Philip Corner - "Satie Slowly" CD, Album, 2014 (Unseen Worlds)

Erik Satie is very much in my DNA.  I was raised with his music due that my parents played the Aldo Ciccolini recordings of Satie's music, especially volume one, that was released by Angel Records, with the Picasso portrait of Satie on its cover.   There are many other versions by different pianists making Satie's piano music, but I was devoted to only the Ciccolini recordings.  Due that they are the best?  Or just out of brand loyalty?  For whatever reason, I could never get fully behind other's interpretations of his piano music, I think at the time 'why bother?'  Recently I got Philip Corner's collection of Satie piano music called "Satie Slowly," and it enchanted me from the very first note to the last in this double CD set.

"Satie Slowly" can mean Corner is playing the notes and melody in a steady slow pace, or it can expect to enjoy the music on one's own natural slow pace.  Nevertheless, there is something organic about Corner's approach to Satie's music, that is never fussy, and the melodies ring out slowly like peeling a juicy orange and making sure not to have any moisture from the fruit land on your white pants.  Each cord he plays on the piano has a slight echo that rings to the next note, and it's a subtlety that is small in comparison of playing something significant, but the spacing allows the essence and beauty to come out of its music. 

A mixture of nightclub cabaret and reflection, this is where Satie lives, and Corner plays his music in the sense of grace, humor, and the essence of everyday life coming and going.   It makes sense that Corner is also a visual artist as well as a member of Fluxus, an art movement that is hysterical and serious at the same time.   These piano recordings, at this moment, are my favorite Satie performances.  I want to thank Alejandro Cohen of The Dublab Creative Cultivation for turning me on to this double-CD set.  It's marvelous. 

Walter Marchetti - "La Caccia (Da Aprocrate Seduto Sui Loto) LP, Vinyl, Album, 1974 (Cramps Records)

The late (he passed away in 2015) Walter Marchetti was a composer who wrote and played in the collective ZAJ, a Fluxus minded group of sound artists from the year 1964 until they officially disbanded in the 1990s.  I went to Rockaway to check out the Ronald Kane collection of LPs he sold to the record store before his untimely death.  This one stood out to me due to the cover as well as being on the label Cramps records - not to be confused with the great band called The Cramps.  Then again, there is no such thing as coincidence. 

"La Caccia" (the Hunt) is a landscape record.   Two sides of what sounds like being in nature and listening to either birds or instruments that sound like creatures in the wilderness.  Duck calls, and other devices to attract the attention to these creatures of nature are used, and on one level this is very much an environmental soundtrack album. For me, it has the touch of disgust, due that I hate the idea of one going hunting and killing an animal.   Still, since the liner notes are all in Italian (a language I don't understand) these are the tools of perhaps a hunter but used for aesthetic purposes.  This is very much a music score being played out, and although it is placed (in the aural sense) in the middle of a hunt, and more likely in a godlike freezing condition, it's a funny work of art.  Using something that is sound related for the sake of luring birds to be shot, or other animals, is instead used in a music composition.  There is something very Goon (Spike Milligan/Peter Sellers) like that crosses my mind as I listen to this album.   I now have the urge to collect all recordings from the Italian label Cramps Records.  

Marcel Duchamp - "The Entire Musical Work of Marcel Duchamp" Vinyl, LP, UK (Song Cycle Records)

To call Marcel Duchamp the most important or greatest artist of the 20th century seems too small of a credit.  Perhaps one of the great philosophers?  Nevertheless, his stamp on culture and thinking is a remarkable aspect of Duchamp's genius.  For sure, he thought conceptually, where work is important as a visual, but also the thinking of such artwork.  Duchamp approached music the way he approached his art - he thought it out like it was a game.  Everyone knows that chess was just as important (if not more than) as art.  The music he "wrote" are based on the individual who follows his score.  Of course, Duchamp was Fluxus before there was Fluxus.  But those artists basically took the Duchamp method and used it for their own works.  And that's a good thing that happened!

Side one is (hold on to your breath) "LA MARIEE MISE A NU PAR SES ELIBATAIRES, MEME. ERRATUM MUSICAL" (1913) is 25 minutes long and very ambient.  To me, it's a dialogue between the alto flute, trombone, celeste, and glockenspiel.  The intensity of the piece is each instrument either acknowledges the other one, or it sounds like a gentle chase among them.  A chase where the results don't happen in an obvious way.  There is another version of this music piece that is done by a player piano realized by Duchamp.  Not surprisingly the work reminds me of Erik Satie's "Vexations." The Satie piece is made for the background of a room, literally furniture music, but Duchamp's piece is more urgent and demanding.  

"Erratum Musical" (1913) is a vocal piece where each note is picked out of a hat.  The voices are Duchamp and his two sisters. Not on this record mind you, but in the original conception.  "Musical Sculpture" is mysterious.  The liner notes state that this is an "undated, unspecified piece." The sounds here are a toy music box, a horn, and a hum, but that maybe caused by my stereo system.  It's a sweet ending to a very wonderful album. 

The music on this album is played by Petr Kotik and S.E.M. Ensemble in 1976.  Limited edition of 500 copies.  

V.A. - "Fluxus Anthology" Vinyl, White, LP, Limited edition of 500

Edited by Maurizio Nannucci, this is a superb collection of recordings from various artists from the Fluxus art movement.   Incredibly entertaining with many highlights, for instance, Joseph Beuys' pure pop song "Sonne stat reagan" to what sounds like a toilet flushing by Yoko Ono.  For me, the album is very musical, and clearly, there are moments here of great beauty and grace.   Nam June Paik's "My julilee ist unverhemmet" is bone-chilling perfection to me.  What sounds like an old recording of a Wagner like a piece of music, but slowed down with an overlayer of vinyl hitting the needle, becomes a sorrowful and moving work.  

It is an anthology, so it serves the purpose as an introduction to these artists.  Probably the most known work here is John Cage's "Radio Music (1956), " but it's the obscure works (at least for me) by artists I kind of heard of, but not really know their art.   Milan Knizak reminds me of Christian Marclay's broken records material, but I suspect since his selection on this album came from 1979, he may have been first.  "Broken Music Composition" is an intoxicating aural pleasure.  There is nothing really weak in this collection of sound art or pieces.  La Monte Young's "Dream House (an excerpt) is just incredible, Wol Vostell who I believe is a visual artist, expresses great intensity through his "Elektronischer dé-col/age.  Happening Raum, 1968," which I believe is an installation artwork, which has audio.  

Limited edition of 500, I strongly recommend those who have a passion for avant-garde art from the 20th century, to run out and nab a copy for yourself.  Great packaging as well.    The artists on the album are:  Eric Andersen (another highlight), Joseph Beuys, John Cage, Philip Corner, Robert Filiou, Ken Friedman, Juan Hidalgo, Dick Higgins, Milan Kinzak, Alison Knowles, Walter Marchetti, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Gen Vaufier, Wolf Vostell, Emmett Williams, Robert Watt, and La Monte Young.