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Tag: music

Eating The Sun

In a series of papers led by the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science (BMSIS), a team of researchers examines what Earth’s level of technological development (aka “technosphere”) will look like in the future. In the most recent installment, available on the arXiv preprint server, they offer a reinterpretation of the Kardashev Scale, which suggests that civilizations expand to harness greater levels of energy (planet, host star, and galaxy).

Instead, they suggest that the Kardashev Scale establishes upper limits on the amount of stellar energy a civilization can harness (a “luminosity limit”) and that civilizations might circumvent this by harnessing stellar mass directly.

The Old Ways: Ben Edge’s Folklore Rising Playlist:

As I arrived at Tower Hill tube station, and walked out into the busy road, I could see in the distance a group of people processing in a line, draped in white cloaks. Completely unbeknown to me, it happened to be the day of the Spring Equinox, the time of year when night and day are of equal length, and the long darks days of winter are behind us and the long bright days of summer are now on the horizon.

Transparent, glass-like planes sweep across Daniel Mullen’s canvases, dancing across the color spectrum and layering or rotating with mathematical precision.

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UNCLASSIFIED: AUTOBAHN At 50

Released on 1 November 1974, Autobahn was the album that marked the moment when Kraftwerk fully embraced electronic pop music and honed the futuristic, mechanized aesthetic that would become famous. The record was an international success in spite of some decidedly mixed early reviews; and its influence has been felt across a wide variety of genres in the half century since. Herself a visitor of the band’s iconic Kling Klang studios in Düsseldorf, Elizabeth Alker considers Kraftwerk’s classical roots, placing the album in the context of Twentieth-Century German Classical Music (the musicians themselves have cited the expressionism of Schönberg and Stockhausen’s experiments with sound as key influences.) And, as can be heard in the iconic title track, which unfolds over twenty minutes, the band were borrowing from traditions of structuring music that harken back to older, classical forms, too (in the bringing back and development of themes). Elizabeth also plays contemporary tracks that share a musical kinship with Autobahn, and owe it too, perhaps, a debt of gratitude.

Available on BBC Sounds for 23 days and counting, at this time.

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THINGS DONE CHANGED, Jerron Paxton

I accidentally fell in on the end of Jools Holland the other night, and caught this guy’s act. He specialises in early blues – Holland kept referring to it as “early music,” like it was fourteenth century plainsong. But it was really very good, good enough to send me straight to Amazon, where I found this new album released through the excellent Smithsonian Folkways label.

Paxton is a student of the acoustic blues of the early 1900s, but the music has a lot more life and crackle to it than that might suggest. It’s not the frozen music of a devotee. It’s assimilated and it breathes.

THINGS DONE CHANGED, Jerron Paxton (UK) (US+)

CONNECTED:

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MNEMOSYNE, Garbarek / Hilliard Ensemble

Finally recovered this from the bottom of a stack in the office. This is today’s work music.

Choral music with a filigree of saxophones. The sax isn’t my favourite instrument, but it works here for me as edge colour. I can’t even remember how I came to own this record – maybe because the Hilliard did a recording of STIMMUNG?

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GHOSTLORE, Laura Cannell

These arrive signed.

This is the second time Cannell has essayed a year-long project. I find it a fascinating way to do things, and I”ve been thinking about it all year.

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3sep24

The boy is patrolling the grounds, I’m just going into the mines to hit today’s page count and then turn around and go into rewrites on another thing. Production Month!

LISTENING: Tabernis:

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THE MOON AND THE MELODIES, Harold Budd and The Cocteau Twins

A 2024 remaster. I owned and treasured this on vinyl in the 80s. It was apparently a loose and freeform collaboration between Budd and the Cocteaus, but you’d never know it. Falling in love with Fraser’s voice and those guitars all over again, in a crystal remastering. So happy to have this to hand once again.

(UK) (US+)

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THE RITUALS OF HILDEGARD REIMAGINED, Laura Cannell

The music feels ancient as she breaks down and reconstructs selected music by the 12th Century Polymath Hildegard von Bingen alongside her own compositions. The 12 track album is performed on bass recorders, a 12 string knee harp, delay pedal and sparse layering, conjuring a bridge to connect the centuries. The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined was improvised and recorded in single takes.

Cannell has been on a creative tear lately. I’m a big fan. As a casual glance at this notebook makes obvious. This one is a bit more cosmic and supernatural than others in her catalogue, which is only befitting the inspirational matter. I’ve been streaming it for a few days, and am glad to have the physical object.

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