Finished up a few Dylan discs this week, and ripped some discs here and there as the week went on. Tonight was the first night in a week though that I made a more focussed effort in ripping discs though. Celia picked out ‘Meddle’ by Pink Floyd as well as compilations by U2 and The Ventures, and I also grabbed a stack of Arvo Pärt.
Like a lot of people my age that grew up or went to college in the Bay Area or Sacramento, Laser Floyd is probably a shared experience. Though complete playings of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ was a popular playlist at these shows I preferred starting that disc up while watching ‘Wizard of Oz’. The Laser Floyd I saw was more of a career overview that jumped from ‘Meddle’ to ‘The Wall’ back to a track for ‘Dark Side’. I’m not sure if this was a good experience or a bad one (not being into hallucinogens)… but I don’t like that every time I hear a Pink Floyd song I think about laying on my back in Morrison Planetarium watching lasers draw patterns on a ceiling. I don’t think I ever ‘got’ the rock laser show. The only laser / rock show experience I ever was amazed by was the great use of lasers one time at a The Might Be Giants show, and I think seeing something done in a live performance was more impressive to me then something put together to a CD being played loudly.
The Pärt discs were mostly choral works tonight, including ‘Miserere’. I bought this disc one day when Tamiko was out of town. When she is gone, I have a hard time falling asleep, and thought some nice calm Arvo Pärt would be good going to sleep music. Wow, was I wrong.
The first part of the piece is stunning. Organ, voices and a very pointillistic and bell-like texture. Started off pretty good. Then the full force of the choir and ensemble blasted force in a rather violent fashion. At the moment, it scared the crap out of me and I think it took me an extra hour to get to sleep. In hindsight, it is one of the most well prepared moments in his music. Not only had the texture of the piece set me up to be blown away by this moment, but the cliches of his own style had. There is quite a bit I liked about Pärt before this, but after this moment I had a much higher respect for his work. I listened to it again the next day and while I was expecting it, I still appreciated how well this piece is written.