Philip Glass - "Mishima" Vinyl, LP, OST, 1985 (Nonesuch)

One can argue that there are better Philip Glass albums out there, but I'm very fond of his soundtrack to the film "Mishima" directed by Paul Schrader. I think "Einstein on the Beach" is one of the great pieces in classical 20th-century music, but Glass can do different types of music. "Mishima" is full of beautiful melodies, and the way he builds up the tempo as if adding one pick-up stick on to another, you're waiting for it to collapse. Alas, that doesn't happen. 

The film itself is one of my favorites as well. Ever since I was a teenager, I had a fascination with Yukio Mishima, not only for his writing but for his crazed life as well. On the surface, his whole lifestyle devoted to a mixture of literature, politics, gay life, and his need to be a performer — one thing for sure he didn't hold anything back. The film captures his character, but it is also the best work on a writer creating his (or her) world. Most movies about writers are dull. Still, Mishima is unique because, due to family overtures, Schrader had to rely on Mishima's writings, and that made this film a stronger piece of art.  The Glass compositions add a sense of melancholy as well as grandness. There is even a surf guitar part in the score that is a mystery to me — one of the unusual aspects in a Glass composition ever. There are classic OST albums that stay with me beyond the film. "A Clockwork Orange, "8 1/2," and "Mishima" is right up there with my other faves. 

George Crumb - "Music For A Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III)" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1975 (Nonesuch)

I know his name well, but not his music whatsoever till I purchased this piece of vinyl of George Crumb's "Music For A Summer Evening."   I was intrigued by reading that the music on this album consists of two amplified pianos and percussion.  How can that possibly be a bad thing?  

The music here is a combination of great peace, and then dramatic mood change with the percussion and the sound from the two pianos.   There are also vocals in the mix as well.  That reminds me of Japanese Kabuki music, and that is another added twist to this work that's very American, yet looks beyond its border.  At parts, when the pianos are playing a melody, it sounds like something from the 18th-century European court music.  It's only traces of the melody here and there that comes through the textures, especially in "Myth" on side two.  

The percussion on this piece is a lot of instruments: vibraphone, xylophone, glockenspiel, tubular bells, bell tree, claves, maracas, sleigh bells, wood blocks and other such instruments. "Music For a Summer Evening" is a solid piece of mood, which I'm fond of, or at the very least a visitor in those woods. 

Philip Glass - "Mishima" CD, Album, 1985 (Nonsuch)

Now, this is a very nice cocktail.  The subject matter of Yukio Mishima, filmmaker Paul Schrader, and music by Philip Glass all in one package.  Well, the music is here.  This is one of my favorite soundtrack albums, because it serves the purpose of the narrative and images of the film, and stands on its own as an album.   Also, I have heard the melodies on this album on other works by Glass, so I suspect that this is music that he comes back to time-to-time.  

Consistently beautiful, but the dynamic is a subject that is very Japanese (Eastern) made by an American filmmaker and sounds by an American composer.  They didn't exotic it up.  As someone who writes, "Mishima" the film is one of the great movies of a writer's  life.  Usually, cinema fails in the writer biography due that we get scenes of the author behind the typewriter and sweating and drinking in despair.  Due to restrictions made by Mishima's wife, she didn't allow any mention of his homosexuality, his politics, and his suicide.   Which all Mishima fans know those three subject matters are what makes Yukio Mishima a fascinating figure and artist.   At times, he was a performance artist as well as a prose writer. Mishima did make films, both as a filmmaker and an actor.  He was the king of media when alive.   Schrader did a fantastic thing.  Instead of shooting the author's life, he had to go somewhere he wasn't restricted, and that is his books.  Schrader had the film rights so he could mine the material on Mishima through his writing.  This can be dangerous ground, but Schrader picked and chose the right pieces to tell the Mishima narrative.   

The exquisite music is delicate as well as coming like a powerful wave to the listener.   On one cut it sounds like a surf melody with an electric guitar.   So, there are surprises here and there.  A masterful soundtrack for an excellent film on a remarkable writer. 

John Cage & Lejaren Hiller/Ben Johnson - "HPSCHD" / "String Quartet No. 2" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1969 (Nonesuch)

Of all the compositions of John Cage, this has to be the most intense or insane piece in his catalog of goodies.   Co-made and written with Lejaren Hiller, this is Cage's first adventure in the computer world that existed in 1969.   First of all the title, HPSCHD (1967-1969) is the word harpsichord reduced to the computer's six-word limit at the time.  It consists of 51 electronic sound tapes and seven solo compositions for harpsichord, all played at once.  If you have the means, you can hear the album on the left channel or the right channel, or in this case both.  This is not only the weirdest stereo/hi-fi adventure but one that is a challenging listening experience.  The irony is that the music is written for an old keyboard concept, but done in the most advanced manner in 1969.   What I get here is clearly what sounds like four or five harpsichords with various sheets of electric sounds, that at times sound like a generator or bits and pieces of melody, but very faint.  It's a noisy, full volume lease breaker of a record.  I think with respect to Cage's works, HPSCHD is the most extreme in its attack, noise, concept, and in general, Nonesuch was a brave label of its time.  The total opposite of Cage's famous 4:33.  Silence and noise.   It's 21 minutes of a relentless attack, yet, listening to it the time goes quickly.  I love it. 

