Search Results for : Concerts

Kraftwerk and my new (outdated) obsession

I giddily attended the final concert of Kraftwerk’s week-long residency at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which kicked off the Minimalist Jukebox (a giant celebration/exploration of minimalism hosted by the LA Phil). Classical KUSC posted my review on their blog.

I’ve recently developed a rather insatiable thirst for both orchestral minimalism (à la Philip Glass) and European synthpop, and Kraftwerk is at the hip heart of the twain. It all started, basically, when I interviewed Hans Zimmer about Man of Steel last summer, where he mentioned how much his music (his “rock and roll” scores) is influenced by the likes of Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, et al. Since I really like Zimmer in general, his comment sent me on a quest to discover the music of his influencers, and I’ve come across a few bands and albums that—with their retro ’80s synth effects and very of-their-era style—at an earlier point in my life I would have absolutely abhorred, and in the light of current day seem like they should be caveated as silly, guilty pleasures. But for some reason I am really tuned to the frequency of the signature sounds and beats of the decade of my birth (maybe that is the reason), and I’m gobbling up music by Giorgio Moroder, Alphaville, The Buggles, Pet Shop Boys, Vangelis, and of course Kraftwerk. (TRANS…EUROPE…EXPRESS.)

Film music shines at the first ever Oscar Concert.

I went to the rather brilliant first Oscar Concert last month, and wrote a review for Film Score Monthly Online. Here’s a taste:

The biggest surprise of the night was Gravity, which I was certain would crumble apart in the denuding light of a live concert. It did not, and the pre-recorded electronic elements were brilliantly synchronized with the live players, generating a slowly building, visceral thunder in the modest hall that surged through and electrified the audience. I was already defending this score and its Oscar nomination—it is effective and emotional, more than warrants its blend of sound design and music, and does far more heavy (narrative and environmental) lifting than most film scores—but I was utterly stunned when Price’s inherently Frankenstein, cut-and-paste, computer-reliant construction came alive and roared in the hands of a symphony orchestra. A good omen for its win three nights later.