burns / Tim Holmes. You can additionally catch this concert at the Nottingham Playhouse (1 February), Manchester's Royal Northern College of Music (4 February), Coventry's Warwick Arts Centre (8 February) and the Cambridge Corn Exchange (10 February.

[65.2] INTERPLANETARY FUSION

Magma played last night at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall. Sadly I couldn't make it, but hopefully a report will be forthcoming from Charles Imperatori. Most of the websites dedicated to this curious outfit seem rather dated, but the South Bank's programme note summarises them well:

"In 1969, a young French jazz drummer named Christian Vander reportedly became so disturbed by Earth's spiritual/ecological decline that he began composing a vast futuristic musical parable concerning this dilemma. When Vander recruited musicians to perform his ongoing masterwork, the legendary group Magma was born.

"Over the course of Magma's career, the high water mark of 1973's 'Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh' and some 50 participating musicians, Vander and company depicted the mythic, sometimes violent struggle between the occupants of Earth and a group of ex-Earthlings inhabiting the fictional planet Kobaia. Vander's daunting music - which featured lyrics sung in an invented Kobaian language - was a thoroughly unique idiom forged from John Coltrane-style jazz, the choral music of Carl Orff and Igor Stravinsky and highly dissonant jazz-rock fusion. Both in it's gigantic conceptual scope and it's utterly singular sound, Magma's music dwarfed that of numerous rock peers and stands as one of the most remarkable oeuvres in modern music." (c) SBC

[65.1] ANOTHER COUNTRY

Album: ‘The Willies’
Artist: Bill Frisell
CD 13 May, 2002
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Nonesuch 7559796522

A superficial inspection of 'The Willies' would suggest that boffin-ish guitar wunderkind Bill Frisell has finally bitten off less than he can chew. But as always with this most enigmatic of musicians, there's more here than immediately meets the ear. Bluegrass standards are transfigured by shimmering harmonics; conventional beats are traversed by languid, tricky soloing; counter-melodies hint at depth and darkness in otherwise pale, homely landscapes.

Frisell has always featured country licks in his vast palette of inflections, tones and effects. Here the homage is direct and respectful. 'The Willies' is a more developed successor to 'Nashville' (1995), and a more orthodox and manifest account of its source materials than 'Good Dog Happy Man' (1999).

Since the overall aim seems to be to allow some major bluegrass themes their own eloquence, whether you like the result will depend to a much greater degree (compared to some other Frisell albums) on how the underlying themes strike you.

Uncluttered by percussion, this trio weaves its chief protagonist's slow winding, angular, decaying, chord-riven sound in and out of the traditional banjo (Danny Barnes), bass (Keith Lowe) and pump organ (Barnes again) mix. The result is art in unexpected places - a music that grows and mutates as you allow it to sink in. Dave Holland and Elvin Jones it isn't, but what it is shows itself worthy of patience and attention.

If you are new to Frisell and want a flavour of his universe, a better starting point would be the ECM :rarum ‘Selected Recordings’ disc (2002), or even 1993’s American sound-book – Ives and Copland included – ‘Have A Little Faith’. This is yet another stage in an extraordinary musical journey.

[64.2] QUOTA

"Greatness enters art in the 20th century as a by-product of mass media. Arturo Toscanini was the first conductor to be designated 'great' when RCA imported him to America, with massive fanfare, as its network maestro. The catalogue of his recordings created a canon of 'great composers'. The twin cults of the great conductor and the great composer have conspired ever since to stultify concert life in the US." Norman Lebrecht (London Evening Standard, 29 January 2003)

"Israel can boast a leader, just and brave, a friend to freedom." (Last line of G.F.Handel's 'Joshua', sung at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on the same night that hard-liner Ariel Sharon was re-elected. See Erica Jeal)

[64.1] KOSMIC GROOVES

I've been wondering just how many other weblogs there are out there dedicated to different aspects of new (non-pop) music: twentieth century and contemporary 'classical', improv, progressive jazz, electronica, conceptual, out/post-rock and so on. Enquiries haven't thrown much up. December.org (mentioned before and always worth a visit) has been around since '94 and is an honoured companion of NFE with a special interest in post/minimalism. There are a few good jazz-logs, like Erg. But not many with a real new music twist... One highly intriguing and rewarding recent find is DJ Martian's page. It is extremely well organised and documented. I'll let the good deej describe the genre-bending nature of its interests him/herself:

