Unfortunately, I missed the first couple of weeks of class due to illness however I am now catching up with everything I missed.
Over the past few weeks we have been looking at some Avant Garde music and artists in class. This is a genre I am really not familiar with in any sense so it has been cool to find out more about something new!
Avant Garde music is known for being characteristically "ahead of it's time" and really pushes the boundaries of what is considered to be labelled as "music".
One of the true pioneers of this genre of music was John Cage. He experimented with means such as silence (as music), nature sounds, electronic currents, even the physical movements of the composer themselves. Some people find it hard to see how some of the pieces he composed can be called "music" but I think if you look at Avant Garde music with a truly open mind, you can get much more from it that just seeing it as "noise".
John Cage - Water Walk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSulycqZH-U
More Up to date Avant Garde music has a much more digital based sound due to the advances in musical technology over the past two or three decades. A lot of the Avant Garde music I have come across has a lot of experimental sounding noises and textures which you wouldn't usually find on a standard track on the radio for example.
These are two more recent examples of Avant Garde music.
George Marauder - Noise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3IrrRJlX3c
Kenji Siratori - External Scream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTdpu__yAiw&feature=related
This type of writing has even worked it's way into the world of heavier music, again using a lot of electronic devices to create some of the very strange sounds heard alongside the standard rock set up. Even just the concept of not having a "structure" as such to a piece, a lot of Avant Garde Metal seems to almost just go wherever it seems to feel like with the structure and musicality.
Quote Unquote - Mr Bungle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtDEmtwuTlI&feature=rellist&playnext=1&list=PL56FA073844C92AE0
Hypno5e - Day Break At SlaughterHouse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGUOXMLJ18Y&feature=BFa&list=PL56FA073844C92AE0
