Episode 6: Astral Collapse w. Christof Migone
Bobby Bland said, as soon as the weather breaks. Sam Cook
Justin:said, you send it.
Theme song:Roy Harris said, believe in yourself. The old Scott Herron said, winter in America. Hugh Masekela said, grazing in the grass. Richard Pryor said, how long? How long will it take for us to become one?
Theme song:How long will it take for us to become unified? How long will it take us to understand the meaning of understanding? How long will it take us to do what we have to
Justin:do that is most
Theme song:How long
Justin:So that is the introduction song, new theme, new version of the theme, new cut of the theme. I have to explain a little bit of Astro collapse that happened with this that we just discovered while setting up this track or setting up this episode. So we picked this track, from various reasons. Huge shout out to the, to the guys that do, Now Time and also Boot Boy Biz, which is where I discovered this track originally. But we picked this track and, because, you know, the whole remember to remember is nice theme for what we do.
Justin:But we picked it, I think, the week before Roy Ayers died not knowing that Roy Ayers was on this track and that this was a Roy Ayers track. So it's a it's a crazy thing to have picked this amazing I've huge love Roy Ayers. So sad that he's gone, but amazing amazing amazing that that this this was some weird astro coincidence that we're so honorary to Royars and all that. We also are very excited to welcome our second guest, and a very exciting, amazing guest. Christophe, so thrilled to have you on the show.
Justin:Would love you did you buy records at Esoteric ever? Because I remember you from Montreal, but I don't ever remember you being a customer.
Christof:Oh, I definitely went several times. I, it was in my my poor days.
Justin:You got out of those? Did you do it? How did it happen? Let us let the readers know.
Christof:Comparatively. Yeah. You've got a real job. But I yeah. I did go several times, hang out, peruse, and listen to what you guys were playing in the store and discovered something quite a few things through that.
Christof:It was always an interesting trip for me because I think I was living in the plateau and going closer to Atwater, Tungay and Atwater. When I first moved to Montreal in the seventies, that's where I lived I used to live. So it was very Wow.
jacob:Oh, wow.
Christof:For me to go there. And it's St. Catherine is I mean, it's always changing, but it was I think the gap between the Sidi esoteric days, early two thousand to the seventies, a lot of Yeah. Lot of changes. There was the Seville Theatre near near
jacob:Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Christof:Lots of and, obviously, the Montreal Forum Yeah. Used to be the that's that's where I saw my first concerts.
leon:Wow.
Christof:Yeah. Yeah. It was very nostalgic trip.
Justin:What were your first concerts?
Christof:Almost embarrassing. Very very first concert was the village people.
Justin:Oh, wow.
Christof:Gloria Gaynor opening.
Justin:Oh, goddamn. I mean, that's pretty that's not that's That's
jacob:not embarrassing at all.
Justin:That's a that beats the hell out of mine. That's great.
Christof:How was yours?
Justin:It's it's real it is truly embarrassing. It was Yeah. Oh, what was the name of that band? It's a Canadian like, I'm even trying to remember the name. They were like, was it platinum blonde?
Justin:Was that a Canadian band?
jacob:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Justin:That was, yeah, it was platinum blonde with grapes of wrath who were local heroes. They were a Kelowna band. Were They opening for it.
jacob:I remember that. That was
Justin:really, very less cool by a long shot.
jacob:Oh, I have an even less cool first show. I went to see the tragically hip with with midnight oil. It was like, that was the the least cool package you could ever ever have.
Justin:It's fantastic. What about you, Jacob? What was your first
leon:I don't even know. I can't even remember, to be honest. Yeah. I don't have that kind of memory. Yeah.
leon:I don't know.
Christof:You're that old.
jacob:Do you remember? Yeah. Do remember, like, a big stadium kinda show that you've attended?
leon:I think that no.
jacob:I don't shaking your head.
Justin:It's like never been to one.
leon:No. It's like I've ever been to one. Wow. Or maybe no. I no.
leon:I don't remember.
Justin:Didn't you and me go together? I remember it was you that I went to that to go see the darkness in Laval. That was pretty
leon:No. No.
Justin:I stayed for about three minutes. We got free tickets through SAT.
leon:Oh my god. No. That's really funny.
Justin:That was hilarious. That was
leon:I think I think maybe the biggest show would be, like, Motorhead or something. Yeah. So maybe that was
Justin:I mean, that's pretty cool. Yep. That's pretty cool.
leon:Yeah. Yeah.
Justin:I did see Lemmy shortly before he died playing Pac Man in the Rainbow Room on the Hollywood Strip. That was pretty great.
leon:No problem.
Justin:That was pretty that was definitely my best motorhead run-in. It was great. So who wants to go first here?
leon:Well, actually, before we go first, I have a confession that I wanna make.
Justin:Sure. If I may. You you're here, we're set up. We're ready.
leon:No. No. No.
Christof:This is it's
leon:not really a confession, but this is it's it's true. It's true. So maybe, like, half a year ago or maybe a year ago, I must admit I went on a big Christophe Magal music band.
leon:real. And so, I mean I mean, I had heard your I had heard your music obviously, like, twenty years ago, and and I really liked it. But then, like, this year, I just started listening to one piece and or one album, and then I just couldn't stop. I just went the next album and the next album and the next album. And and I must say it was just such a pleasure to listen to because I think you have such a unique voice in your sound kind of work.
leon:And and I felt like I always love this idea of of exploring someone's voice or world. And exploring your music, I really again, as a second time, thoroughly this way, it was just such a pleasure to discover it. And just I just listened to everything I could get my hands on. Those great little seven inches you had made are really amazing. And and yeah.
leon:So it just it's it's such a nice coincidence that you you reached out to us because, yeah, it wasn't so long ago that I was listening to a lot of new music. And, also, I must say, especially in the sound art world, there's part it's hard to find something that sounds unique. A lot of it is, like, derivative for a lot of it. And and and your sound is really, really unique. Absolutely.
leon:It's really, really wonderful, and it's your own thing. It's got this kind of guttural sound to it, and it's really, really fantastic. So that was my, little confession here.
jacob:Well, actually, we're on, like, kinda fan stuff, if I can interject, during the over the holidays, I was, like, in bookstores doing some Christmas shopping, and I I came across this book from the seventies that was talking about Le Peto Man, which was this kind of celebrity at the turn of the century. And I remember your album, Southern Winds, which
Christof:South Winds. South
jacob:Winds. Sorry. Which was had, you know, conceptual tie in to to that. I don't know if it was that character per se or or just the the the general phenomenon. But I'm wondering what the relationship to Le Petitoman was there other than conceptually, or if Le Petitoman is, like, kind of a title that is attributed to many people over in history?
Christof:It's a good question. There was a documentary done by one of I think it's Igor Vamos, I think is his name. I think he's a member of the Critical Art Ensemble. And has done a lot of kind of friends. So this documentary on La Petitoman that he did feature length, it's it's it's hard to say if it's fiction or not.
Christof:There's a bit of there's a bit of a leap of faith, perhaps. I mean, there seems to be a lot of footage because it is from the Mona Rouge days of the nineteenth century. So there's a there is supposedly a shot of Edison shooting Lepitamin in action
jacob:Wow.
