Life Space Death

Emusic, Best of 2001
Kondo and Laswell continue their fertile, creative collaboration as they join forces with Bernocchi and his Holiness the Dalai Lama

Product Description
"I am often telling my artist friends that through my lectures, I may reach a few hundred, a few thousand or maximum a hundred thousand people. But artists through music, painting or sculpture whether it is a constructive message or destructive message can reach millions. Therefore, artists can promote peace, love, compassion and harmony, which everybody wants you see. Everybody really is praying or eager about that." His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Life Space Death

Tracks:

Life (His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Bill Laswell, Toshinori Kondo)
Space (His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Bill Laswell, Toshinori Kondo)
Death (His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Bill Laswell, Toshinori Kondo)
Music (Bill Laswell)

Album Description

"I am often telling my artist friends that through my lectures, I may reach a few hundred, a few thousand or maximum a hundred thousand people. But artists through music, painting or sculpture whether it is a constructive message or destructive message can reach millions. Therefore, artists can promote peace, love, compassion and harmony, which everybody wants you see. Everybody really is praying or eager about that." His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Customer Reviews:

fascinating.......2005-06-02

The idea of this album is fascinating. The music is both interesting and relaxing at the same time, Kondo and Laswell shaping their ambient dub style music brilliantly around His Holliness' words. The only reason I would really give it only 4 stars is that at times it is very difficult to understand His Holliness. I had to listen to the disc a few times through very closely to get some of the finer nuances of his speech. Still the disc is interesting and definitly worth a listen, especially if you have interest in life, space, death, or Bill Laswell.

Dalai Lama Speaks.......2001-11-18

I didn't know anything about this album when I bought it. I was hoping that this was an album of Dalai Lama chanting, but it is in fact a series of short talks on Life, Space, and Death.

I still like the album, though. If you have heard Bill Laswell's treatment of William Burroughs (on Material's The Road to the Western Lands, for example) then you will be quite familiar with the style of this disc. It includes spoken word layered over a background of Laswell's guitar and keyboard and Tochinori Kondo's trumpet and electronics.

This album is produced by meta productions found at metastation.com. The cd is about 35 minutes long.

Space: 1999 Year 1
Average customer rating:

Not to be missed!!!

Great year one compilation

An Excellent CD

Fantastic Future Score

Space 1999 Year One Soundtrack Available Once Again!

Space: 1999 Year 1

Manufacturer: Silva America
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Movie Scores | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
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Space: 1999 Eternity Unbound

Space: 1999 Survival

Battlestar Galactica

SPACE: 1999 The Forsaken

Thunderbirds

ASIN: B0006UEVQS
Release Date: 2005-01-25

Tracks:

Space: 1999, Main Titles
Breakaway
War Games
Matter Of Life And Death
Space: 1999, End Titles (Alternate Version)
The Infernal Machine
Force Of Life
Ring Around The Moon
Black Sun
Mission Of The Darians
The Troubled Spirit
Space: 1999, Main Theme (Extended Alternative Version)
The Testament Of Arkadia
Another Time, Another Place
Space: 1999, End Titles

Customer Reviews:

Not to be missed!!!.......2007-04-30

This CD is simply excellent! Anybody who ever cared for TV soundtracks should give it a chance. The only better thing is Barry Gray's music for "UFO" TV series, which has been promised from Silva Screen (and has been published by "Fanderson" and since sould out). So, whatever somebody think of the series, this music will not fail to delight. Impressive and nostalgic, mysterious and enthralling, this music really deserves to be heard by everybody.

Great year one compilation.......2007-01-09

This remastered version of Space:1999 year one or series one sounds excellent. It is very clear and you can better appreciate Barry Gray wonderful job.

If you are Space:1999 fan, it is a must have.

An Excellent CD.......2006-07-27

Talk about bringing back memories. The music is crisp-clear & updated. For the 1999 fans-this is a must have.

