Charlemagne Palestine
A seminal figure in American avant-garde music, composer, visual artist, and performer, Charlemagne Palestine is globally renowned for his loud, percussive, cascading drones on piano and carillon bells in epic-length concerts that, once upon a time, would end with his blood on the keys. He is among the most enigmatic personalities to have emerged from the New York vanguard art scene of the 1960s and '70s. Though often regarded as a peer of minimalist composers such as Terry Riley and LaMonte Young, (who came to hear his carillon music at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue), Palestine refutes the tag. In an interview with the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper in 2010, he said: "There was never anything minimal about my style. If anything, I invented maximalism."
The Brooklyn-bred son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Palestine (born Charles Martin in either 1945 or 1947, he isn't sure) grew up immersed in the music of klezmer bands and Russian folk songs: He also draws heavily on his experience singing in synagogue as a boy treble, which helped shape his concept of music as an endurance event. A childhood memory of an organ or harmonium is a recurring motif throughout his oeuvre. At age 12 he started playing backup conga and bongos for Beat poets including Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso. For seven years, between 1962 and 1969, Palestine was the carillonneur for the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Manhattan, where he played hymns for 15 minutes and improvised for the remainder of an hour. He eventually composed a work comprising 1,500 15-minute carillon performances. Between 1968 and 1972, Palestine studied singing with Pandit Pran Nath, experimented with creating moving light sculptures with Len Lye, and even composed music for Tony & Beverly Conrad's film Coming Attractions. His performances were written about in both underground and mainstream press. He taught at Cal Arts with Morton Subotnick, and co-created the sound and movement piece Illuminations with Simone Forti, which was released commercially in 2010. In addition, he developed his own alternative synthesizer, the Spectral Continuum Drone Machine. During the '70s, Palestine created a number of recordings privately; three albums in particular have become the stuff of legend: Body Music from 1973, and 1974's Strumming Music and Four Manifestations on Six Elements, all filled with intense, ritualistic music intended by the composer to confront Western audiences' definitions of what is beautiful and meaningful in music. His best-known work Strumming Music, contains just two notes played in rapid succession that amasses trance-like then moves into tone clusters.
In the late '70s and '80s, Palestine, despite a growing reputation in new music circles, began to focus on visual art and left recording behind but still performed live on occasion. During this period of relative obscurity, his explosive performances and groundbreaking musical oeuvre separated him from the commercial brand of minimalism then finding favor in the classical world. In addition, he created videos, sculptures, and visual music scores.
He moved to Brussels in 1995, and exhibited art at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and at Documenta 8. During that period he also founded the Ethnology Cinema Project in New York, which is dedicated to preserving films that document disappearing traditional cultures. In 1997, Palestine began recording again. His first offering, Three Compositions for Machines in conjunction with Mika Vainio and Pita, was issued by Staalplaat, followed by the album Godbear in 1998, which had been recorded live in a Washington, D.C. church in 1987. In 1999, he released the vocal and tambura work Hommage à Faquir Pandit Pran Nath with Stéphane Roux and the electronic composition Jamaica Heinekens in Brooklyn.
