It was four years ago on this day that this blog was born. I would like to thank all of the contributors (both official and unofficial) who have helped make this blog a success. I also would like to thank my fellow bloggers for their good shares and support of the Closet. Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank all of the loyal visitors for their patronage and also to those who stopped by to check out the place.
I admit that posting has been slow during the past few months. I should be able to go back to regular posting very soon. I would like to get year #5 off to a good start. Also, I am thinking about making a few small changes in the blog, but that is for the future.
Meanwhile, this post is about the past. I have been looking back upon the four years this blog has been in existence. I have enjoyed my time running this blog. Despite my increasing busy schedule, I would like to continue adding to the Closet and try to make this blog even better.
If you could do a small favor for me, would you tell me what are your favorite posts. The amount can be whatever you want to list, your top 5 or top 10 or whatever number. Thank you in advance.
Happy B-day Closet & thank you for existing! I'll be glad to make a list of my favourite posts later.
ReplyDeleteI also will dedicate my next post to this event.
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ReplyDeleteHey,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is so wonderful ! Thank you so much for all the work you put in it, it's really appreciated !!
Here it is http://leisurespotblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/happy-b-day-closet-of-curiosities.html
ReplyDeletehappy nativity closet o' curios! the best post ever was the thailand joint on musical atlas from many moons ago which has since seemingly vanished from this fine palace of wisdom. in the whirlwind that is life, i seem to have lost side b of the thang, but that's another matter entirely. apart from the all the fine 'world musique' that once inhabited these waters, the other best posts [here or anywhere] would have to be the unique instruments series. wound up opera, early pianos, carillion concert, harry partch, baroque organ. i have been listening to these frequently & there's no other place to find em let alone hear em, so much belated thanks & long live closet o' curios.
ReplyDeleteCongrats! My faves are the nature field recordings and the early electronics records.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, Closet! Many happy returns of the day!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't pick a favorite post if I tried, there have been so many great ones. The variety and esoteric nature of the material you post is what keeps me coming back. Closet of Curiosities has always been about expanding musical boundaries. I can always count on you to post something unique and original. You've introduced me to so many great composers and artists, I can't thank you enough.
I hope you always find time to maintain this blog, and that you have enough extra to fill up the Basement, too. :)
Is it four years already? Congratulations. There have been so many splendid posts...but Rita Ford's Music Boxes immediately come to my mind. I use the albums a lot for my radio programs.
ReplyDeleteI visit your blog when I want to hear something unusual. I'm surprised to see how you continuously manage to find things that are beyond categorization - and which are really good at that
Congratulations on a great site, you've brought a lot of music into my life. My favorites are the Cage and Feldman posts. Would like to see more Scohenberg and his school, and would like to see more vocal music. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteYour closet makes Narnia seem shallow - Happy Birthday! You'd be old enough to drink if you were a dog now. Cheers!
ReplyDeletei'm still making my way thru all of the environmental nature sounds. those are sometimes really interesting... the sales & motivation stuff is always cool, too.... sometimes during a long drive, i get tired of music & enjoy hearing the speakers... owl was right about the instrument series being very unique, obscure and enjoyable....
ReplyDelete=D
THEY ARE ALL VERY VERY GOOD!!!!!!
Too many good ones to start a list, but I find myself returning to Abdallah Chahine often...also Strumming music.
ReplyDeleteI found my way here because of that post on Morton Feldman. I've been coming back ever since.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! Happy anniversary!