Fantastic Future Score.......2005-04-01

Space:1999 - the series - may be one of the most controversial SF shows ever. People either love it, or they hate it... there seems to be little middle ground. As a kid I was thrilled with the series, although even then I could see the weaknesses in science, story, and characterization. But from a purely visual and aural standpoint, the first series rarely disappointed.

Especially when it came to the music. As many fans know, Barry Gray scored only 4 episodes - the rest being rounded out by reusing his cues for those episodes, plus liberal doses of library music. This disc gives a good overview of the magnificent music written specifically for the series, as well as a sampling of some of those library cues. As a previous reviewer said, the ultimate soundtrack to the series was released several years ago by the Fanderson organization ( which one had to join as a member to be able to order ) and is sadly out of print. Copies can be found on the internet, often selling for prohibitive prices. Unless you are a diehard collector, willing to shell out a good sized portion of your paycheck, this single disc is the way to go.

Sound quality is superb, and in some cases surpasses the previously mentioned two disc set, as several of the tracks have been remastered to remove wow, flutter, and distortion that could be heard on the Fanderson set. The main title was remixed to make it truer to the on-screen version, and the tracks from the episode "Black Sun" are in stereo on CD here for the first time ever. The previous release featured the episode's complete score, but only as a monophonic version, as many of the multitrack masters for that particular episode have been lost. For that alone, this disc is worth owning, even if you have the Fanderson set.

However, it is Gray's music that is the true reason to own this soundtrack - regardless of your feelings about the series. Full bodied, sweeping, emotional and grand... not at all your typical seventies television soundtrack. Years before John Williams revived the popularity of orchestral scores for science fiction projects, Barry Gray was filling small screen speakers with epic music that would have sounded perfectly at home in a motion picture theatre.

Space 1999 Year One Soundtrack Available Once Again!.......2005-03-09

I give this soundtrack 5 stars only because the soundtrack is awesome, but if you want a more complete compilation, you need to find the Fanderson version.
The year 1 music definately set the tone for the TV show back in 1975. It gave it beautiful character and feeling for the show. It was ashame that for the second year that they had changed so much (even the music) and lost that character and feeling (but that is a whole other debate).
In 1976, RCA records released the year 1 soundtrack with a beautiful gate fold cover and for about 20+ years, that is all we had, until Fanderson. The year 1 soundtrack is no longer available through them, but it is the most complete. This CD, however, does well to capture the feeling of year 1 and does throw an additional track for you sun bathers out there. It is a nice 30 year anniversary gift to myself. Happy 30th Birthday: SPACE 1999!!!

Average customer rating:

Pastiche Reigns Supreme
Beautiful avant garde classical
Finally...
wandering in time and space

Maria T

Manufacturer: Mute U.S.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
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Luminitza
Angels & Insects
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Waking Life - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

ASIN: B00080ETRM
Release Date: 2005-04-19

Tracks:

Part One: Spotdance
Part One: The Young Conscript and the Moon
Part One: Empty Space Dance
Part One: Turning Wheels
Part One: Life and Death
Part Two: Mountain Call
Part Two: Aria
Part Two: Interlude
Part Two: Lullaby
Part Two: Wine's So Good
Part Two: Lullaby

Customer Reviews:

Pastiche Reigns Supreme.......2006-12-18

'Maria T' greatest virtues reside in the clever interraction, facilitated by digital technology, of interweaving contemporary string work with the famed Romanian folk singer of fifty plus years ago, Maria Tanase. Balanescu has imaginatively complemented the melodic lines of the original folk tunes, and where Maria doesn't appear, the results are pleasant, if not startling. The opening track is an accurate index of thge remainder, hypnotic in its slowly built, repetitive stanzas. It's with a sigh of relief that Tanase's haunting vocals eventually appears mid way through proceedings. 'Mountain Call' is by far the most attractive number, and the reason I purchased the CD. It's an easy jump to imagine Tanase standing to deliver this from one side of a verdant valley. Has anyone heard of Leda Velladares, a Brazillian folk collector/singer I met in the early 80s in Paris? Tanase has the South-American's commanding depth of register and interpretive powers. For me, Balanescu would have improved this effort by slipping this chantreuse into more of his compositions.

