Heavy Friends
Saturday October 19th, 2024 with Heavy Ben
Jean-Pierre Decerf (it's Library Month!), Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Pauline Anna Strom, Peter Tosh
Let's mark Library Month with a spotlight on French musician Jean Pierre Decerf, who recorded for the CAM, Editions Montparnasse 2000, and Patchwork imprints in the 1970s and 80s. Library music, also called production or stock music, is generally composed and recorded, and then stocked as part of a commercial “music library,” with the objective of being sold as a soundtrack for cinema, television, commercials, etc., under a licensing model that differs from that for normal recordings.
The Observer describes Montreal's Godspeed You! Black Emperor as "One of the few western acts to release music that explicitly references the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza." We will listen to a half hour from their new release "No Title As Of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead".
Pauline Anna Strom worked in the Bay Area in the 1980s, self-releasing "transportive synthesizer music providing listeners a vessel to break beyond temporal limits into a world of pulsing, mercurial tonalities and charged, embryonic waveforms." Strom died in 2020 and her works are celebrated more than ever via archival releases from RVNG Intl.
Peter Tosh was born on this day in 1944 in Jamaica, and could have been celebrating his 80th birthday. Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, he was one of the core members of the band the Wailers (1963–1976), after which he established himself as a successful solo artist, a promoter of Rastafari, and an advocate for social justice. He was murdered in 1987 during a home invasion.
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| Jean Pierre Decerf, born in Neuilly (a western suburb of Paris) in 1948, lived in Paris until 2003. From the early 70s to the mid-80s, this self-taught musician composed 20 albums of production music with generic cover art and titles (Out of the Way, Magical Ring, Keys of the Future, Pulsations, More and More, etc.) that evoke interstellar travel. These experimental discs, made with love, humility and rudimentary means, had no ambition other than to accompany other peoples’ images. By exhuming these obscurities from the dustbin of history, Alexis Le Tan and Jess have decided otherwise via their the Space Oddities collections. Archaeologists with an agenda, they seek to give Jean Pierre Decerf the renown he deserves: that of an innovator whose rhythmic, synthetic compositions inspired the harbingers of the French Touch (Air comes to mind), not to mention some East Coast rappers. Decerf now lives in a remote village in Touraine (central France), where he lives as a hermit. Sometimes he runs into Mick Jagger, who has a castle nearby, at the local supermarket. Most of the time, he speaks English with his British neighbours.
https://spaceoddities.bandcamp.com/ https://www.bornbadrecords.net/releases/bb068-jean-pierre-decerf-space-oddities-1975-1978/ |
| Like The Wind You Are Jean-Pierre Decerf & Myriam Chadcar - Sweet Melodie - Chicago 2000 - 1978 |
| Reaching (the) Infinite Jean-Pierre Decerf & Gérard Zajd - Out Of The Way - CAM - 1977 |
| The Orion's Belt Jean-Pierre Decerf & Marc Saclays - Sound... Space - Editions Montparnasse 2000 - 1990 |
| Accélération Jean-Pierre Decerf - Accélération - Patchwork - 1981 |
| Rave Up Jean-Pierre Decerf - Panorama - Editions Montparnasse 2000 - 1976 |
| Soon The Light Drops Jean-Pierre Decerf & Gérard Zajd - Sound - Editions Montparnasse 2000 - 1977 |
| A Sidereal Form Jean-Pierre Decerf & Mike Baroty - Publipot - CAM - 1977 |
| Night Game Sphinx (Jean-Pierre Decerf) - Moments - Patchwork - 1986 |
| Late Date The Music People (Paul Kass & Robin Artus) - Smooth Groove - Parry Music Library - 1981 
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| THE PLAIN TRUTH==
we drifted through it, arguing. every day a new war crime, every day a flower bloom. we sat down together and wrote it in one room, and then sat down in a different room, recording. NO TITLE= what gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall; what context?; what broken melody? and then a tally and a date to mark a point on the line, the negative process, the growing pile. the sun setting above beds of ash while we sat together, arguing. the old world order barely pretended to care. this new century will be crueler still. war is coming. don’t give up. pick a side. hang on. love. GY!BE https://cstrecords.com/pages/godspeed-you-black-emperor https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker As of October 19, 2024, the latest death toll stands at 43,257 Palestinians and 1,139 people killed in Israel since October 7, 2023. The first number is believed to be much higher. |
| Babys In A Thundercloud Godspeed You! Black Emperor - No Title As Of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead - Constellation - 2024
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| Broken Spires At Dead Kapital Godspeed You! Black Emperor - No Title As Of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead - Constellation - 2024
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| Pale Spectator Takes Photographs Godspeed You! Black Emperor - No Title As Of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead - Constellation - 2024
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| Shades And Patterns The Music People (Johnny Hawksworth) - Smooth Groove - Parry Music Library - 1981
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| “My compositions grow as if on canvas,” Pauline Anna Strom once said of her labyrinthine, incandescent music. The San Francisco-based keyboardist was speaking in 1986, when her take on New Age music was still less known, despite three albums already to her name. Trans-Millenia Consort, Plot Zero, and Spectre, released in quick succession in the first half of the ’80s, were rich with undulating, immersive soundscapes inspired by modernists like Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream as much as classical composers like Bach. “I would say my music is virtually dominated by my imagination,” the blind-since-birth musician continued, giving voice to the wellspring of her spacious compositions: a boundless, searching curiosity that touches every part of her music.