I must tell you that you had a big influence on my musical education :)) Thank You for that.Your record collections is amazing.I have singled out
ReplyDelete(alphabetically) some of many great records.I love music pictures like for radio-drama, electronic, woodwinds, percussions, piano. flute...etc :))
brian bowman - euphonium (1978)
donald erb - music for instruments & electronic sounds (1969)
donald erb - the contemporary composer in the usa (197x)
e.fisher, v.aveling, m.binns - v. & a. - early pianos vol. II (1968)
george antheil, henry brant - ballet mecanique, signs and alarms galaxy 2
george crumb - madrigals makrokosmos III
harry partch - and on the seventh day petals fell in petaluma (1966)
henri lazarof - music of henri lazarof
i.dahl, f.lesemann, w.kraft - i.dahl, f.lesemann, w.kraft (1973)
j.cage, l.harrison, h.cowell, a.roldan, w.russell - concert percussion for orchestra (1961)
jacob druckman - animus iii, synapse-valentine (1971)
jacob druckman - windows, dark upon the harp, animus ii
jere hutcheson - contemporary ensemble works
john lewis, harold faberman - orchestra u.s.a. sonorities (1965)
k. korte, m. davidovsky, m. kupferman - music for flute & tape
l.nono, k.fukushima, l.berio, u.lehmann - the new music vol. 3 pt.1 (1968)
leos janacek - capriccio & concertino for piano... (1965)
los angeles brass quintet - brass roots
myriam marbe - serenata, concerto..., time found again (1982)
o.messiaen, a.schoenberg - seven haikai, chamber symph. op. 9; 3 pcs. for orch (1967)
p.m.davies, l.dlugoszewski, w.hellermann - the new trumpet (1965)
otto luening - music of otto luening (1975)
paula ennis-dwyer - solo piano works by 20th century women composers
radio nederland - v.a. - opus '69 (1969)
radio nederland - v.a. - opus '70 (1970)
radio nederland - v.a. - opus '71 (1971)
radio nederland - v.a. - opus '81 (1981)
rita ford - music boxes in stereo
saul goodman - bell, drum and cymbal
severino gazzelloni & aloys kontarsky - music for flute and piano (1962)
st. james ringers - fanfare for bells (1980)
stefan wolpe, george crumb - trio, eleven echoes of autumn 1965
toru takemitsu - coral island, water music, vocalism ai (1969)
vivienne und dirk keilhack - musik fur 20 finger (1977)
w.riegger, o.luening, c.mcphee - w.riegger, o.luening, c.mcphee
Hi
ReplyDeleteI just want to tell you how wonderful your blog is, I appreciate it very much!
There is no single post I like best, I rather like the variety of what you present to us.
Wishing you all the best for what is still to come
Daniel
too many to list
ReplyDeletemany happy returns
Your blog is like a good omen bird always ready to oviposit, much to sonic regalement among the uninitiated and aficionados alike.
ReplyDeleteI only list here the music I was not familiar with, and which left me deeply enthralled:
1. Mayuzumi "Nirvana Symphony"
2. VA "Electronic Music/Music concrete panorama of experimental music" (2LPs)
3. M.Feldman: "Coptic Light"
4. Erguner Brothers: " Preludes to the Ceremonies of Dervishes"
5. I.Marshall: "Fog Tropes"
6. Budoyo: "Central Java"
7. Miyoshi-Takemitsu-Mayuzumi
8. M.Redolfi: "Jungle"
9. M.Feldman: "Rothko Chapel"
10. R.Reynolds: "Ping Traces"
11. B.Truax: "Islands"
12. VA Electronic Music Winners
... and many, many others.
Thank you!
Congratulations!!!
ReplyDeleteand many thanks for your hard and excellent work.
all the best! keep on the good work!
ReplyDeletemy top 5
Bernie Krause - Mountain Stream [+all nature & field recordings]
Erik Satie - [vinyls]
John Cage - Variations LP's
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Telemusik/Mixtur
VA-New Electronic Music from Leaders of the Avant-Garde
I'm finding it almost impossible to list my fav's. I'll just say that I found all those records of traditional Japanese music particularly fascinating and precious but I also enjoyed many, many, many other albums.
ReplyDeletecongrats!! have been enjoying you bloggin' for some time now... nice!!! please keep it up!!!
ReplyDeleteHearty congratulations are in order. Best Wishes!
ReplyDeleteAnother wonderful year of audio treasures! Thank you so much for keeping this excellent blog updated with all sorts of goodies.
ReplyDeleteMany happy returns!
ReplyDeleteYours is a great blog all ‘round, but I guess I’m particularly attached to the old electroacoustic stuff, as is evidenced by my following top ten:
1. The Empreintes DIGITALes posts, Gilles Gobeil, Francis Dhomont, and not least the latest one from Denis Smalley (you don’t happen to have Jonty Harrison’s 'Environs' or Michel Chion’s 'Préludes A La Vie' lurking somewhere in the Closet do you?)
2. Pierre Schaeffer's 'L' Oeuvre Musicale' (with the withdrawn cig-smoking sleave, where he looks like Henry Fonda in Once Upon A Time In The West!)
3. Electronic Xenakis, and in particular the 'Persepolis + Remixes'
4. The Electronic Music release featuring 'Night Music' by Richard Maxfield
5. The two Barry Traux releases
6. John Cage 'Imaginary Landscapes' & 'Variations IV' Vols. 1 &2
7. 'The Artistry of Sergio Cuevas' - harp music!
8. 'Prepared Piano: The First Four Decades'
9. 'The Piano Music of Henry Cowell,' and the Nancarrow release with alternate version of one of the his player piano studies.
10. 'The Music of Otto Luening'
Haven’t yet gotten round to the Eric Satie posts but they look pretty epic as well.
I like the fact that you got the blog rolling 4 years ago with Ralf & Florian as this is one of the records that switched me on to electronic music many moons ago ...
Long may your good work continue - it’s very much appreciated.
Best wishes
hi and congrats :) I've been regular visitor on your blog for like 3 years now and I love everything. Mostly nature field recordings but I enjoy avantgarde stuff also. Thank you very much for everything. Best wishes!
ReplyDeleteim new here, happy birthday
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the great work over the last few years. Flicked back over your previous posts, and here's a (very) rough top-10:
ReplyDelete1. Gentle Fire (1974)
2. Allan Bryant - Space Guitars
3. Christian Wolff: WERGO 60063 & American Contemporary
4. Pierre Schaeffer - L'Oeuvre Musicale
5. Annea Lockwood - Thousand Year Dreaming
6. various artists compilation - New Electronic Music from Leaders of the Avant-Garde
7. George Crumb - Makrokosmos Vol. 1 & 2
8. Erik Satie - Vexations
9. Jacob Druckman - Animus III/Synapse->Valentine
10. Harry Partch - And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma
Of course some stuff, not listed here, I have heard before, but these recordings have helped enrich my life over the last few years. Cheers.
Happy Birthday.
ReplyDeleteDon't they give out medals to bloggers who don't burn out after three or four years? Merit badges?
I like the environmental sound recordings, but I don't know how many more there are because I think you've posted most of the ones that were in existence.
And I like a lot of the other stuff too.
In other words, just keep on doing what you've been doing.
Hey!
ReplyDeleteThis is Dominic from Gigante Sound. We recently released, Motown Meltdown: Volume 2, a free viral download record of bizarre re-workings of well known Motown hits all sourced from the original multi-track and karaoke recordings. These are not 'remixes' over a breakbeat but complete re-imaginings of Motown classics. As one reviewer wrote of the first volume, "I think they took the Motorcity sound to "Git Mo" to torture it before they murdered it...I have sampled in the past and may again in the future,but I never inhaled...whatever these guys did. " WFMU were big supporters of the first record as were many college radio stations around the US and as far afield as Portugal!
We are now promoting Motown Meltdown: Volume 2 and wondering if it caught your interest, if you wanted to put it up on your blog. This roots approach is really the only way we have to publicize the record so we are approaching various blog sites who's taste we feel is similar to our own and see if people are interested in writing about it. You can find it here:
http://www.gigantesound.com/artist_motown.html
Again, it is a free download so feel open to do whatever you want with it! Thanks for your time
Dominic Cramp
Gigante Sound
Happy Birthday and thank you for all the sounds i discovered because of you. Before i came across your blog i used to listen to contemporary jazz and modern classical music (and i'm an absolute Zappa fan). But the spectrum of musical types has been widened (is that english ?) since i download music here and i'm very grateful for that.
ReplyDeleteAnd i urge you to post more George Crumb type music.
From France...Thanks
Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy!
ReplyDeleteHAPPY BIRTHDAY & thanks for much pleasure - you*ve been on our favourites list since we first got netted 2 years ago. Too forgetful to do a list of favourite posts, but generally like the modern "classical" most, and the field recordings least - but see from previous comments that I*m in a minority there so don*t worry about that. Thanks masses again. Pip
ReplyDeleteThank you to everyone who has commented so far. I enjoyed reading your comments and your favorites. The requests and suggestions will be noted.
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