[Moshe]

http://www.atavistic.com/artist.cfm?...=60&ItemID=385

Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses

 

(ALP46CD) $13.00

 

Long rumored, long awaited and essentially the first-time issue of this incendiary Branca masterwork, recored in 1981 at NYC's Radio City Studios- during the peaked out early era of Glenn's "Guitar Army" ensembles- and shortly after the release of THE ASCENSION EP on 99 Records.

Featuring contributions from soon-to-be Sonic Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo, as well as Branca mainstays Craig Bromberg, Barbara Ess, Jeffrey Glenn, Sue Hanel, David Rosenbloom and Ned Sublette, INDETERMINATE also contains two other pieces: John Cage's infamous anti-Branca interview with Wim Mertins, captured at Chicago's Navy Pier back in 1982; and a gorgeous, previously unreleased composition "Harmonic Series Chords", as performed by The New York Chamber Sinfonia in 1989.

The missing link in the Master's discog has been delivered for public consumption!

[krastian]

Yes!!!

[guitarpro]

Long live the noise

[atari 2600]

I'm looking forward to this after only just hearing Symphony No. 13 a couple of weeks ago and loving it.

[Moshe]

out now!

[krastian]

Anybody hear it yet??????

[Moshe]

http://hotboyfromclev.duskdiary.com/.../10/mr-branca/

Mr. BrancaJanuary 10th, 2007
Another day gone by. Added some pics to jazz things up. If they’re in the way or things take too long to load, lemme know and I’ll be sure to ask someone who knows what to do. Some Glenn Branca for tonight/today. Not too much time to comment on ‘em but I promise you will enjoy any of these(so get ‘em all)Glenn Branca - Symphony No. 3Review by Brian OlewnickBranca subtitled this work as “music for the first 127 intervals of the harmonic series,” and one can certainly sense a more arcane, less overtly rockish approach here than on previous releases such as The Ascension. This may also be due to the fact that, by this time, his musicians were for the most part no longer utilizing traditional (though retuned) electric guitars. Instead, homemade instruments had been created, wherein guitar strings and pickups were attached to two-by-fours that were laid in banks horizontally and played with small sticks or mallets. In performance, one interesting effect of this technique was that, through amplification, an enormous volume of sound was capable of being produced by very slight and gentle tapping of the strings.
Symphony No. 3 begins with airy, sustained chords, making their way in calm fashion through the harmonic series Branca described. They are allowed to simply hang in time — each complex, each very beautiful on its own. After about ten minutes, high bell-like tones are introduced, the initial chords now serving as a solid ground for additional activities.
Soon (one might say, inevitably), Stefan Wischerth’s drums begin pounding out an insistent tattoo that evolves into a full-fledged, driving rock rhythm. As opposed to earlier works, however, the guitars maintain their cloudy harmonic attack and the result is a splendid tension. The third quarter of the composition involves the interplay of harsher, slashing chords with more turbulent and unfixed rhythms, and sets the stage beautifully for the closing section. Here, Branca returns somewhat to the form of the opening moments, but the chords now possess a dramatic respiratory quality as though the guitar orchestra itself is deeply breathing in and out. The effect is quite beautiful and brings a reflective close to one of Branca’s more introspective works. My Sonic Youth-obsessed friend hates BrancaGlenn Branca - Symphony No. 6Composition Description by “Blue Gene” TyrannyOriginally entitled “Angel Choirs at the Gates of Hell” and organized in four movements for guitars, keyboards and drums (1987), “Symphony No. 6 / Devil Choirs at the Gates of Heaven” was revised in 1988 and scored for 10 guitars, keyboard, bass, and drums and re-grouped in five movements. Following up on this imagery, in 1989 Branca composed “Gates of Heaven” for chorus.
As a study in gradually denser sonorities (”resultant masses”) over a rock-steady pulse, this music digs deep to elicit sensations often approached by the profoundest chant. The natural harmonic series is used to generate the rhythms of the various accumulated layers making up these densities. A captivating and gradual unfolding of the music results. John Cage and Glenn Branca once had a disagreement about Branca’s music being “fascist”. Cage felt that the densities create the sensation of a “sustained climax” and thus restrict the mind from opening up, but I seriously doubt that fascists (who history has shown tend to go for the most common denominators like maudlin sentimentality, kitsch and mysterious powers “out there”) would like Branca’s symphonies. But he doesn’t like John Cage eitherGlenn Branca - Lesson No. 1Review by Thom JurekLesson No. 1 was Glenn Branca’s first release as a composer. Originally issued as a 12″ EP, or mini-album, it featured two tracks, the beautiful and accessible title track — composed as a response to listening to Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” and the frenetically assaultive “Dissonance,” which has lost none of its power.
The players on this date were organist Anthony Coleman, drummer Stephen Wischerth, F. Schroder on bass, Branca and Michael Gross on guitars and, on the latter track, Harry Spitz on Sledgehammer. This compact disc reissue on Acute contains “Bad Smells,” an unreleased track from the Ascension sessions that came two years later. The band here features five guitarists:
Branca, David Rosenbloom, Ned Sublette, Lee Ranaldo, and Thurston Moore, as well as bassist Jeffrey Glenn and Wischerth. There is also a QuickTime video movie of “Symphony No. 5″ included.
One of the most compelling things about this release is how fully developed Branca’s ideas were even at this early juncture. His micro- and over-tonal notions as overlooked visceral elements in rock & roll prove worthy mettle here, and even on “Dissonance” with its catharsis and knotty harmonics, rock & roll is never far from the fore in his method. Bad Smells” has a different, more complex dynamic, especially from the outset, but the sense of urgency is there, along with the shimmering, barely hidden melodic frames that keep the entire thing evolving on the axis of its pulse. Guitarist Alan Licht provides a fine critical history and appreciation in his liner notes, making for a historically relevant package. But in spite of its obvious contribution not only to vanguard music, but to Sonic Youth’s sound, the music here is actually pleasant and compelling to listen to, and does not sound like a relic out of time and space, or a curiosity piece from long ago. 1 is a powerful, wrenching, transcendent piece of rock guitar classicism that, if there is any justice, will get a wider and more appreciative hearing in the new century. Two reasons why he shouldn’t have a blog.

