Released
1997
Label
Table Of The Elements
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
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The Elements
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Last Edit/Update
29 March, 1998
Tony Conrad
EARLY MINIMALISM
4xCD SET
Track Listing
CD 1:
(Multimedia track)
Four Violins (1964)
CD 2:
Early Minimalism: April 1965
CD 3:
Early Minimalism: May 1965
CD 4:
Early Minimalism: June 1965
Table
Of The Elements has released a box of four CDs (one of them containing a
multimedia track) by Tony Conrad, entitled Early Minimalism. The material
included on the set was recorded over the past ten years, and are re-recording of original
recordings from 1964-5. A thick booklet accompanies the box, chronicling the career of Tony
Conrad and the genesis of Early Minimalism.
Apparently, Conrad worked
with such names as John Cale, Angus MacLise and La Monte Young
in the early sixties, and developed the style of music now known as minimalism. Together
these musicians literally recorded hundreds of minimalist works, however, the recordings
from this period are owned by the producers Young and Zazeela, who have
chosen to suppress publication of the material ever since. The music featured on this set
are as mentioned Conrad's attempt to recreate these "lost" recordings.
Contained on the four discs are a
series of extended pieces performed on amplified strings. The individual pieces play like
variations on a theme: Droning sheets of sound, shifting ever so slowly and subtlely. The
impression of the music may at first be one of irritation, but as the pieces move forward,
the hovering quality of the tones create a sensation of time being frozen.
The impact of listening to these
structures of sound that defy melody and rhythm, or any other conventional standard of
musical composition for that matter, is akin to that of watching Charles & Ray
Eames' "object integrity" films (incidentally created during roughly the
same time period as Conrad's original recordings). If listened to with
engagement, Conrad's compositions make the listener appreciate the nature of
sound itself, and particularly the beauty of strings.
