SYR 4: Goodbye 20th Century [ENHANCED]

John Cage (Composer), Cornelius Cardew (Composer), Takehisa Kosugi (Composer), George Maciunas (Composer), Pauline Oliveros (Composer), Yoko Ono (Composer), Steve Reich (Composer), Nicolas Slonimsky (Composer), James Tenney (Composer), Christian Wolff (Composer), Coco Hayley Gordon Moore (Performer)

Product Details

• Performer: Coco Hayley Gordon Moore
• Composer: John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, Takehisa Kosugi, George Maciunas, Pauline Oliveros, et al.
• Audio CD (November 16, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Sonic Youth / Syr
• ASIN: B00002R0NC
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,301 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Music > Classical > Instruments > Percussion
  #2 in	Music > Classical > Featured Composers, A-Z > ( R ) > Reich, Steve
  #3 in	Music > Classical > Featured Composers, A-Z > ( C ) > Cage, John

• This is item 4 in The SYR Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Wildly influential four-piece Sonic Youth have self-released their version of a tribute to the 20th century: two discs of noisy interpretations of modern, experimental classical scores. The group has chosen composers whose works leave a great amount of innovation open to the performer. This chance-embracing approach--typified and in some senses originated by John Cage--is one of the crucial turning points of "new" music. What's great about this CD is that it demonstrates the freewheeling, decidedly unserious spirit behind this music, essentially combining the legacies of punk rock and out-sound. In addition to three late works by the chance-loving Cage, there are pieces by current Merce Cunningham collaborator Takehisa Kosugi, minimalist giant Steve Reich, "deep-listening" drone lover Pauline Oliveros, and Fluxus founder George Maciunas. Longtime collaborator Wharton Tiers, the young everything-ist Jim O'Rourke, and even some of the composers themselves join in on these exercises. The result is messy, fun, and anarchic, with occasional revelations (notably James Tenney's "Having Never Written a Note for Percussion"). It's not a disc to play all the time, but it is a challenging, enthused record that ideally will point listeners toward some of the most vital music of the last half of the last decade of the second millennium. --Mike McGonigal

Product Description
1999 & fourth release on their own SYR label. 13 tracks. The CD format is a double disc set that's enhanced with the CD-ROM video to George Maciunas' 'Piano Piece #13 (Carpenter's Piece) For Nam June Paik'. The album contains music composed by abstract artists like Yoko Ono, Steve Reich, John Cage and Christian Wolff. Gatefold slipcase. 1999 release.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars sy's exclamation point for the millenium, November 16, 1999

By	dave (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews

fascinating... it's a look forward and backward. it reminds me a lot of the spaciousness of sound that the band achieved with bad moon rising, although a lot less disciplined.

i remember seeing a clip on vh1 once with lee ranaldo talking about city sounds and how he loved to open his window and listen to the rhythms of everyday street noises. this album captures it beautifully, with its random occurences of guitar squawks, cymbal crashes, and syllables.

although i have already dismissed some of the songs (the nascent "edges" among them), i have a feeling that this one pays off on each successive listen. "pendulum music" and "six for new time" are damn near highpoints of sy's career- it's the kind of pretention that they have always reached for. this time it works better in execution than theory.

if this is their millenial exit, i can't wait to see what they're going to come up with for an entrance.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hello 21st Century., February 20, 2000

By A Customer

To the fellow who's review contained this statement: "In any event, it would seem laughable that anyone could draw any connection between Sonic Youth's interpretations and original works (in any category of music)." I would have to totally disagree with you here. Having heard the works of John Cage, Christian Wolf, James Tenney, Cornelius Cardew and Steve Reich there is a connection by SY's interpretations. Connecting these intrepretations to the original (if there is such) is not the intention here, yet you cannot disregard the ideas of the composers. Eventhough these pieces incorporate improvising, most of the works are composed and are documented as such and SY used the 'scores' as they were intended...as guidelines (i.e. Cornelius Cardew's 'Treatise' is a 193 page graphic score). There are obvious references to the composer's intentions in these interpretations, that is if you listen closely and if you've heard their works before. Yet it isn't necessary to be aquainted with them. Laughable? i think not...The original composer's intentions of these works are not entirely "serious" or "high-brow avant-gardisms", for instance John Cage did many things to break that down (i.e. his silent piece 4'33") and i think Sonic Youth here have continued in that idea.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathing room., December 5, 1999

By A Customer

I have collected most of Sonic Youth's albums over the years, and this is presently my favorite. Featuring music composed by the likes of John Cage and Takehisa Kosugi as well as Yoko Ono and Steve Reich, the long tracks massage and spark. Unlike the usually in-your-face brashness that makes sonic youth sonic youth, this album features wide spaces of repetitive sounds that layer, merge and then gradually taper away. This is truly an innovative album, unlike any other from Sonic Youth. Few vocals except for Kim Gordon's occasional spoken (shouted?) word. I love it and haven't taken it off the turntable since I got it.