a) thanks for all the info about ken ishii... i'm sure i asked that one
before: on steve reich's "music for 18 musicians", there's a cello player
named ken ishii. as other people that have played in reich's ensemble have
also made moves towards electronic new age dance stuff (late 80s) (david
van tieghem), could it be the case that those two ishiis are one and the
same? well, i know, "18 musicians" is from 1975...
b) the techno site is in california, usa. if you access it via gopher,
that's all you have to know.
c) the reason why so many people get inspired by indian stuff, i think, is
(and i know this is not the whole story - i don't know about the attraction
that the religious stuff exerts), but it's the part of it that i can talk
about):
because firstly, rhythm is a basic ingredient of indian classical music,
and it has developed an extraordinary richness of rhythmic structures;
secondly, rhythm is very interesting to people in the west nowadays (i
don't have to get into this further, you all know);
thirdly, indian music is accessible in the sense that the amount of
available recordings is such that it gives you more than a glimpse of the
culture (self-fulfilling, ok, but the idea is that we're beyond the
threshold that marks the boundary between exoticism and true interest);
fourthly, it's accessible in the sense that the harmonies and such are not
disturbing the western ear (i personally think they`re way to sweet even);
and fifthly, and this i think is rather important to explain why africa and
bali are much less popular: the musician's attitude is familiar to the
westerner's. the musician is an artist, and the music has forms that have
narrative structures and developments, with beginnings and ends and all.
west africa and bali are very different. this said, it's absolutely clear
why phil glass, whose main influence is india, writes operas, and steve
reich, whose main influence is/was west africa and gamelan, does not.
in short, india, of all those cultures we can learn from with respect to
rhythm, is the one that is closest to ours, and easiest to understand.
(especially wrt techno or dancefloor artists though, the west african
approach to structure should not get unnoticed. in fact it doesn't , all
that polyrhythmic stuff (with those acid lines of three, five, seven or so
notes that everyone is familiar with) is reminding of west african stuff,
but probably not influenced by. well...)
convincing?
p.