Charlemagne Palestine

The latest transmission from Joachim Montessuis curated Erratum imprint sees the return of the inimitable Charlemagne Palestine, casting a spellbinding invocation of organ ritual music.  A self-described “maximalist composer”, Palestine originally developed his organ technique in 1964 with a debut performance as an organist in New York City, after decades of recognition since the 1960s, as a leading Minimalist composer and visual artist. He has long been fascinated by drones, rituals, repetition, extended duration and the physicality of sound. And this double LP set truly is a trance-indulging meditation, inexorably thickening and deepening, glowering and resolving and slowly clearing, exulting in the sonority of massed pipes.

This 70min organ concert was recorded in 2012 in Strasbourg Cathedral during the «Transes» symposium at Hear. This was a unique performance in the cathedral’s history and an important performance for Charlemagne Palestine, showing him at his best, slowly developing a wild crescendo and filling the gigantic space with his own ritual full of trance and ecstasy. 2015 marks the millennium of Strasbourg Cathedral, with a long-form improvisation that provides an engaging, immersive experience.
Ultra-vivid edition, 2LP that comes in a deluxe glossy gatefold cover + double 180 gr vinyl + printed download code coupon inside, 500 copies only...

Charlemagne Palestine is an American composer, performer, and visual artist. A contemporary of Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Phill Niblock, and Steve Reich, Palestine wrote intense, ritualistic music in the 1970s, intended by the composer to rub against Western audiences’ expectations of what is beautiful and meaningful in music. A composer-performer originally trained to be a cantor, he always performed his own works as soloist. His earliest works were compositions for carillon and electronic drones, and he is perhaps best known for his intensely performed piano works. Palestine's performance style is ritualistic: he generally surrounds himself and his piano with stuffed animals, smokes large numbers of kretek, and drinks cognac.