Christof:With his rear end on one of those, you know, old speaker recorder things. But when I did Southwinds, I I paid homage to Lepitamin by by saying, I recorded this with Lepitamin in Brooklyn where I was living at a time in two thousand two, which obviously and and then I put Lepitamin's year of death as being 1945. So obviously, that couldn't work work out. But I I was I just wanted to go back to what the the praise that Jacob heaped on me. I think I I absolve you, and I I
leon:Thank you.
Justin:No hail Marys? No hail Marys?
leon:It's great. Yeah.
Christof:You're on 12 hail Marys. But, anyway, appreciate it. Yeah.
Justin:I also have to throw my own bit of fandom into this because we're all so excited that you're visiting us, which is that I've been carrying this book in my library since I was, like, 22. And they're one of my favorite essays in it was written by the fine gentleman that is with us. And I used it. I I actually referenced it in an in an essay I wrote when I was in school. So it's so mad mad props all around.
Christof:Yes. And I I should say part partly, my my interest in in coming on the shows, my likewise fandom of this podcast because it's ever since it came out, I guess, I think one of you posted it and downloaded it. And I was saying before we started recording that I drive to London, Ontario from Toronto where I live once a week at least, and it's a two hour drive, and it's a perfect company. Beautiful. Especially with the long tracks and your your kind of warmth and casual banter and technical screw ups and, you know, bits of nostalgia about the store.
Christof:I think in the first episode, you mentioned you mentioned Alexandre Santon, who's a longtime collaborator and and the anecdote about him listening to the ventilation, I think, or something.
leon:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Christof:Thinking it was a record. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty great.
Justin:I have a sequel to that story that's really important because I I shared the first episode with a friend who, an old colleague of mine, cofounder of my company that I the the audio tech company I did, Stuart Mansbridge. And him and his girlfriend who's a, she's like a mathematician or a scientist. She's a biologist. That's what she is. And she does, like, she's like does, like, genetic engineering of of new pharmaceuticals, super interesting weirdos.
Justin:And and, when the David Rosenberg track was on, she came in and started fiddling with the speakers and, like, she's, like, trying to rewire the speakers. And he's like, what are you doing? She's like, something's fucked up with the speaker. So we continue to move the the progress forward. It's great.
Justin:It's awesome.
jacob:We're moving the the listen sign around. Yeah. It's it's
Justin:yeah. It's just it's great.
leon:But I think also reminds me, think, Pristock, you had also, like, organized a lot of shows back in the day. Mhmm. You had also had that kind of spirit. Yeah. You know, I think there was one well, there was this huge festival that was happening in in Sala Rosa.
leon:Wasn't there? Like, I just recall Alexandre Saint Laurent being downstairs in the bathroom with, like, whipped cream on the toilet seat, and he's like A Vemonte? Or something?
Justin:There's a Vemonte Enculet.
leon:I remember that. Yeah. Exactly. Something It
Justin:was Alex and I were involved I was also involved
leon:too. Right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.
leon:And then I remember another one, and I'm not sure if Christophe is the one if you were the one who organized this, but this was before even Casa del Popolo existed, and I think it was called the artichoke or something like that.
Justin:Yeah.
leon:In any case, I remember Santange there playing in the basement with no one on the stage and the sounds were just coming through the ground, like through the floor. I know if that was something that you had organized, but it had that kind of feeling where everyone was just sitting and there was like nothing hit there. These, like, little sounds that were coming out through the floor. And this place was also really wonderful because I think they didn't have a liquor license, so it was, a tea place. And you would order beer through teacups, like, I remember.
leon:And it was really, really wonderful. But in any case, I'm I'm always when I think of you, Christophe, and Squintfucker Press, I always think of these kind of, like, pretty much the only radical experimental sound stuff that was happening Yes. In Montreal at the time. And it was always this, like, unexpected, this always surprising kind of thing. It was surprising releases as well.
leon:So, yeah, to be right, you know, they were very, like, dear to me, all these, whether it be at the releases or even whatever events were happening that had this kind of madness to them. So it's really cool.
Christof:Yeah. Although, I think to be fair, mean, there was alienate was
leon:There was. Yeah. But you guys were just so radical, though, to me. Like, it was just such a different kind of rant. Yeah.
leon:Yeah. Yeah. You know?
Christof:And I I think we I mean, we actually started Squintfucker Press. One of the big reasons that Alexandre and I were starting to be quite prolific and and collaborating, but also doing our solo stuff, and we had we had had our releases, him on Alien eight, and I had done stuff with Avatar in Quebec City. But we more than that, and we were just frustrated on waiting to hear back.
leon:So we said,
Christof:screw it. We'll just start our own label and and start, that way. And and Jonathan came on board and Roger and Yeah.
leon:Yeah. It's a great label and great just like design to it and and the releases. It's It's Sam Sam Shalab. Label is one of my favorite records of all time. Yeah.
leon:It's Sam Shalab. Yeah. Yeah. In any case, those are the praises for me. Sorry.
Justin:Stop there. We should we should play some music for the people that are waiting for music. Who's the who wants to go first?
leon:Our distinguished guest, I
jacob:would say.
Justin:I think we should, we should definitely start with our distinguished guest.
Christof:Okay. I'll I'll, imagine our listener being in a kind of nocturnal mood and start off with a track from Christina Kubisch Mhmm. From an album in the '60 eighties eighties eighties. And this is an album called Night Flights, and this is the title track. It's, there's a great picture on the in the CD of, in the CD booklet of her in in her studio in Milan at the time and just with some candles and just kind of very, very moody.
Christof:It's a very hazy picture, and I think this this track really reflects. It's it's a good match for the picture. Here goes.
leon:Wow. Excuse me.
jacob:Wow. Was beautiful.
leon:What a great track to start this show.
Christof:I mean, I I was concerned that it would be too sleepy, but it's actually kinda unsettling.
Justin:Yeah. It's really dynamic too.
leon:Makes me wanna relisten to some Christina Kupish. I mean, I've had always this kind of weird love and hate relationship with her stuff, but this really is beautiful. Really, really beautiful.
jacob:It Yeah.
Justin:It also makes me realize I'd like I I really like, I heard the wrong stuff by her clearly because it was someone that I just was like, I don't need to go there. And then you realize that you make the worst decisions when you do that. Like, you have to dig deeper into shit. Like, that was incredible. Wow.
leon:That was beautiful.
Justin:Not what not at all. Like, I would never place that as her in an invisible jukebox. She I'm also surprised that you didn't pick. Like, I'm much more familiar with the stuff that she does with voice, which I which is a big part of her work, I think. And I was yeah.
Justin:I was curious that you went somewhere else than that, but this was really incredible, really cool.
jacob:It's funny that you mentioned voice because I I thought that I hallucinated voice in this piece actually when the sort of horn sounds first come in. It's I thought that it was kind of a vocoder voice at first, because there seems to be kinda like phonemes being formed. But, yeah, it it was really really amazing. I love how, yeah, how how busy it is actually, for something called night flights in which really, like, you know, talks about how there's stuff going on on that other side as well. It's not just a sleepy time, so it's it's really beautiful.
Christof:Yeah. I think in terms of what Justin was saying about preconceptions or or, you know, dismissing somebody for some of their work. I mean, I think in her case, given her many decades of work and things and lots of installation stuff and Yeah. You know, stuff with electromagnetic signals and stuff, which I think translates not as well as on CD or on vinyl. Mhmm.
