"Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary" at MoCA LA / Performances of Major Works at RedCat Theatre: Nov 6 - Feb 4

A defining artistic and scientific voice of the past Century; architect, mathematician and composer Iannis Xenakis exhibit at MoCA is in it's closing month. As with the opening month, nights of performances of his major electro-acoustic/orchestral/magnetic tape pieces are being hosted in the prime setting of the RedCat Theatre. Even for Xenakis being a defining voice in modern composition and architecture in the 20th Century, it's still a exceedingly rare thing to get to see these works performed, as they are 'unkind' in the most visionary sense, and even with decades passing, have lost none of their sensorial attack and genuine unearthly qualities. Truly not to be missed! Any of you anywhere near LA should note that this is road-trip worthy, both for it's rarity, historic cultural import and the visceral modern intensity of the work. The MoCA exhibit also featuring architectural plans and scores. As among other architectural achievements in his time, Xenakis studied and worked under Le Corbusier, their most noted construction being the Philips Pavilion for the 1958 World's Fair - significantly with a audio-visual interior scape composed by Edgard Varèse and experimental film by Le Corbusier as the world's first completely electronic composition and 'music video'; the renowned "Poème Électronique".

Link to MoCA 'Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary' Exhibit site

Link to RedCat Theatre Xenakis Performance Calendar site

:::: FILMS OF 2010 ::::

TOP FILMS OF 2010 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
--------------------------------------------------------
Apichatpong Weerasethakul "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" (Thailand)
Sion Sono "Love Exposure" (Japan)
Tsai Ming-Liang "Visage" (Taiwan)
Gaspar Noe "Enter the Void" (France)
Claire Denis "White Material" (France)
Corneliu Porumboiu "Police, Adjective" (Romania)
Bong Joon-Ho "Mother" (South Korea)
Lu Chuan "City of Life and Death" (China)
Banksy & Shepard Fairey "Exit Through the Gift Shop" (USA)
Gideon Koppel "Sleeps Furiously" (UK)
Olivier Assayas "Carlos" (France)
Philippe Grandreiux "Un Lac" (France)
Jai Zhang-Ke "I Wish I Knew" (China)
Anand Tucker/ James Marsh/ Julian Jarrold "Red Riding Trilogy" (UK)
Anoch Suwichakornpong "Mundane History" (Thailand)

Looking outside the expected sources, finding new record labels and film distributors, making connections
between author, director and soundtrack that were previously inconceivable. Some of these combinations
generated exciting, unexpected new hybrids of styles, genres and form. The most vibrant of these
unexpected convergences being the work of French director Gaspar Noe's (visionary, yet flawed)
piece of psychedelic-pathos, "Enter the Void" (with soundtrack by Thomas Bangalter) an immersive,
mind-altering, multi-sensory, hyperkinetic, drugged-up Tokyo death fugue. Though there were other works
that achieved in more consistent, fully realized, qualitative ways, Noe's film stuck in the craw and refused to
be dismissed. Other directors further established themselves with their finest work yet, Weerasethakul, Sion
Sono and an unexpected historic drama from Assayas.

As it has for the past few decades, Scarecrow Video played an invaluable role as a resource for moving pictures
from around the globe, especially considerable for those of us enabled by all-zone/region Blu-Ray players.
This year's Seattle International Film Festival hosted only one or two of the films listed below, as opposed
to previous years, where SIFF dominated the field, screening most of the best films of the year during the
course of the festival. With indie cinemas closing around the nation, it was that much more important to
support the local theater opportunities such as the SIFF Cinema, the Landmark Theatre chain, the Grand
Illusion Cinema and the paramount indie screen in Seattle, the Northwest Film Forum. Many of the best films
seen this year, when they did come to the theater, had runs that lasted no more than a week. Others were
never to return to the cinema again or even as a domestic DVD release. By example, one of the single finest
films of this decade, the Cannes Palme d'Or award-winning "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives", which played in international film festivals around the country, still has yet to get a proper theatrical
run or even a DVD/online release (with rumors of it not appearing until as late as spring 2011). Again proving
the wisdom of getting out there, seeing the city and prioritizing the art/music/film that we're fortunate to have
in our urban cultural crossroads.

