Micropop's Chanteuse of the Week

Brigitte Fontaine and Art Ensemble!?

WTF?

This unlikely combo, which, I guess isn't that weird if you think about it calmly since I guess the Art Ensemble of Chicago is so cool they're everywhere (especially Paris in les 60 années), and well-connected hip Parisians comme Brigitte get to rock out with cool people.

She sounds like she looks–the OG oldschool originatress of wispy whispering intimate close-mic singing, along with that other muse of Serge called Jane Birkin.

And then there's Art Ensemble.

Pourquois?

If I had my way, the Art Ensemble would go more all out on the recording. But the album has her face on it, so I guess they had to be the back-up band.

Album: Comme à la radio
Song: Comme à la radio
Year: 1969
micropop rating: ????? out of five stars

Check it out, and let me know what you think, because mmm is totally confused.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WfVir1_Edc

Old Time Music, Libeskind, and John Zorn

While the Old Time Music Festival fiddles on in Berkeley, CA this weekend, across the billowing bay, composers and sound artists approach tradition at the new Contemporary Jewish Museum in the city of San Francisco in a very different way. In the 'yud' gallery, a "unique space featuring a 65-foot ceiling, 36 diamond-shaped skylights, and walls that converge at different angles," designed by Daniel Libeskind, John Zorn has curated a selection of new works by artists including Chris Brown, Z'ev, Lou Reed, Marina Rosenfield, Erik Friedlander, and Laurie Anderson (although Anderson's piece is situated in a different location from the other pieces). The laptop/electroacoustic pieces by Chris Brown and Marina Rosenfield were most engaging and made the best use of the spacial acoustics of architect Libeskind's fantastic space. They also seemed to attempt to make use of the spacializing possibilities offered by a the dimensions of the room. Others, like David Greenberger's narrative piece of music plus spoken word seemed to me as if they weren't especially exploring the specific problem of sound art. All in all, the exhibition is a rare work that focuses on the musical and sonic elements of the "sound" part of sound art. Traditional in theme, but contemporary in interpretation, micropop highly recommends a visit to the Aleph-Bet Sound Project, and has high hopes for future exhibits at the most exciting new museum in SF this year. And apparently, more works by Zorn himself are on the way...

Antonio Banderas' Song at Midnight

Wow. This video left me speechless. Antonio Banderas (counter tenor?) and Sarah Brightman share the stage in this obscene explosion of Andrew Lloyd Weberdom gone wild.

Things to look out for include:
2:53 – zoom in to lusty crazy eyes;
3:25 – another close-up... the erect pinky

SFEMF 2008

I went to the SFEMF festival last year. And I really dug Annea Lockwood. But the rest was kind of unbearable. I went again this year, now recovered after a year of hearing good and bad music in various places. I arrived feeling quite optimistic about hearing Ray Sweeten, Edmund Campion, and Tsujiko Noriko on the same bill. Wait, what? Could have might have may have been interesting, but I'm sorry to say, I strongly felt that it was quite a misguided programming decision. Ray Sweeten gave us 20 minutes of brown noise (as described by a certain DC), though composer FB mention that "it was interesting in the beginning." More memorably, we had a quasi Darmstadt moment when at the end of Sweeten's set, when a shout of "TOO LOUD!" came from the general vicinity of where long time West Coast electronic music guru DW was seated. Campion's theatrical piece was a collaboration with his poet and brother John Campion, performed by the illustrious Thomas Buckner. Fun but kinda weird, with interactive stuff between the performer and the click synched electronics. Then there was Tsujiko Noriko. Oh Nori-chan, we understand that you have a lovely innocent voice and that you like Bjork perhaps, but why give us the same song 6 times after we have already been held captive in Artaud theater for 2 hours. Cute. Pretty. Ha ha. Yay. Can I go home now? To be fair, she sounded fine. Her sultry electronic sound worlds can be dreamy. But I want to hear it on a CD, maybe at home, or maybe at Aoyama Fai sipping on some ridiculous colored drink swirling with cigarette smoke. But please, not in a squeaky chair in a concert/theater setting where I'm forced to direct my unfaltering attention towards her whispy karaoke.
Conclusion: Dear program committee of the SFEMF: Please avoid 3-hour concerts of programming that's so wrong that it makes music that is perfectly fine completely unbearable.
Micrpop Rating: ** out of 5 stars. Don't do it!