Flip to the second side, and we have Ben Johnson's "String Quartet No. 2"(1962) and performed by The Composer's Quartet.  It's a work that reminds me of Schoenberg.  It's a moody work and emotional compared to Cage and Hiller's concept of making music.  It's work that is dissonant in tone, yet the sound is very sculptural to me.  I hear, but I can see it as well. It's interesting to note that Johnson was a friend of Harry Partch, and helped him build his instruments.  And he also studied with Cage as well as Darius Milhaud.  Johnson was (or still is) working on the foundation or perhaps storm, where the contemporary composition and practices took place.  "String Quartet 2" is demanding but pays off well, especially in its ending which is very serene and quiet.  Unlike the other side!

Edgar Varèse - "Offrandes/Integrales/Octandre/Ecuatorial" LP, Album, U.S., 1972 (Nonesuch)

Edgard Varèse may be the first classical composer that I heard.  Which makes me sound very sophisticated, but it was all due to my parents having his music played in the household hi-fi set.  It's hard music to ignore even for a small child who was in tuned to the Mickey Mouse theme.  As an adult, I started to buy Varèse's music through various used record stores, and now I have at least five albums by him.  He didn't produce that much music in his lifetime.  In that sense, he reminds me of Thelonious Monk, in that he composed little, but every note of music he made/wrote became essential listening experience. 

This album consists of four compositions, and all are performed by The Contemporary Chamber Ensemble with Arthur Weisberg conducting the Avant-orchestra.   It's a fantastic album that focuses on the music he wrote mostly in the 1920s.   One thinks what kind of audience was into this type of noisy and intense music?    There are traces of exotica perhaps due to the heavy percussion, but it's music that is energetic and muscular.  There are no traces of a feminine presence within its music.  Well, there is Jan DeGaetani singing mezzo-soprano, but the overall effect is aggressive and forward orchestration.  

My favorite piece on the album is "Ecuatorial" and that is due to the surprising instruments that come up out of the arrangement.  A powerful organ meets Thomas Paul's bass singing mixed with a series of percussion instruments.  Also, there are two Ondes Martenot (invented in 1928), which is an early electronic keyboard that sounds very much like a theremin. The other thing that is a real plus for me is using the poetry of Vincente Huidobro in the composition "Offrandes," who was a fantastic poet, and friend of Picasso and I presume Varèse as well.   Great album. 

Brian Wilson - "Presents Smile" CD, Album, U.S. 2004 (Nonesuch)

Such an articulate and well-thought album, and incredibly up to the title "Smile," yet the original recording by The Beach Boys was one of complete misery.  The saddest Beach Boy had to dig in a profound psychotic state to produce this masterpiece.  The irony is that this is one of the great 'sunny' albums ever made.  Once over that cultural shock, one is amazed that Brian and company decided to do a re-recorded version of what once thought was a lost masterpiece.  But nothing is lost, and now we have two separate albums.  One is the re-discovered Beach Boys recording and of course, the Brian Wilson re-did version of 2004.   The Beach Boys version in another post.  

Wilson and his co-pilot for this project (and long time band member) Darian Sahanaja did a remarkable job in bringing this album back from the darkness.   Almost a clinical study in how to bring up something dead to life.  Lazarus indeed!   The album touches on exotica but also American theater music.  It reminds me at times of Aaron Copeland's orchestral scores.   The vastness of America on one album.   The album is eccentric in that it paints a big picture of what things should be, and I think the sadness that comes with the album is knowing the story behind it, but alas, an imaginary landscape.  

For those who know the Beach Boys' "Smiley Smile" or the singles "Heroes and Villians" "Surf's Up," and "Good Vibrations" is re-hearing these classics in their rightful place and time.  It's like getting a sketch, but now we have the whole painting.   Everything fits well.   Van Dyke Parks' lyrics are incredible, and it's amazing that he jumped on the Brian Wilson train to fulfill this adventure.   "Smile" as I listen to it, seems like an old-fashioned musical.  There is nothing really avant-garde about it, yet, it is very much a modern work.   Also, it doesn't compare to any other works out there. It's very original in its scope and sound.   A toe tapper!