"A diverse .. positive weblog for the discerning listener with an interest in creative artistic music across the contemporary sound spectrum, including: Jungle/drum 'n' bass, industrial/ electro-industrial/ ebm, synth pop/ electroclash, dark metal, darkwave/ gothic/ ethereal, shoegazer/dream pop sounds, techno/tech house/deep house/progressive house, psychedelic trance, electro, breakbeat/ nu skool breaks, art-rock/ avant rock/ electro-rock/ epic alt-rock/ experimental rock/ kraut rock/ math rock/ post-hardcore/ post rock/ space-rock, IDM/ experimental electronics/ ambient/ glitch sounds/ folktronica/ downbeat, Leftfield instrumental electronified hip-hop, hardcore/ metalcore/ noisecore, post punk, Kozmigroov, electronic/ avant jazz, dub and many other hybrids and musical mutations."

Well, that's enough categories to be getting on with... And in case you were wondering about Kozmigroove [there's this link]. A fabulous playground of stuff... Happy trawling....

[63.2] RATTLE SHAKES BERLIN

In addition to some adventurous initial programming (Turnage, Thomas Ades) and a robust approach to public relations, Simon Rattle's tenure as artistic director and principal conductor of the otherwise staid Berlin Philaharmonic Orchestra has, appropriately enough, taken a philanthropic turn. Recognising the social as well as artistic responsibilities of being at the heart of a fast-changing Europe, Rattle has developed a programme to work with migrant children - from Poland, Nigeria, Iraq and several other countries. The first project is training young dancers to take on Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring'.

"Part of our job as an orchestra is to be part of the city - to get underneath it and not be some expensive ornament," says Rattle, who (reports John Hooper in The Guardian) took charge of Berlin's debt-laden but most valued cultural jewel last year just as the first cuts were being made to the city's budget. In a climate as suspicious of immigrants and refugees as it is towards too much cultural innovation, Rattle is taking a risk. Eyebrows will be raised and he will certainly make enemies. But his courage and commitment - to the classical tradition, to new music, to social change - are really encouraging signs.

Tara Haddad, aged 15, arrived in the German capital five months ago after leaving Baghdad. "For me the most difficult thing is the idea," she said. "Why did Stravinsky want to make this music and why did they want to do this dance with Stravinsky's music? This music is sad and I've always danced to happy music before. Well, Eminem."

But she was clearly very excited by the project. So excited, in fact, that she was having difficulty sleeping.
(c) Guardian Newspapers

[63.1] ODES TO JOY

Album: Choral Works
Composer: Georg Friederich Handel
Conductor: Sir David Willcocks
Performer: Elsie Morison, Jacqueline Delman, et al.
Orchestra: St Anthony Singers, Philomusica of London
Label: Double Decca 4602872
Number of Discs: 2

Two classic re-issues for the price of one. 'L'Allegro il penseroso ed il moderato' brings together Sir David Willcocks, some fluent chamber players and the illustrious tenor Peter Pears - not the most orthodox of Handel interpreters in an era of so-called authentic performance, but here appropriately sonorous.

The greater feast, however, is the 'Ode for St Cecelia', whose spiritual patronage of the sonic arts first really took off in the seventeenth century and has not looked back since. April Cantelo and Choir of King's College Cambridge offer an inspired and inspiring account of a rich, celebratory and gorgeously double-rhythmed delight.

For me this digital transfer (the original LP was Decca 436-259-2, still worth getting if you can) doesn't quite capture the warmth and intensity of a recording that dates back some 40 years. As far as I can detect there has been no re-engineering, and at times the result is a little thin. Never mind: set your graphic equaliser to work, turn up the volume to get the full effect of those trumpet blasts and prepare yourself for a carnival of unashamed Handelian jollity.

[62.2] QUOTA

"It's a good test of a [contemporary] composer to see, when faced with a tonal piece, if your musical language is flexible enough to enter into it." - Marcus Lindberg

"Tradition is only valuable if it looks forward." - Christoph von Dohnányi

[62.1] LATERAL THINKING

Album: 'Lateralus'
Artists: Tool
CD: 18 May, 2001
Label: Music for Nations 79210132
Number of Discs: 1

This is a band that has been touted for some time as a forerunner at the more thoughtful end of the burgeoning progressive metal scene - not, it has to be said, much of a listening orbit for me. But I enjoyed Gordian Knot (see 23 January, below), and when I last caught Steven Wilson's art-rock outfit Porcupine Tree on their US makeover tour (for 'In Absentia'), Tool was a much-referenced comparison among the punters. I can see some affinities, but having spun what seems to be their most outré statement so far, 'Lateralus', I wouldn't put them in the same category.

