From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V9 #226 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Sunday, August 10 2003 Volume 09 : Number 226 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Today's your birthday, friend... [Mike Matthews ] Fwd: Sara Ayers News [Neile Graham ] Near Life Experience - a review ["Robert Lovejoy" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2003 03:00:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Mike Matthews Subject: Today's your birthday, friend... i*i*i*i*i*i i*i*i*i*i*i *************** *****HAPPY********* **************BIRTHDAY********* *************************************************** *************************************************************************** ********************* Happy Rhodes (no Email address) ********************* *************************************************************************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Happy Rhodes Mon August 09 1965 HolyGhost Loretta Pontillo Tue August 15 1978 Leo Queen of the Jungle Martin Dougiamas Wed August 20 1969 Positive Tori Amos Thu August 22 1963 Leo Sam Warren Tue August 22 1961 Leo Henk Van Wulpen Sat August 22 1970 Leo Kerry White Wed August 22 1951 Exact Leo/Virgo Don Gibson Wed August 26 1959 Virgo Marcel Rijs Mon August 31 1970 A rose growing old Meredith Tarr Wed September 01 1971 Virgo Scott Zimmerman Mon September 04 1972 Virgo Mike Mendelson Fri September 04 1964 Virgo Richard Dean Wed September 06 1967 Virgo David Blank-Edelman Sat September 09 1967 Neon - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2003 13:03:11 -0700 From: Neile Graham Subject: Fwd: Sara Ayers News For those interested. - --Neile >Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2003 08:23:47 -0400 >To: saraayersnews@saraayers.com >Subject: (FWD) Sara Ayers News >From: saraayersnews@saraayers.com > > >***** SaraAyersNews: The Sara Ayers Mailing List ****** > > >Hello everyone, > > >* UPCOMING SHOWS >* THOUGHTS ON FILESHARING >* METROLAND AWARD: BEST ELECTRONICA > >__________________________________________________________ > > > >* UPCOMING SHOWS: > >Friday, August 22, 2003 >Live solo performance >at The North Pointe Cultural Arts Center, >Kinderhook, New York (518) 758-9234 >8:00 pm / all ages (it's a coffeehouse) / $10.00 >Unfortunately, Twisted Pair has had to cancel this date, >but you'll get to see our cool slideshow instead. > > > >Wednesday, September 3 - Saturday, October 11 >Reno Brothers Group Show (Once a band, now an art collective) >Michael Eck / Dennis Herbert / G. C. Haymes / Sara Ayers >curated by Dana Rudolph > >Fulton Street Gallery >408 Fulton St., Troy, NY >(518) 274-8464 >Hours: Wed-Sat noon - 5pm, Fri noon - 7pm >Reception: Fri, Sept 5, 5-8pm > >I'll be debuting a new sound/video piece >as well as some photos and sculptures. > >Click here to see some of the our work: > http://www.saraayers.com/renobros > > > >Saturday, September 6, 6:30 PM >Sunday, September 7, 4:30 PM >Live solo performance at The Philadelphia Fringe Festival >The Festival Cabaret at the Hub >205 Race St, entrance on Florist Street under the bridge >Philadelphia, PA >$10.00 >also appearing: Kaktus > > > >Saturday, September 13 >Ambitention >Live solo performance with Embracing The Glass > >Ethereal ambient atmospheres -- guitars and vocal >loops -- that sometimes sound startlingly like my own) >We'll be performing separately and then play together >at the end of the night. > >Worcester Artist Group, 38 Harlow Street, Worcester, MA >9:00 pm / All Ages / $5.00 > > > > >------------------------------------------------------------ > > >* THOUGHTS ON FILESHARING > >I thought it might be time to weigh in with my thoughts on >filesharing, which is becoming a controversial issue these days. > > >I'm in favor of filesharing -- I think of it as the new radio. >It's a way for people to discover new artists and musicial genres, >outside of the iron promotional grip of the major labels. > >I also believe the RIAA is making a fatal mistake by suing music >fans who offer downloads from their shared folders -- the modern >day equivalent of taping a song off the radio. Their attitude is >both arrogant and shortsighted. > >I support filesharing as a musician, because it allows people to >hear my music, find my website, and buy my CDs, which allows me >to make more music. > >I support filesharing as a consumer, because it's allowed me >to find, sample and buy music by other obscure artists such as >Sussan Deyhim and Mary Jane Leach. > > >Anyway, let's be safe out there -- the Electronic Frontier >Foundation has an article, "How Not To Get Sued by the RIAA," >that you might want to read: > http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/howto-notgetsued.php > >And if you're still using Kazaa, you might consider switching to >Kazaa lite, a hack of the original that offers a bit more privacy: > http://www.kazaalite.tk/ > > >------------------------------------------------------------ > > >* METROLAND AWARD: BEST ELECTRONICA > > >Thanks for all at Metroland (a local weekly newspaper) >for this award.... > > >Metroland (July 17, 2003) >Best of the Capital Region, 2003 > >BEST ELECTRONICA: Sara Ayers >Live or in the studio, Sara Ayers continues to awe us with >her haunting blend of the organic and the electronic, the >pastoral and the powerful, the hypnotic and the exotic. >It's a rare artist who can evoke both pure Norwegian black >metal and ambient Enya-tinged pop, sometimes in the same >album. Or song. Or second. (www.metroland.net) > > > >------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > >Thanks for listening, > >-- Sara > > > > >---------------------------------------------- >Get Me Off This List! To unsubscribe from this list: >please point your browser to http://www.saraayers.com/maillist.php >Scroll to the bottom of the page, fill in your email address and voila -- >you will never hear from us again. - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Neile Graham .... neile@sff.net/@drizzle.com ... www.sff.net/people/neile Les Semaines: A Weekly Journal ........ www.sff.net/people/neile/semaines Editor, The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music ........... www.ectoguide.org Workshop Administrator, Clarion West ................ www.clarionwest.org ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2003 23:03:15 -0400 From: "Robert Lovejoy" Subject: Near Life Experience - a review I have had the good fortune to have heard Kevin Bartlett's new and unusual album "Near Life Experience". The album is amazing on several counts. First and foremost, the music. Kevin's album is divided into ten songs but plays cohesively. The first thing I thought of upon first listening was the orchestral music of the Romantic period, albeit with a broader swath of timbres and tonal palettes then were available to composers of that era. On this album you hear evocations of woodwinds, didgeridoos, orchestral strings and rock bands. Add to the mix some astonishing ambiance, and you have a recording with quite possibly the most fascinating musical colors ever.. Beyond the tonal palette are the musical structures Kevin has crafted. You'll hear a smattering of atonal sounds, one or two stretches of straightforward tonic or root/fifth ostinato, some very cool rock progressions, and some extremely complex heavily composed music, all of it quite breathtaking. Throughout the album, there are stretches of voices. Whispering, echoing, announcing, incanting voices swathed in echo and reverb. It's a motif that ties the album into a cohesive whole. There is also some fine singing now and then by a female singer who sounds classically trained. Most of the album, however, is instrumental, and it is startling to realize that Kevin is playing all (or at least most!) of them. As my wife listened with me, she noted that it must be incredible having that many things going on in your head. I've always been impressed by Mike Oldfield's solo works, but here we come to the tonal palette again - Oldfield's textures are as colored pencils to Bartlett's Oils. The first track of the album, "Gayatri", begins with soft, atmospheric tonalities. A haunting, soaring Celtic sounding melody is introduced, which soon breaks from its orchestral timbre as it is played by a wailing guitar. Deep rich bass tones abound on this album, and it is in this part of the track where yet another facet of this album is revealed - the recording sounds amazing! Either sampling technologies these days have gotten much better, or my ears are worse. The synth parts sounded to me very close to an orchestra. I recognized oboes and bassoons, flutes and violins clearly. The stereo soundstage is full and lush, and the album is draped in a diffusion of reverb that ebbs and flows along with the passion of the music. With Pro Logic II the surround mix was extremely satisfying. In short, the album sounds like a million dollars! I can't pick a favorite song yet, but if I had to, perhaps it's track six, "The Best Laid Mice". This track is gorgeous. You can hear subtle influences of Oldfield and Gabriel-era Genesis in parts of it, but the music is purely Kevin. It is, as are all of the tracks on this album, a tone poem, quite programmatic. You hear birds, sense action going on - it's amazing. (Non-musicologists can check out 'tone poem' at Google for results like http://www.incompetech.com/music/poem.html and http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/g_symphonic_poem.html). Maybe my favorite is track four, "Sockdolager", with its progressive-rock Led Zeppelin meets Brian Eno feel. The subwoofer was going nuts; there are some great fundamentals on this track. Then again on track eight, "Lighting is Everything", there's a bass drum that moves my sofa! But as gorgeous and powerful as the sound of this album is, gorgeous and powerful can also refer to the music itself. The album ebbs and flows like a living organism, at times passionate and sweeping, at times still and quiet. Unexpected textures pop up at every turn, and in those quieter parts you can hear the voices. Track 3, "Miserere Mei" is also worth noting for its spirituality. It starts out almost as church music, then ebbs and flows into a triumphant operatic statement. There are some powerful drums going on as well, making for a heady mix, and then Kevin unleashes a rocking bass guitar. So maybe this is my favorite track. Clocking in at 76:46, there is a generous amount of music on this disc. None of it is filler. The engineering is stunning (note to self: must try listening with headphones!), the compositions are mature, the playing is exemplary. One would think there was a team of engineers and a studio full of musicians involved in the making of this album, but it is primarily the work of one Kevin Bartlett. And it is an amazing, stunning achievement. I have often wondered what a composer from the Romantic era would do with today's technology, and I think this album goes a long ways toward answering that question. Don't get me wrong, the sensibilities are modern, but this is quite possibly the most unusual recording I've ever heard. Give your soul a treat, give your ears a treat, turn off your mind, relax and float downstream. It is not dying, but it is a near life experience. Bob Lovejoy Please feel free to use this in the Ectophile's Guide! ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V9 #226 **************************