Д.Д. Posted June 24, 2005 Report Posted June 24, 2005 (edited) Blondy/Ninh it is. (Love those Bay Area guys and gals!) ← I will be ready to start at whatever:20 - just need to find my headphones. Ok for you? Edited June 24, 2005 by Д.Д. Quote
Guest Chaney Posted June 24, 2005 Report Posted June 24, 2005 (edited) exaltatio utriesque mundi Frédéric Blondy l Lê Quan Ninh I'm not at all familiar with Frédéric Blondy nor with (I'm especially embarrassed to admit) Lê Quan Ninh. (ON THE EDIT: Except for La Voyelle Liquide.) First listening to this one. Listening to track one for the second time, though. Funny how some on this board at one time suggested that Cecil Taylor had little impact on pianists. Edited June 25, 2005 by Chaney Quote
Д.Д. Posted June 24, 2005 Report Posted June 24, 2005 I like this piano sound - very focused. Percussion at the same time sound somewhat ...hmm.. smeared (not to implay any sloppyness of playing), and I am not sure it fits togetherthat well. ................ This bass drum sound is just too brutal here, I think. In gerenel, I really like what Ninh is playing, but just don't think the sound fits the piano too well. .......... Blondy is excellent. Very dramatic. Quote
Guest Chaney Posted June 24, 2005 Report Posted June 24, 2005 Blondy seems to be grandstanding, a bit. I like what he's doing but, alonside the piano, it's just too powerful. Further listens might be needed... Quote
Д.Д. Posted June 24, 2005 Report Posted June 24, 2005 (edited) Done with trakc 1. Liked it. --------------- Track two: whoa, now this is not too Cecilish, is it? - all these drones on strings. I like it a lot - and here the resonating drums fit much better, IMO. Amazing - I wonder how mushc Blondy can really control these sounds. Great thing with this bass drum providing steady pulse behind. Not hell, I'd say - probably just crossing Styx. Great. Edited June 25, 2005 by Д.Д. Quote
Guest Chaney Posted June 24, 2005 Report Posted June 24, 2005 Ummm.... If I live to 100 years old, I can't ever imagine myself liking track two. Soul-less. Completely lacking in humanity. Quote
Д.Д. Posted June 24, 2005 Report Posted June 24, 2005 (edited) Track 3. Percussion solo. Great, I think - and quite uniqe. Blondy kicks in at 0:40 with plucking of bass strings - nice touch. -------------- I am quite fasciunated by what's going on here. Ninh is in some carefully controlled frenzy (the diversity of sounds he get out one (?) drum is amazing), and Blondy is throwing at him these little Cecil-ish motives. A bit bombastic, I agree, but I still like it. I am actually not sure whether Ninh isthat much attuned to what Blondy is playing, but somewhow it seems to hold on together. -------------- At around 12min I definitely enjoy Ninh more than Blondy (who is repeating more or less the same trick over and over with these short disrupted passages) on this track, but still, as I mentioned it holds together pretty well here. Edited June 24, 2005 by Д.Д. Quote
Guest Chaney Posted June 24, 2005 Report Posted June 24, 2005 Track is still playing but here's exactly what I've written down: OH! Scraping of pianoo strings; drum, metallic, in foreground. Murmuring piano in background. Discontented, dangerous. Wonderful sound on this track and disk; nice depth on the percussion; nice tang to the piano. Awesome display of percussion and very focussed: alll sounds sounding necessary, without fat. Quote
Guest Chaney Posted June 24, 2005 Report Posted June 24, 2005 At around 12min I definitely enjoy Ninh more than Blondy (who is repeating more or less the same trick over and over with these short disrupted passages) on this track, but still, as I mentioned it holds together pretty well here. ← This track very much belongs to Lê Quan Ninh. Quote
Д.Д. Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 (edited) Ummm.... If I live to 100 years old, I can't ever imagine myself liking track two. Soul-less. Completely lacking in humanity. ← Oh... I actually really enjoyed it. And replaying it now (now that track 3 is over - and at 15 minutes it did feel quite long), I think it is rather emotional (not that I think it is always necessery in music) - and I really like the sounds Blondy extracts from strings. No, it definitely sounds human enough for me . Edited June 25, 2005 by Д.Д. Quote
Д.Д. Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 At around 12min I definitely enjoy Ninh more than Blondy (who is repeating more or less the same trick over and over with these short disrupted passages) on this track, but still, as I mentioned it holds together pretty well here. ← This track very much belongs to Lê Quan Ninh. ← Sure, makes an excellent self-sufficient percussion solo. Quote