[Moshe]

 

Glenn Branca
Indeterminate Activity Of Resultant Masses
Atavistic ALP-46
CD
£11.99

Historically charged issue of key early Branca material that bundles one of his most radical metal/orchestral/No Wave re-wirings, 1981's Indeterminate Activity Of Resultant Masses, with the New York Chamber Sinfonia's 1989 recording of Branca's music for orchestra, "Harmonic Series Chords" and a revelatory - not to say notorious - interview with John Cage in conversation with Wim Mertons in 1982 where he responds to a live performance of Indeterminate Activity by labelling Branca as essentially fascist while sounding much more totalitarian, manipulative and linguistically devious (not to say more than a little square) than the subject of his attack. It makes for a fascinating listen, tho when he describes Branca's music as "like a reflection of sunshine on the buildings" it feels like he really captures it pretty well. Liners include two letters about the Cage/Branca controversy, one from Branca himself. But the real gravy is the title track, a 31 minute ascension that features ten guitarists (including Thurston Moore, Barbara Ess, Lee Ranaldo, Ned Sublette, Mark Bingham and David Rosenbloom), drums and tympani and builds from eerie percussive metal globes through to a locomotive furnace of overtone drone. Highly recommended

[Moshe]

Just heard it. This must be one of Branca's most violent pieces. No wonder John Cage called it fascist music. Highly recommended!

[krastian]

Awesome, Moshe......it's def. on my list.

[Moshe]

http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/3376



In the middle of July 1982, Glenn Branca had a piece, “Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses,” performed at the New Music America Festival in Chicago. John Cage was at the performance. The following day Cage had a taped conversation with Wim Mertons of the Belgian label Les Disques du Crepuscule on Chicago’s Navy Pier, where he basically called Branca a fascist, a quip that gets mentioned to this day any time anything is written about Branca. Thus was born one of the more entertaining clashes in contemporary art music, which this reissue attempts to document.

First, the piece itself. Recorded shortly after Branca’s early masterwork The Ascension, though never previously released, “Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses” documents the continued development of Branca’s early guitar army. The ensemble includes all his early mainstays: Ned Sublette, David Rosenbloom, Lee Ranaldo, and Jeffery Glenn are back from The Ascension (with Glenn on guitar instead of bass), and are joined by Thurston Moore, Barbara Ess, and three other guitarists for a grand total of 10 guitars. I wish I could have been there to see them live, because judging by the sound on this disc, they were a force to be reckoned with. No recording can do justice to the swirling mess of overtones one guitar produces, let alone 10, so the piece, as recorded here, is only a shadow of the original. But it still has everything you would expect from Branca in this period, from the opening gamelan-like chords that gradually coalesce into a dense wall of notes, to the slowly mutating drone in the middle, to the metallic cacophony at the end. What makes Branca’s composition so genius is that while it often feels like pure chaos, there is precise structure to what each guitarist is doing so that each individual chord figures into the mass in a very proscribed way. In a way, he’s taking ideas from Penderecki and Ligeti and applying them to electric guitars.

Next, Cage’s response to the piece, originally released on Les Disques du Crepuscule. Before I talk about Cage’s actual words, it is worth mentioning that the recording could almost be an early-’80s Cage piece in its own right. It feels less like a conversation than two people talking around each other with occasional pauses. Add in the particular timbres of Cage’s and Mertons’s voices (Cage with his dry, Capote-esque alto, and Mertons with his distinctive Belgian accent) and the ambient noise of the boats and birds from Navy Pier, and you have yourself a fairly enjoyable piece of music. But it is Cage’s words that matter most. His main objection was Branca’s domination of every aspect of the performance, with the only release being when an amp breaks. There is no space for any random occurrence or individual voice, with Branca as either the field marshal or doctrinal enforcer. Cage then abstracts this to society as a whole, stating that he “wouldn’t want to live in a society” based around that set of implications, that it would be “something resembling fascism.” Cage further objects that Branca (and his contemporaries Laurie Anderson and David Tudor) needs to be present for his music to be performed, calling it a “return to the middle ages,” whereas Cage’s music can be performed by anyone, anywhere, anytime. And finally, according to Cage, Branca’s music evokes the European tradition of musical climax, resembling Wagner’s constant climax more than anything. On a certain level, Cage seems to be suffering from a generational gap, coming across as a cantankerous old man unwilling to accept what the kids are doing. He even goes so far as to say that while Anderson and Branca may be popular now, their music won’t be talked about in 10 years, while his will. Many of his arguments seem overly subjective, coming from Cage’s own ideological framework. However, he is still John Cage, father of American avant-garde music, so his statements still carry popular weight, even if their reasoning is suspect.

The “controversy” doesn’t end there: Branca would comment on the whole situation in a 1997 letter to Musicworks Magazine that is printed in the liner notes. In the end, the whole situation seems like a lot of hot air, even if it has garnered Branca a sobriquet. But if it gives us an excuse to exhume a pair of previously unreleased Branca works (“Harmonic Chord Series,” an orchestral work unrelated to the rest of the goings on), we can’t fault Atavistic for packaging it as such.

By Dan Ruccia

[jon boy]

thanks moshe.

[Moshe]

http://www.paristransatlantic.com/ma...r_text.html#10

Glenn Branca
INDETERMINATE ACTIVITY OF RESULTANT MASSES
Atavistic

 

Thanks to Atavistic, an important historical document sees the light for the first time on record. After a performance of this piece at the New Music America Festival 1982, John Cage fired a verbal broadside at Glenn Branca's music, calling it "fascist" (his full critique is contained in the second of this CD's three tracks, "So That Each Person Is In Charge Of Himself", a conversation between Cage and Wim Mertens recorded at the busy Navy Pier on Lake Michigan, and ironically full of extraneous noise). Cage later reconsidered his statements about Branca but – alea iacta est – the damage was already done. So much for all that Zen/I-Ching open-mindedness.
"Indeterminate Activity Of Resultant Masses" is scored for ten guitars (here Mark Bingham, Glenn Branca, Craig Bromberg, Barbara Ess, Jeffrey Glenn, Sue Hanel, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, David Rosenbloom, and Ned Sublette), plus drums and tympani (Stephan Wischerth). It's quintessential Branca, 31 minutes of resonance growing inexorably from picked-and-plucked call and response into an awesome maelstrom of clashing overtones. Impressive stuff, despite an excess of compression on the recording. Equally remarkable is the last track, "Harmonic Series Chords", a seven-minute orchestral piece recorded in 1989 by the New York Chamber Sinfonia under Glen Cortese, on which the monumental chords are framed by a slowly moving piano structure that sounds like a hybrid of Bowie's "Neuköln" and a horror movie soundtrack.
I don't know what Cage had in mind 25 years ago, but if I prefer Glenn Branca to every version of 4'33" I've heard to date, does it make me an apologist for fascism? Sure, certain frequencies can't be handled by certain brains and, accordingly, this music might be "harmful" to someone. Standing next to Niagara Falls for a long time won't do your ears much good either. But Branca's sound is a natural force just as powerful, and makes Cage's objections seem all the more irrelevant.–MR