Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall, by Kazui Ishiguro, first edition cover

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009) by Kazuo Ishiguro.  A collection of short stories, or more precisely, a story-cycle, Ishiguro’s first, after five novels, including A Pale View of Hills (1982), and The Remains of the Day (1989), awarded the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1989. ( A film adaptation of The Remains of the Day, made in 1993 and starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, was nominated for eight Academy Awards.)  Nocturnes’ stories all have, as a thematic element, musicians, music and, perhaps to a lesser extent, nightfall.  They are all well-written and vary from amusing to comic, sad to annoying, with an often trying dose of absurdity. (PR)

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top image: Wikipedia

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Darwin Got It Going On – Yo’, Chuckie D. Is In Da House

Baba Brinkman/The New York Times

Clearly, this post cannot be avoided.  Our preferred evolutionary biologist, Olivia Judson, has written yet another interesting article, entitled “Darwin Got It Going On” in the Opinion section of The New York Times (online) looking at, unexpectedly enough, the hip-hop/theatre piece by Baba Brinkman entitled “The Rap Guide to Evolution”!!  Quite obviously a MUST for all bipedal mammals, at the very least.
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Body Maps & Shifting Boundaries – Music & Video

Rachel Papo for The New York Times

“Body Maps”: The cellist Jeffrey Zeigler performing “Industry” by Michael Gordon at Galapagos Art Space on Friday evening

Steve Smith has written an article entitled “Boundaries Shift in Mixing and Matching of Artists and Images” in the Music section of The New York Times (online) describing “an evening of music and film featuring artists who have crossed oceans” at Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo, Brooklyn organised/curated/achitectured by the composer Paola Prestini, a founder of the interdisciplinary collective VisionIntoArt, and Beth Morrison, a producer who specializes in facilitating ambitious avant-garde collaborations, and including, among others, the cellist Jeffrey Ziegler of the renowned Kronos Quartet.   Sound’s very interesting.
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Monk’s Life: A Thelonius Sphere

David Yaffe has written a very interesting article, entitled “Misterioso” appearing in the Arts/Culture/Entertainment section of The Nation (online), which looks at the complicated, often very difficult, life, and wonderful, inspired music of one of jazz music’s greatest contributors, Thelonius Monk.  If you’re interested in jazz, or even the lives of, perhaps, wacked geniuses, or the burdens of creativity or anything at all, we’re certain that you, too, will find the article fascinating. 

Read the article, then go to Spotify and listen to what it’s all about, then do your bit for the music industry, and the economy in general and purchase some, or all, of Monk’s albums.

Wikipedia on Thelonius Monk, here.

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Open Your Ears! Microtones Are Everywhere!

Greg Sandow, in his blog on ArtsJournal, has written a post entitled “Crossing Cultures” concerning a few of his own personal learning experiences concerning world music (or “World Music”, preferably):  Afro-Caribbean-Guatamalan 18th century classical music (Yes!), Australian-Aboriginal loose-knit melodic-rhythmic cycles (not really improvisations, but highly, interestingly, out there), and Tunisian modal microtones (you can listen to for yourself!), and a snippet of Sibelius!.  And all this in the name of the future of classical (Western) music!  Ambitious, fascinating, a bit complicated, but fun for everyone with ears.  And aspiring to a Night in Tunisia.

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