My first avant-classical mix

Update (20 February 2012): Now available on mixcloud.

Something a bit special here. Or at least I hope so.

Below you’ll find links to a mix that I’ve been working on, on and off, for the last few months. I’ve long wondered what a fully mixed set of avant classical would actually sound like, and even if it was possible at all. However, although I know of plenty of DJs who drop classical works (of whatever stripe) into their sets every now and then, I’ve yet to come across any that do so for more than a couple of tracks at a time. (If anyone has any pointers or recommendations though, I’d love to hear them.)

So, I figured I’d give it a bash myself. Even though I don’t own any decks, or even any proper mixing software, and have never done any mixing before. The whole thing was done in Audacity, with no pitch changes, tempo changes, and only minimal edits and fades. I’m quite pleased with this side of it, although at points I think some more sophisticated EQ tools might have been handy. (The ogg version by the way sounds much better in this respect than the mp3.) And there’s a minor glitch about 4 minutes in that I wish I could be bothered to get rid of.

Although I didn’t start out with any rules, a set of guidelines for myself did evolve. Because I wanted to wanted to prove something to myself – that it was possible to mix with a certain kind of flow using avant garde concert music – I tried to avoid heavily rhythmic minimalism, etc, which would have been easy and not entirely original. So amongst the composer names there’s some compromise to approachability, but not much. The fact that the only nonclassical tunes are all early-90s shoegazy stuff is pure coincidence and more a reflection on my personal tastes and the sort of widely resonant spaces that started to come out of the mix as I was putting it together than any starting plan. At one point I did have Messiaen’s Et exspecto… pushed up alongside ‘Reduction’ by postpunkers Material to surprisingly funky effect, but I couldn’t quite get it to work in the mix.

The two files (the same thing, in ogg and mp3) are on YouSendIt, so they’ll be valid for 7 days or 25 downloads each. If there’s a big demand I might re-up them at some stage. Please leave feedback!

Long Shadows – avant-classical mix by Rambler

1. Meredith Monk – Long Shadows 1
2. György Ligeti – Cello Concerto, 1st mvt
3. Terry Riley – In the Summer
4. Alvin Lucier – I am Sitting in a Room
5. Ride – Nowhere
6. Gerard Grisey – Partiels
7. Chas Smith – October ’68
8. György Kurtág – Stele, 3rd mvt
9. Arvo Pärt – Solfeggio
10. Arne Nordheim – Solitaire
11. Gabriel Prokofiev – String Quartet no.1 (Max de Wardener remix)
12. Slowdive – Souvlaki Space Station
13. Dead Voices on Air – Funfundsiebzig
14. Dave Seidel – Sublimation
15. Morton Feldman and John Cage in conversation
16. Morton Feldman – Rothko Chapel
17. Curve – Hung Up
18. Meredith Monk – Long Shadows 2
mp3 | ogg

Update: ANAblog have generously uploaded the mp3 version to their hosting service, so once the YouSendIt links expire you can get your copies here.

Update 2: The mix is now uploaded as an mp3 to Rapidshare – click here. And I know Rapidshare (as a free service at least) can be a bit buggy – to say the least – but take my advice: invest a few quid in a monthly pass. All downloading bugs disappear, you’re not locked into any sort of contract with Rapidshare, and with the number of out-of-print albums populating Rapidshare at the moment you can go download crazy for next to nothing.

Update 3: You might also be interested in the mix I did for Blogariddims; available here.

Update 4: Uploaded once more at Megaupload: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SXXLATXH