GAVIN BRYARS--Tips, please

[achilles]

A friend says I'm totally out of it not knowing this man's
recordings. My friend is unstable, unreliable, but brilliant.

Any tips? What Bryars should I seek out?
What's his music like?

Thanks, pals :)

[Brian Olewnick]

ooh! ooh! I know!!

OK, here's the problem: His very best stuff is oop. He began as a free improviser and can be heard to that effect on a disc by the trio known as Joseph Holbrooke; there's a beautiful 1998 recording on Incus with Tony Oxley and Derek Bailey.

But his rep is largely based on the two masterworks originally released on Brian Eno's Obscure label in the mid 70s, "The Sinking of the Titanic" and "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet". The former is an evocation of the historic event, imagining the ship orchestras continuing to play underwater. The latter is a tape loop of an elderly street person singing a plaintive hymn; little by little, orchestral instruments emerge in accompaniment. It's a simple idea but devastatingly moving. These were briefly re-issued on Virgin in 1998 but swiftly went oop. Get them if at all possible. Both pieces have been re-recorded a few times and you should be able to find them on Point ('Jesus' w/ a guest vocal by Tom Waits). They're fine and enjoyable but, imho, don't match the orginals. There's also a spectacular hour long version of 'Sinking' on the Belgian Les Disques du Crepuscule label from 1990 but again, oop and tough to find.

There's a gorgeous trio album on that same label, from the early 80's, called 'Hommages', pieces for piano, vibes and cymbals--not sure if that's currently available nowadays.

His career was revitalized when he signed with ECM in the early 90's. I like some of his works there very much, particularly 'After the Requiem' (Evan Parker featured on one piece), but they become spotty eventually. He gets more and more syrupy as time goes on, imho, his deep romantic nature getting a bit treacly. There are usually nice aspects of any given disc but also stretches of tedium. Of the more recent things, I kind of liked 'A Man in a Room Gambling', a series of short radio pieces accompanying card sharping lessons.

I'd say check out one of the Titanic/Jesus recordings (bearing in mind that they're better represented elsewhere), see what you think and go from there.

[bluenoter]

I was just looking at AMG online's entry for him, and I noticed that Barnes&Noble online claims to have (some edition of) Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet in stock, available within 2-3 days. I didn't check any of the other albums.

And achilles, FWIW, you can also listen to soundclips from Jesus' Blood at B&N online (and maybe elsewhere).

[achilles]

thanks, brian & bluenoter--it appears that both the
jesus and the titanic releases are available, so i guess
i'll be putting out some dough.

[Monte Smith]

I agree with Brian O. The effect of JESUS' BLOOD NEVER FAILED ME YET is devastating. I can't even type the words of the title without hearing the wheezy, earnest voice of the homeless singer from the tape loop. I have only heard the re-recording with Tom Waits and would love to hear the original, if anyone has a copy or knows where I can find it.

I love TITANIC as an intellectual exercise, but I can't listen to it with any real sustained enjoyment. I have a 1995 Argo recording of Bryar's with the Balanescu Quartet playing a couple of string quartets and "The Last Days" for two violins. Its pretty good stuff, quite mournful with a few light spots. Maybe its because the players are Eastern European, but this record seems to walk a line between gray English depression and gray Eastern European Cold War depression...like this is the music that would be played if Ingsoc had ever come to fruition, per George Orwell.

[james harrigan]

a dissent:

I heard a recording of "Jesus' Blood..." as accompaniment to a performance by Ballett Frankfurt at BAM last year. It was, without a doubt, the most tedious and enervating piece of music I have ever endured. What Brian and Monte found moving, I found unbearably heavy-handed, repetitive, banal, and frankly exploitative. Incidentally, the dancers were spectatcular, but the choreography was hateful. Other than that, I had a great time.

needless to say, your mileage may vary.

[Brian Olewnick]

Jeez, I hope at least the chairs were comfortable! ;-)

It's interesting--the first time I ever heard the piece was on radio, WKCR, sometime in the late 70's. Gregory Sandow had an afternoon new music show and he played 'Jesus Blood' as an example of what he played for friends who complained that there was nothing new being written that was on a par with the "classics" (the European tradition of Beethoven, etc.) more in terms of emotional depth than technique and so on.

But, as James said, your mileage may vary.

On the way in this morning, I remembered another Bryars piece that also appears on an Obscure recording, one shared with Christopher Hobbs and John Adams. The piece is called, "1-2, 1-2-3-4" and involves the performance of a moody, noirish jazz number by, I think, a quartet, mostly written music. But the musicians wear headphones that don't allow them to hear each other. So they begin in sync, but gradually drift apart, creating a marvelously dreamlike soundscape, very much akin to what Angelo Badalamenti would come up with (using different means, of course) some 20 years later.

[walto]

"Jesus Blood" reminds me a bit of a piece recorded by the Kronos Quartet that has a repeated segment of a mother mourning the recent loss of her child. I tend to vacillate on both as to whether the pieces are, as James says, exploitative, or, as others here think, extremely moving. I think it depends on my mood.

[Brian Olewnick]

Is that a Bob Ostertag piece? He has one that utilizes a tape of a Salvadoran (I think) child crying alongside the grave of his/her slain mother. This comes closer, for me, to exploitative...hard to say, but it's very harrowing.

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally posted by Brian Olewnick
Is that a Bob Ostertag piece? He has one that utilizes a tape of a Salvadoran (I think) child crying alongside the grave of his/her slain mother. This comes closer, for me, to exploitative...hard to say, but it's very harrowing.

No, the one Walt's talking about is "Doom, a sigh, for voice and Rumanian Folk Ensemble" on "Black Angels".

[walto]

Right, OZ. Thanx.