20 July 2008

Anthony Braxton Diamond Curtain Wall Quartet - Besançon & Moscow - June 2008


Here are two good audience recordings from recent concerts in Europe by the Anthony Braxton Diamond Curtain Wall Quartet. (Many thanks to the tapers and seeders on dime - blackforest and decade). 

There is a short clip on youtube of the Moscow concert which gives a good feel for the interplay between the group and the atmosphere of that concert. Overall it's the recording I like best, as the music is closest to the ghost trance music of the Iridium set. By contrast, the Besançon concert makes much greater use of 'noise', in the manner of the Wolf Eyes music, which I like less - even though I suppose it is a natural extension of the drone which underpins much of GTM. (Having said that, much of the music is still astonishing).

Opéra Théatre de Besançon; 27th June,2008
DOM Cultural Center, Moscow; 29th June, 2008

Anthony Braxton - reeds and laptop
Taylor Ho Bynum - brass (trumpets, cornet, trombone)
Mary Halvorson - electric guitar
Katherine Young - bassoon
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15 comments:

  1. Tantris20 July 2008 at 15:41:00 CEST

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. 100920 July 2008 at 19:51:00 CEST

    thanks, tantris! i really love halvorson's guitar on a number of recordings (trevor dunn's trio convulsant, braxton discs, w/ bynum, weasel walter etc.). the official recording of the dcw trio is great & i'm looking forward to hearing this as well.

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  3. kike21 July 2008 at 14:59:00 CEST

    Dear Tantris

    thanks very much for sharing this concerts. It's a wonderful piece,nice pictures of the gig, amazing as always!!
    You 're the man!!

    Braxton for president! No doubt!!!

    kind regards,Gracias Amigo
    Enrique :)

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  4. Anonymous21 July 2008 at 17:22:00 CEST

    Thanks, Tantris. I've become a devotee of the new Braxton bands, and can't wait to hear this one. Mary Halvorsen is really something. Generally speaking, if a guitarist is not named Sharrock, I listen to records on which they appear in spite of, rather than because of, their presence. But she's fantastic, and ever since I heard the London Quintet, I can't get enough.

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  5. gerireig22 July 2008 at 03:52:00 CEST

    This blog is overwhelming. I thought that I was the biggest Braxton fan, but I guess not-and happy to be wrong. For all you do-thanks!!!!

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  6. centrifuge22 July 2008 at 18:14:00 CEST

    "I thought that I was the biggest Braxton fan"

    - gerireig, you may have a bit of competition for that one ;-)

    tantris, thanks a lot for these - i had read about them elsewhere and was looking forward to hearing them... great stuff!

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  7. centrifuge24 July 2008 at 15:47:00 CEST

    these are fascinating recordings which i'm sure will repay repeated listening... couldn't say which i prefer, but have enjoyed them both greatly.

    bassoon seems at first like an odd choice of instrument for these concerts - and young does struggle at times to make herself heard over the others (and especially over the electronics), but gradually the relevance of her horn to the group's sound palette becomes clearer, even if sometimes her presence is felt rather than heard. anyway, thanks again for putting these up.

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  8. Anonymous24 July 2008 at 18:51:00 CEST

    Sorry to be a pain but, for the Moscow thing, I get 'please insert a disk in drive C' for part 1. What am I doing wrong?

    Thanks!

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  9. Tantris25 July 2008 at 08:27:00 CEST

    Anonymous - it's probably a mismatch between the programme used to compress the files (in this case, WinRar), and the one used to expand them. Maybe try a different method of expansion - there's a lot of free utilities that can do this.

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  10. bongomccongo14 August 2008 at 08:24:00 CEST

    huge thanks Tantris- incredible music- killer band. i'm a big fan of Mary Halvorson- surely the pin up girl for guitar

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  11. Tom A.31 August 2008 at 23:51:00 CEST

    Hi ! many thanks for this post
    Could somone post the halvorson duo with weasel walter ?

    I might share the one with Jessica Pavone if someone's interested

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  12. ghostrancedance16 September 2008 at 12:25:00 CEST

    Thanks, tantris! I'm listening to the DCW3 Tivoli concert as I DL these two... Brilliant music!

    And, gloq, yes, I for one would be very interested in the Halvorson/Pavone duo. Sorry I can't help you with the one w/WW.

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  13. Tom A.16 September 2008 at 13:55:00 CEST

    Here it is :
    http://rapidshare.com/files/145719411/Mary_Halvorson___Jessica_Pavone_-_Prairies.rar.html

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  14. ghostrancedance17 September 2008 at 03:44:00 CEST

    tantris: Wow! Just great! The photos are nice too; I particularly like the B&W shots

    gloq: Many thanks. Mary Halvorson is just amazing...

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  15. Tantris1 October 2008 at 20:24:00 CEST

    I understand that the Moscow concert is about to be released on the Leo label, so I am deleting that link and showing the Besancon link only;

    MP3 @ 320

    http://rapidshare.com/files/131063783/ABDQbesancon.part1.rar
    http://rapidshare.com/files/131065798/ABDQbesancon.part2.rar

    If you liked the Moscow concert, why not buy the CD from Leo Records?

    Cheers

    T

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