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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Bryars's The Sinking of the Titanic is one of the oddest and at the same time most mesmerizing works to come out of this end of the century. It began in 1972 as an abstract art piece that kept on building and changing in the composer's mind. It's a ghostly tapestry of eerie echoes, distant sounds almost like whale songs, and interjected rifts representing the band that was playing even as the boat sank. This is a masterpiece that rewards repeated listenings. --Paul Cook
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This music destroys me. I'm a huge fan of pretty much everything Gavin Bryar's has recorded, but this one probably beats out all else. It's a tough call between this and 'Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet', but I think this one wins out. 'Titanic' is some of the most beautiful, haunting music that I've ever heard. I've heard it called good ambient music, good music to play in the background. I couldn't disagree more. This is music that -demands- every iota of your attention. Put it on, lie down, turn out the lights and just listen to the whole thing. It is a truly overpowering experience. Bryar's has a way of doing this.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I wonder how many people bought this recording thinking it had something to do with the "Titanic" movie? And if so, how many kept the recording? Their loss. This is a great work, well performed and recorded. Repetitious without being monotonous, it's the aural equivalent of watching light move across the water as seen from beneath the surface. Recommended to fans of Eno, Philip Glass, and their contemporaries.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By A. Laye
Format:Audio CD
It isnt mentioned in any other reviews or in the product description that this version includes Philip Jeck and Alter Ego. Most viewers already know that the piece of music has been performed with many different ensembles and ranges from 15 minutes to 80 minutes in length. This recording, however, is my favorite. Philip Jecks turntablisms are more for sound construction than for "DJing" in the traditional sense of the term. Alter Ego consists of strings, brass, winds, percussion, keyboard, tape recorder and sound design. This ensembles interpretation of this peice of music is truly breathtaking and beautiful - adjectives I do not use lightly. Besides the georgious instrumentation, I much prefer the production of this record over the 1995 version. I will refrain from falling into the trap of making comparrisons or saying "fans of [x] will enjoy this", but for my personal tastes, this one one of the best pieces of music I have ever heard. Highly recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
"The Sinking of The Titanic" is a beautifully subtle, evocative, and haunting work. Though composed before ambient music became its own genre, I would defintely describe it as such. Gavin Bryars utilizes strings, minimalist vocals and 'found sounds' to paint this mournful yet hopeful soundscape that seems to float. If you're looking for great ambient/contemporary classical music without any annoying bombastic percussion mucking things up, you'll love this gorgeous work.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Hingehead
Format:Audio CD
Like Phil Glass this piece relies on repeating relatively simple patterns in layers that slowly change the overall colour of the sound without any obvious melodic or key changes. Unlike Phil Glass rhythm has virtually no place in this piece. It moves like a light mist over the valley of your listening ear.
Predominantly strings, pensive but not unhappy in mood, it would be a fitting to have it playing in the submersible's cd player while you scouted around the wreck of the Titanic when it was on the bottom of the ocean, wondering about the what-ifs of the lives lost, who last drank out of that coral encrusted champagne glass, who's pocket that coin fell from...
Also good to go to sleep to if, like me, you love to drift off to music.
Predominantly strings, pensive but not unhappy in mood, it would be a fitting to have it playing in the submersible's cd player while you scouted around the wreck of the Titanic when it was on the bottom of the ocean, wondering about the what-ifs of the lives lost, who last drank out of that coral encrusted champagne glass, who's pocket that coin fell from...
Also good to go to sleep to if, like me, you love to drift off to music.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
Bryar's Titanic is unforgettable. It is, literally, stunning. You feel as though you are in the water, as though you yourself are drowning, caught up in the confusion and timelessness, the slowing down of time as life washes over you. The haunting theme of "Autumn" becomes ever fainter, as you slip down to the bottom of the ocean, and become one with the ghosts. Chilling. Eerie. Definitely one for any collection.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As Bryars explained in the sleevenotes, The Sinking Of The Titanic is a musical equivalence of a piece of conceptual art, I couldn't agree more. The plaintive, haunted and hypnotic piece creates a three-dimensional music-scape and effective draws the audience into it. Bryars is a minimalist, his mastery shines through the no nonsense arrangement of the piece. The Sinking, with its languid melodies, dreamlike tones and environmental noises, is reminiscent of the Ambient genre. But is should be noted that the piece was originally written in the late sixties, a time when the term "ambient" was yet to be coined. Also, The Sinking consists of mostly live orchestra sounds, which is way more sophisticated and transcendent than electronic sounds. Recommended!
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
Every time I listen to this, my favourite Gavin Bryars recording, I hear something new and interesting. It has great depth, and pulls on so many forms of music. Wonderful
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
obvious, superficial
I can't imagine that the reviewers who call this meditative, deep, poignant, etc. have much truck with the music of Morton Feldman, because if they did, they would hear this muzak... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Warren Rhodesia
1.0 out of 5 stars
Over and Over and Over....
I'm not sure what the composer was going for here, but when I heard this on the radio I was done in about two minutes; but it wasn't. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Charles F. Blakeman
4.0 out of 5 stars
Which of three versions is this?
An all music website reports that "The Sinking of the Titanic" had been recorded three times. The first, for Brian Eno's Obscure label, was a landmark recording, but went swiftly... Read more
Published on August 5, 2008 by JMHO
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Unusual, but very Satisfying
When I first bought this cd and listened to it, I must admit I didn't care for it, and I didn't listen to it for quite a while after that. Read more
Published on December 29, 1999 by D. Storm
5.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting, eerie, beautiful
Gavin Bryars composition is a strikingly beautiful, hypnotic and emotional imagination of the "sound" of the Titanic as it sank to depths. Read more
Published on October 17, 1998
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