Comments | small_circle: Difficult Listening Week, part 2: Stockhausen at Billingsgate

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Difficult Listening Week, part 2: Stockhausen at Billingsgate

Oct 24, 2005 14:55

Before I rediscovered pop music circa 1984, I really dug Karlheinz Stockhausen. Ralf & Florian were always banging on about his music & theories, and Holger Can was a student of his, so as I was a fan of both it followed that I'd be a fan of Stockhausen. And while I found it a little tricky getting my head around some of his more fruity pieces, ( Read more... )

Comments 4

augstone October 24 2005, 18:57:48 UTC

Still, again, it took me somewhere. Not sure I'd want to live there, mind you...

yep.

i remember when i first heard about stockhausen going to the music library at boston university and having to sit there and listen to it (i'm pretty sure we couldn't check the records out, but also i didn't have a turntable in my dorm room). it was odd. intriguing, but odd. perhaps it was the setting. but i found reading about it all much more pleasurable/interesting.

small_circle October 24 2005, 19:42:00 UTC

Some of Stockhausen's more concise pieces I do actually enjoy listening to. But yes, as with much contemporary art, the theories behind it are generally more interesting than the end result.

kontakte & oktophonie anonymous November 7 2005, 21:30:41 UTC

just read the notes on Joe Meek-esque bleeps and bloops (which were 10 years after "Studie I" and "Studie II", and maybe bleeps with attitude), but Kontakte is not of the same sound palette. Perhaps was sampled on Hanna and Barberra cartoons - check it out.
Kontakte flows from minute to minute, second to second without a wasted moment/space - it just fits like a glove, a het, a coat, that you thought you'd lost, but someone else came along to say " here it is, or maybe newer!".
After driving 5 hours and tube 1 hour and touristing 3 hours I was ready for the "DREAM TWO OF ELECTONIC MUSIC" and got it. I'm happy just to shake KH's hand and wish him well (and hope the limp isn't too bad).
EdZ

(Name and address supplied, but I don't want justifications

Re: kontakte & oktophonie small_circle November 7 2005, 22:21:41 UTC

I can hear definite similarities between Kontakte and some of I Hear A New World. And the time difference between the two is surprisingly small (Kontakte 1959, IHANW 1960). Though I think it's fairly safe to say that neither artist was familiar with the other's work.

In spite of my doubts, it was an extraordinary evening, and one that's stayed with me for some time.