Brigitte Bardot - "Brigitte Bardot Show" Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 2009/1968 (Disc'AZ)

I'm 63 years old and I don't think, beside my mother, has there been such a prominent female presence in my life than Brigitte Bardot.  The fact that I'm not even French, but an American, yet still, to be under the shadow of Bardot is extraordinary.   Bardot is also the same age as my mom, and I often think of that generation of females, and what they had to put up with, with respect to sexism, politics, and pop culture.  And of course, Bardot is a sex kitten, but the truth is she's more like a lion than a little kitty. 

Bardot is also my first real memory of going to see a movie in a theater.   My dad dragged me along with him to see "And God Created Woman" by Roger Vadim, her husband at the time.  So literally seeing Bardot in that film was my first image of a female, that struck me not exactly sexual, but the feeling of the difference between the male and the female.   I also remember my dad having a book of images of Bardot from the 1950s.  So, she was very much part of my childhood, and the memory of that never leaves my consciousness.   Artistically  I knew very little of her until my fascination with Serge Gainsbourg started around the 1990s.  It was at that point that I discovered her music.

To be honest, compared to the other French singers, Bardot's work in music left a very little impression on me, but a handful of her recordings are essential to the French aesthetic.   France Gall and Françoise Hardy were and are greater music forces, but Bardot is beyond reasoning.  If I have to choose one album of Bardot's it would be the soundtrack to her French TV special that she made in 1968.  It's essential Bardot, but also an important marking of 1960s French pop culture.  Gainsbourg's great "Contact" and "Harley Davidson" is tailor-made for Bardot's icy punk attitude, and the seductive "Mister Sun" and the garage rock of Le Diable est Anglais is the ultimate and forceful presence of Bardot on vinyl.  

There are many Bardot albums or compilations, but the essence of her genius (and she is one, by hook or crook) is the "Brigitte Bardot Show."   One can see her being a puppet and being used by Vadim, Gainsbourg, and others, but I suspect that her creative will was or is quite enforceable.  The fact in her old age she has joined the Right is really a passage of an exceptional figure in not only French show-biz but 20th century.  She is the 20th Century, in identity and culture.  Whatever that's a good or bad thing will be debated on way after I leave this physical world. 

Karlheinz Stockhausen - ELECTRONIC MUSIC "Song of the Youths" / "Contact" (Deutsch Gramopon)

Karlheinz Stockhausen's first electronic piece, which he wrote in 1955/56.  What I have read is that it is a personal, even spiritual music for the composer.  "Song of Youths" have children singing in German, with intrusive electronic sounds  - cutting in and out of the children's chorus.  Abstract, and quite remarkable in scope.   The live version was supposed to take place in a church, but due to the electronic/speakers issue, it never happened.  Still, the original set piece is five speakers.  This recording was reconstructed for two speakers.    My first listen to this piece I found it cold, but by the second time around, I find it emotional.  There is a Wagnerian feel, in that it's quite grand.  Still, big sounds can bring deep emotions to the table. 

The score to "Song of the Youths."

"Contact" (Kontakte) was realized 1958-60.  A more meditative piece of music than "Song of the Youths."  Still, there are loud krangs among the hums, so it keeps one's toes in operation.  To me, Stockhausen's music deals very much with space.  The actual space that the music or speakers are placed as well as the sound becoming either a sculpture or architectural model of some sort.  In other words, I don't think this music would be good on YouTube or through your computer speaker.  You need two big speakers, nice room, and a glass of wine (of course).  

The spectacle of Stockhausen's compositions is a big part of the overall experience.  In that sense, I think he shares that quality with Wagner.  The 1950s, which is often thought of as a conservative era, brought electronics into music in a very thoughtful and serious manner.  Stockhausen and others were truly the light coming out of the 20th-century headlights.