Blake / Kloeckner - Diversions - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Various Artists - I'm Suddenly Spanish / Various [COMPACT DISCS] date 02/01/2009

Michael Blake is South African composition's most important link to the American and British experimental traditions of the second half of the 20th century. It is a connection that derives as much from the composer's temperament and aesthetic sensibility, as from more conscious decisions relating to the socio-political positioning of composition. As regards the former, Blake's affinity with composers like Charles Ives and John Cage precedes his mature engagements with these composers through an embrace of certain qualities of openness relating to musical structure and material that can be heard throughout the works recorded on this album. Blake's Inchsong without wordsInch demonstrates deconstruction, playfulness, irregularity, irony and a postmodern referential sensibility. Apart from Inchsong without words,Inch which was written in 1972, the seven other works recorded on this album date from between 2008 and 2016, a period of mature compositional activity bookended by the composer's retirement to the village of Hout Bay near Cape Town late in 2008, and relocation to France in 2015. Album Tracks 1. The Philosophy of Composition 2. The Richter Scale 3. Sonata 4. A Fractured Landscape 5. Connectivity 6. Pentimenti 7. Song Without Words 8. Seventh Must Fall

The Bluethroat is a delightful bird which quickly endears itself to anyone fortunate enough to observe it.Although the playing time of a CD is not enough to demonstrate the full repertoire of a singing Bluethroat, the listener should gain a clear impression of this virtuoso's song from the recordings presented here The longer you listen, the more you become aware of the seemingly endless variety of the song with it's numerous and deceptively accurate imitations of other birds' voices and even mimicry of frogs, crickets, peals of bells, and other sounds from the breeding grounds and winter quarters. Little wonder that the Sami people of Lappland call the Bluethroat Inchthe bird of a thousand voicesInch. These recordings of the Bluethroat's song were made with the Sony Digital System PCM 2000 (DAT-Recorder); the Red-spotted Bluethroat with a Neumann RSM 190 stereo-microphone with windshield, and the White-spotted Bluethroat with 2 Sennheiser MKH 30 microphones using the InchBlümleinInch technique; here too, a shield had to be used because of the strong wind. Album Tracks 1. Leise Wasserpieper Und Anflug Des Blauke 2. Anflug Mit InchGlockenInch-Imitation 3. Alpenschneehuhn. Imitation 4. Blaukehlchen-Anflug Mit InchGlockenInch Imitat 5. Morgenwind + Leise Wasserpieper Weit Weg 6. Ein Anderes Rotsterniges Blaukehlchen Si 7. Morgenstimmung Am Neusiedler See (Seewin 8. Leise Grosse Rohrdommel Weit Weg + Fasan 9. + Leise Kuckuck-Weibchen (Qui... Qui 10. Leise Drosselrohrsã¤Nger Singt Weiter Weg 11. + Kuckuck-Weibchen Recht Nah 12. + Drosselrohrsã¤Nger 13. + Teichfrã¶Sche Recht Laut + Weit Weg la