Beautiful avant garde classical.......2005-11-26

In 1987, Alexander Balanescu left the Arditti Quartet to form his own Balanescu Quartet and in the time since they've gone on to gain a reputation as one of the worlds leading contemporary musical foursomes. Seemingly working without any genre boundaries, the group has collaborated with Gavin Bryars, Ornette Coleman, David Byrne, the Pet Shop Boys, Spiritualized, Kate Bush, Kraftwerk, and others. They've created film scores (Angels And Insects), have contributed to film scores (The Garden) and have released a slew of unique and interesting albums, performing both interpretations of other artists work and original scores of their own.

Maria T is the first work from the group in almost five years (since 2000's Il Partigiano Gionni) and clocking in at almost eighty minutes is absolutely epic in scope. The album re-connects Alexander Balanescu with his Romanian roots, as it pays tribute to one of his earliest musical influences, the iconic folk singer and actress Maria Tanase. For the release, he took the works of Tanase and then re-imagined them through his own eclectic musical perspectives, and the result is easily some of the most stunning work ever from the group.

As with many of their releases, Maria T isn't simply the work of a string quartet as it encorporates percussion and even sampled vocals from Tanase. "Spotdance" opens the release with a rather upbeat note as a repeated string motif pans back and forth as violin melodies unfold on top of it and percussion chugs away in a subtle but persistant way. The way the track unfolds and even the way that it's constructed owes a lot to electronic music (especially in the repeated and layered melodic pieces), and like the best work of the group re-imagines the music in a way that holds the elements of the original while taking it new places.

"Empty Space Dance" takes some of the same elements as the first track and weaves them in an even more exotic way, unfolding elements even more slowly before percussion enters the track about three-quarters of the way through and really changes the direction before it again falls away. "Mountain Call" is only one of several tracks that use the sampled vocals of Tanase and as one would expect, the group gives them an almost reverential feel, letting the vocals themselves take the foreground and reverberate for long periods of time while only providing quiet and subtle melodic reflections.

With eleven tracks that fill nearly the physical maximum allowed by CD technology, there are enough highlights that I could spend nearly an entire paragraph talking about each track. Suffice to say, the five-year break certainly doesn't mean that the group was going through any sort of a slump if this is the result. From the melancholy and reflective "Aria" to the playful fiddling of "Interlude," Maria T is a release that shows off the power of a group of musicians who refuse to be bound in by simple genre definitions. Much like the Kronos Quartet, the Balanescu Quartet have often shrugged-off many expectations one may have of a string quartet, and with this release will hopefully finally garner even more of the attention they deserve.

(from almost cool music reviews)

Finally..........2005-05-16

Creative, pulsing, at times melancholy, others like travelling to a slavic smokey den in the 20's. Not avant garde - not going through the motions.

Not a typical string quartet album, some percussion at times, Dietrich like vocals in Romanian that sound like a 78 record on a couple of tracks (hence why this is a CD are interpretations of a famous Romanian female vocalist back in the 30's (?). Emotionally powerful.

The first track has a pulse underneath that would not be out of place on an electronic ambient loop session, but it is all acoustic. You do not need a laptop to make interesting music.

As a fan of lots of music genres (if you have to use them), this would appeal to ambient heads (the Budd-Eno kind), Philip Glass worshippers, indie elitists a la Animal Collective, Mice Parade, Low, etc., jazz purists, string quartet lovers that will go out of the box, world music lovers from bandoleon to slavic waltzes.

Go for it.

wandering in time and space.......2005-05-03

In despite of the traditional string quartet ensemble and the lack of "easy melody tricks" just to please the audience from the very first listening , Alexander Balanescu is buildig up slowly,in time and space an amazing ipnotic sea of sounds strongly bound to his Romanian folk roots.Take your time, the distant " mountain call " and the overlapping patterns leading to the entrace of the amazing voice of Maria Tanase will just leave you wandering the countryside of some Romanian village where the music sounds as still bound to the mystery of life.

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