Harmonie Du Soir

Orchestra works, notably guitar orchestra, but also woodwinds join the fray of his unique manner of hypnotic composing. Long tracks, multifaceted, instrumental. History: Chatham has a resume that goes back to 1971, NYC avante music. In the mid 70’s he was influenced by punk and No Wave and formed a guitar ensemble that included Glen Branca. Branca went on to work with guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, who credit Branca/Chatham for their unconventional dissonant approach to guitar making Sonic Youth arguably the most influential band on current pop music (giving rise to all things My Bloody Valentine, then a thousand noise pop/shoe gazers, leading to whats called indie rock today). Listen to the way these guitars sound as opposed to how the guitars back in day did, e.g. Clapton, Foreigner, Creedence, Sabbath. Chatham reinvented the instrument so that today’s pop music doesn’t sound like the straight G-A-C chords of yesteryear. Lesson over. Now go to lab (or the library and check out our vinyl copy of Sonic Youth’s very first release, The Burning Spear).

1) (22:30) simple chiming at start, a false ending leads to more intensity, followed by a mellower bookend and a crashing end
2) (20:27) starts quietly with a tom tom beat, sustained woodwinds, this piece is highly orchestral, similar to the previous in the layering of tones except that woodwinds are used instead of guitar
3) (9:37) radio friendlier length, this one rocks out in utter dissonant driving fashion and in it you hear what Sonic Youth basically ripped off and got very famous for