Ligeti

I have Notes and Minset from the Bley box, and they're truly excellent. I have perhaps ten of these sets. The first I got was the Dixon, and I thnk it's excellent. Surprised to hear someone say they sound "shrill", because I have not noticed that at all. The thing with these boxes is always that I often have one or two discs from each set. But for the price they beat getting the individual releases. They're excellent value, that could only be improved by the inclusion of some kind of booklet.

I use Discogs all the time. Allmusic.com used to be great, but in recent years they went through a site redesign which killed it dead. Overly busy, and slow slow slow. It went from being a fairly basic site with a ton of information, to being a conplex site (technically) with stuff buried all over the place. It's like someone who didn't understand how people used the site went in a re-organized everything. Such a shame - but using allmusic is the least fun you can have on the net when it comes to music. Discogs could perhaps do with a fresh coat of paint, but it's functional, and works well. Sellers have been great. OK, it's not often the cheapest, but it's a good fall back.

If asked, I'd say I listen to Clasical music - but in truth almost everything I listen to is from the last 50 years or so. Not that I don't like some Bach every now and again, but the real excitement for me is in contemporary works. Commontl heard in my home: Stockhausen, RIley, All and sundry Kronos Quartet, Feldman, Vasks, Goreki, John Adams, Glass, Reich, John Luther Adams, , Xanekis, Andriesson, Sundry Bang on a Can, Pendereki, Cage etc. Among others. Much of this is in keeping with my jazz interests, which tend to veer away from what I'll call "Blue Note" into avant garde. I like music to challenge me, to make me think and work at it. I tend not to enjoy "obvious" work (obvious as defined arbitrarily by me, ) I consider Music for 18 musicians as my favorite piece, though I more often play the longer Nonesuch release than the ECM. This is a nice thread.

Morton Feldman is indeed fantastic, and yes important. Of course, like everyone else, some might not appreciate it, but that's to be expected. As a fan, I obviously think you're missing out. It strikes me as rather silly to talk of "cults" when it comes a group of people who happen to appreciate an artist. This is a music forum, no? I assume it's full of people who know what they like, and what they don't like. No cults, just appreciation. There's nothing clever in hating. Anyway, I didn't post in here just to tut tut about some over-zealous hating. No. I posted to say I'm surprised no-one has mentioned my own favorite Feldman recording: It's long at 70+ minutes, and serene. You've been warned.

Strange, I've been playing a lot of Linda Ronstandt's music lately. Her blend of Country/Rock in the 70's and 80's was/is amazing. This news is heartbreaking. Her voice was astonishing, captured beautifully by Elektra and Peter Asher. I'm not usually a fan of albums of cover songs, but Linda is the exception to the rule, she never failed to give us that little extra something in a tune. She's 68? Man, that ages me. --lol-- Anyway, sad news.

Hello all. I am (was) a member of AAJ's forum, but have finally found my way here. I used to post there every now and again, and thought it was odd that is just switched off. Surely they could have sent out an email blast to members about the extended time off? A little strange, no? Still, I'm sure it's a lot of work for them. To be honest I have never used the rest of their site, so getting updates has been impossible. I don't have a facebook account, and don't use Twitter. On the other hand, I'm on the net 24/7, seven days a week. So - hello again!