Nowhere is safe from Messiaen

Violainvilnius commented on my recent post on Stockhausen's teachers "OMG, we'll have a Messiaen year next year? Where can I emigrate to?". Well, according to today's Observer nowhere is safe.

"Radiohead's exuberantly talented Jonny Greenwood is using his time as composer-in-residence with the BBC Concert Orchestra to allow his influences - Ligeti, Messiaen, Dutilleux and Penderecki - to guide his quirky, uneven pen. They certainly seem to be at work behind his latest offering, the soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson's acclaimed new film, There Will Be Blood, due for release in the UK next February.

Those arid plains are captured impressively in the opening track 'Open Spaces', which employs what is fast becoming Greenwood's 'signature', the Ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument. Its oscillating frequencies have just the right haunting, vocal quality to evoke an empty, forbidding landscape."

Sample a unique sound world with Naxos' excellent Music of the Ondes Martenot. And read the extraordinary story of another electronic instrument here.
No, it's not an Ondes Martenot. Photo is of Jonny Greenwood playing an Analogue Systems rs6000 synthesizer. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Death of the record labels - updated

* How Radiohead killed the record labels - the announcement in the early hours of this morning of the imminent arrival of In Rainbows, the seventh Radiohead album, is hugely exciting for the band's millions of fans.

Potentially though it's even bigger news for the music industry. Released in ten days time, the album is available as a digital download for whatever price you want to pay. Radiohead may have done irreparable damage to the industry's traditional business model - Telegraph.co.uk October 1, 2007.


* Hello Everyone, The download area that is “In Rainbows” will be shutting its doors on the 10th December 2007. A big thank you to everyone who came and downloaded the music. It’s been the most positive thing we’ve done and we hope you shared the experience with others. The discbox will still be available from the w.a.s.t.e store here until they have all gone. We then have no plans to make further stock.

For those of you who wish to buy In Rainbows in the usual way, it will be available on CD/Vinyl and download from traditional outlets from the 31st December 2007. The record will be released by TBD Records in North America and XL Recordings for the rest of the world.

Thanks for everything - from official Radiohead website


* XL Recordings is an independent record label which was launched by Tim Palmer, Nick Halkes and Richard Russell with Beggars Banquet Records in 1989 to release its rave and dance music ... In October 2007, Radiohead completed negotiations to sign with XL for a proper studio release of their seventh studio album, In Rainbows - from Wikipedia.


More free Radiohead here.
1976 poster by E. Shakhtakhtinskaya is from the former USSR Lenin Library in Moscow, now part of the Russian State Library. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

No Stockhausen - no Radiohead

I went into Norfolk's main library on Saturday morning and asked for a book from the reserve collection. The librarian was in his early twenties, had a beard and wore a T-shirt with a slogan. Great to see a hip young person working in a library I thought. When I asked for the copy of a biography of Stockhausen the young librarian looked blank and asked "How do you spell that?"

Clearly the librarian hadn't seen the surprisingly high profile media coverage of Stockhausen's death. But he is also one of the internet generation, and my server data currently shows very few Google searches for Stockhausen. Far lower than, for instance, Rostropovich following his death. Yes, it is a weekend, but internet traffic yesterday was low even for a Saturday.

I wonder if that young librarian read Ed Vulliamy's tribute in today's Observer? - "The fact is: no Stockhausen, no Pink Floyd, no Stockhausen, no Velvet Underground or Yes, certainly no Brian Eno. Probably no Radiohead either".

Have I have accidentally stumbled on the acid test of cultural significance? - can the librarian spell it? No chance for György Kurtág or Peteris Vasks. But I wonder if in thirty years time a librarian will be able to spell Radiohead? Coming to that, I wonder if in thirty years time we will have any librarians?

* Perhaps that young librarian should read Karlheinz Stockhausen - part of a dream?

* Header photo is from one of my recent articles on Pierre Boulez and shows from left to right, Luigi Nono, Boulez and Stockhausen.

* Below is the book that was in the library's reserve collection, the English translation of Michael Kurtz's Stockhausen biography (Faber ISBN 057117146). Is it significant that this book is out of print? The library copy has been on loan ten times since 1996.


Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

More free Radiohead

On Friday October 12 pianist Richard Potter is giving a lunchtime recital at the Mumford Theatre in Cambridge. The programme is Ravel (Gaspard de la nuit), Couperin, Chopin, Liszt and Radiohead. Admission is free.

Not just Radiohead, but also Monteverdi in Cambridge.
Image is Atmospheric Skull Sodomizing a Grand Piano by Salvador Dali - yes, really. Well, can you think of a more appropriate image? Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk