SYR 4: Goodbye 20th Century

Sonic Youth

# Audio CD (November 16, 1999)
# Original Release Date: November 16, 1999
# Number of Discs: 1
# Format: Enhanced
# Label: Sonic Youth / Syr
# ASIN: B00002R0NC
# Also Available in: LP Record

Track Listings
Disc: 1
1. Edges (Christian Wolf)
2. Six (John Cage)
3. Six for New Time For Sonic Youth (Pauline Oilveros)
4. + - (Takehisa Kosugi)
5. Voice Piece For Soprano (Yoko Ono)
6. Pendulum Music (Steve Reich)
Disc: 2
1. Having Never Written A Note For Percussion (James Tenney)
2. Six (John Cage)
3. Burdocks (Christian Wolff)
4. Four (John Cage)
5. Piano Piece #13 (George Maciunas)
6. Piece Enfantine (Nicolas Enfantine)
7. Treatise (Cornelius Cardew)

Amazon.com
Wildly influential four-piece Sonic Youth have self-released their version of a tribute to the 20th century: two discs of noisy interpretations of modern, experimental classical scores. The group has chosen composers whose works leave a great amount of innovation open to the performer. This chance-embracing approach--typified and in some senses originated by John Cage--is one of the crucial turning points of "new" music. What's great about this CD is that it demonstrates the freewheeling, decidedly unserious spirit behind this music, essentially combining the legacies of punk rock and out-sound. In addition to three late works by the chance-loving Cage, there are pieces by current Merce Cunningham collaborator Takehisa Kosugi, minimalist giant Steve Reich, "deep-listening" drone lover Pauline Oliveros, and Fluxus founder George Maciunas. Longtime collaborator Wharton Tiers, the young everything-ist Jim O'Rourke, and even some of the composers themselves join in on these exercises. The result is messy, fun, and anarchic, with occasional revelations (notably James Tenney's "Having Never Written a Note for Percussion"). It's not a disc to play all the time, but it is a challenging, enthused record that ideally will point listeners toward some of the most vital music of the last half of the last decade of the second millennium. --Mike McGonigal

Description
1999 & fourth release on their own SYR label. 13 tracks. The CD format is a double disc set that's enhanced with the CD-ROM video to George Maciunas' 'Piano Piece #13 (Carpenter's Piece) For Nam June Paik'. The album contains music composed by abstract artists like Yoko Ono, Steve Reich, John Cage and Christian Wolff. Gatefold slipcase. 1999 release.

posted by kanx1976 at 02:42

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SYR 4: Goodbye 20th Century

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