music

On January 5th, 2012, ‘THE ROARING SILENCE’…

The Roaring Silence: John Cage: A Life, 1993

…is the 1993 John Cage biography by David Revill  I picked up at the Strand last week which is now getting a prominent bedside perch as I dive in.

Share
By Fritz Haeg on January 5, 2012 | books
Tags: , ,

On November 16th, 2011, MUSIC OF GREGORY ROGOVE WITH LUKE FISCHBECK & DEVENDRA BANHART…

Devendra Banhart (blur at left) & Gregory Rogove at Human Resources

…(unrecognizably clean-shaven) making cameo appearances, came to Human Resources tonight.

Share
By Fritz Haeg on November 16, 2011 | music
Tags: , , , ,

On July 29th, 2011, EMILY LACY AT THE WALKER WITH MACHINE…

Emily Lacy performing in the Walker's glass corridor facing Hennepin Avenue

…was the happy surprise of the day – as I caught my folk-singing friend‘s last performance (involving layers of gorgeous vocals live and delayed echoing through the cold cavernous corridor of the 2005 Herzog & de Meuron designed addition, accompanied by a painted steamer trunk full of costumes such as pioneer bonnets and equipment like cassette recorders from the 1980′s) in a series of daily appearances throughout the public spaces of the museum as a part of the summer series of projects and events organized by my long-lost favorite community cultural center: L.A.’s Machine Project.

Share
By Fritz Haeg on July 29, 2011 | Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

On June 30th, 2011, TEATRO DELLE ESPOSIZIONI 2 AT VILLA MEDICI…

the mysterious couple from the show, and Villa Medici with St. Peter's in the background

…which I arrived to from an earlier opening at Unosunove this magical warm summer evening by bicycle – locked up below at Piazza di Spagna to hoof it up the 132 Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti steps for shows presented by the French Academy fellows incluing films, a wandering bassoonist, an installation in the magnificent Islamic room on top of one of the towers, carefully arranged and spotlit plaster statues and period furniture in studio windows, (ugh, we missed the naked hula hooping performance from the Monday show) the highlight being an elaborate performance by Rémy Yadan in the formal salone overlooking the city where a cast of around ten formally dressed performers arrived – the rest remaining impossible to describe, but involving standing around for a long time making subtle tsking noises, moving a piano around, walking hurriedly across the room, operatic singing, energetic dancing, monologs directed face to face at particular audience members in French, opening of windows and then closing of windows, mooing, crying with backs to us, and towards the end, the doors to the terrace overlooking the city opened and in walked a mysterious couple who proceeded to walk out of the room onto the the back loggia where they stood still for the rest of the evening – so people looked at them and took pictures – some were mystified, especially those who hadn’t even seen the show.

Share
By Fritz Haeg on June 30, 2011 | France, performance
Tags: , , , , , , ,

On February 24th, 2011, MUSICAGE…

Musicage: Cage Muses on Words * Art * Music

…the 1996 book by Joan Retallack (subtitled ‘Cage Muses on Words * Art * Music‘) features fantastic reflections on, interviews with, and poetry by this humane, earthy, soulful, rigorous, funny, free-spirited, creative colossus of the 20th century who has always seemed like one of the critical figures for me to get my head around, but the closer I approach, the more elusive he seems – though this book, which I just started today (recently embarking on a reading binge which is firing me up for something), is making me feel a revelatory connection – and worth the ‘price of admission’ was this quote – his response when asked at a 1988-89 Harvard seminar whether he thought his music had political content “…The performance of music is a public occasion or a social occasion. This brings it about that the performance of a piece of music can be a metaphor of society, of how we want society to be. Though we are not now living in a society which we consider good, we could make a piece of music in which we would be willing to live. I don’t mean that literally, I mean it metaphorically. You can think of the piece of music as a representation of a society in which you would be willing to live.” – yes (and parenthetically it just so happens that my evening was punctuated by a fantastic performance by Academy music fellow, Huck Hodge, with whom I have had a few Cage conversations).

