This week’s program began, as usual, with no particular agenda in mind… browsing through my music library and choosing tracks to play, then going over the sequencing in an iTunes playlist to see how to order them intuitively for thematic, conceptual or narrative flow with appropriate segues. I tend to focus on older recordings, while keeping an ear out for new releases that I can fit into the scheme of things. So you’ll find many of my old favorites here: Roxy Music, Faust, Michael Cashmore, Scivias and Pearls Before Swine, interspersed with sundry oddities and pop songs, such as that gorgeous rendition of “Black Hole Sun” by Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme.

The featured new release here is the debut recording by A Winged Victory For The Sullen, that being a duo comprised of Adam Wiltzie (from Stars Of The Lid) and composer Dustin O’Halloran (a name unfamiliar to me till now). It’s an exquisitely beautiful recording: seven tracks of wistful and austerely crafted ambient chamber music, scored for piano, strings and wind instruments. This is top-shelf material in a class with Arvo Part and Harold Budd.

And with the extended four-hour program length, I like to feature at least one long work of thirty minutes or more, so this week it’s The Death And Beauty Foundation, a project (belonging to British artist Val Denham) which was active in the 1980s, opening for bands like Psychic TV in the UK and issuing only one or two self-released cassette recordings. In 2008 Val passed this archival material into the competent hands of Andrew McKenzie (better known as The Hafler Trio), who mixed and produced a 53-minute CD composed of 21 short songs all sequenced into one mysterious, sprawling soundscape (indexed as a single track on the CD). Tonight we heard the entire album in the final hour of the program.

Next week, I’ll shine the spotlight on Iggy & The Stooges, in observance of their impending visit to the city for two concerts at the Warfield Theatre on September 12 & 13. And I’ll also be featuring material by various Fluxus artists (such as La Monte Young and Yoko Ono) on the occasion of the three-night Fluxus Semicentenary that Other Minds will present on September 15-17.

Listen To The Podcast

The playlist gives artist name, song title, and album title (in that order). A space between lines of text indicates the break between sets where track announcements were made.

Playlist for Mindtrain 06 – 06 September 2011

• Faust – No Harm – So Far

• The Virgin Prunes – Sandpaper Lullabye – A New Form Of Beauty
• Roxy Music- The Bogus Man – For Your Pleasure
• David Tibet & Steven Stapleton – The Dead Side Of The Moon – Octopus
• Pearls Before Swine – Ring Thing – Balaklava
• Scivias – Et Nos Servasti Eternali Sanguine Fuso – Mysteria Mithrae (Compilation)
• Pierrot Lunaire – Mein Armer Italiener – Gudrun

• Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme – Black Hole Sun – Lounge-A-Palooza (Compilation)
• Steven Stapleton & Tony Wakeford – The Frightened City – Revenge Of The Selfish Shellfish
• Coil – I Don’t Get It – The Ape Of Naples
• Angelo Badalamenti – Theme From Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me – Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Original Soundtrack)
• Coil – Copal – Moon’s Milk In Four Phases (Bonus Disc)
• Henry Mancini – Lujon – Mr. Lucky Goes Latin
• Julie London – Go Slow – Ultra Lounge, Vol. 6: Rhapsodesia (Compilation)
• Nurse With Wound – The Self Sufficient Sexual Shoe – Rock ‘N Roll Station

• Michael Cashmore – Track 5 (Untitled) – An Introduction To Suffering (Compilation)
• Jack Nitzsche – Rolls Royce And Acid – Performance (Original Soundtrack)
• Maja Elliott – Echo / Echo Craters / 1000 Water Craters On The Sea – 1000 Water Craters On The Sea
• Brian Eno – By This River – Before And After Science
• A Winged Victory For The Sullen – We Played Some Open Chords – A Winged Victory For The Sullen
• Hector Zazou – Ophelie – Sahara Blue
• Brian Eno – Everything Merges With The Night – Another Green World
• Michael Cashmore – A Silence Song, Silent – An Introduction To Suffering (Compilation)
• Scott Walker – Someone Who Cared – Stretch
• Beaver & Krause – All Good Men / Waltz Me Around Again Willie / Real Slow Drag – All Good Men

• The Death And Beauty Foundation – The Death And Beauty Foundation – The Death And Beauty Foundation

• A Winged Victory For The Sullen – Requiem For The Static King, Parts 1 & 2 – A Winged Victory For The Sullen