Bryars: The Sinking Of The Titanic / Barnett, Bryars Ensemble, et al

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Bryars's The Sinking of the Titanic is one of the oddest and at the same time most mesmerizing works to come out of this end of the century. It began in 1972 as an abstract art piece that kept on building and changing in the composer's mind. It's a ghostly tapestry of eerie echoes, distant sounds almost like whale songs, and interjected rifts representing the band that was playing even as the boat sank. This is a masterpiece that rewards repeated listenings. --Paul Cook

Bryars: The Sinking Of The Titanic / Barnett, Bryars Ensemble, et al, Music, Gavin Bryars, Caroline Dale, Lucy Thornton, Orlanda Bryars, Sophie Harris, Ziella Bryars, Roger Heaton, Gavin Bryars, James Woodrow, Dave Smith, Martin Allen, Alexander Balanescu, Bill Hawkes, Camilla Thornton, Jonathan Carney, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Experimental, Minimalism

Bryars: The Sinking Of The Titanic / Barnett, Bryars Ensemble, et al
Average customer rating:

Music For Sinking Ships

Unobtrusively ambient

Meditative

probably perfect...

Plaintive, haunted and hypnotic.

Bryars: The Sinking Of The Titanic / Barnett, Bryars Ensemble, et al

Manufacturer: Philips
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
Experimental Music | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
Minimal Techno | Techno | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
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Release Date: 1995-02-14

Tracks:

The Sinking Of The Titanic: Opening Part I
The Sinking Of The Titanic: Titanic Hymn (Autumn) All Strings
The Sinking Of The Titanic: Hymn II
The Sinking Of The Titanic: Interlude
The Sinking Of The Titanic: Hymn III
The Sinking Of The Titanic: Hymn IV (Aughton)
The Sinking Of The Titanic: Opening Part II
The Sinking Of The Titanic: Titanic Lament
The Sinking Of The Titanic: Woodblocks
The Sinking Of The Titanic: Last Hymn
The Sinking Of The Titanic: Coda

Amazon.com

Bryars's The Sinking of the Titanic is one of the oddest and at the same time most mesmerizing works to come out of this end of the century. It began in 1972 as an abstract art piece that kept on building and changing in the composer's mind. It's a ghostly tapestry of eerie echoes, distant sounds almost like whale songs, and interjected rifts representing the band that was playing even as the boat sank. This is a masterpiece that rewards repeated listenings. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews:

Music For Sinking Ships.......2007-04-03

"The Sinking of The Titanic" is a beautifully subtle, evocative, and haunting work. Though composed before ambient music became its own genre, I would defintely describe it as such. Gavin Bryars utilizes strings, minimalist vocals and 'found sounds' to paint this mournful yet hopeful soundscape that seems to float. If you're looking for great ambient/contemporary classical music without any annoying bombastic percussion mucking things up, you'll love this gorgeous work.

Unobtrusively ambient.......2004-12-04

Like Phil Glass this piece relies on repeating relatively simple patterns in layers that slowly change the overall colour of the sound without any obvious melodic or key changes. Unlike Phil Glass rhythm has virtually no place in this piece. It moves like a light mist over the valley of your listening ear.

Predominantly strings, pensive but not unhappy in mood, it would be a fitting to have it playing in the submersible's cd player while you scouted around the wreck of the Titanic when it was on the bottom of the ocean, wondering about the what-ifs of the lives lost, who last drank out of that coral encrusted champagne glass, who's pocket that coin fell from...

Also good to go to sleep to if, like me, you love to drift off to music.

Meditative.......2001-02-06

I wonder how many people bought this recording thinking it had something to do with the "Titanic" movie? And if so, how many kept the recording? Their loss. This is a great work, well performed and recorded. Repetitious without being monotonous, it's the aural equivalent of watching light move across the water as seen from beneath the surface. Recommended to fans of Eno, Philip Glass, and their contemporaries.

probably perfect..........2000-06-25

This music destroys me. I'm a huge fan of pretty much everything Gavin Bryar's has recorded, but this one probably beats out all else. It's a tough call between this and 'Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet', but I think this one wins out. 'Titanic' is some of the most beautiful, haunting music that I've ever heard. I've heard it called good ambient music, good music to play in the background. I couldn't disagree more. This is music that -demands- every iota of your attention. Put it on, lie down, turn out the lights and just listen to the whole thing. It is a truly overpowering experience. Bryar's has a way of doing this.

Plaintive, haunted and hypnotic........2000-04-09

As Bryars explained in the sleevenotes, The Sinking Of The Titanic is a musical equivalence of a piece of conceptual art, I couldn't agree more. The plaintive, haunted and hypnotic piece creates a three-dimensional music-scape and effective draws the audience into it. Bryars is a minimalist, his mastery shines through the no nonsense arrangement of the piece. The Sinking, with its languid melodies, dreamlike tones and environmental noises, is reminiscent of the Ambient genre. But is should be noted that the piece was originally written in the late sixties, a time when the term "ambient" was yet to be coined. Also, The Sinking consists of mostly live orchestra sounds, which is way more sophisticated and transcendent than electronic sounds. Recommended!

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