Album Club, August 2015: Philip Glass – ‘Koyaanisqatsi’

[Album Club]

The Album Club choice for August is something a little different from the usual submissions. This because we have a ‘no show’ from the person who was scheduled to submit a title: we’re not naming names – you know who you are! So we are grateful to Barry for stepping in at the last minute with his choice: ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ by the modern composer Philip Glass.

As always please listen to the album in its entirety before you vote.



Philip Glass – ‘Koyaanisqatsi’

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51vHP3B1WpL._SY355_.jpg

This could well be something of a Marmite choice: you will either love it or hate it. It is quite challenging and far from being easy listening, but you may find you like it and if you don’t, you will find it boring - you might even find it frightening! Anyway, it’s what the Album Club is all about.

So Koyaanisqatsi, pronounced: Ko-Yaa-Nis-Katsi, is a word from the Hopi language. The Hopi are a mystical native North American tribe and Koyaanisqatsi can be variously translated as: crazy life; life in turmoil; life disintegrating; life out of balance, or a state of life that calls for another way of living.

Quoting from the sleeve notes:
This album contains selections from the soundtrack of the motion picture Koyaansiqatsi … a film that, without dialogue or narrative structure, produces a unique and intense look at the super-structure of modern life.

Koyaanisqatsi lets you experience the acceleration and density of modern society in a new way. It invites you to consider the benevolence of technology and the notion of progress in the world we live in. A world out of balance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koyaanisqatsi

There are six parts to the soundtrack:

1 Koyaanisquatsi (3:30)
2 Vessels (8.03)
3 Cloudscape (4.41)
4 Pruit Igoe (7:02)
5 The Grid (14:50)
6 Prophecies (8:10)

A translation of the Hopi Prophecies sung in the film are:

“If we dig precious things from the land we will invite disaster”

“Near the Day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky”

“A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the ocean”.

Sounds a bit grim? Well maybe. Perhaps ‘prescient’ might be more accurate and ought to make you think about what we’re doing to the planet; it’s certainly meditative, if not mesmeric.

Anyway please give it a listen - and listen to the end (however be advised, it lasts 1 hour and 13 minutes). If you last the course and like it, you might want to look at the film of the same name for which this music is the soundtrack.

t-t8w08QNJM

CD: Island IMCD 98 (814 042-2), 1983

[Audio Al]

Oh GOD please make it stop :eek:

Its like audio torture , It goes on and on and on and on , Arrrrrr

Thats a slice of my life gone

Defiantly a disturbing Marmite Horror for me

Forgive me father for I have , Arrrr :eek:

[Ingrid]

Are we just to listen to the first third?
The piece makes more sense if you listen to the whole thing.

[RMutt]

Amazing and mesmerising film. The music is incredible. One of the few 'classical' pieces of music I can listen to over and over again. For anyone who gives up on it, and I would of course urge you not too, go to the last section Prophecies. One of my favourite pieces of music so 10/10 for me.

[leg7]

Count me in

[Barry]

Oh GOD please make it stop :eek:

Its like audio torture , It goes on and on and on and on , Arrrrrr

Thats a slice of my life gone

Defiantly a disturbing Marmite Horror for me

Forgive me father for I have , Arrrr :eek:
Well I did say it was a 'Marmite' choice!

So not as good a Oleta Adams? How about this: _5Hr1C62Smk? :lol:

[Audio Al]

:doh: Oh come on . Really :doh:

[Gordon Steadman]

I didn't immediately dislike it but I feld asweep!

[Gazjam]

Voted.
Sign of a good music that you either love it or hate it!

[Box13]

The Album Club choice for August is something a little different from the usual submissions. This because we have a ‘no show’ from the person who was scheduled to submit a title: we’re not naming names – you know who you are! So we are grateful to Barry for stepping in at the last minute with his choice: ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ by the modern composer Philip Glass.

As always please listen to the album in its entirety before you vote.



Philip Glass – ‘Koyaanisqatsi’

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51vHP3B1WpL._SY355_.jpg

This could well be something of a Marmite choice: you will either love it or hate it. It is quite challenging and far from being easy listening, but you may find you like it and if you don’t, you will find it boring - you might even find it frightening! Anyway, it’s what the Album Club is all about.

So Koyaanisqatsi, pronounced: Ko-Yaa-Nis-Katsi, is a word from the Hopi language. The Hopi are a mystical native North American tribe and Koyaanisqatsi can be variously translated as: crazy life; life in turmoil; life disintegrating; life out of balance, or a state of life that calls for another way of living.

Quoting from the sleeve notes:
This album contains selections from the soundtrack of the motion picture Koyaansiqatsi … a film that, without dialogue or narrative structure, produces a unique and intense look at the super-structure of modern life.

Koyaanisqatsi lets you experience the acceleration and density of modern society in a new way. It invites you to consider the benevolence of technology and the notion of progress in the world we live in. A world out of balance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koyaanisqatsi

There are six parts to the soundtrack:

1 Koyaanisquatsi (3:30)
2 Vessels (8.03)
3 Cloudscape (4.41)
4 Pruit Igoe (7:02)
5 The Grid (14:50)
6 Prophecies (8:10)

A translation of the Hopi Prophecies sung in the film are:

“If we dig precious things from the land we will invite disaster”

“Near the Day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky”

“A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the ocean”.