Sure, they are an undeniably competent bunch of musicians, and there are moments when Louis Pattison’s epithets (‘sprawling, complex, ambitious’) make sense. In some of their quieter interludes, shorn of those testosterone-injected vocals that pass for 'emotion' (or, at least, emoting) among over-excitable young men, Tool produce some pleasing - if not overly remarkable - instrumental patterns. Moody atmospherics swap places with paradiddly rhythmic motifs and a certain brooding intensity. But then those loud, melodically-declined power chords smash their way in. 'Lateralus' comes across as something of a compromise between the conservative, crowd-pulling habits of stadium rock and a set of more creative, left-field instincts.

'Reflections' was, for me, the one to keep on listening to. And I wonder whether 'Faap de Oiad' is a calling card for an even more experimental Tool? That would be a good thing. They clearly have a fair bit of unrealised potential. Whether they have an audience and a record label to allow them to go further remains to be seen.

[61.2] TRANS ATLANTIC HORN QUARTET

The Trans Atlantic Horn Quartet (yup, that’s how they render it) comprises Michael Thompson, Richard Watkins, David Ohanian, and Skip Snead. On their latest recording they offer a live and unedited performance of Tippett’s 'Horn Quartet'; Hindemith’s 'Horn Quartet'; Vinter’s ‘Hunter’s Moon’ (Watkins); Kirchner’s ‘Lament for Orfeo’ (Thompson), and more. It can be ordered in the UK at the Paxman site. (Note that the Michael Tippett website gives the wrong URL.)

The TAHQ is dedicated to a multi-part musical mission. It seeks to expand the existing repertoire through commissions and other means, while promoting the mainstays of the horn quartet literature. In addition, concerts may be tailored to include standard works for three horns, for two horns, or for solo horn.

TAHQ's main teaching effort has been a multi-faceted seminar offered each year. The Summer Seminar 2003 (June 8th - June 14th, 2003) will provide hornists with a variety of experiences, including private lessons, daily masterclasses, daily ensemble coachings, daily orchestral reading sessions, and opportunities for solo and ensemble performance. Most evenings will feature a concert by the Quartet or some its members, guest artists, and Seminar participants. A printable application form can be found on their website.

[61.1] SOUND ADVENTURES

I stayed on home territory in Brighton on Saturday night, where Spring Heel Jack played two fascinating sets at the Corn Exchange. They were recording for a possible future live release. A review will follow shortly. You can still catch them in Leeds on Wednesday, with two concerts following in Gateshead and Kendal. Details at CMN tours. The duo are also put through their paces in The Wire's 'Invisible Jukebox' in the February 2003 issue (out now). Find out what they make of Birtwistle's 'Earth Dances', among other pieces.

Meanwhile, as a taster - since it features two of the same experimentalists – here are critic Charles Imperatori’s informative musings regarding last November’s ‘Adventures in Sound’ from London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. Go to Evophonic. Featured artists included Scorch Trio (with Mark Sanders), Gerald Whitney Cleaver, DJ Spooky, William Parker, Evan Parker, Matthew Shipp, Matthew Bourne and The Electric Dr M. Imperatori concludes:

“ 'Adventures In Sound' provide[d] a heady mixture of high and low feelings where the short term implications of sonic failure are outweighed by the enormous potential of international collaborations. All the organisers have to do is bring this interesting proposal back to London next year.” Here’s hoping. See theCyclinder at livewirelistings.

You can levitate to extensive excerpts from 'Adventures in Sound' for yourself courtesy of the ever-wonderful BBC Radio 3. What an extraordinary sound archive they have. See also John Eyles at AllAboutJazz.

[60.2] SHEPPARD PRE-SETS

Andy Sheppard, the innovative jazz saxophonist, has recently played with contemporary classical pianist Joanna MacGregor. They later join the Britten Sinfonietta for a short tour from 14 - 30 November. Sheppard's marvellous world-beat 'Nocturnal Tourist' (featuring the soloist on tenor and soprano saxophones, WX11 Wind Synth, electric guitar, midi guitar and keyboards) was released just under a year ago. He is now putting the finished touches to a new CD called 'PS'. It will appear soon on Provocateur Records (launch due 31 March). This time Sheppard is working in collaboration with guitarist John Paricelli. To accompany the new material there is a short residency at Ronnie Scott's in London (7-12 April). Among a series of British gigs, Sheppard plays 'The Circus' in Stratford, East London, on 7 February, with Steve Lodder (keys) and Alec Dankworth (trumpet). More details will be forthcoming at promoters Serious. They have *.ram tracks at their 'Sting of the Month'.