Lastly, the unseen films by a few directors of note that never made it over here distributed stateside or even
made a less-desirable appearance as an online release. I suspect a number of these would have made the
list, if I actually had a chance to see them:

Cristi Puiu "Aurora" (Romania)
Sergei Loznitsa "My Joy" (Russia)
Lee Chang-Dong "Poetry" (China)
Mohammad Rasoulof "White Meadows" (Iran)
James Benning "Ruhr" (United States)
Jerzy Skolimowski "Essential Killing" (Poland)
Sophie Fiennes "Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow" (UK)
Tetsuya Nakashima "Confessions" (Japan)
Anh Hung-Tran "Norwegian Wood" (Taiwan/Japan)
Koji Wakamatsu "Caterpillar" (Japan)
Tsui Hark "Detective Dee & The Mystery of the Phantom Flame" (China)

:::: ALBUMS OF 2010 ::::

TOP ALBUMS OF 2010 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
----------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Koner "Nunatak Gongamur/Teimo/Permanfrost" (Type)
Supersilent "10" (Rune Grammofon)
Jesu "Heart Ache & Dethroned" (Hydrahead)
Boris "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Vol.1-4" (Southern Lord)
Max Richter "Infra" (Fat Cat)
Rafael Irisarri "The North Bend" (Room40)
Nils Frahm "Wintermusik" (Erased Tapes)
Ultralyd "Inertiadrome" (Rune Grammofon)
Ryuichi Sakamoto "Playing the Piano" (Decca Classical)
Cloudland Canyon "Fin Eaves" (Holy Mountain)
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma "Love Is A Stream" (Type)
Pan Sonic "Gravitoni" (Blast First)
Einstürzende Neubauten "Strategies Against Architecture IV" (Mute)
SWANS "My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope in the Sky" (Young God")
Kouhei Matsunaga "Self VA/3 Telepathics/Processing the Dead Minotaur" (Important)
Ben Frost "By The Throat" (Bedroom Community)
Johann Johannsson "...And in the Endless Pause Came the Sound of Bees" (Type)
Frank Bretschneider "Exp." (Raster-Noton)
Various Artists "Tradi-Mods vs. Rockers" (Crammed Discs)
Thomas Bangalter/Various "Enter the Void - Soundtrack" (Roulé France)

Continuing from the films list above... like cinema, the year in sounds there was the curious repeat theme;
2010 was again a year for diggers. Wherein, many of the great recordings of the year appeared from
otherwise unknown origins and artists that some years ago were just establishing themselves, often under
other monikers. That much more reason to 'keep the ears to the ground' as it were and be that much more
looking out for the new and unheard.

There were many works that took the ears to exciting places, and that did so in distinct, expressive and
adventurous ways. Particularly at the strange crossroads where modern classical, lo-fi folk, musique
concrete, improv, metal, ambient, 'noise' and avant jazz traditions are all meeting as hypermodern, as-yet
unnamed genre mutations. Ultralyd's most recent album, "Inertiadrome", stands as a good example, as does
the disorienting fusion of hip-hop, noise and electronic minimalism that was Kouhei Matsunaga's trilogy of
albums. Perhaps the most hyper-hybrid of them all was the giddy fusion of western indie rock and electronic
sounds meets amped-up African world music in the "Tradi-Mods vs. Rockers" compilation.

Live sonic adventures were heard around the Northwest, with Decibel Festival offering some of the best
electronic performances of the year (Ben Frost, Pantha Du Prince, Fennesz) and Triple Door hosting the
chamber symphony and electronic night that was Johann Johannsson and Rafael Anton Irisarri Trio. There
were astounding metal shows this year, including Boris, Nadja, Wolves in the Throne Room, Shrinebuilder
and Neurosis, and many fine things heard in Earshot Jazz Fest including the Paul D. Miller Ensemble and
the sublime piano minimalism of Ryuichi Sakamoto.

The Medium is the Message & We Are Become It: Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media

McLuhan, considered a contemporary of Roland Barthes  delivers his defining treatise here. As much as "Understanding Media" is behind the times (published in 1964) in the particular technology cited, the book is stunningly with/ahead of the times in it's assessment of tech's growing prevalence in western society. As is often cited by Mark Fisher, aka K-Punk, the book’s extrapolation on media's role in our lives, the nature of language altered by manufactured trends brought to us in the vehicle of media, spectatorship and it's influence on behavior/values, is as prescient/applicable now as when it was written. (In fact, moreso). Depicted in a literally visionary (ie; having the prescience to not only know what was to come in the world of media and technology, but also to foresee Western Consumer Society's reaction/assimilation of/into said media) overview by Marshall McLuhan TRULY ONE OF THOSE BOOKS THAT YOU WILL ONLY READ SOMETHING OF IT'S KIN LESS THAN A HALF-DOZEN TIMES IN THE ENTIRETY OF YOUR LIFE. Forget Guy Debord, forget Deleuze and Derrida like those cats from this era , McLuhan's intellectual exploration is one of both theory, philosophy and citing specific trends, behaviors, values and actions from the time. Tracing the course both far back into their origins (psychologically, politically, philosophically)... and accurately into the future in which we live. Unlike the ensemble of French authors mentioned above, it's not impenetrably labyrinthian and nearly opaque in the metaphor/language used to explore the trajectory(s) of these ideas. Yeah, this one's essential. And very readable. Don't be daunted by the names/postmodern company mentioned above. McLuhan is in a class of his own.

The Earth is Watching, Careful How You Tread: Elementals, American Gothic, Interstellar Travel & Interspecies Love in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing

Much like the "Sandman" re-read of last year, this year's tale to re-tackle was making it through the totality of Alan Moore's "Swamp Thing". Like the above-mentioned book by Neil Gaiman, this is a DC Universe defining piece of comics narrative from the 1980's wherein Moore came along (with the rest of the 'British Invasion' including Morrison, Gaiman, Milligan, Delano) and wrote a mature readers/sophisticated suspense title from a long-standing fringe DC mystical/horror title originally serialized during the 1960's to 70's. What he did for this book laid the groundwork for the authors mentioned above to both explore adult themes/contemporary societal issues, but also significantly for storytelling within the DC Universe, Moore brought together all the various tethers of metaphysical/mystic/magic/ kabal aspects of the 70 year history of comics published by DC and gave them a shared history and place within a modern setting, dealing with modern issues. These being ecological, political, existential, philosophical and of course since it's Alan Moore we're talking about here... The Magickal.

Link to Vertigo Comics Alan Moore "Saga of the Swamp Thing" - Vol.1

Link to Vertigo Comics Alan Moore "Saga of the Swamp Thing" - Vol.2

Link to Vertigo Comics Alan Moore "Saga of the Swamp Thing" - Vol.3

Redefining the character of Swamp Thing as a Elemental being sharing a aeons-spanning role in being a caretaker/arbiter of earth's ecological concerns being only a small part of this. Curiously, since this is before the Vertigo imprint of creator-owned and mature readers titles had been set up, it's also set within the same 'universe' of stories as DC's superhero work. So, when Moore depicts the fallout from the DC Comics 'event' book "Crisis on Infinite Earths" it's as John Constantine coming along and enlisting a group of outsider mystics to do the mop-up on the spiritual plane from the cosmological Multiverse fallout of the battles with the Anti-Monitor and all that racket. Clever, Alan!

Link to Vertigo Comics Alan Moore "Saga of the Swamp Thing" - Vol.4

Link to Vertigo Comics Alan Moore "Saga of the Swamp Thing" - Vol.5

Link to Vertigo Comics Alan Moore "Saga of the Swamp Thing" - Vol.6

And where those themes take this story is truly cosmic in nature, both spiritually as well as literally. This is a massive, epic work, that on it's own is a powerful defining work in the comics medium (from a time when just about nobody was writing stories of this kin, ie; '84-87). Also significantly, without the groundwork being laid down by Moore, the following decade of Vertigo and some of the greatest major imprint (and indie!) comics tales of the following decade, would not have had such rich ground to flourish and grow. Defining, groundbreaking, cosmic, existential, creepy, suspenseful, deeply emotive stuff... about a scientist who's body dies due to corporate sabotage of his ecological work, who is then reborn as a living Earth Elemental representing The Green. One of many, spanning centuries as The Parliament of Trees. Indeed, only Alan Moore could have written this tale. For a more in-depth reading than I'm offering here, there's no better plumbing of it's psychedelic, philosophical depths than Andrew Edwards' ongoing analysis, "A Ghost Dressed in Weeds: Unearthing Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing" in the pages of SequentialArt.