Christof:Yeah. So I don't know enough about that period of her her time in Italy in the eighties, whether this is anomalous or not. And I don't know how I landed on the CD. I've had it for a long time, but it's it's I always go back to it. There's another piece on this called The Cat's Dream that is substantially longer that I I was also tempted to play for you guys.
Christof:But, yeah, it's eighteen minutes long. And it's in in the same ilk, but it's very philaccentric. There's a lot of
leon:A purring.
Justin:What what do you know about the construction of this tracker? Like, the because it's so interesting compositionally.
Christof:She mentions being interested in sound colors Yeah. In particular, and she lists InAir s three x, which I assume is a synthesizer, tubular glass horns, sample sounds, and natural sounds. But,
jacob:yeah, it is is really interesting because when the the track starts, it's all in a very kinda warm, fuzzy, shortwave radio cassette recording kind of palette and range. But, like, almost halfway in when the the the horn, like, I guess, it'd be the glass tube sounds come in, it comes in really hi fi, actually, like super stereo sound. Yeah. So there's this strange cohabitation of, like, low and and hi fi sounds. But I'm I'm really a big fan of electronic synthesizer.
jacob:It sounds like it reminded me of of moths just like swirling around the light bulb, you know, electrically charged air.
leon:I'm reminded that we had an esoteric record called two and two. It was like black and it was her and this guy Fabrizio Plessy or something, and I remember it had that kind of vibe to it as well. It might have been from the same era, so it had this kind of moodiness to it because then she really went much more into sound art and like I think these walks in Berlin with like headphones where you get like electromagnetic stuff, but her early stuff was much more like moody, like cinematic, you know. That was really beautiful actually.
jacob:Yeah, good stuff.
Justin:Yeah, thanks.
jacob:I'm wondering if I could, follow this up. I think I have something. It's sort of a classic. I don't think it'll be anything new to, anyone here on the podcast, but it's always nice to revisit. Yeah.
jacob:So that was Beautiful.
leon:Thank you.
jacob:Sequence from Peter Rose's film, The Man Who Could Not See Far Enough, the infamous, Total Eclipse scene, film from 1981. I I, I mean, I revisit Peter Rose's films quite often because it's just so attractive to me. But I and I shared this with with you guys, Justin and Jacob, recently that there was an article written, an interview done with him where I found out that he actually is very involved in the in the sound design of all of his films, which I was not at all aware of. I mean, in another sequence in in the same film, there's he uses Skies of America by Matt Coleman. Yeah.
jacob:But in a way that I had never noticed before where he actually doubles it, And so it kinda creates a delay. But in this sequence, we'll put the link in the show notes so that listeners can can view the the film. It's he actually made the sound himself by singing into a cardboard tube, and he was trying to approximate the sound of light. That was, like, his goal. And then that's mixed in with the the kind of phased of on-site recording of the of the eclipse viewers.
jacob:Wow. It's like yeah. When when I found out that he was that involved in in the sound design of of his films, totally blew my mind. This one
leon:is wonderful.
Christof:Bound of light. It could be anything, but this was a approximation, let's call it.
jacob:Yeah. For sure.
Justin:I have a really funny esoteric era story about this. We had this customer who was, say, like a wealthier guy, I don't want to say his name, but and he was a, like, a lovely guy who'd come in a bit eccentric, and he was really fascinated by, our crew and invited me to go and do, audio visual for a party that that one of his friends was throwing. And and I I was like, I'm gonna do this, like, you know, very naively, and and I'm gonna do, like, the most incredible thing I can do. And I collected, got Mark, and, like, collected all the stuff like this, you know, you know, some other really exciting experimental film stuff and presented this at this party filled with these people that just could not give a shit. It was, like, just people on drugs and, like, whatever drinking, like, you know, totally not interested in any way, shape, or form.
Justin:And I kinda like, that was, like, a fundamental moment for me in realizing that, like, there's, like, tears of sensitivity to things, you know, or something that there's people that just connect with stuff and people that don't. And I'm like, I'm gonna blow everybody's mind with this stuff. It's gonna change the world. And, nope. May as well have been, like, pissing in a corner, like, the entire night.
Justin:It was just, like, was not gonna happen. But it there was a like, I remember one guy making fun of me really aggressively. He's like, you think people wanna watch this shit? I was like, well well, yeah. I I I do.
Justin:It was really it was really funny. So yeah.
Christof:Leon, how how long was that? It seemed pretty short.
jacob:It was it it is quite short, actually. It's four minutes and and a couple of seconds, I think. Yeah. It's it's a short sequence. The whole film is is much longer than that, and there's a lot of movements, different movements.
jacob:It's a beautiful, beautiful
Justin:Incredible film.
jacob:Film.
Justin:Is that also where is is that the film where the guy's walking up the rigging of the Golden Gate Bridge for a huge amount of time? Exactly.
Christof:Yeah. Yeah.
Justin:Yeah. That's like That
jacob:that's the sequence with the Skies of America,
Justin:actually. Yeah.
jacob:Yeah. It's like the most tense anxiety inducing That's so profound.
Christof:Yeah.
jacob:You will watch in a little bit. And then also the opening sequence has him doing a narration in a completely made up language. Yeah. It's just a shot, a traveling shot of a of a station wagon driving across
leon:That's right. That's right.
jacob:Some some road in The United States. Really, really good stuff. Were you familiar with, with, his work, Christophe?
Justin:Oh, not at all. No. Oh, great.
Christof:Nice discovery. Yeah. Fantastic.
jacob:Yeah. You should look into, to his work. It's really, really interesting.
Justin:Yeah. He's incredible.
Christof:Same generation as, like, Paul Sherritt and, like
leon:Probably later. A little bit later, I think. A little bit later. I think he was the most, like, in the '8 you know, eighties or something. Yeah.
leon:Eighties, nineties. Yeah. Yeah. Really wacky kind of crazy stuff. Yeah.
Justin:Really incredible.
leon:Yeah. Hey. I've got something that I could Go for it. That goes along the lines of that as well. And in fact, it's also a filmmaker where I just kind of it's some it's a film that I had seen, like, when I was 18, and it absolutely overwhelmed me.
leon:And and I got a really nice copy of it recently and made me realize how this filmmaker's use of sound is, like, 50% of the film. It's just sound. Like, in fact, it could play almost as, a radio play, which I think is so rare in in films. I think sound music is a or just kind of something that just adds emotional mood, whereas with this filmmaker, it just feels overwhelming, in fact, in such a beautiful way. And so I was watching this film.
leon:I was like, oh, I gotta share this with you guys just for the its use of sound and overwhelming use of sound and just maddening use of sound. So let me I'll just play a little bit of it, and those who will listen will hear just the sound, which is basically the intention here. But I'll share it along with the visuals, then we'll speak about it a little bit.
Godard actor 1:People forget that you hear your own voice not with your ears, but from your throat. I've reinvented the lines. I've reinvented the plot. Now it's up to
leon:the
Godard actor 1:characters, Or are they actors? Which is doctor Jekyll and which is mister Hyde? All I know is that I can't control either of them. Maybe they're controlling me. Obviously, this old man was power.
Godard actor 1:Obviously, this girl was virtue. They're fighting. I don't know what the issue is.
