Many of The Sonic Music Review's readers will no doubt be familiar with the German band Tangerine Dream whom have been featured a number of times on the site. Lesser known to some is Christopher Franke, an electronica composer and long time member of Tangerine Dream, having joined in 1971 and remaining a member until 1988. After leaving the group, Christopher Franke soon returned to electronic music production, subsequently releasing a number of albums under his own name in the New Age musical style that he previously pioneered as a member of Tangerine Dream.
Christopher Franke: The London Concert
'The London Concert' is Franke's 1993 release of a collection of live material recorded during a concert at The Royal Apollo Theatre, London in 1991. The album opens with a group of five tracks, referred to as parts 1 - 5. The first part, 'Empire Of Light' illustrates Franke's awareness and skill at ambient composition, unsurprising given the strong relationship with his own new age aesthetic and ambient musics. This brooding introduction combines various processed samples with synthetic dissonances to create a highly cinematic atmosphere, a quality seen in much of his work. Moving to part 2: 'Purple Waves,' the listener is afforded a more conventional electronic musicality in the work which later develops to include extended sequenced passages.
One of the most instantly recognisable tracks from Tangerine Dream's 1979 release Force Majeure, 'Cloudburst Flight,' for which Franke also features on the credits, is covered in part 3 of this release. Most interesting is the way in which the artist recontextualises the piece into a notably meeker recording than the original work, focussing on several of the lesser elements in the 1979 version and redefining the instrumentation into a more clearly New Age inspired sonic palette.
The concluding three tracks which forgo the previous convention of being entitled 'parts' embellish the artist's New Age aesthetic with additional creative influences. Considering 'Mountain Heights,' the use of an electric guitar alongside synthetic instrumentation suggests a progressive rock methodology. The final track, 'Private Diaries' ends the release on a high with a soaring pan flute melody atop various sequences and well considered backing timbres. Overall, this release is a very welcome live album and many fans of Tangerine Dream will certainly enjoy.
The Sonic Music Review has on many occasions featured a variety of works by less established artists alongside their better known counterparts and contemporaries. For Kimberly Glover, a musician and composer with a wide ranging portfolio of material, political motivation drives much of her creative practice, as in the case of 'Rachel Corrie' featured here.
The track principally draws upon the aesthetics of sound poetry and traditional string writing, the instrumentation largely consisting of a synthesised string quartet and spoken word, later developing to include a notable trip-hop influenced breakbeat section. The spoken word element is derived from 'My Name Is Rachael Corrie,' a theatrical work which contains primarily excerpts of Corrie's own personal diary. For those unfamiliar with the subject, Rachel Corrie was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement who tragically died while attempting to prevent the demolition of a local Palestinian's home.
The string writing in this piece follows a musical structure known as Sonata Form, an interesting decision which by virtue of a variety of thematic material evokes a wide range of emotions, several areas of the work proving particularly effective due to a discontinuity between the sobering nature of the spoken word and overly optimistic musical writing. As the piece develops, the vocal elements are subjected to electronic processing in a manner comparable to early AustraLYSIS works, such as 'Nuraghic Echoes' which is reviewed here.
The concluding section of the work introduces heavy percussion elements and background samples, while the vocal elements are purposefully removed from the mix, giving the final words which note Corrie's death greater prominence as the work ends. This section is overt in aesthetic references to trip-hop acts such as Massive Attack and adds great interest through such a contrasting style of writing compared to the work's beginnings. While the track's production could be refined further, the work shows both great promise and skill from this highly unique composer. The Sonic Music Review would like to take the chance to wish Kimberly Glover every success in the future.
If you are an independent artist and wish to submit your own original electronic musical works to The Sonic Music Review, please get in contact, we'd love to hear from you.
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This week's playlist compiled by The Sonic Music Review looks back on some of the earliest work featured on the site. This playlist combines the highlights of the progressive rock and synth pop music covered, featuring a selection of works from acts including Camel, Neu! and Ellie Goulding.
An overarching aim of The Sonic Music Review has been to provide independent artists with critical publicity and feedback for their works, championing independent electronic works alongside established artists, many of whom greatly influenced the diverse variety of genres seen today. We are today proud to introduce an Irish electronic artist, Dodgy Lettuce, featuring two compositions available from the artist's Soundcloud page here.
'Scrambled Megs (I Can Feel It)' opens with clear brass elements referencing the funk genre, quickly employing skilled use of sampling. The initial brass loops constitute the vast majority of harmonic material to be found within this track. A convergence of glitch and noise aesthetics soon govern the development of the piece as it becomes led by the well constructed rhythmic bursts of noise and other percussive elements, underpinned by bass drones and embellished with processed vocal samples.
For a piece of this type which forgoes tonal convention, giving rhythm and timbre the major focus (a characteristic seen in the glitch and noise productions of artists such as Alva Noto and Merzbow respectively who prescribe to the aesthetics which influence this piece), the well constructed arrangement pays great dividends. The conscious progression of musical textures and timbral elements throughout the piece illustrate a commendable approach to musical form.
The musical textures of 'Citizen (Spy)' to a large extent echo the previous track. The predominance of the bass line in this track however provides a greater sense of a tonal centre to the piece. The interaction of sampled vocals and well programmed electro drum sequences atop the bass line gives the piece a notable similarity to much of the dance-punk output of the duo Soulwax, whose 2006 'Part Of The Weekend Never Dies' album is reviewed here.
Once again, the 'flow' of the track is commendable, an attribute often hard to achieve within this musical context. These tracks kindly provided by Dodgy Lettuce are a great addition to the music covered by The Sonic Music Review and we wish this highly original artist great success in the future and thank him once more for this submission.
If you are an independent artist and wish to submit your own original electronic musical works to The Sonic Music Review, please get in contact, we'd love to hear from you.
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