Guest Chaney Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 (edited) My ears still have trouble finding something human in the noise of track two... and track four. Thankfully, both are brief. Edited June 25, 2005 by Chaney Quote
Д.Д. Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 Track 4: more tortured piano strings - good, I like these sounds. How is he producing them?!?! Parts very quiet, parts make a good WWII soundtrakc - with artillery, barrage fire, sirens and all. This resonating sound at the very end of the track is nice. Conscise enough. Not bad. Quote
Guest Chaney Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 Birds chirping? Spanish speaking people partying? Loud car stereos? You getting that? OH! Maybe I should close some windows. Quote
Д.Д. Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 (edited) Track 5. Again, quite dominated by percussion. Sounds like Blondy is shy to overload the music with too many of his ideas. Ninh is great here. Track 6. Now here you can't deny some humanity. Some pensive (or "pensive"?) slow, measured piano notes with Ninh duing all these rustling sounds. Romantism . Piano is beautifuly recorded - these notes resomnate and fade away very slowly. ------------ Funny eneough, we just had a thunderstorm here, and the sounds Ninih makes are very reminiscent of distant thunder bursts. I don't think I ever heard anybody elese playing persussion/drums like this. Piano is just too conventional here. Edited June 25, 2005 by Д.Д. Quote
Guest Chaney Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 (edited) After having callously dismissed track four, I had another listen and found myself liking it. First two minutes interesting; remaing three minutes nightmarish. Fascinating. Edited June 25, 2005 by Chaney Quote
Д.Д. Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 (edited) And voila, the CD is over here. A good one, I'd say. I'd probably prefer some other pianist (Denman Maroney?) here - somebody with more strong personal style, but still it sounded good. For me tracks 1 and 2 were the most interesting ones, with 2 being the favorite one (will go to it now again - really loving it) - I think it tells quite a fascinating story, and is conscise and very focused. Interestingly enough, Ninh's much more reserved here, giving the foreground to these ... "treated" piano strings - and I am absolutely mesmerized by these sounds - they seem to be always changing remianing quite static at the same time. Trakc 1 has the most invovled Blondy playing. Good disc. Not great, but a good one. Very well recorded also, although listening to to it in headphones is not always pleasent as Ninh's bass drums really hits the eardrums. I'll be returning to this disc quite often. Edited June 25, 2005 by Д.Д. Quote
Д.Д. Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 After having callously dismissed track four, I had another listen and found myself liking it. First two minutes interesting; remaing three minutes nightmarish. Fascinating. ← I'd encourage you to go back to trakc 2 as well, after you're done with the CD (it's less than 4 minutes, after all). Quote
Guest Chaney Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 I will go back to track two Track five: Not finding a reason for this track to exist. I'll have to listen a few more times. (Tomorrow, though.) Quote
Д.Д. Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 I will go back to track two Track five: Not finding a reason for this track to exist. I'll have to listen a few more times. (Tomorrow, though.) ← It is the least interesting one, indeed. Quote
Guest Chaney Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 (edited) Track six sounds like a pianist doing a Morton Feldman thang -- not very successfully... out of ideas -- while a crew of workmen renovate his bathroom. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pretty good album. Not sure that I'd fault Blondy for being the meek partner; it just may be that Ninh is so very strong. Anyone stronger with Ninh and it might be chaos. (Probably not, though.) Probably a good album to listen to with headphones as it can get v e r y quiet. I'm generally averse to the idea of buying a solo album by a percussionist but Ninh may have what it takes to open my wallet. (I haven't even been able to plunk down the money for Robair's solo disks and you're probably aware that I'm a great admirer of his talents.) (I'm sure he feels the same way about me. ) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Shouldn't you be getting to bed? Edited June 25, 2005 by Chaney Quote
Д.Д. Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 Shouldn't you be getting to bed? ← I rarely go to bed before 4 AM on weekends. Quote
Д.Д. Posted June 25, 2005 Report Posted June 25, 2005 Chekc out Ninh's website - a few samples here: http://lequanninh.net/ Quote
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