Godard actor 2:Do you have any cigarettes?
Godard actor 3:Falmouth, Malboro, Lucky Strike, Camel, Philip Morris, Rottmanwed.
Godard actor 2:Don't have Gitanfield? I'm sorry, please.
Godard actor 4:Why, Virginia? It's your family, Vivian.
Godard actor 1:Nature is above
Godard actor5:the ocean.
Godard actor 4:And that is From the North or from the South?
Godard actor 3:Mama, Lucky Strike, Camel, Philip Morris, Marlborough
Godard actor 4:That's right. That's right, Virginia. What paper did you say you are from?
Godard actor 2:From New York Times. Why that?
Godard actor 4:Oh, that. Why, you see, tell you, miss. Yeah. Yeah. The way the chairs are placed here, they are all facing the same space, same direction.
Godard actor 4:And the voice is going all over that space because it's projected all over. In a in a simple living room, in an apartment, when someone is speaking, all the people listening around the one who speaks. Not here, miss, not here. This is our invention. All the people are facing the same direction or same same space.
Godard actor 4:Even if it was in the dark, people will know where to look at. In a simple apartment, if it's in the dark, people are lost. They don't know what to to look at. Here they know. They know.
Godard actor 2:Okay. But why that?
Godard actor 4:A lie, my dear. It may kill you.
Godard actor 2:You mean like the truth?
Godard actor 4:Yes. It's properly said. A lie becomes a truth Professor has arrived. Professor Kuzencef has arrived. Hello, my dear fellow.
Godard actor 4:This is professor Kuzencef from Leningrad, Miss Alburstadt from the Arkansans Daily.
Godard actor 2:No, from the New York Times. You come all the way from Leningrad?
Godard actor 1:Image? That's a great word.
Godard actor 6:They are not men of their word. They told me I was everything. 'Tis a lie. I am not egg yew proof.
Godard actor 4:Let's hope we don't make any mistakes, mister Shakespeare.
Justin:Number five.
Godard actor 2:What do you mean?
Godard actor 4:With all those damned and reckless words under the house.
Godard actor 2:I don't get it.
Godard actor 4:Suppose, my dear, We call it image, and that the real word is reality.
Godard actor 2:And then change it.
Godard actor 4:No. No. No. No. No.
Godard actor 4:The line must come from her back. From her back. It's like the wind.
Godard actor 6:Nature's above art in that respect. It's an arrow.
Godard actor 4:Out. Oh, anyway, we have to stop the experience. Oh, no. Why that? Something is missing or someone.
Justin:I'm there. I'm there. I'm there.
Godard actor 4:Now you are part of the experience like all of us. We are all part of it. Even if we have not found it, whatever you called it, reality or image, we fought for it. And by then, we are no longer innocent. Professor, there are two people here.
Godardactor 7:Peace, mister Shakespeare. Come not between the dragon and his wrath. I loved her most and thought to find my rest in her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight, So be ye my grave, my peace.
Godard actor 1:I went one last time to visit this mysterious young woman. She was asleep. Well, maybe she was sleeping or was she just pretending? There were so many questions still unanswered. The old man facing the screen had not dared to pronounce the words, as here I give her father's heart from I have a message from your father.
Godard actor 1:It's true. I didn't quite understand them myself when I wrote them, but I can't afford to lose them. Let's await a prison. As here I give her father's heart from her. Will sing like birds in the cage.
leon:So this was actually the only English film that Godard had made called King Lear, and a completely crazy film, I must add. It's, like I mentioned, the only English film he made, and there's, like, Norman Mailer plays in this film. Budi Allen plays in this film. Lios Carax plays in this film. Julie Delphi plays in this film, and Gadard plays this total maniac in this film.
leon:And it seems like it's shot in his backyard, but I just love the madness to it and the madness to the sound, and the whole film is like that. And so I thought it would be a nice kind of addition to what you played. There we go.
jacob:The sound is so fantastic. It's amazingly bonkers. The Yeah. The scenes in the cinema with with Gerdau talking about the people facing the screen, and it just him just being drowned out by this on the in this crowd off off screen. It's so good.
leon:It's good.
Christof:It's The pigs are the pigs are oinking there.
leon:Yeah. Yeah. The pigs are oinking there. But it feels just so like, I mean, again, I haven't seen many films where sound is such a huge part where it just feels overwhelming like that. Maybe I mean, I can't even think of anything.
leon:Well, I could say, like, maybe Bresson, but it's not like that, or maybe like, Jacques Patti, but it's not like that. You know? And so this this feels, like, different.
Justin:I have one that it invoked a lot because I was thinking about how I worked in this library for a mining company when I was trying to get by for free and, like, had, like, two days of work a week working in this mining library in Vancouver. And I I had a cassette player, and all I could do was listen to cassettes. And sometimes I just listen to static, which really freaked the dudes out there. But then I would, I recorded the soundtrack to just the audio off of Holy Mountain, which has a very similar Yeah.
leon:Yeah. Yeah. Sound
Justin:escape to it. And just listen to that, like, it's it's shocking when you listen to that the sound, the the diegetic sound of that film. There is so little dialogue in that film. Like, fourteen, twenty minutes go by with just, like, pigs and oinking and people screaming.
leon:Yeah.
Justin:It's an incredible music that never got released. Like, my favorite tracks off that are never on any of the releases of that. But yeah. And and so, yeah, that's that immediately brought that to mind. And then, yeah, that was, that was incredible.
Justin:Oh, and then the other thing too is shocking to me that, Norman Mailer is in that because the other thing I was watching well, like, especially the first couple minutes of it in the cafe or whatever, I'm like, oh my god. Is he playing tough guys don't dance? Which is this the only movie that Norman Mailer ever
leon:directed, which
Justin:is absolutely, like, the definition of Artois in cinema. Like, it is if you guys haven't seen it, you have to see it. It is
leon:I know what that film is.
Justin:Yeah. It is such an insane film. It makes no sense. It's so histrionic, like, and so shockingly weird. And it's, yeah, it's it's I I can't recommend it highly enough.
Justin:It's it's loathe detested. Like, I think it has one star in Rotten Tomatoes, but it's like a it's a really, really fantastic film. I've watched it, like, a 100 times. I love it. But I was thinking there's some and also the acting style in that.
leon:Yeah. Yeah.
Justin:Very, very similar
leon:to Very similar.
Justin:To to to that film. But yeah. So that's
leon:In fact, I'm I'm surprised that Godard hasn't released, like, any audio stuff, like any Oh, yeah. Just CDs. I mean, he's just so good at it. You know? He's just such a great sound artist, you could say almost, especially in the eighties and nineties.
leon:It was really, really exciting the stuff he did there.
jacob:But it was obviously a preoccupation from the beginning. I mean, it's funny because I actually we watched Abutur for the to show it to my my son for the first time. But this was, like, a a couple of days ago that we just watched it. So, again, it's the Astral Platte. Yeah.
jacob:Yeah. Yeah. But the the the preoccupation with sound has always been there.
leon:Yeah.
jacob:Music and just yeah.
Justin:Just one more sorry. Go ahead.
Christof:I once saw a guitar walk by me in an airport. Classic kind of scruffy scruffiness and a kind of wrinkling coat. It was it was very much Gadar.
leon:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's actually a picture of, like, a street street view picture of, I guess, like, wherever Geneva, where he's living, and you see him, like, with the grocery bags and his wife following him, you know, like, five minutes. And it's, like, on Google Earth or whatever it is.
Justin:So perfect.
leon:Yeah. It's amazing. And he looks exactly like Christophe mentioned, just like scruffy it is. Yeah.
Justin:So I think, licensing has really destroyed pinball, which is my other great passion, and, you know, all the bad movie pinballs and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. But there is a guitar pinball machine, which is
jacob:really Oh, wow.
Justin:Yeah. And it was the first pinball I ever bought, like and it's a it's a very special machine. It's called Capersville, and the artist was obsessed with Alphaville, and he made the artwork is, like, basically based on the French movie poster for Alphaville. And it's, like, it's really and there's all these kind of hidden references to Godard all through the the layout of the pinball machine. So fantastic.
leon:It's That sounds amazing.
Justin:Really, really special. And, like, I had it for years. I put it in front of people. I was so excited. And I'd be like, you know, the pinball world and the guitar world don't really overlap.
Justin:They're like I'd be like, this is the most incredible. People would be like, what? Like, I what? You know? So once again, bandwidth.
Justin:So
leon:the tension. Yeah. Yeah.
Justin:Phenomenology. Always a bitch. So I have a I have a great, follow-up to that track, I think. So also kind of two themes from the show today that this touches on. One is dismissing artists when you've heard the wrong things.
Justin:So I hated this artist, and I was, like, scathing about this artist for a long time. And this is absolutely, like, in my desert island. Like, if I had to not live without ever hearing this track again, it would kill me. Like, it's just so precious to me, this track. And then secondarily, like, completely blown metaphysics, like, with text.
Justin:Like, the last thing that we just listened to, it kind of achieves both of those in a very this is a little bit more stonery way than Godard, but it's, it's so fantastic. So I gotta I gotta play this one.
Godard actor 3:Dear Blue Jean, as I sit here writing you this letter, I'm listening to the sound of the midnight train as it moves and changes across the hills. It reminds me of you as it travels to the back of my mind. Now that's a pretty weird idea. I don't know why it should remind me of you. Sometimes I just listen and it doesn't remind me of anything.
Godard actor 3:It seems to create the space and time in which it moves. It comes from nowhere. Anyway, I'm getting off the subject. I really wrote to tell you the bar we used to play at has changed hands again. Do you remember how everyone got together and danced until dawn?
Godard actor 3:Just like a religion, it took an hour to get the tunes out of your head. Then we got stoned, and in that presence, we'd talk about our crazy ideas. I remember you said that a child growing up, the growth of the feeling of being inside yourself, and a sound changing over space and time were similar experiences. Their motions had the same shape. Oh boy.
Godard actor 3:Speaking of younger people, your cousin is growing up fast. When he was four months old, was sucking his thumb and waving his arms. And after a year, he was grabbing hold of blankets and rugs, pulling things toward himself, seeing how close he could get. We must have seen like pictures on TV. Soon he started talking and opened his mouth wide to describe something big, breathing heavily in and out.
Godard actor 3:To him, each breath was like a thought. When he was one year old, somebody would yawn in the room and he wouldn't. He described things that weren't anywhere near him. An idea he heard one day, he would describe as his own on the next. When he was two or three and a half years old, he talked to his imaginary companion.
Godard actor 3:Now he's 12 and imagines everything connected to everything else. The more defined the situation gets, the more he spaces out. I guess he wonders if his life is supposed to be a story. Of course, he was five, and out of the blue, started he to speak Polish and recall his past lives. That certainly wasn't a bliss.
Godard actor 3:Sometimes you imagine you're in the music, and sometimes you're apart from it. I remember the time a band gave your name, Eugene. There was a feeling that trouble was built into you, like they say, in your dreams. Both you and I know, you're no victim of circumstance. Of course, you do get obsessed.
Godard actor 3:And at those times, what you wanna know gets drawn toward you. How close can you get? Ghosts appear mostly in February. How do you describe something which is invisible and unknowable? The train goes by, what should I pay attention to?
Godard actor 3:The sound or what I see or what goes on in my mind or maybe all three of them at once? Three guesses, a coincidence, a connection outside, a connection inside. It's so beautiful to see someone thinking. Consider 4,000,000,000 people walking around with slightly different things in their heads at any given moment. When you're in this country, all the images that support living in the city disappear.
Godard actor 3:The day before you left on that midnight train was the day we made up that weird theory about a history of consciousness. Of course, it was just as arbitrary as any history and started twelve thousand years in the past. The people are peaceful. There's no government, and nothing is an example of anything. There are no words for past, present, future, or madness.
Godard actor 3:It's always the first time. However, there is a voice that appears to each of them, barely distinct softly in between the other sounds of living. One side of the brain in each person is slowly sending pulses through to the other side. It is inevitable, according to this ordered up theory, that an imaginary space somewhere in the back of your mind gets occupied by someone called I, who floats around in the same space it has created. Then we skipped a few thousand years to watch that unidentified inner voice become embodied in the voice of the ruler.
Godard actor 3:Statues were in the center of town, just like today. Images of ancestors with large eyes, eye to eye contact, time ceases to exist, a younger and older man, a younger and older woman, eye to eye contact, mother and child. When you talk about love, everyone's in authority. Eight thousand, maybe six thousand years ago, when young women were possessed oracles and older men were hot blooded prophets for telling the future, their message was delivered in steady, rhythmic verses. Always the same rhythm, no matter what language.
Godard actor 3:From one side of the brain to the other, from invisible heaven to foggy earth, this was sunlight inside and outside without yawning or blinking. You can send your consciousness anywhere. And in the prophet's eyes, the ideas on the periphery of his vision frame what he sees. The possibilities are beads of light constantly changing intensity. He imagines the experience is always the same and always entirely out of control somewhere out there.
Godard actor 3:Every eleven and eleven hundredths years, there is a cycle of increased sunspot activity. Every eleven and one tenths years, there is a cycle of mass human excitability. If something went one way, and if the space were somehow closed off, the idea was that something had to go the other way. There are so many cycles, you could just as well see the changes as random. Someone called it peaceful coexistence, the way the waves travel through the same medium, the water, and cross through each other transparently without destruction.
Godard actor 3:The rest of the story grew was the outside voices began to be heard inside forty one hundred or maybe thirty seven hundred years ago. People started to write laws down and make treaties. The world was pictured in sets of two, and the ideas of history, motives, and strategies were dreamed up. These went along with war, life stories, and authorities from outer space. On the periphery of this country, someone made up the notion that you could change yourself by changing your consciousness without connections, beyond contradictions.
Godard actor 3:His blood pressure was highest at three in the afternoon and lowest at three in the morning. When he started singing with his friends, someone would remember just the words and someone would remember just the tunes. Two points of space and three types of connections. When they went out on a date, each of them imagined his and her mom and dad had come along. A steady structure, a complete decision with only four moves.
Godard actor 3:Yes and no on the first possibility? Yes and no on the other one? Did he need that image outside to have that feeling inside? I wonder if I've changed since I was young, or has it always been this way? I guess I want a vision beyond consciousness, the way a culture takes twenty years to catch up to what can occur in a flash to one person, Someone who's done his thinking before he realizes it.