At the dawn of the new century, Palestine was prolific. In 2000 alone he released five albums of new and archival work. Most notable among them were Mort Aux Vaches in collaboration with Pan Sonic, and the double-length harmonium and vocal work Karenina. In 2001, he issued Music for Big Ears, a solo carillon work on Staalplaat. The following year, Michael Gira's Young God Records released Maximin, a collaboration between Palestine, David Coulter, and Jean Marie Mathoul. Gira participated with the trio in the recording of Gantse Mishpuchah, released in 2004, issued by Fringes Recordings. Two years later, the well-traveled and outrageously busy composer issued recorded collaborations with Perlonex and Keith Rowe (Tensions), and the globally acclaimed An Aural Symbiotic Mystery with Tony Conrad for Sub Rosa. An archival recording from a Paris performance in 1979 entitled The Golden Mean captured Palestine playing two Bösendorfer Imperial Grand Pianos simultaneously. Between 2007 and 2013, Palestine released no less than 20 albums of new and/or archival works, solo or in collaborative roles with Conrad, Christoph Heemann, Rhys Chatham, Z'ev, and Janek Schaefer. His most productive year, however, was in 2015, which saw the release of seven full albums. Among the most notable were Fluxus, with Mama Bär and Franz Kamin, Bells Studies (for carillon and magnetic tape), and the solo organ recital Organo Rinascimentale Non Temperato. Another massive solo organ performance was issued in 2016 as Cathdrale de Strasbourg on Erratum. 2017 was also prolific, seeing the release of four recordings including the acclaimed Omminggg And Schlomminggg in collaboration with Grumbling Fur Time Machine Orchestra, and the archival Arpeggiated Bösendorfer + Falsetto Voice from 1974 on Alga Margen. In 2018 Palestine's experiments on a custom-made analog synthesizer were captured and released on a pair of recordings from Moog Library (i.e. Ttuunneesszz Duh Rruunneesszz and Interrvallissphereee), and his four-month retrospective exhibition and installation at BOZAR, Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, resulted in the archival offering Aa Sschmmettrroossppecctivve, that contained a self-made recording on a Bösendorfer model 220 in New York in 1974.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo
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Charlemagne Palestine, Mika Vainio, Eric Thielemans
Musica elettronica/concreta - Pubblicato da Matière Mémoire il 15 apr 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Voxorgachitectronumputer
Charlemagne Palestine, Joachim Montessuis
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Sub rosa il 19 mag 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Strumming Music for Piano, Harpsichord and Strings Ensemble
Musica minimalista - Pubblicato da Sub rosa il 1 set 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mort Aux Vaches (2019 Remaster)
Pan Sonic, Charlemagne Palestine
Elettronica - Pubblicato da Matière Mémoire il 14 giu 2019
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rubhitbangklanghear Rubhitbangklangear
Musica alternativa e indie - Pubblicato da Sub rosa il 12 feb 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The God Bear Archives 1
Musica elettronica/concreta - Pubblicato da Matière Mémoire il 26 mag 2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
DINGGGDONGGGDINGGGZZZZZZZ FERRRR SSSOFTTT DIVINI TIESSSSS!!!!!!!!!
Classica - Pubblicato da Blank Forms Editions il 1 dic 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
KAANAL
Charlemagne Palestine, Oren Ambarchi, Eric Thielemans
Musica elettronica/concreta - Pubblicato da Matière Mémoire il 10 mag 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
The God Bear Archives 2
Musica elettronica/concreta - Pubblicato da Matière Mémoire il 22 dic 2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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An aural symbiotic mystery
Charlemagne Palestine, Tony Conrad
Elettronica - Pubblicato da Sub rosa il 1 gen 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
From Etudes to Cataclysms
Musica minimalista - Pubblicato da Sub rosa il 1 gen 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Sweet Quasimodo Between Black Vampire Butterflies for Maybeck
Musica da camera - Pubblicato da Cold Blue Music il 1 gen 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schlingen Blängen for Organo rinascimentale non temperato (2004)
Musica new Age - Pubblicato da I dischi di angelica il 12 mag 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
October 24, 1975 - Performance ICC Antwerp Belgium
Musica elettronica/concreta - Pubblicato da Matière Mémoire il 25 set 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Charlemagne Palestine: Schlingen-Blängen
Classica - Pubblicato da New World Records il 1 gen 1999
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Ssingggg Sschlllingg Sshpppingg
Musica elettronica/concreta - Pubblicato da Idiosyncratics il 17 apr 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
STTT THOMASSS ‘’’’"‘"DINGGGDONGGGDINGGGzzzzzzz ferrrr TONYYY’’’’’’’’
Classica - Pubblicato da Blank Forms Editions il 11 dic 2017
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theeOorgannnissstheeGgreattestttSsynthesizerrrEverrrrrrrr
Ambient - Pubblicato da meakusma il 1 dic 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
DINGGGDONGGGDINGGG VS SINGGGSONGGSINGGG
Musica elettronica/concreta - Pubblicato da Matière Mémoire il 7 dic 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo