Near the Parenthesis, Helical

Just starting to dig into this – very nice: piano/drones & ambience . . .

In 2006, Tim Arndt released the first Near the Parenthesis album “Go Out and See”. Arndt had intended to follow up that release with a more beatless ambient album, where percussion was left to the side and composition took center stage. A shelved Idea that we now get the benefit of a full ten years later. This new album Helical is the realization of Arndt’s stripped down ambient concept. Helical features Arndt’s characteristic experimental modem classical instrumentation and compositional style, but slows things down and stretches them out.

The focus on the organic is clear, but moments of ethereal breath weave in and out and prevent the album from becoming too self aware. Helical, as a loose reference to the geometric structure of our very DNA and it contains themes that are driven by a recent discovery of Arndt’s past and ancestry. The release seamlessly stitches all of these concepts together and marks an unique release and new direction for Arndt’s Near the Parenthesis. Helical will be available in limited transparent coke bottle green and opaque grey vinyl flavors as well as compact disc on May 20th.

• Release Date: 2016-05-20
• Label n5MD
• Track-listing

1. Epigraph
2. 402.1953
3. Helical
4. Discovery
5. Notation
6. Under Water
7. Someday The Future
8. Lyra
9. Four
10. Hand Off
11. Reunion

Providential

[prɒvɪˈdenʃəl] – Classical/Neo-Classical/Post-Rock | 85:02

…and the Frippertronics fetish turns yet another chapter:

Centering around the King Crimson track (broken into 2 pieces & sandwiching the Murcof composition), this incorporates several ECM artists, a few independents and some avant-garde screeching & wailing (via electric guitar & violin).

The early tracks help set up the sounds of David Cross’ violin strains of Providence, which are also represented in the Starless Starlight composition, ‘In the Shadow’. Several treated areas serve to better accommodate track transition, mood & segues.

01 Kronos Quartet – Spectre
02 Ambient Landscape – Amorphae Wash
03 Andrew Cyrille, Ben Monder, Paul Motian & Pete Rendea – Hematophagy
04 Adam Sliwinski – Nostalgic Synchronic, Etude No. 8. ‘It Is Enough!’
04 Andres Segovia – Recitativo
06 Yo Yo Ma – Little Cabbage
07 Amsterdam Sinfonietta – Mansurian Quasi parlando for Violoncello & String Orchestra
08 Tarab Cello Ensemble – A Cappella
09 Dikeman-Noble-Serries Trio – The Heart Stripes Bare, part 2 (excerpt)
10 Dominique Pifarély – L’oubli
11 David Cross w/Robert Fripp – In the Shadow
12 Peter Conradin Zumthor & Vera Kappeler – Traumgesicht
13 King Crimson – Providence, part 1
14 Murcof – Urano
15 King Crimson – Providence, part 2
16 Johan Troch – Disbelieve
17 Lowell Levine-Sims – Disengage
18 Andy Summers & Robert Fripp – Lakeland/Aquarelle (ripped from vinyl)
19 Ambient Landscape – Outro/Wash

David Gilmour, Teenage Cancer Trust Benefit Concert

London 2016 [no label, 3CD set]
Live at the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK: April 24 2016. Fairly to very good audience recording.

Pink crossed with purple at the Royal Albert Hall, as a purple orb shone over the stage like a purple sun, spotlights bathed the imperious Victorian interior in luminous hues of violet, and David Gilmour segued Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb into Prince’s Purple Rain. In the midst of the longest, brightest burning coda to the Floyd rock classic you could ever wish to hear, the band shifted seamlessly into the Prince chord sequence, Gilmour showering his rapt audience at this Teenage Cancer Trust benefit gig with a cascade of glittering guitar notes while a trio of backing singers delivered descending, “Oooh, oooh, oooh, oooh’s”.

No words were said or needed to be, as one incredible guitarist paid tribute to another. It was a fantastic and unexpected conclusion to another reliably impressive performance from Gilmour that hit all the right notes to satisfy fans whilst only intermittently setting pulses racing. Comfortably Numb is perhaps a risky title to have hanging around your neck.

Info, file download & art: http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=2879

My remix, 11 tracks taken from the 3 discs (approx 71 minutes):
01 5 AM
02 Shine On You Crazy Diamond
03 Faces Of Stone
04 Wish You Were Here
05 Comfortably Numb (inc Purple Rain)
06 Us & Them
07 A Boat Lies Waiting
08 The Girl In The Yellow Dress
09 Time_Breathe (Reprise)
10 Astronomy Domine
11 Money
12 Outro

Download the remix (zip folder) via Dropbox
.