Godard actor 3:I can accept the way I pay attention to things even if every 96 I get an urge to talk, eat, or kiss somebody. Yes, just anybody. And I start to pay attention to the miracles that I do know about. You know, I never set the alarm, and I always wake up on time. Even in a thunderstorm, my mother would wake up only when she heard her baby cry.
Godard actor 3:When I play a piece on the piano once, it goes on rehearsing by itself, and it's easy to play the next time. And there are the coincidences and the invisible ideas that reveal themselves anytime you start to go through the motions. Are they really out there, Bill? Going to the center of town by calculated spirals which run down, going to the center of town randomly. All the energy is mysterious and uncertain as the bird flies.
Godard actor 3:To From time to time, I feel another world growing up among the one I experience every day, and it seems no conclusions can be drawn about anyone's eventual fate. Sometimes I put my fingertips on the top of my eyes and apply pressure slightly. Then the pressure is released, and flashes of light still remain floating among the forms that are shaped like networks. That pressure to move the lights is the same as taking on the harmonics of those harmonics, building its own bridge. Part of light to a molecule to fluorescence to warmth to my body and its rhythms and back again.
Godard actor 3:We're not attached or separate in space. Slipping in between the pulses of consciousness, UFOs appear mostly in April, coinciding with the sudden appearance of disappearance of stars. But anyway, it's always the first time. This train is lit by the luminescence of the town and the faint morning light and the light it gives off. That light defines the area all around the train, just as your defines the way you see the life closest to you.
Godard actor 3:Is that too corny, Blue? Well, you know, that's how we are here. Right soon.
Justin:So that is, the ex keyboardist of Iggy and the Stooges and the greatest piano player on earth, Blue Gene Tyranny, Letter From Home off of a record called Out of the Blue. That is, really one of the greatest pieces of music of twentieth century to me. I love that piece so much. It's crazy.
jacob:That's so good. So good. Is it is that true? Really? Ex Stuttgart?
jacob:Yeah.
Justin:He was the Stuttgart's keyboard player.
jacob:My god.
Justin:Yeah. Yeah.
jacob:Wow. I I only knew of the the Robert Ashley affiliation, but
Justin:It goes it goes deep with that guy, man. He's like he touches everything. Like, it's crazy. He's such an interesting character to look through. And I completely I heard one of the kinda more pretty solo piano records from the mid eighties, late eighties.
Justin:I was just like, what is this garbage? Now I actually love that record too, but it took me I was like, I don't know why anybody listens to this shit, and I love it. Like, it's just like the greatest. Like, it's so fantastic.
Christof:I really like the very end. I like the
Justin:Oh, yeah. The
Christof:I wanna dance.
jacob:Yeah. I actually thought it was you, Justin, like, doing some keyboard word searches and stuff. Wow. Yeah. That was really, really amazing.
jacob:What year is that from? There's, like, a very, you know, Brian, you know, kinda feeling going on.
Justin:I mean, it's got so many feelings. There's, like, bloody lot in there. There's, like, there's so many pieces, touches so many things. I'll look it up.
Christof:Would it be right to call it the Mills College version of Supper's Ready?
Justin:Quite possibly, quite possibly.
leon:It's such inspired music, I find it. I mean, it's almost like if I would hear music for the first time and this is it, like there's little music, I I I would I would be like, okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
leon:Like, this is this is what it's for. Right? Like, this is music. Right?
Justin:Wow. It's his first solo record, so this would have been right after the Stooges, which is kinda mind blowing. 1978. 1978.
leon:Incredible piece
jacob:of music. So beautiful. And the, the dude, what if kinda correspondence is is so great.
Justin:I love too the the fact that it's a song primarily about astro collapse, and it had an astro collapse in it because I did not remember at all the part about the kids speaking Polish.
jacob:Oh, yeah. Yeah.
leon:And then
Justin:I'm like, we're here. Jacob's here.
leon:Yeah. Yeah.
Justin:Yeah. I'm like, there's it just invokes like, it's actually, like what was that Grant Morrison comic book that was actually a magic spell, the invisibles or whatever, where he's doing chaos magic by writing the comic book? And this is kind of like, the actual act of the comic book was a chaos magic act, kinda similar here. I think we're, like, enacting some full astral collapse by invoking this. I hope it's beneficial for all of you.
leon:That that drone also in the background is an amazing key that just keeps going using the
Justin:rug. It's go ahead.
jacob:It is I'm surprised by how compelling it was. Like, it just it's you're hooked on it. Like, you wanna know, you know, what comes next even if it's, like, the same thing. It's you're just, like, just yeah.
Justin:It's pretty phenomenal compositionally because it's absolutely static and super varied. Like, it's just like I mean, I've literally listened to that song, like, probably easily over a 100 times. Like, it's like one it's just a total go to for me whenever I'm stressed out. I just check out and put that on the headphones. And it's it I am always surprised by it every time I listen to it.
Justin:Like, it's just like an onion. Like, it just layers just peel off. It's so great.
leon:And the text is so great. Yeah. Text is amazing. Incredible. So good.
Justin:Yeah. So sorry for taking up such a big chunk of time, but it's No. Worth it. Yeah. Impossible to cut that one.
Christof:I might, if I might be in the same vein if Great. I think it kind of fits what you were saying, Justin, about the mood, like, the reason you go to that piece to to relax, immersed in it. And for me, this next one is I had a weird relationship to it because I had just a badly photocopied version of the cover, and it was a CD dub in the early two thousand, I think. So and I never I think, you know, periodically, every two or three years, I would say, oh, I remember this piece. I really loved this piece.
Christof:And I would go to it, and it would fulfill that desire. And it only only recently did I find it on Bandcamp that I could order it Probably from the composer himself, Thibor Zemso, Hungarian. We've been playing a lot of cinema related stuff, and this I'm not sure if it's a piece that has image related to it, but I know he on looking at his website, he's done a lot of work with for film. And this definitely has a bit of that feel. It's called Tractatus, and it's so it's based on Wittgenstein's book.
Christof:But the way I think the way it renders it is is it's it's beautiful. So without further ado
leon:This episode's amazing. Yeah.
Christof:Better the legendary episode five.
leon:No. This is better. This is incredible.
Godard actor5:No cry of torment can be greater than the cry of one man. A man is capable of infinite torment therefore, and so too he can stand in need of infinite hell. How hard I find it to see what is right in front of my eyes. The object is simple. Only a very unhappy man has the right to pity someone else.
Godard actor5:What is thinkable is also possible.
Godard actor 2:I just took some apples out of a paper bag,
Godard actor5:where they'd been lying for a long time. I had to cut half off many of them and throw it away. Afterwards, when I was copying out a sentence I'd written, second half of which was bad.
Godard actor 2:I had once saw it as a half rotten apple.
jacob:And
Godard actor5:that's how it always is with me. Everything that comes my way becomes a Is there something feminine about this way of thinking? The light work sheds is a beautiful light. Which however only shines with real beauty if it's illuminated by yet another light. The world and life are one.
Godard actor5:I am my world, the microcosm. Everything we see could also be otherwise. Everything we can describe at all could also be otherwise. That the sun will rise tomorrow is an hypothesis. If a question can be put at all, then it can also be answered.
