| 1 | Through The Mysterious Barricade (with Paulette) | 15:35 |
| 2 | Through The Mysteriously Beat Up Barricade | 15:13 |
Highly Recommended!!
“Les Barricades Mistérieuses,” the harpsichord gem by French Baroque composer François Couperin, has been a long-running source of exploration for Fluxus musician Philip Corner, who for years has used it as a jumping-off point for piano improvisations. Through Two More-Than-Mysterious Barricades comprises two very different takes on the same piece. The first dates from 1992, in collaboration with dancer Paulette Sears (who provides the ‘singings and screamings’ of the album’s subtitle); it moves from a frenzy of abstraction to a more meditative take on Couperin’s composition, with diversions and tributaries along the way. The second, from 2004, is a rougher beast: recorded with wildly over-saturated levels, the tape machine itself becomes a participant in the performance, with its heavy distortion bringing out stormclouds of overtones from Corner’s piano."
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Paulette Sears / vocals
Philip Corner / piano
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Improvisations after François Couperin. And more-of un-ashamed microphone in(ter)vention with Singings and Screamings
Available as a 320k MP3 or 16bit FLAC download.
Philip Corner (b. New York, 1933) is an American composer, theorist, visual artist and a founder of the Fluxus art movement.
An early participant in pre-Fluxus activities since 1961, he was a resident composer and musician with the Judson Dance Theatre from 1962 to 1964 and later with the Experimental Intermedia Foundation, for whose dance company he served as musician. He co-founded the Tone Roads Chamber Ensemble, Sounds Out of Silent Spaces, and Gamelan Son of Lion (still active today).
Many of his scores are open-ended, some employ standard notation, whereas others are graphic scores, text scores, etc. His music also frequently explores unintentional sound, chance activities, minimalism, and non-Western instruments and tuning systems. Contact with artists in other media, especially dance and the visual arts, as well as a long-standing interest in Eastern religions such as Zen Buddhism and study of the music of composers from the Baroque and Pre-Baroque eras, has likewise impacted his music.
He divides his work into five distinct periods, each reflective of his attitudes and interests at the time:
1. Culture 1950s
2. The World 1960s and 1970s
3. Mind 1970s and 1980s
4. Body 1980s and 1990s
5. Spirit; Soul, 1999 – present