[60.1] YET MORE DIFFICULT LISTENING

From time-to-time NFE posts schedules from the more creative radio stations broadcasting over the net. The latest Difficult Listening playlist (Unamunos Quorum, Smidirin, Robert Calvert, Rasmus B Lunding and Philip Samartzis, Smoper, Lazy, Ken Montgomery, Snawklor, Michele Biasutti and Candlesnuffer) can be found in their post here logged on rec.music.experimental. They include links for each track, helpfully.

[59.2] PIANOCIRCUS: LANDSCAPES OF THE HEART

There have been rumours floating around recently that the innovative ensemble pianocircus have been contemplating some major changes of direction in the light of persistent financial difficulties … ones not unrelated to continuing policy shifts at the Arts Council. This follows on from the recent departure of founder member Richard Harris, and also Richard Haxel, who has been part of pc since 1999. Whatever the complexities of keeping the show on the road, you are strongly advised to look out for their fascinating new 2003 production, which hopefully betokens a continued flourishing of this highly creative sextet:

“A collaboration between pianocircus and the aerial theatre company Scarabeus, ‘Landscapes of the Heart’ involves five dancers and five pianists, with all ten performers (and five keyboards) suspended in mid-air on ropes and harnesses. Lasting 45 minutes, the work is scored by pianocircus founder member Richard Harris, with the members of pianocircus playing live on top of a specially composed pre-recorded backing track.

”The soundtrack CD and a poster will be available to purchase at every performance. The CD [is now] available to purchase directly from [our] website - info@pianocircus.com, priced £10.

” ‘Landscapes of the Heart’ is a personal homage to the seductive pull of the city. Inspired by Marco Polo's visions of imaginary metropolises in Italo Calvino's 'Invisible Cities', [it] suggests in equal measure the sense of displacement and belonging which urban living endows the traveller / emigrant / refugee.”

The 2003 dates will be announced shortly. I was fortunate enough to catch the 2002 pc tour (before they went to Argentina and Switzerland) with Heiner Goebbels’ ‘Scutigeras’, a vigourous work involving a blend of acoustic and electronic approaches – including a delightfully retro Moog-style.

"These are by no means straight arrangements: the six players alternate between two grand pianos, four sampling keyboards and a spinet, transform the piano sounds in various ways, play a variety of conventional and unconventional percussion, and incorporate a variety of mechanical and natural sounds." (Andrew Clements)

pianocircus continue to focus on a rich repertoire of multiple piano works (many created specifically with them in mind). But, as in their dalliance with the Future Sound of London, they tune in to other aural realms.

[59.1] TAKING THE RAP?

“Fat-headed, self-important windbags who should try thinking before talking: It’s all very well for musicians to claim that it’s no fault of theirs when some attention seeking politician makes a bloody fool of himself spouting rubbish about their videos causing gang warfare in Birmingham. But the likes of So Solid Crew should remember that many middle-aged white men are impressionable, unsophisticated and have no minds of their own – they lack, to coin a phrase, maturity and boundaries. Art is a powerful influence, especially on the feeble minded, and just as the Beatles all but sharpened Charles Manson’s knife, so So Solid Crew must accept responsibility for the indiscriminate assault on logic perpetrated by [UK government minister Kim] Howells and [Home Secretary David] Blunkett.”

Andrew Mueller [© 2002] cuts to the chase in the great ‘Is Hip-Hop Responsible For Urban Violence’ non-debate in Britain (The Guide, 18-24 January 2003).

[58.1] SHADOWS AND SUN

Album: Symphony No 1 / Chant of Darkness / Chant of Light
Composer: George Barati
CD: December 2001
Catalogue: Naxos 85559063
No of discs: 1

Several people I have played this to without any information about the identity of the composer immediately declared 'Shostakovich' on first hearing the stabs of brass and brooding contrapuntal strings of the opening maestoso from George Barati's First Symphony, 'The Alpine', composed in 1963. Similarly the meditative quality of the andantino tranquillo is not a hundred miles away from early Bartok.