Godard actor5:There is indeed the inexpressible. It shows itself. It's the mystical. When I came home I expected a surprise, but there was no surprise for me. So of course, I was surprised.
Godard actor5:A confessional has to be part of your new life.
Justin:Can we just start it again?
Christof:I don't want it I don't want
leon:it to stop. That was incredible.
jacob:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You need it to go on.
Justin:I just, like, I don't want that ever to stop.
jacob:That was so beautiful.
Christof:Cumming and the bass together.
leon:Yeah. Do you
Justin:know what year this is from? Because it's kind of a perfect marriage of three tracks, and I'm wondering if any of them were influenced by it. Like, there's three songs that I like, I was singing one of them along in my head, and then two others that, like, it's just kind of this perfect marriage of these three tracks, and I'm wondering if it was before any of them.
Christof:It's 1995.
Justin:Okay. So one of them was before, which is, let the happiness in from David Sylvian. There's a he could actually sing it over top of it, and the the kind of the chords are the same for kind of and then the the tab or the bongo rhythm is, like, the last bit of that track. And then GG Mason, there's, like, the synth washes. There's so much like this classic GG Mason track that he did with the two Rocco Rott sampled later.
Justin:And, the other one was Asa Chang. Like, it had there's so much to Asa Chang and Jun Ray, like, tablets and the voices and oh my god. But, like, what better than all of them. Like, oh my god. What an incredible incredible track.
Justin:Wow.
jacob:That was really beautiful. I I've never heard of this artist before.
Christof:Same here. I have a couple of other CDs by him that I ordered when I I got this one as well. I mean, this one is is really the the highlight, the top, I would say. The other ones have have moments and are more indicative of his soundtrack work. This doesn't say what it was done for, but I it could have been a radio commission or something, but it doesn't say in the Bandcamp credits.
leon:It's funny. It sounds
Justin:sorry. Go ahead, Leo.
jacob:It just sounds like a gift to life. Yeah.
leon:It's funny. Also go ahead.
Justin:Go ahead. No. No. You first.
leon:I I just wanted to quickly say it really did the same thing to me that the last piece did where it feels like I'm just hearing music for the first time.
jacob:Yeah. Yeah.
leon:I mean, it feels like I'm hearing yeah. I'm like, okay. Wow. This is what music is. It feels incredible.
leon:Like, feels really refreshing.
jacob:I I think the the humming is really, like, like such a strong, yeah, strong anchor, and that's probably the first music anyone has ever heard in their life is is just the Yeah.
leon:It's
jacob:like this immediate physical, biological connection. It's it's so strong. And, yeah, again, really compelling, so it just keeps you keeps you alive. It's beautiful.
Christof:It's structured around humming, you know, anchored to the whole thing.
jacob:Yeah.
Justin:In further astro collapse, like, this this episode's just I'm, like, having some kind of weird experience. I actually have a record by this guy that I bought, which is snapshots from the island, which I hated. And it's more another one of those yeah. It's another one of those things where you're like, I totally wrote off this artist. I'd never listen to anything again after I bought that.
Justin:I got really hyped. Someone really hyped it to me, and I bought it. And I was it's kind of a bit exotic y and, like, a little cheesy. And and then this track is, like, just exponential. Like, I was like, wow.
Justin:So I love that. Like, this the theme of this is don't ever trust your own fucking opinion about anything. This is awesome. Wow. That was mind blowing, Christophe.
Justin:Thank you.
leon:That's just Yeah. Wow. This is a crazy episode. Yeah. Amazing.
leon:So good. Actually Crazy.
Justin:I went and got a blanket during that because it I was so chill. We were listening to it that my body temperature dropped. Like, I was like, this is, like, amazing. Yeah. Yeah.
Justin:It was
jacob:so good. Also amplify the womb.
leon:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
leon:It's great. Wow. That was incredible.
jacob:Wow. But yeah. So I don't I don't really have anything to to follow that up, but, I think it's going to yeah. It'll be a a small vibe change, but still in the very womb like womb like aspect. Rest in peace, Roy
Justin:Ayers. Sorry.
jacob:I just passed I away earlier this month. And I to be completely honest, I've don't think I've ever really knew his music. Mean, I've I've heard, you know, Ubiquiti like everyone else and have always had a fondness for that kind of sound. Whenever I'd hear some good vibraphone being played, I sorta immediately think that it was Roy Ayers and then be and it would be confirmed. And it's like, okay.
jacob:Yeah. He's you know, I like I like his music, but I had never, investigated his discography more, until his passing just earlier this month. And I I fell on a whole bunch of amazing stuff that was kind of I had no idea that he had made. So I'm gonna play a track off of a record from 1969. Herbie Man presents all blues Roy Ayers Quartet two.
jacob:The piece is called it's their cover of If I Were a Carpenter. There you go.
leon:Very nice. Oh, we can't hear you, Julio. We can't mutely,
jacob:I'm on mute. Yeah. That's Royair's quartet with their cover of If I Were a Carpenter. The quartet is made up of Bruno Carr on drums, Miroslav Vitus on bass, and Sonny Shiroc on guitar with Royair's band leading. I was like I mentioned, I I was not familiar with this aspect of of Roy Ayers music and was really, really surprised to see that he had played in a band with Sonny Charak or rather that Sonny Charak had played in a band with him.
jacob:And I did some reading, and it turns out that Sonny Charak was actually I think they met through Herbie Mann Yeah. Because Sonny Charak was was Herbie Mann's guitar player for a little bit.
Justin:That Herbie Mann record with with Sonny Shorrock is insane. It's so good. Yeah.
jacob:It's yeah. Yeah. It kinda goes back to what you were talking about earlier, Justin, about just the, you know, people's bandwidth with receiving certain things. I was reading that there was a lot of of tension with Sunny Sarac's presence in the band, both from the audience and within the band itself. Mhmm.
jacob:But to his credit, Herbie man was, you know, held strong and was determined to have to have Sherlock on as a guitar player and always made space for him for to to do his thing regardless of attention. But, yeah, I was really, really happy to to discover more of Roy Ayers' music.
leon:That's beautiful.
Christof:I wasn't familiar with Bruno Carr, but the drums
Justin:did insane.
jacob:Yeah. Really, really good stuff.
Justin:Been doing a lot of experimenting with the AI and and AI music and the AI and the and the all of the stuff. And, you know, the one thing like, it's shocking what it does and even shocking, like, how like, people are afraid of it. Right? So they don't push it. But if you push it, it does pretty crazy shit.
Justin:And but you can't it can't do rock. Like, I've tried so hard to make it do sunniesh rock, and it just cannot do it. And there's a really interesting thing about where that breaks and where, like, you know, what's interesting about the the the the phenomenological horizon that the people that are resisting that thing, AI does what's inside that phenomenological horizon super well, like, super well. Yeah. And it's it's all about that, and it it doesn't seem to be able to do this other thing.
Justin:And and that is the thing that is maybe that's the whole, like, secret to our our our what is not human is that it's the part that resists the boundaries of the phenomenological horizon. But, anyways, it's a yeah. It's a I appreciate sunny rock. Sunny.
Christof:Sunny rock.
Justin:Sunny Sunny Rock. Yeah. I
jacob:I also found out that he played he ended up playing the guitar because he has asthma, and he really wanted to play saxophone. Oh, Wow. Ended up taking up the guitar instead.