Lovecraftian Horror Rises from the Desert: Europe at War, a Mythological Author & Mass Murders as a Artifact of Globalization in Roberto Bolaño's 2666

Crushingly inventive. What a damn novel this proved to be! Finished it late last night and was veritably stunned when the last book of the five that comprise the novel was completed, not for any revelatory conclusion, but instead the sense of cumulative wrapping (or more exactly, warping) together of a world and a century that "2666" does. Sad, moving, dark, passionate, psychological, methodical, piece of fiction made that much more moving/believably atrocious by it's inclusion of fictionalized interpretations of historical events, namely WWII on the Russian front and this ongoing series of sprawling, nightmarish mass-murders in Mexico. Having come to Bolaño in the past year through friend's recommendations and later through the massive accolades the man's received from major literary sources and contemporary authors of note, including this excellent review from Jonathan Lethem it's been a process of discovery for me where I found I was reading it reading at a slower and slower rate to be able to properly absorb and digest along the way, which is the inverse of my usual approach as I delve into a book. His contemporaries have called him the anti-Gabriel Garcia, for me, he's more the next-gen Borges, as these are tales that riddle out the passions, obsessions and deeply tricky maze that is where the mind meets the world and the peoples who populate it - as a ever unfolding, slowly revealed, labyrinth. "2666" here, the first book by him I've read, has tones of traditional lit like Borges, or even the sense of humor of Dostoyevsky (really), but with a both more modern sense of narrative construction (the five open-ended novels that comprise the whole of the hardcover) that reminds me of some of the conscious 'gaps' in chronology/information that Foster-Wallace has so frustrated some of his readers with ... and weirdly, in combination with a almost Lovecraftian sense of looming dread.

Olivier Assayas' new film "Carlos" *full cut* at Northwest Film Forum : Nov 5 - 7

A perfect way to spend a loooong, cold, raining Nov night. This weekend only at NWFF, the *full cut* of Olivier Assayas' 5+Hour biopic of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez. Sanchez, a world renowned terrorist' and mercenary with involvement in causes ranging from pro-Palestinian activism to the Japanese Red Army was at once a figure of the extreme left and later an opportunistic mercenary in the pay of powerful governments.
From Northwest Film Forum: "Carlos tells the story of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (played by Edgar Ramirez), a central figure in international terrorism of the 1970s and 1980's. He lived several lives under various pseudonyms, weaving his way through the complexities of international politics of the period. He formed his own organization, basing it behind the Iron Curtain, and was active during the final years of the Cold War. A daring and amazing biography of a still-living figure, delving into international politics, terrorism, history, religion, sex and much more. Assayas handles all the issues with staggering dexterity, intelligence and skill. The film is nothing short of a must see!"
From LA Times: "Think of The Bourne Identity with more substance, or Munich with more of a life to it, and you begin to have a sense of what Assayas has accomplished with this globetrotting and epic look at one man's rise to the station of international guerrilla leader and terrorist celebrity."

Link to IFC's "Carlos" site

Link to Northwest Film Forum's "Carlos" site

Ryuichi Sakamoto "Playing the Paino" Tour & Earshot Jazz Festival : Oct 15 - Nov 7

Christoph Heemann "The Rings of Saturn" Tour at Chapel Performance Space: Oct 25

Christoph Heemann longtime collaborations with Jim O'Rourke, Andrew Chalk, Charlemagne Plalestine and Andreas Martin over the years has produced a wide-ranging corpus of work spanning Psychedelic Dronsescape, Surreal Ambiance, Downer Folk, Krautrock Jams and John Fahey-like acoustic guitar meanderings, many of them released through his own Streamline label but it's mostly just his adept, almost alchemical working of SOUND itself that stands most highly. Heemann's most recent work is a cinematic exploration of the themes and concepts from the literature of W.B. Sebald, aurally evoking the haunted scapes of his "The Rings of Saturn". I expect it will be this material explored in this rare (decades apart) performance by him stateside. Should be quite a night of sonic journeying not to be missed, and not just for it's rarity alone!
From Wayward Music Series: "Christoph Heemann (born 1964 in Aachen, Germany) began his musical work in 1983 as a founding member of the group HIRSCHE NICHT AUFS SOFA, who released several albums of their surreal collagemusic between 1985 and 1993, drawing inspiration from such diverse elements as musique concrete, avantgarde, krautrock and improvised music. After the group disbanded Heemann continued working solo and with the group MIMIR (with Edward Ka-spel and Jim O'Rourke), the drone projects MIRROR (with Andrew Chalk), and IN CAMERA (with Timo van Luyck). Heemann's solo compositions have often been described as "ear-movies", in which he fuses field recordings, acoustic instruments, electronics, and electroacoustic sounds into audio narratives. Aside from this Heemann has done a series of musical collaborations (with Jim O'Rourke, Lee Ranaldo, Charlemagne Palestine, William Basinski) and works as a producer (Keiji Haino, Charlemagne Palestine, Limpe Fuchs, Current 93). Since 1994 he runs the Streamline label."