This is not to suggest that Barati, who died in 1996 aged 83, was a derivative composer. On the contrary, his voice is strong and distinctive. But it is to say that his aural universe is heavily shaped by the Eastern and Central European tradition, including that of his Hungarian forebears. Schoenberg, jazz, Debussy, Stravinsky, the indigenous music of the Pacific region and the great nineteenth century symphonists also exercise influence. A first-rank conductor who drew on performance and his formative compositional studies with Roger Sessions after he arrived in the US in the 1930s, Barati admired the atonalists and borrowed ideas from them. But he continued to work in a more expressive vein.

The First Symphony, here recorded for the first time, gives rein to Barati's complex songfulness, biting rhythmic force and dark, chromatic tendencies. The melodic and developmental material is strong. A good number of thematic ideas are introduced, extended and brought together in just 25 minutes, though the ending seemed a little brusque and formulaic to me.

Contrasting with this work from the period of his flourishing maturity are the two orchestral pieces from 1993 and 1994-5. 'Chant of Darkness' arises from both personal and social tragedy (the death of his daughter, an earthquake). It begins and ends eerily with a detuning orchestra. 'Chant of Light', a deliberate counterpoint, is based on three part (A-B-A) song form. These were the last works Barati produced before his own untimely death at the hands of a street assailant in California. Sadly this came in a period when his own artistic flourishing was undergoing a renaissance.

Barati is not a well-known figure in the modern classical repertoire. Hopefully Naxos (as part of their superb 'American Classics' series) will give his important voice a larger audience. I heartily recommend this disc, with its clear and rounded performances by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra / Lazlo Kovaks and the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra / Vladimir Valek. Also worth looking up is Barati's 'Indiana Tryptych', recorded in 1996.

[57.1] A SHOUT AND A WHISPER

Album: 'Emergent'
Artists: Gordian Knot
CD: January 2003
Catalogue: Sensory SR3016 (Laser's Edge)
No of discs: 1

Inevitably it is the presence of Bill Bruford (dr) and Steve Hackett (gtr) that will attract most immediate attention in the market place for the new Gordian Knot album, 'Emergent'. But however more-than-purely-utilitarian their role in this project is, its fundament and wisdom is clearly Sean Malone. His bass, Chapman Stick, guitar, keys, Ebow, and loops provide the sinuous, evolutionary soundscape upon which the rest of the instrumental texture is laid.

The opening 'Arisis' and the extended (live) 'Grace', featuring some dexterous wizardry on Echoplex, narrate one element of the Knot story. The ferocious metallic rhythms and buzz guitar interludes in 'Muttersprache' and 'A Shaman's Whisper' provide its visceral counterpoint. At times these tracks threaten to veer off into the breakneck metallic riffing of a Liquid Tension Experiment, but there is something darker, more refined and much more harmonically malleable about Gordian Knot. Besides, Bruford's slit drum is there to maintain a sense of proportion when it is needed, and on 'Fischer's Gambit' Jim Matheos cleanses the aural palette with some delicate nylon and steel-string guitar passages.

'Grace' is most definitely the cornerstone: a lengthy, moodily beautiful slice of bass and electronica. After this high point the tenor changes. The achievement of what Woody Allen might call 'total heaviosity' on 'Some Brighter Thing' (which contains a number of points of mitigation, as its title suggests) and a delightfully skittish but not-at-all-frivolous Bruford/Malone duet on 'The Brook, The Ocean' follow on. Herein is a playfully ironic reference to Chris Squire's bass solo on Yes's 'Heart Of The Sunrise' (followed by a mesmerising flood of touch-bass) and various simulacra of the Bruford band circa 'One Of A Kind'.

The closing track, 'Singing Deep Mountain' is the most lyrical on the album. It seems to bring together the harmonic, rhythmic and textural riches that have preceded it, before floating off on the ether of Malone's stick and Ebow. The album is only 49 minutes long, but it is carefully wrought and paces itself well. A definite plus for quality over quantity. Jason Gobel matches Hackett for inventiveness on guitar, Sean Reinert lends V-drums to three tracks, and there are brief additional contributions from Paul Masvidal (guitar on 'A Shaman's Whisper') and Sonia Lynn (scat vocal on 'Singing Deep Mountain').

