More Pynchon Music!

[Joseph Tracy]

Cool Interview. He was very open and real about his music and artistic drives. I listened to a couple of the Kush ATD tracks and liked bilocations more than the other. Listened to some other pieces and particulalry liked the Shalabi Effect album.Our musical tastes may run in opposite directions, since you like prog and I mostly don’t. I am currently favoring Japanese and Chinese ambient music , African Korah, Devendra Banhart, who actually just did a meditative instrumental album withNoah Georgeson, Madredeus, Rokia Traore,  The musical explorations/collaborations of Ry Cooder. I also like good singer songwriters from Greg Brown to Leonard Cohen, Richard Thompson ,Dylan,   the Decembrists or Fleet Foxes. Bach, John Adams, Yo Yo Ma,  but also intense rockers  and roustabouts like Gogol Bordello or Tom Waits. Musical tastes are weird, a least mine are, as they keep shfting and then returning; but the filters get more exclusive. 
   Anyway I am always looking to be surprised by new music so appreciate your research and interviews. There was Jazz group you raved about that I really dug and listened to for awhile  but then lost track of. More than anything I like to play music with friends and my daughter who is better than me, but we play well together. 
Anyway, glad to hear from you and hope all is well. As to mental sanity , if you aren’t losing it at least a little, you probably aren’t paying attention.  Course maybe paying attention ain’t all it’s cracked up to be either.  

> On Aug 4, 2022, at 9:40 AM, Allen Ruch <quail at shipwrecklibrary.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello, Whole Sick Crew!
> 
> After taking some time off to regain my mental sanity, I return bearing a few (hopefully welcome) musical gifts:
> 
> The first is this interview with Sam Shalabi. For those of you who may not be familiar with him, Shalabi is a Canadian-Egyptian musician and composer, the creative genius behind the 30-person jazz-rock-psychedelic orchestra Land of Kush. In 2009, Shalabi and Kush recorded “Against the Day,” inspired by the Pynchon novel of the same name. It’s a fucking AMAZING album—Oum Khlasoum meets Sun Ra meets Frank Zappa meets Silver Apples, etc., etc., best to just listen to it. Seriously, of all the Pynchon-spired music I’ve covered, this is one of my all-time favorites.
> 
> It’s also a favorite of Christian Hänggi, the fellow who wrote “Pynchon’s Sound of Music” and edits the “Pynchon and Music” pages at Tim Ware’s amazing Pynchon site. So Christian and I teamed up to interview Sam Shalabi, and that interview is now live:
> 
> http://shipwrecklibrary.com/the-modern-word/interview-sam-shalabi/
> 
> Shalabi is a great interview subject, and discusses a wide range of topics in a stream-of-consciousness style: Thomas Pynchon, James Joyce, musical shamanism, Nasser-era big band music, jazz, Arabic Maqam, William Gaddis, etc. It was definitely a fun interview, and Shalabi is a 100% dyed-in-the-wool Pynchon fan who discusses most of his books.
> 
> The other Pynchonian music news comes from Christian Hänggi. He’s in the United States right now, promoting his excellent book in NYC and Philadelphia. As some of you may know, Hänggi worked with a few NYC musicians to produce an album of Pynchon songs:
> 
> https://now-everybody.party/wp/
> 
> Christian asked me to post this information along to the List. His Pynchon group is playing two upcoming gigs:
> 
> August 13
> Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn, 9 PM
> https://www.petescandystore.com
> 
> August 14
> Franky Bradley’s in Philadelphia
> https://frankybradleys.com
> 
> Also, Christian has a book launch in Brooklyn for “Pynchon’s Sound of Music”:
> 
> August 11
> Unnamable Books, 7 PM
> https://unnameablebooks.square.site
> 
> You can read more details here:
> 
> https://now-everybody.party/wp/live/
> 
> Sadly, a prior commitment disallows me from attending the concerts, but I’ll be at the book launch! I hope to see some of you there!
> 
> —Quail
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>