Share
By Fritz Haeg on February 24, 2011 | books, music
Tags: , , , ,

On December 10th, 2010, LIVE PAUL RUDY MUSIC WITH YOGA…

AAR music fellow Paul Rudy getting comfortable on the floor of my studio surrounded by his instruments

…today and almost every day at 5pm in my studio has been a revelation (having previously always needed a daily lead yoga class, too bored or distracted to be able to do it on my own, and enjoying the non-verbal community and energy of a group) – as we gather in a circle, starting out together, with basic breathing and stretching exercises, then moving into our own practice, each doing his or her own thing, at times riffing off each other, all the while accompanied and inspired by the rich acoustic environment of Paul’s vocals and handmade sound experiments created by a modest collection of instruments surrounding him on the floor: the pouring of water, the dragging of a drum across the floor, the breathing of a toy accordion…

Share
By Fritz Haeg on December 10, 2010 | music, yoga
Tags: , , ,

On September 20th, 2010, A NEW VIDEO FEATURING A CAST OF MANY TALENTED DOGS…

OK GO in white with cute dogs

…by my friends at OK GO premiered today (on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and they will perform the song on the Jay Leno Show tonight) reaffirming the custom that the release of each new OK GO video is a much anticipated media event – oh ragazzi – che bravi! (visit the OK GO website to see the new video and get more OK GO news or definitely, definitely check out the End Love video if you have not seen that yet – so beautiful – I just watched it again and it also made me homesick for LA)

Share
By Fritz Haeg on September 20, 2010 | music
Tags: , ,

On June 6th, 2010, HENRY PURCELL…

…the 17th century composer – his awesome Baroque music is what I’m listening to all the time lately. (“Music for a While” performed by Philippe Jaroussky and Yoko Namura)

Share
By Fritz Haeg on June 6, 2010 | music
Tags: , ,

On April 21st, 2010, “ANIMAL ESTATES HOME BUYERS TOUR,” A MUSICAL FOR CHILDREN BY MATT VAN BRINK…

Matt van Brink in the sculpture court at the Whitney Museum performing Animal Estates Home Buyers Tour with children in the 2008 Biennial Animal Estates installation

…begins its first night of four performances tomorrow at the Players Theater in New York City – which grew out of the performance that Matt did with children at the Whitney Museum during Animal Estates for the 2008 Biennial (I met Matt at MacDowell Colony that summer – check out his webpage on the show)

A 30-minute musical for children featuring irascible singing animals and kazoos.
Book, Music and Lyrics by Matt Van Brink
Additional Dialogue by by Jennifer S. Greene
With Dana Craig, Eric Harper, Justin Link, and Joelle Lurie
Directed by Hilary Leavitt
Based on Fritz Haeg’s “Animal Estates”

Four performances
Thursday, April 22, 8:00 PM
Friday, April 23, 9:00 PM
Saturday, April 24, 9:00 PM
Sunday, April 25, 3:00 PM

The Players Theater
115 MacDougal St, New York
TICKETS

Share
By Fritz Haeg on April 21, 2010 | music
Tags: , , ,

On March 6th, 2010, ANIMAL COLLECTIVE AND DANNY PEREZ…

Animal Collective and Danny Perez at the Guggenheim on March 4th, 2010

…performed in the rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum the other night, as a mega-fan I am extremely disappointed to have missed it – shucks. (website)

Here is their text about the project:

One of the things that you notice almost immediately in the jungle are the birds; so many different sounds coming from so many different directions. Are they communicating to each other? What are they saying? Does each variation serve a purpose? Why are there repetitions? Is there a pattern or is that just your imagination? If you don’t know the first thing about bird songs, these questions can rack a brain for days. The jungle seems louder than most New York apartments but its symbiosis makes it subtler if not more pleasing to foreign ears. The longer you sit awake in bed listening at night, the more you hear. It brings to mind Jane Goodall hanging out with chimpanzees in Tanzania and how she noticed them reacting to distant or inaudible sounds that at first she couldn’t hear, but as her ears adapted to the environment after months she began to hear them too.

