Missed Connections

I'm not sure what place comparative music studies have on the mp3 blog scene, but driving home late last night with the iPod on shuffle I made a connection between two, at first glance, vastly different artists that I would like to share with you. So, as part of my "Missed Connections" series, here is your official LTBN personals.

You: walked in to the bar late last night, right before last call, with a plaid shirt muscle-tee and navy blue keds. Made a name for himself after remixing Yelle's cover of "A Cause des Garçons" and in 2005 released Côte Ouest. His instrumental originals sound a little midi-ish, often reminding one of the "Demos" you hear on cheap keyboards. But Tepr, or Tanguy Destable as he is known to some, has fresh, funky vision and it works. Melodies overlap one another, and he lets song build itself up quite satisfactorily.

TePr - Deutschland to italia (1987) (alt)

Me: the English chap sitting at the bar, slightly balding with thick rimmed glasses, clutching a gin and tonic. Michael Nyman, fringe-classical musician and minimalist, published a study on experimental music and John Cage in the seventies. Best known for his film scores in which he developed a distinct style of mathematical baroque sound. Each note, although played by a full orchestra, seems to have been entered as part of a logarithm in a super computer. Nothing is accidental, and his compositions--such as "Wheelbarrow Walk" from the soundtrack for Drowning by Numbers--unfold in the same way a computer loads up. Like Tepr, no note is improvised or accidental, and yet there is something inherently organic about their songs. If interested, want to meet for coffee?

Michael Nyman - Wheelbarrow Walk (alt)