https://igetrvng.com/artists/pauline-anna-strom/ https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/pauline-anna-strom-echoes-spaces-lines/ |
| Phantom Dancer Pauline Anna Strom - Trans-Millenia Consort - Ether Ship Records / Rvng Intl. - 1982 / 2023 |
| Mushroom Trip Trans-Millenia Consort (Pauline Anna Strom) - Plot Zero - Trans-Millenia Consort Recordings / Rvng Intl. - 1983 / 2023 |
| Virgin Ice Trans-Millenia Consort (Pauline Anna Strom) - Spectre - Trans-Millenia Consort Recordings / Rvng Intl. - 1984 / 2023 |
| Domestic Peace Pauline Anna Strom - Ocean Of Tears - Rvng Intl. - 2023 (rec. 1982-83) |
| Bonsai Terrace Trans-Millenia Consort (Pauline Anna Strom) - Japanese Impressions / Trans-Millenia Music - Trans-Millenia Consort Recordings / Rvng Intl. - 1988 / 2017 |
| The Pulsation Pauline Anna Strom - Angel Tears In Sunlight - Rvng Intl. - 2021 |
| Lounge Bar The Music People (Paul Kass & Robin Artus) - Smooth Groove - Parry Music Library - 1981
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| Reggae music, with its roots deeply embedded in the cultural and social fabric of Jamaica, has produced iconic figures who not only shaped the genre but also left an indelible mark on the global music scene. One such luminary was Peter Tosh, a trailblazing musician, activist, and unapologetic advocate for social justice.
Born Winston Hubert McIntosh on October 19, 1944, in Westmoreland, Jamaica, Tosh emerged as a prominent figure in the reggae movement during the 1960s and 1970s. His journey began in the vibrant musical landscape of Kingston, where he honed his skills and found a musical partner in Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer. Together, they formed the iconic reggae trio, The Wailers, and laid the foundation for a musical revolution. Tosh's contribution to The Wailers was distinctive, both musically and ideologically. His powerful baritone vocals, coupled with his unparalleled guitar skills, added a rebellious edge to the group's sound. Tosh's compositions often delved into the harsh realities of life in Jamaica, addressing issues such as poverty, oppression, and systemic injustice. One of his most renowned compositions, "Equal Rights," became an anthem for the marginalized and disenfranchised, advocating for equality and human rights. https://petertosh.com/ https://www.djtees.com/blogs/djtees-blog/peter-tosh-the-stepping-razor-of-reggae |
| No Sympathy Peter Tosh - Legalize It - Columbia - 1976 |
| Get Up, Stand Up Peter Tosh [orig. The Wailers] - Equal Rights - Columbia - 1977 |
| Bush Doctor Peter Tosh - Bush Doctor - Rolling Stones Records - 1978 |
| Buk-In-Hamm Palace Peter Tosh - Mystic Man - Rolling Stones Records - 1979 |
| Feel No Way Peter Tosh - Mama Africa - Intel Diplo - 1983 |
| Island Of Dreams The Music People (Paul Kass & Robin Artus) - Smooth Groove - Parry Music Library - 1981
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| Nothing But Love Peter Tosh - Wanted Dread & Alive - EMI - 1981 |
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Happy Library Month and welcome to Heavy Friends
8:07 PM, October 19th, 2024