Sounds a bit grim? Well maybe. Perhaps ‘prescient’ might be more accurate and ought to make you think about what we’re doing to the planet; it’s certainly meditative, if not mesmeric.

Anyway please give it a listen - and listen to the end (however be advised, it lasts 1 hour and 13 minutes). If you last the course and like it, you might want to look at the film of the same name for which this music is the soundtrack.

t-t8w08QNJM

CD: Island IMCD 98 (814 042-2), 1983

If one does not own this album, where is the recommended source to purchase it from please?
[I don't 'watch' you tube, I listen to music]

[Barry]

The record/CD is Island 814 042-1 (LP) or 814 042-2 (CD) as stated at the end of the piece. Where you buy it from is entirely up to you.

If you don't use YouTube, you will have difficulty following and taking part in the Album Club, unless of course you own the particular album in question.

[Wakefield Turntables]

I like it, maybe one for the purchase list. I would have to listen to it again when I have a little more time. Thanks for the recommendation.

[RMutt]

I watched a bit of the backwards one for a lark. The images are still amazing. Someone in the comments asked whether if they watched this one, would they unwatch the original? Maybe Audio Al could try it? What did interest me was how recognizable the music is backwards. I would have known it instantly. It's a bit like that phrase with the letters of words mixed up into the wrong order, but which you can still read easily.

[Audio Al]

Yaw on

Worg ssarg eht hctaw gniticxe erom raf gnihtemos od 2 ffo m'I

:)

[RMutt]

Ha ha. The new Leonardo da Vinci.

[Gordon Steadman]

Shouldn't it have been 'Worg ssalg eht hctaw'?

[Gazjam]

Its really nice on Vinyl..subsonic bass tingles yer testies...

[high.spirits]

Marmite for me I'm afraid.

Later I watched one part with video from Youtube and it appeared not so tedious. The whole thing as pure audio just does not do it for me. 2/10.

[HackneyRF]

A brave and inspired choice Barry. A recording that will provoke a response one way or another so that's gotta be a good thing right? I feel it's one of those things that works so much better with it's companion piece i.e. the film.
However I Might well to put it on the headphones for another listen alongside 'Music For Eighteen Musicians' on a long walk this weekend. Go on Audio Al, give it a go you might like it. ;). Thanks for the heads up Barry

Cheers

Loz

[WAD62]

Superb ground-breaking music...some people don't deserve ears ;)

10/10

[Barry]

Well as expected my choice turned out to polarise opinion - a 'marmite' choice.

Anyway thanks for listening (or trying to listen) to it. We all need something a little challenging in our lives.

10/10 from me, although the poll is now closed.

[struth]

Nearly averaged 7 Barry, so not too bad.

[Bazil]

Very good , something I could put on repeat .
I listened on Deezer to the original soundtrack album 46 mins.
Deezer is free btw. I find it a bit more user friendly than Spotify , here is the link :-

http://www.deezer.com/album/231840

Sorry I missed the poll , 8/10.

[The Night Watchman]

HI all,
Just joined the forum.
Came across this post looking for some listening inspiration.
Try listening to or preferably watching (on Blue-ray) "Powaqqatsi" by the same Composer and directed by Godfrey Reggio.It's currently available on Amazon:
Koyaanisqqatsi and Powaqqatsi Blue-Ray bundle on Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005UX9ZW6?keywords=powaqqatsi%20blue%20ray&qid=1456314125&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3)
I confess I have a vested interest, I was one of the Directors of Photography on the film.
The film is shot in slow mo throughout..it's quite mesmeric...OK , the music may be not to everyone's taste
but in combination with the images, which it was written for, it becomes something more.
Since that film, the Philip Glass's style of music has been copied and used on many films and tv productions, once you are aware of it, it springs up everywhere!
Great forum!

[Barry]

HI all,
Just joined the forum.
Came across this post looking for some listening inspiration.
Try listening to or preferably watching (on Blue-ray) "Powaqqatsi" by the same Composer and directed by Godfrey Reggio.It's currently available on Amazon:
Koyaanisqqatsi and Powaqqatsi Blue-Ray bundle on Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005UX9ZW6?keywords=powaqqatsi%20blue%20ray&qid=1456314125&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3)
I confess I have a vested interest, I was one of the Directors of Photography on the film.
The film is shot in slow mo throughout..it's quite mesmeric...OK , the music may be not to everyone's taste
but in combination with the images, which it was written for, it becomes something more.
Since that film, the Philip Glass's style of music has been copied and used on many films and tv productions, once you are aware of it, it springs up everywhere!
Great forum!

I have both those DVDs Graham. It was seeing Koyaanisqqatsi on TV that introduced me to the music of Philip Glass and ultimately to my Album Club choice.

I prefer both watching/listening Koyannisqqatsi to Powaqqatsi, but to those who cannot stand the first, I doubt if they would be interested in the second. Both are mesmeric to watch, and as one of the Directors of Photography, may I offer you my congratulations!

And welcome to AoS! :)

[The Night Watchman]

Thanks Barry,
It was an interesting time in my career!
Looks pretty good on Blue-ray I must say.
Atb
Graham