Kvist006 - Tom Hamilton - Pieces for Kohn/Formal & Informal Music

Artist: Tom Hamilton
Release Date: Spring 2010
Limited run of 500 on 2xCD
Reissue of 2 out-of-print works originally released on the artist’s own Somnath label. Formal and Informal Music contains the title piece Formal and Informal Music (1980), and Crimson Sterling (1973) for electronics, winds and percussion, and also features JD Parran, woodwinds and saxes, and Rich O’Donnell, percussion. Pieces for Kohn is comprised of four electronic pieces, musical responses to four paintings by artist Bill Kohn.

Tracks

Disc One – Pieces for Kohn

Modhera	Sample mp3
Bonampak	no audio sample
Girnar	Sample mp3
Fatehpur	no audio sample

Disc Two – Formal and Informal Music

Formal & Informal Music	Sample mp3	Tom Hamilton – E-mu microprocessor keyboard, Serge synthesizer, custom electronics. Rich O’Donnell – bass drums, bowed cow bells, tabla, gamelan gongs, talking drum, marimba bars, timpani, cymbals. JD Parran – flute, clarinet
Crimson Sterling mvt. 1	Sample mp3	Tom Hamilton – ARP 2500 synthesizer Rich O’Donnell – tubalum, koto-veen, aqua-lips, sprahng, Chinese cymbal, tom-toms, timpani, Roto-toms. JD Parran – alto flute, alto clarinet, nagaswaram, alto saxophone
Crimson Sterling mvt. 2	no audio sample
Crimson Sterling mvt. 3	Sample mp3

Album Art

Kvist006 - Tom Hamilton - Pieces for Kohn/Formal & Informal Music (front)

Kvist006 - Tom Hamilton - Pieces for Kohn/Formal & Informal Music (back)

Reviews

“I (still) consider “pieces for kohn” no less than one of the most important american electronic music statements of the 20th century ; it should be mentioned and observed/experienced alongside the (frankly, far less interesting) canon(s) of morton subotnick, jacob druckman, priscilla & bart mclean, et.al … fans of 60s / 70s electronic and/or synthesizer music (ala douglas leedy, nik pascal, steve birchall, and the like) ; i give this, to you, my highest recommendation !!!”

- Keith Fullerton Whitman – Mimaroglu Music Sales

“Ce sont ici des œuvres complexes à grand déploiement, faites de grappes de notes dont la logique ne se construit qu’avec le temps. Beau d’une beauté étrange et d’une esthétique étonnamment chaude.

These are grand and complex works made of clouds of notes the logic of which becomes apparent only in time. Beautiful, of an alien beauty and surprisingly warm aesthetics.”

- Francois Couture – Journal d’écoute / Listening Diary

“This is an excellent piece of work. A great find in the vaults of musical history.”

- Frans de Waard – Vital Weekly

“For admirers of analog synth-based electronic music from a time when ideas in this idiom were flowing like a fully-opened faucet, Hamilton’s vintage pieces are essential… Taken together, Tom Hamilton’s Pieces for Kohn/Formal & Informal Music tells the story of his advanced and innovative world of music when his ideas were just coming into focus. The issuance of these works on CD’s fills a big hole in Hamilton’s currently available discography.”

- Pico – Something Else

“…carefully (dis)placed sonics, music with a subtle spatial logic…”

- Brian Morton – The Wire