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Charlemagne Palestine (Charles Martin, 1945) is a New York-based composer and
multimedia performance artist.
The rediscovery of Palestine is well under way, with the release of
recent recordings and several reissues.
The "Golden" series brings back to light his earliest compositions.
In-Mid-Air (Alga Marghen, 2003), the third installment in the
series, collects five works from the 1960s
that show a maturing composer, clearly educated at the school of the
electronic pioneers (with plenty of references to the Darmstadt circle)
although not particularly knowledgeable about the new techniques.
Unfortunately, they share little with his "strumming" piano masterpieces.
Instead, they hark back to an era when the like of Morton Subotnick and
Jon Appleton shocked the classical audiences with clumsy electronic
machines.
The two shorter pieces (from 1965) are not any more interesting than
thousands of studies recorded by students of Edgar Varese or (at Darmstadt)
of Karlheinz Stockhausen during those years, although the
seductive cicada-like buzzing of 7 Organism Study (1968) proves
that Palestine was an original even within the ranks of the droning composers.
Negative Sound Study (1969) is a cinematic piece that straddles the
line between static minimalism and Subotnick's dadaism. The most emotional
composition on the CD is probably the
threatening Tymbral for Pran Nath (1970), a salvo of
piercing drones that create a tragic atmosphere of suspense and grief.
Nothing on this CD compares with the surprisingly quiet
Piano Drone (1972) or the marvelous
Duo Strumming for Three Harpsichord (1978), that appeared on volume 2 of
the "golden series", or with volume 1's Alloy (1969), a piece for
"alumonium" (an instrument invented by Palestine himself), "long string drone"
(an instrument invented and played by violinist Tony Conrad), conch (played by
saxophonist Bob Feldman), percussion and voices (Deborah Glaser and Palestine)
The pieces on volume 3 are merely pages of a diary that
show the composer still searching for a path to enlightenment.
At the same time, Palestine began his video work with
Body Music I (1973), Body Music II (1974),
Four Motion Studies (1974), Snake (1974),
Internal Tantrum (1975), Running Outburst (1975),
St. Vitas Dance (1975),
You Should Never Forget the Jungle (1975),
St. Vitas Dance (1975), Island Song (1976),
Island Monologue (1976), two lengthier works, Andros (1976) and
Where It's Coming From (1977), and finally Dark Into Dark (1979).
His first musical masterpiece was
Four Manifestations on Six Elements (Barooni, 1974), for both piano and electronics (four rhythmic piano pieces and two electronic drones,
Two Fifths and Three Fifths).
His Strumming Music (Shandar, 1977)
was revolutionary in that it turned "strumming" into an avantgarde technique,
and minimalism into highly dynamic (and noisy) music. Palestine improvised on
a piano emphasizing otherworldly overtones.
Godbear (Barooni, 1997) documents a live "strumming-piano" performance
from 1987.
A new phase began with the
colossal church-organ drones of Schlingen-Blaengen (New World, 1998), recorded in 1988 (originally composed in 1979),
Karenina (Durtro), recorded in 1997, two CDs of falsetto chanting accompanied with harmonium,
Schlongo (OOO), a church-organ improvisation recorded in 1998,
Jamaica Heinekens In Brooklyn (Barooni, 2000), a symphony of drones and found sounds,
Music for Big Ears (Staalplaat, 2002), which is music for church bells
(recorded in 2000 in Berlin).
None of them is particularly significant. They merely repeat the same ideas in
different (and not too original) formats.
Maximin (Young God, 2002) is a collaboration with
David Coulter and Jean-Marie Mathoul, who basically "remix" some of his
old compositions.
Music For Big Ears (Staalplaat, 2003) was performed at the
Daimler-Benz carillon in Berlin.
An Aural Symbiotic Mystery (Subrosa, 2007) was a collaboration between
Tony Conrad (on violin) and Charlemagne Palestine (on organ).
A Sweet Quasimodo Between Black Vampire Butterflies (2007) documents a live performance of the eponymous composition for two pianos "strummed" simultaneously.
The Golden Mean (Shiiin, 2007) documents a live performance from 1979
for two pianos played by just one performer.
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