But as the environments around us change quickly, as people encroach more and more on land where only select symbioses occur, we wonder how this will change the sounds around us and how this alters the way we hear things and react to them. As New Yorkers we are all familiar with the everyday noise around us—the car alarms, the subway trains braking, the music in bars—so familiar that sometimes we drown them out. But then do we not realize how these sounds are affecting us? How they make us feel or act? With this in mind we wanted to create an environment where people could take some time to listen to other kinds of sounds and get away from those familiar sounds of the city. Keeping  in mind the birds of the jungle, we’ve created an array of sounds with Animal Collective’s music that is seemingly random…or is it? We invite you to come take some time out and sit with us. As time passes it is our hope that you will wonder if you are hearing songs or patterns or maybe simply hearing more. The visual work of Danny Perez has been incorporated to turn the environment of an empty museum into a more   mysterious hideaway. The core elements and colors are worked into the piece in order to unite this room of sound with the inside of your brain. We hope you enjoy.

Thanks for joining us.
—Animal Collective, February 8, 2010

Share
By Fritz Haeg on March 6, 2010 | music
Tags: , , , ,

On February 22nd, 2010, SADE’S SOLDIER OF LOVE…

Sade & lasoo in 'Soldier of Love'

…is out, her first new album in eight years, she’s looking and sounding good – always had a soft spot for her – seen here lassoing white horses on a smokey battlefield at sunset!?

Share
By Fritz Haeg on February 22, 2010 | music
Tags: ,

On January 31st, 2010, TERENCE KOH…

Piano of monster hands by Terence Koh for Lady Gaga at the Grammys

…is an old friend who has penetrated the core of mainstream pop culture tonight with the piano he made for Lady Gaga to play with Elton John at the Grammys.

Share
By Fritz Haeg on January 31, 2010 | art
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

On January 15th, 2010, KEN CHRISTIANSON…

Ken Christianson and his guitar.

…has a new album out that can be purchased online, which is exciting since I’ve been waiting to see what he would be up to since he was briefly my student at CalArts a few years ago, and then today I get an email from him about the new music – super. (Ken’s website)

Share
By Fritz Haeg on January 15, 2010 | music
Tags: , ,

On January 14th, 2010, EMILY LACY…

Emily Lacy wearing a magical cape for her "Temples of the Mind" Project at LACMA.

…is still performing in her magical, fantastical project “Temples of the Mind” every Thursday-Sunday until January 31 in the Japanese Pavilion that she has taken over at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which involves “…playing out of information and music cycles across a whole series of delay pedals and small amplifiers, creating a complex network of sounds, voices, and instruments across a large space…” (project webpage)

Share
By Fritz Haeg on January 14, 2010 | music
Tags: , , , ,

On January 8th, 2010, CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG, again…

…is still on my mind, and I’m now finding older material, like this video for “If” with Etienne Daho, from which I have been memorizing the French lyrics, another symptom of my recent Franco-file tendencies, accompanied by fantasies of creating some sort of contemporary/non-new-agey incarnation of an intentional community in a farmhouse in a small village in Southern France – which has been causing me to only watch films about big groups of friends or extended families that gather in French farmhouses, but more on that later.

Share
By Fritz Haeg on January 8, 2010 | music
Tags: , ,

On January 7th, 2010, CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG…

…has a song on the IRM (MRI en Francais), her just released collaboration with Beck, called Voyage that I have been listening to all afternoon, and this morning it was The Operation and it’s video (below) by Jean-Batiste Mondino which features the mysterious arrival of a male model, but I really like Charlotte (daughter of Serge and Jane) maybe because she is a normal/amazing looking – not polished – super stylish middle-age French woman that can really act, and write songs, and sing.
Share
By Fritz Haeg on January 7, 2010 | music
Tags: , ,

On January 1st, 2010, MY BARBARIAN…

Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon, and Alex Segade of My Barbarian perform at an all day New Years Brunch at Anna and Giles' residence in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

…performed (in Anna and Giles’ living room during their New Years Day potluck brunch) a collection of songs from baroque meditations on arts patronage to theatrical re-enactments of interviews with the staff of a troubled museum; and after watching them (Alex, Malik, and Jade) this afternoon, I was reminded that they are Los Angeles people everyone should know about! (link)

Share
By Fritz Haeg on January 1, 2010 | performance
Tags: , , , , , ,