Link to Nonsequitur/Wayward Music Series Christoph Heemann site

Sounds on Rotation - Oct / Nov - Books in Circulation

Been a while since I've done one of these! So here's whats been playing at my place/on my pod
this past month or so. Have been particularly enthused again with the past couple months of new
albums I've acquired, these being (as per usual) mostly dissonant, minimal, abstract, avant and
atmospheric type sounds. Consisting of random modern composer titles, few choice electronic
releases, couple new avant-jazz/improv recordings, noise post-rock psych stuffs and a couple
doom-ish metal records. Indeed! New sounds make such an excellent compliment to the change
of seasons, as the Fall/Winter is definitely here with the torrential rains, sunset at 6pm and the
changing leaves falling from trees. 5 more months of spectacular off-and-on crepuscular
Northwest gloom, here we come!

Supersilent "10" & "11" (Rune Grammofon)
Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld "Mimikry" (Raster-Noton)
Cloudland Canyon "Fin Eaves" (Holy Mountain)
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma "Love Is A Stream" (Type)
Ultralyd "Inertiadrome" (Rune Grammofon)
Max Richter "Infra" (Fat Cat)
V/A "Twenty Centuries Of Stony Sleep" (Rune Grammofon)
Peter Broderick "Music For Contemporary Dance" (Erased Tapes)
Earth "Bureaucratic Desire for Extra Capsular-Extraction" (Southern Lord)
Pan Sonic & Keiji Haino "Synergy Between Mercy & Self-Annihilation Overturned" (Blast First)
Marcus Fjellström "Schattensieler" (Miasmah)
Hildur Guðnadóttir "Mount A" (Touch)
Grails "Black Tar Prophecies - Vol. 1-4" (Important)
Boris "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Vol.1-4" (Southern Lord)
Rafael Anton Irisarri "The North Bend" (Room40)
Philip Jeck "An Ark for the Listener" (Touch)
Emeralds "Does It Look Like I'm Here?" (Mego)
Nadja "Autopergamene" (Essence)
World's End Girlfriend "Seven Bastards" (Virgin Babylon)
Jasper TX "Singing Stones" (Fang Bomb)
Kemialliset Ystävät "Ullakkopalo" (Fonal)
Goldmund "Famous Places" (Western Vinyl)
Aaron Martin "Worried About the Fire" (Fang Bomb)
Benoit Pioulard "Lasted" (Kranky)
Brian McBride "The Effective Disconnect" (Kranky)
Morgan Packard "Moment Again Elsewhere" (Anticipate)
François Couturier "Un Jour Si Blanc" (ECM)
Arvo Part "Symphony No.4" (ECM)
Tord Gustavsen Ensemble "Restored, Returned" (ECM)
Pale Sketcher "Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed" (Ghostly Intl.)
Ryuichi Sakamoto "Playing the Paino" (Toei Music)
Svarte Greiner "Penpal Forever (and Ever)" (Digitalis)
Jon Meuller "Whole" (Type)
Kangding Ray "Pruitt Igoe" (Raster-Noton)
Heavy Winged "Sunspotted" (Type)
Hauschka "Foreign Landscapes" (Fat Cat)

Books in question being split between a couple authors, the Bolano was recently completed
and near mind-destroying in it's depth, intensity and duration. The Ballard is a ongoing on/off
again dipping in/out of in the midst of other books as it's his short fiction collection, the others
being pop/pulp adventures to satisfy that appetite:

Roberto Bolano "2666" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
J.G. Ballard "The Complete Stories of j.G. Ballard" (W.W.Norton)
Jonathan Lethem "Chronic City" (re-read) (Knopf)
Jeff Noon "Vurt" (St. Martin's Griffin)
Audrey Niffenegger "Time Traveler's Wife" (Houghton Mifflin)
Daniel J. Boorstin "The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination" (Vintage)
Alan Moore "Swamp Thing" Hardcover Vol.1-3 (DC Comics)
Grant Morrison "Batman & Robin" & "The Return of Bruce Wayne" (DC Comics)

...And the new Sept/Oct issue of Film Comment, Oct issues of The Wire, Sight & Sound,
Artforum, Frieze and McSweeney's 34 have all made for good reads.

Photo credit: http://petrocellidesigns.carbonmade.com/projects/2652935
Petrocelli Designs LLC from a series for the Rafael Anton Irisarri release "The North Bend"