Brainpicker #2

A recording created as part of the Golden Record carried into space by the Voyager spacecraft in 1977. Story here: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/10/murmurs-of-earth-sagan-golden-record/

FULL STORY

The Sounds of Earth (The Golden Record)

09 Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois -

Artist: DEMIAN CASTELLANOS
Album: The Kyvu Tapes Vol.I (1990-1998)

HITD 025
Limited edition of 350 copies on black vinyl 

Label, orders: www.handsinthedarkrecords.com
Co-release with Cardinal Fuzz

DEMIAN CASTELLANOS - Lizard Raga

Alabaster DePlume 
“Peach”
Debt Records
2nd Oct 2015

A peach is a sweet and soft and good thing with a stone in the middle, and this is an album about being a person. Smartphones, analogue tape, valve microphones, computers, group games and a grand banquet were used to create this collection of songs, tunes and monologues, that use a series of contradictions to talk about being alive. 

Long-term collaborators John Ellis (piano) and Paddy Steer (percussion, bass, lapsteel, synth) join Angus Fairbairn (vocal, tenor sax) along with eleven other musicians and nearly a hundred other voices in presenting sounds likened to Ethiopian jazz and Japanese folk music. Scripts and vocal delivery evoke Ivor Cutler, Emo Philips and Leonard Cohen, for this combination of theatre, live-captured music, songs, humour and philosophy.

It is a unique collection, made by unusual means designed around the artistry and conveyance of its many contributors. Created over three years in London and Manchester, it’ll be celebrated in those two towns on the dates below, following its vinyl and digital release on Manchester label Debt Records, on 28th September 2015.

A composer, musician and performer, Alabaster DePlume (Angus Fairbairn) has toured northern Europe, appeared on UK national radio and developed theatre for Bram Stoker Festival in Dublin. His many combined arts projects are based around music, and personal inclusion. In this, his third album, he has employed as many voices as he can, in conveying a method of survival he’s been taught, he says, by everyone he’s met.

Hope grows naturally, like a
dandelion between the bricks.
I feel good…

Manchester launch: 4th October at The Wonder Inn 
London launch: 31st October at The Total Refreshment Centre, Dalston

Personnel:
Will Calderbank – cello
Rioghnach Connolly – flute 
Ellis Davies – electric guitar
Lorien Edwards – bass guitar
John Ellis – pianette, clavinette, piano
Leonie Evans – backing
Angus Fairbairn – vocal, tenor sax, acoustic guitar, yanquin dulcimer, synths
Dominie Hooper – backing 
Philip Howley – drums, percussion
Mikey Kenney – violin 
Pascal Makonese – m’bira
Kirsty McGee – bass flute
Tim Vincent Smith – violin
Paddy Steer – drums, percussion, bass guitar, double bass, synths
Rick Weedon – drums, percussion 
With selected vocal delivery from – Rioghnagh Connolly, Ellis Davies, Julia Foster, Katarzina Jablonska, Sally Jenkinson, Kasia Wlaszczyk, Oliver Conway. 
And with a chorus of attendees of the ‘Excuse Me’ studio feast, 9th September 2014, Antwerp Mansion. Meal by Samuel Buckley.

Engineered by Paddy Steer, John Ellis and Karl Sveinsson. Recorded at Limefield Studios Middleton, Madwaltz Levenshulme, Antwerp Mansion Rusholme and the Total Refreshment Centre Dalston, with additional field recordings at various locations. 
Mastered by George Atkins at 80 Hertz.
Artwork by Liz Greenfield
All songs and scripts written by A. Fairbairn. 

14 - Strange

Daniel Lanois' Iceland - Mixed by Pan•American. Live guitar, Mark Nelson, live drums, Steven Hess


Iceland (pan•american remix)

Poem text and context: https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/04/03/working-together-david-whyte/
Excerpted from https://soundcloud.com/onbeing/sets/david-whyte-the-conversational

Photograph by Nicol Ragland

POEM TEXT / CONTEXT

David Whyte reads "Working Together"

Full context and poem text: https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/04/27/janna-levin-reads-planetarium-by-adrienne-rich/

Recorded at "The Universe in Verse," April 24, 2017.

