Cold Blue

by N/A

Overview

Although it presents works by most of the composers and artists who came to be closely associated with the label Cold Blue, this album was not a sampler, but a collection of unreleased works, an anthology of West Coast music focusing on experimentation while retaining a high degree of listenability and an ear stretched toward new age. The LP version of Cold Blue was released in 1984. In 2002 it was reissued on CD with one bonus track, David Mahler's "La Ciudad de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles," placed where you would normally have to flip the record. If anything, the album shows how the label's vision was precise without becoming confining. There is much variety, from Michael Jon Fink's delicate "Celesta Solo" and Daniel Lentz's composition for three speakers and wine glasses, "You Can't See the Forest...Music," to James Tenney's player piano piece "Spectral CANON for CONLON Nancarrow" and Chas Smith's pedal steel guitar-driven "Beatrix" (the last two bookend the album with sonic booms). And yet, a unified atmosphere of dreaminess and inward-looking sounds prevails. The contributions from Peter Garland, Lentz, and Tenney are the oldest, dating from the early '70s. All the other works were written and recorded in the early '80s. Mahler's added solo piano piece was written back in 1985 and recorded for this, its premiere release, by Bryan Pezzone in 2001. As avant-garde music at the turn of the century seemed confined to the extremes of noise and stamina on the one hand and the post-Feldman search for disappearance of sound on the other, one feels uncertain about how to approach the loveliness of the music on Cold Blue. Recommended. ~ Francois Couture

Product Details

Release Date:	04/02/2002
Label:	COLD BLUE LABEL
UPC:	0800413000822

Tracks

1. Beatrix  - Chas Smith
2. Gradual Siciliano (For Gus)  - Ingram Marshall
3. The Three Strange Angels  - Peter Garland
4. You Can't See the Forest...Music  - Daniel Lentz
5. Marimbas in the Dorian Mode  - Michael Byron
6. Appearance of Red
7. La Ciudad de Nuestra Se¿¿ora la Reina de Los Angeles  - David Mahler
8. Weddings, Funerals, and Children Who Cannot Sleep
9. In This Light
10. Necessity  - Rick Cox
11. Celestra Solo (1981)
12. Wonder's Edge  - Eugene Bowen  - Harold Budd
13. Spectral CANON for CONLON Nancarrow  - James Tenney

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Daniel Lentz   Primary Artist,Speech/Speaker/Speaking Part,Echo
Peter Garland   Primary Artist,Piano
Harold Budd   Primary Artist,Keyboard Synthesizer
Rick Cox   Primary Artist,Guitar (Electric)
Eugene Bowen   Primary Artist,Guitar (Synthesizer)
Ingram Marshall   Primary Artist,Piano,Electronics
Chas Smith   Primary Artist,Banjo,Pedal Steel
David Mahler   Primary Artist
Michael Byron   Primary Artist
James Tenney   Primary Artist
Conlon Nancarrow   Piano
Garry Eister   Speech/Speaker/Speaking Part
Fausto   Mandolin
Little Kevin   Marimba
Fred Parcells   Trombone
Mike Perry   Marimba
Bryan Pezzone   Piano
William Winant   Marimba
Michael Jon Fink   Celeste
Beverly Johnson   Marimba
Dan Little   Cello

Technical Credits

Peter Garland   Composer
James Tenney   Performer
Fred Parcells   Engineer
Gordon Mumma   Engineer
Tom Newman   Engineer
William Winant   Producer
Chas Smith   Engineer
David Mahler   Performer
David Rosenboom   Engineer
Scott Fraser   Engineer
Bill Cobb   Engineer
Kevin Gray   Mastering
Michael Byron   Performer
Carol Parkinson   Editing
Jim Fox   Design,Producer