Justin:Yeah. What a guy. What a what a what a yeah. He's incredible. There's also weird intersections with him and electro acoustic music.
Justin:Right? Because there's that, like, I'm gonna massacre that guy's name, but the Turkish electro acoustic composer Ilan Mamargulu or, like and and he produced that phenomenal Linda and Sonny Chirac record in paradise with the, like, all the electronic effects on it. Shit. That is the bomb, that record. Like
jacob:That's the one with Linda with the feather on the cover? Yeah.
Christof:And that's
Justin:that's that that guy. Like, I can't, like yeah. The the all those worlds colliding in such great ways. Like, you get Herbie man, like, one step of removal from Yeah. The market.
Justin:Like, oh, man. That's the best.
jacob:That's, like, that's
Justin:where the juice of life is. It's great. I love it. Jacob, Jacob. Oh
leon:god. I'm stumped.
jacob:It's okay.
leon:I had planned on playing something else, but it wouldn't go well with this. But then I've got this other piece that I discovered recently, but I don't remember what it sounds like. Kind of. So I'm almost I'm kind of on this precipice of, like, should I press play, or should I not press play?
jacob:You kinda have to at this point, the way you set up.
Justin:You gotta set I think
leon:I think it might be really bad. Well,
jacob:we'll talk about it. We'll debrief.
Justin:We'll We'll debrief.
Christof:I'm kind of worried. I'm like,
leon:I don't remember what it sounds like, but I'm thinking it might maybe match, but I'm not sure. So I'm gonna press should I do it?
Justin:Do it. Go for it. The tension is mounting.
leon:Okay. Oh god. I don't know. Okay. It's you know, apologies if this totally doesn't work because I don't really the sound, so and I don't know what it is.
leon:I just discovered it. Okay. Here we go. I guess that's what that sounds like. Well
jacob:It worked out.
leon:Yeah. That's great. That's it. That's about it. That's about it.
leon:You gotta think dives. Sub dives. You gotta think dives.
Justin:How did you how did you get how did you get to that track? Where what led you to that track?
leon:I don't remember.
Justin:Anyway It was bombastic.
leon:It was bombastic.
Justin:That was some
leon:I Yeah. Anyway
jacob:I actually found some information online. Apparently Oh, have you? Yeah. They they only put out this one record, and their name, Los Ambo, the article is in French, but it's, from Burkina Faso from the language, and it means diminish the cheating.
leon:Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing.
Justin:Amazing. A great name. That's gonna be a I mean, that sounds like a like an Italian prog band on the Made to Measure reissue series. Diminish the cheating. Featured if you're
leon:a fay word of listening.
Christof:It's great. Honest. It doesn't wanna eliminate it. No.
jacob:No. Yeah. Exactly. She's Turn it down. Turn it down a level.
Justin:Love it.
Christof:I would like these deep gravelly voices like
jacob:Yeah. And
leon:sound. Good
Christof:in that same vein. Not musically, but the deep gravelly voice. It made me think of mandrill. Yeah.
jacob:Sure. Yeah.
Justin:Also, the mixing on that was really like, that was a well that was a well mixed record. That's a a really particular mix. It's great. Yeah. Well, I'm I'm glad you liked
leon:it. I loved it. I loved it. Oh, I'm really happy you guys liked it. Yeah.
Justin:It was great.
jacob:Maybe next episode should be, like, roulette. Just random. Great.
Justin:It's awesome. So so trying to follow that with a closing track is really interesting. I think I thought it went part way through and started to see if I could dig it up. I dug it up. It's it's kind of a a very interesting it's my attempt to trying to find a through line through everything, including that last track.
Justin:So and I'm gonna go I'm gonna go straight for the volcanic like, is magma volcanic? It's volcanic? Yes. Yes. It is.
Justin:I'm going I'm going for the volcanic answer to that question. So so we'll see how this plays out.
leon:That was perfect. That was perfect.
jacob:That was epic.
leon:That's amazing.
Justin:That's Christian Vander from Magma, is the drummer of Magma, right, which is super interesting because there's no drums on that track. Yeah. And he he started this offshoot band called Offering as a tribute to the music of John Coltrane. So Wow. This was this thing about his obsession with Coltrane, and and he but, like, you know, this is like cocaine is a hell of a drug.
Justin:Like, that's like, this is a but it's also really I mean, I love I love that track. It's really special. It's beautiful. It's really, really something. And, also, props to my friend Angie who is also one of the other people I really love listening to music with.
Justin:And Ang has a higher tolerance for Prague than I do, so she goes, like, she goes deep into, like, yes. Like, she makes me listen to John Evangelist records, and I'm like, okay. I can maybe I can maybe do it, but but so this definitely goes a bit towards that, but I I think that track's incredible.
leon:I think it's the perfect track for Kunjin.
Justin:It does some things. It does some things together.
jacob:Absolutely. It really sounded like the extended intro to, like, the the most bonkers disco track.
Justin:We might you might have an idea. Might be onto something, Leo.
jacob:Yeah. That was great.
Christof:Yeah. Very kind of a very loose. Like, I I was reading a bit about it, how it's improvised. It it does have that feel like he's just riffing. Yeah.
jacob:Yeah. But all you need is a riff, really. I mean, we've we've
Justin:spent a lot of that today. Yeah. Exactly.
jacob:You just need the one riff or the one part to reach for a riff, and then you're you're gold.
Justin:You're good. Yeah. Christophe, it was magnificent to have you on this episode. Thank you so much for joining us. Like, wow.
leon:It was such a good episode. Such a good episode. Amazing episode. Yeah. God.
leon:Making news is so
Christof:I was I enjoyed myself very much and learned learned quite a bit, actually, that which is one of the attributes of this podcast. It's really great.
Justin:Yeah. And, I mean, when guests come, man, they bring stuff to us that's so awesome.
leon:Yeah. That was amazing. I bought records
Justin:while we were here. I'm, like, buying them, like, mad. It's great.
jacob:Good stuff.
leon:Well, yeah, we get such a kick out of these, so it's really fun.
Justin:It's really nice to share it with somebody. It's really
Christof:awesome. Mhmm.
leon:Or maybe, actually, maybe one more thing. Like, Christophe, what are you working on these days? Or
jacob:what is it that Yeah.
leon:Yeah. That's really important. Ask you that, actually.
Justin:Yes. It was rude of us. It wasn't.
leon:I have
Justin:several things in the in the work.
Christof:I nothing can be pinned down, but I've been returning to lots of old things and then and just using that as raw material. Mhmm. A kind of classic pandemic offshoot. Some of it with Alexandre Saint Anges. We had a couple of recent releases in with that kind of spirit in mind.
Christof:One of them was Artichoke since Oh, wow. Mentioned that at the very beginning, top of the show, where we were Derek Letonneau, we were lovingly strangling each other. We revived that piece with conglomerate a couple times. And so that's I'm still in kind of that mode of retrospective without being kind of without having a being precious about that material. Mhmm.
Christof:This this, I think, could could have another life.
leon:And That sounds great.
Christof:Really exciting.
leon:That's awesome. Thanks for asking. Yep.
jacob:Alright. Well,
leon:thanks again for being with us, Gustaf.
Christof:Thank you, Doug.
jacob:Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for sharing time, for music.