Photograph of Janna Levin by Molly Walsh / Academy of American Poets

Astrophysicist Janna Levin reads "Planetarium" by Adrienne Rich

Artist: Nick Zammuto
Title: Tonight We'll Go For A Ride
Album: We The Animals: An Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Release Date: November 9, 2018 Digital / February 8, 2019 Physical

Pre-Order: www.temporaryresidence.com/products/trr308

We The Animals is the award-winning new film from Jeremiah Zagar (In A Dream). Based on the best-selling novel by Justin Torres, We The Animals is Zagar’s first narrative feature. It reunites Zagar with Nick Zammuto, the renowned composer and co-founder of beloved collage-pop pioneers, the Books. Inspired by the film’s setting in rural upstate New York – and influenced by the early ambient electronic music that galvanized the Books two decades ago – Zammuto pairs that earthen, wooded isolation with dynamic pulses of customized electronics and sparse, crystalline layers of melodic soft synths. The juxtaposition is arresting, and gives the soundtrack a unique heft befitting of its subject matter – and betraying of its minimal instrumentation. Beautifully edited and sequenced to act as both a companion to the film and a standalone album, We The Animals: An Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is as subtle as it is startling, and succeeds in making even the heaviest emotions feel momentarily weightless.

We The Animals: An Official Motion Picture Soundtrack

Nick Zammuto - Tonight We'll Go For A Ride

Poem text and context: https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/02/04/janna-levin-w-h-auden-the-more-loving-one/

Recorded at the Academy of American Poets' 16th annual "Poetry & the Creative Mind."

Astrophysicist Janna Levin reads "The More Loving One" by W.H. Auden

Poem text and context: https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/10/23/the-weighing-jane-hirshfield/

Recorded at @pioneerworks, October 29, 2018.

Astrophysicist Janna Levin Reads "The Weighing" by Jane Hirshfield

Poem text and context: https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/02/25/neri-oxman-walt-whitman/

Recorded at "The Universe in Verse" — a charitable celebration of science through poetry, hosted by Maria Popova with Pioneer Works. More highlights from the show: https://www.brainpickings.org/tag/the-universe-in-verse/

Neri Oxman reads Walt Whitman

Life in motion spits you out
need to relax without a doubt
I recommend a weekend spending time for just indulging

There’s a place that would suit you
it offers a fun point of view
it’s quite far out from all the trials and traps of broken cities

Oh, Jaunty View!
somewhere built for you
make of it whatever works for you
stay for a week or two
would you?, would you?

Check in via the sliding doors
the porter guides you to your floor
then your stay is truly just a lottery of amusements

There’s a weird little room in the basement
Disco underground
Then jump for a giggle on the ceiling
Weirdos hear that sound and fly

Stroll in the fields with the tall blooming trees and wonder
Dip in the pool with the water of blue and wonder
How could you ever go back home?
family and friends don't need to know
We care about you
you fit within our point of view
just book a lifelong stay
and watch your problems fly away
it’s up to you…

If you leave Jaunty View
please come back and visit soon
remember our policy for clientele satisfaction
credits
released June 26, 2020
Written, performed and produced by Thomas McConnell
Mastered by David Dargahi

Released on the Suddenly On Sea EP, 2020 on Abbey House Records.

Jaunty View

Robbie Basho - Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes
A 5CD Box Set - All Tracks Previously Unreleased
Available 12/4/2020
PRE- ORDER : http://www.tompkinssquare.com/bashoboxset.html

Robbie Basho (1940-1986) is widely regarded as one of the progenitors of what's commonly known today as American Primitive guitar. Growing up in Maryland alongside neo-traditional guitar explorers John Fahey and Max Ochs, Basho's path would take a decidedly different turn, bringing Hindi, Indian, Japanese and Native American musical traditions into his work. His albums for Takoma and Vanguard have left an indelible trail of influence across generations of musicians, from William Ackerman and Pete Townshend to Ben Chasny and William Tyler.

Liam Barker first became aware of Basho having purchased Tompkins Square's reissue of Venus in Cancer, released in 2006. This led him on an incredible fact-finding expedition, unraveling the many layers of mystery surrounding Basho's life and death, all deftly compiled and depicted in his documentary film, Voice of the Eagle : The Enigma of Robbie Basho.

During the research process, Barker came across a large cache of unheard Basho tapes recorded throughout his career, ranging roughly from 1965-1985. By arrangement with Basho's Estate and the original custodians of the tapes, Tompkins Square is set to release Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes, a 5CD set of previously unreleased material, on December 4th, 2020. The set includes notes by Barker, Henry Kaiser, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Glenn Jones and Richard Osborn, as well as many unseen photographs. The box set package featuring gold foil inlay, poster and extensive booklet, was designed by Barbara Bersche, known for her work on the 2009 Grammy-nominated Alan Lomax in Haiti box, as well as the new Dust-To-Digital Harry Smith B-Sides box.

TSQ 5715 - Robbie Basho / Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes - 5CD set

Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes

American Sunday

Poem text and context: https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/12/31/new-years-eve-rebecca-elson/

Astrophysicist Janna Levin reads "Planetarium" by Adrienne Rich

brainpicker

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