It can be useful and centering to meditate on the sounds that begin our days, becoming attuned to certain birdsongs or noises of the human-made world. In this poem, Alberto Ríos employs a playfulness with language to convey what calls down and brings the morning for him.
"Life is going to be difficult," says artist Patti Smith. "Ride with it." (Photo via cbc.ca) “In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth." These are the words of rock legend and National-Book-Award winner Patti Smith. The advice is [...]
Janet Cardiff's sound installation The Forty Part Motet, currently on view at the Cloisters in New York City through December 8th, is a rarity---a revelatory work of art that can inspire busy museum-goers to stop, listen deeply, and even bring them to tears. I sat through five cycles of [...]
Concrete Sound (Photos courtesy Audra Wolowiec) Last year Gwarlingo readers responded enthusiastically to Mary Ruefle and Jen Bervin's erasure poems. Today's Sunday Poem features another unique project that defies categorization---a collaboration between interdisciplinary artist Audra Wolowiec and poet, critic, and artist Christine Shan Shan Hou. In conjunction with [...]
This drawing may look like a maze or an artist's sketch, but it's actually a musical score created by Emmy-award-winning composer Steve Heitzeg. A few years ago pianist Teresa McCollough received a surprise gift in the mail from Heitzeg: 192 scores titled World Piece. Each score was named for [...]
British Street artist Slinkachu left this miniature "Hanging On" in the streets of Hong Kong. It's one of the many images on view in his New York and London show, Global Model Village. (Photo © Slinkachu courtesy the artist) The invitations, event notices, emails, and review copies [...]
Stills from The Clock by Christian Marclay (Photo courtesy arkitipintel.com) (NOTE: This review is from the summer of 2012. Marclay's The Clock is on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City through January 21, 2013, with a special 24-hour screening on New Year's [...]
Country music legend Kitty Wells died Monday at her home in Madison, Tennessee, after suffering complications from a stroke. She was 92. The music of Kitty Wells and other country artists played frequently on the turntable in our Georgia house. My grandmother, who grew up on a farm in the [...]
The best link in this morning's Twitter feed came from Christopher Jobson over at Colossal. Last month the Copenhagen Philharmonic pulled off an audacious stunt---performing Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt on a crowded, moving metro train for unsuspecting passengers. The flash mob was created in collaboration with Radio Klassisk. All music [...]
One of my favorite discoveries this winter was the German singer Sibylle Baier. The story of how her wonderful record, Colour Green, came to be is as interesting as the music itself. She grew up in Germany in the 50s and 60s. During a particularly low period in her early life, [...]
One of the albums I'm most anticipating this spring is Boys and Girls, the first full-length record from the garage-soul band the Alabama Shakes. Brittany Howard's soulful, sandpaper voice channels the likes of Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, and Aretha Franklin, with a touch of Billie Holiday thrown in. It's [...]
"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." This line from Victor Hugo came to mind the first time I heard the incredible story of Tibetan nun Ngawang Sangdrol. At age 14 Sangdrol was jailed at the notorious Draphchi Prison [...]
It's time to discuss a topic more divisive than religion, more inflammatory than right versus left or the 99% versus the 1%. A topic that will either make your eyes twinkle or your blood boil. Christmas music. There are two distinct camps when it comes to this subject: the lovers and [...]
Earlier this month composer Steve Reich turned 75. Over the past few decades Reich has gone from being a musical outsider to winning the Pulitzer Prize for his 2009 Double Sextet. In the early days of his career, Reich drove a cab in San Francisco and worked as a part-time social [...]
One of my favorite filmmakers working today is Bill Morrison. There aren't many directors whose work compels me to see every film they make, but Morrison is one of those rare artists I've enjoyed following closely through the years. His films are always memorable and worth seeking out. Over [...]
I recently came across this hypnotic piece of music by Finnish musician Antti Paalanen. Paalanen is a composer and a master of the diatonic accordion. Accordions are made in a range of different configurations and styles. Diatonic button accordions are bisonoric, which means each button produces two notes: one when the [...]
I don't often post satirical videos, but thanks to Gwarlingo reader Elly Weiss, I had the pleasure of watching this hilarious "commercial" for the "all-time greatest hits by the beloved twelve-tone masters" this morning and wanted to pass it along. The fact that the video was posted by the Arnold [...]
Robin MacArthur and Tyler Gibbons are Red Heart the Ticker (Photo by Doron Gild) Two weeks after Hurricane Irene I'm wandering the back-roads of Marlboro, Vermont, making my way to Robin MacArthur and Tyler Gibbons, also known as the music duo Red Heart the Ticker. Route 9--the main thoroughfare [...]
How aware are we of sound as we move through the course of our day? Which sounds do we register and which do we ignore? Do we even give the subject much thought? "Quintetto" by the Italian artist collective Quiet Ensemble is an intriguing blend of music, sound and installation art. [...]
As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, there is no shortage of news stories, official ceremonies, and tributes. But this weekend I've been contemplating how the arts community fits into all of this speechifying and memorializing. What is the artistic legacy of 9/11 now that it is a decade behind [...]
Here at Gwarlingo I've been neglecting the musicians in recent weeks. I've been consumed with Irene, the secret gardens of Rockefeller Center, Jane Hirshfield's new book, poetry bombing, Barry Underwood's incredible landscape photographs, and these Japanese manhole covers, which have suddenly gone viral after being posted on Andrew Sullivan's The Dish [...]
"I’ve long been drawn to...'gnostic' texts–-those rejected, supposedly heretical texts from long before Christianity became an organized religion." (Photo by Greg Kessler) Paul Brantley is a man who moves between worlds. A multifaceted musician, he has performed as a cellist with Trey Anastasio, recorded for Béla Fleck and James [...]
On my recent visit to the UK I talked to several music lovers about the British music scene. One classical pianist I met in London recommended the choral work of British composer Jonathan Harvey and urged me to investigate the excellent website Sound and Music, which covers the contemporary [...]
For all of you Bon Iver fans who have been patiently waiting for new music, your wait is about to come to an end. Bon Iver's new self-titled album will be released on June 21st. In the March issue of Rolling Stone, Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon offers a [...]