Customer Reviews

John Cage: Cheap Imitation

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Maybe not the best inauguration to John Cage, but also one not to be overlooked. If you like being alone sometimes, listening to your windchimes outside the window while contemplating anything from the matter of your existence, to how to dislodge a rust encrusted cotter pin from your automatic transmission shifter -- but the wind happens to be in short supply -- put this guy on. It's seeming randomness has a likeable windchiime like quality -- only instead of lowly teak or aluminim tubes, think of a grand piano hanging from the porch being tickled by the breeze. Good for what ails you. I like it.

An interesting college appearance by Cage. The music is a very meditative, almost ethereal solo piano performance by Cage on a wonderfully-sounding piano. He lets the brilliant harmonics of the notes ring out following somewhat exotic progressions almost absent-mindedly. Truely an minimal performance that has more in common with ambient music than say, indeterminism, but it does have a bit of that as well in the progression of the pieces. There is also that wandering aspect of Satie that is, of course, prevalent throughout the recording. Not a cheap imitation, but a rich tribute.

From reading the album notes, apparently there was a rainstorm pounding the roof during the performance. If you listen very closely you can hear it, but it is a very good recording so you can barely hear the rumbling and pounding in the background. A worthwhile recording, but not recommended for those new to Cage.