'Emergent' is pleasingly hard to pigeonhole. Its roots are clearly in instrumental fusion, but with nods to post-rock, electronica and other more global sounds. There is the spirit of jazz afoot – presumably Bruford’s reason for doing the sessions - and mini-homages to Jaco Pastorious aplenty. At times we may even be in the presence of a prog-metal that could dare to speak its name. The painstaking detailing of the solos inside the attractive sleeve art (Jim Batcho deserves a mention for capturing the essence of the project visually) may border on self-parody; but the musical dexterity of this Gordian Knot outing more than justifies the three years it apparently took to emerge. Thanks to Henry Potts for letting me hear it. I shall also seek out the eponymous first album (with John Myung, Reinert, and Trey Gunn of King Crimson fame) and Malone's 'Cortlandt' (featuring Reinert, Gunn and Reeves Gabrels) also on Laser.

[56.1] BECKERESQUE

Cyberspace is an environment where you encounter musicians and musics in unexpected places, arrived at by uncharted routes. One such for me is Chris Becker – who lives and works in New York City composing, arranging, and recording music for a wide variety of solo and collaborative projects. He has written music for dance, mixed-media installations, and collaborative performance and has premiered works in clubs, galleries, museums, and new music and dance festivals across the USA.

His current album, '200 Birds’ is “an aural montage of Brazilian and African rhythms, experimental guitar textures, and haunting synthesizer colours … to accompany artist Jacqueline Bishop's installation work ‘Terra’.” There is a short sound sample at NCM East.

Later this month he releases ‘Saints and Sinners’, inspired by songs, stories and icons of the Deep South. Says Chris of the three-track EP: “It features performances from several great musicians - Lynn Wright, Jon Petrow, and Dana Schecter (from the band Bee and Flower), a great free/noise/avant-garde jazz guitarist named Eyal Maoz, James Hall, the Reverend Vince Anderson, and my friend Robert Hardin - a musician and visual artist.”

[55.2] KING MAXIMALIST I

"What is music and what is it for? Art in general seems to be a basic quality of being human. One might as well ask, 'Why breathe?' As to what it's for: off the cuff I can only suggest that it serves to keep the tenuous lines of communication open between different areas of ourselves." - Brian Ferneyhough

Guardian classical music critic Tom Service talks to doyen of British 'maximalists' Brian Ferneyhough ('Belt Up And Hold Tight') on the eve of his sixtieth birthday celebrations (the festival is at various venues in Durham, from 21-23 January. Box office: 0191-374 7032). Even Ferneyhough's works for solo instrument are often mind-bogglingly difficult - yet the impact is not as austere or uninviting as it may sound. One of my discs of 2002 was a recording of his Flute Works, where Kolbeinn Bjarnason plays piccolo, flute and bass flute gloriously on this rich collection of deceptively (and relatively!) simple reflections. Valgerour Andrésdóttir joins in on the 'Four Miniatures', by which time one's head is beginning to spin...

[55.1] MILLENNIUM CAGE

"If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all." - John Cage.

BBC World Service Arts in Action correspondent Michael White talks of the legacy of composer John Cage at AinAsoundclips. Sadly NFE missed the first three-note chord of Cage’s monumental ‘ASLSP’ (‘As Slow As Possible’) at Halberstadt in Germany on 5 January this year. Fortunately you can catch up with them at Organ2/ASLSP. And make a note in your diaries now: the next two notes can be heard on 5 July 2004. The piece is projected to take a thousand years to complete. Cage can be found at New Albion. And there’s a network of JC sites documented by the ever-productive Malcolm Humes.

Josh Ronsen, instigator of the Boulez Project (about which more will follow on NFE) also has a very good Cage Page. This includes 27 [at present] sound files. The John Cage Discussion List is the place you should be if you are overly fascinated by any of this.

No doubt you will also have heard the delightful news that puveyor of vile and offensive musak, millionaire Mike Batt, recently agreed to pay £100,000 to the John Cage Trust for alleged copyright infringement on 4’33”. As if The Wombles wasn’t a bad enough thing to inflict on the world, Batt is the man behind the execrably dire 'classics'-pap crossover, The Planets – his contested ‘composition’ (actually Cage’s), ‘One Minute Of Silence’ appears on their latest album.

Still, the man is not without humour. Having coughed up he has now released the work as a double-A-side single, and he comments wryly: "Mine is a much better silent piece. I have been able to say in one minute what Cage could only say in four minutes and 33 seconds."

So there really is hope of redemption… Talking of which, I must ask Josh if he’d accept a token Mike Batt CD to trash as a part of his mail-art performance piece -- in exchange for a recovered Boulez one, of course. Meanwhile, quite a bit of what you might never need to know about Cage’s most famous work is provided by AzStarNet.

"As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency." - John Cage