Music Of A Sinking Occasion

Music Of A Sinking Occasion Artist: L'Altra
Label: Aesthetics Records
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 673431000828
EAN: 0673431000828
ASIN: B00004U367


Release Date: 2000-08-08

Music Of A Sinking Occasion


Related Categories:

General General
Categories | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Experimental Rock Experimental Rock
Categories | Rock | Alternative Styles | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
General General
Categories | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
General General
Categories | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop Rock Pop Rock
Categories | Pop | Styles | Music
Experimental Music Experimental Music
Categories | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Tracks:

  1. Music of a Sinking Occasion
  2. Little Chair
  3. Room Becomes Thick
  4. Slow as Cake
  5. Motorme
  6. Lips Move on Top of Quiet
  7. Handwashing for Good Health
  8. Say Wrong
  9. Movement
  10. Music of a Sinking Occasion.Final

Similar Items:

  1. In the Afternoon
  2. Different Days
  3. L' Altra

Amazon.com's Best of 2000

The young Chicago combo L'Altra fashion a post-rock music that is melodic and abstract at the same time. The songs are intriguing at first for their sophisticated arrangements, but once you have allowed them entrance into your head they do not want to leave. Their first full-length, <I>Music of a Sinking Occasion</I> is a subtle record worthy of many, many listens. <I>--Mike McGonigal</I>

Amazon.com

It's well-documented that Chicago's underground alt/art-rock scene created some of the '90s' most uncompromisingly inventive sounds: witness Tortoise, Jim O'Rourke, Palace, and Califone. L'Altra's <I>Music of a Sinking Occasion</I> (follow-up to '99's heralded, self-titled debut EP) continues the trend, at its own slow, lilting pace. Writing patient songs with memorable, unpredictable movements and long silences, L'Altra make quietly resonant use of naked male and female voices, mixing the two together for a sparse, personal beauty. They incorporate some of the sadcore aesthetics of bands like Red House Painters, Carissa's Wierd, and Low. But their approach is at once more acoustic and instrumentally eclectic: flutes, accordions, and trumpets float into songs at key moments. The instrumental title track is a bit of a set-up, employing a quick splash of drums & bass and some electronic touches over low, minor piano chords. And from there, the record shifts into low gear and luxuriates in the slowly passing scenery. Warm acoustic drums take over the rhythm with track two, "Little Chair," using quiet inflections to get their points across. Later, "Movement" starts off vaguely atonal and unfocused, then suddenly gives way to a lilting, strings-backed harmony that mirrors the desperate hopefulness of the lyrics. Gradual and quiet, L'Altra are in no hurry to impress you, but it happens very quickly nonetheless. <I>--Matthew Cooke</I>

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars L'altra can slow the passage of time.......2001-01-09

The first time I heard L'Altra's debut album Music of a Sinking Occasion, I recalled an image of my more spirited self in the throes of a mushroom trip. I wandered through Golden Gate Park in San Francisco just after a rainstorm, noticing aspects of people and plants that are often overlooked in ordinary perception. My wondrous attention to detail seemed to slow the passing of time, so when the drug eventually wore off, I felt like I had lived a year's worth of thoughts in six hours. To a similarly tuned ear, the soothingly spacious strains of Music of a Sinking Occasion can essentially achieve the same results. L'Altra generates this expansive atmosphere with often little more than a tone from a Rhodes keyboard, the strum of a guitar, a mournful trace of cello or piano, a brush on an open snare that would make Lee Harris of Talk Talk proud, and, of course, the anodyne harmonies of vocalists Lindsay Anderson and Joseph Costa. For those looking for comparisons, imagine a collaboration between the members of Bark Psychosis (circa 1994's album Hex) and the vocalists from Low. However, L'Altra's true kinship with these bands is the manner in which its warm, tranquil music allows just enough latitude between the restrained instrumentation and plaintive voices to reward listeners with an eerily familiar soundtrack to their thoughts, as well as an opportunity to weave their own stories between them. Music of a Sinking Occasion is an album for looking inward and paying attention.

5 out of 5 stars Wonderful Melodic Gem.......2000-11-14

It's great to run across an album unknown to a large portion of the listening population which is so grand and beautiful in scope and melodicism you smile every time you hear it. This album is one of the best kept secrets. Lush, sparse instrumentation with male/female harmonies that melt with passion. Don't be put off with the throwaway first track which should have been omitted from the album since starting with track 2 the album is flawless. Great nighttime music for chilling out to. Sounds very similar to something Jim O'rourke and the Drag City crew would release. Highly recommended.

4 out of 5 stars

Music Album:

  1. Da Capo ~ Love
  2. Live at the Rainbow ~ Focus
  3. Get Born ~ Jet
  4. Afters ~ Hatfield and the North
  5. Live 2001 -- The Full Edition ~ Greenslade
  6. Lost Son ~ Richmond Fontaine
  7. F**k ~ Sheep on Drugs
  8. Headlong ~ The Frames
  9. Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before ~ Various Artists
  10. Greatest Hits ~ Albert Hammond

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Tuxedo Junction ~ Glenn Miller

Metamorphosis/The Grip -- In Concert ~ Arthur Blythe

Meets the Rhythm Section ~ Art Pepper

Introducing Wayne Shorter ~ Wayne Shorter

Satin Doll ~ Hank (Trio) Jones

Help Me Make It through the Night ~ Hank Crawford

L'integrale Sixties ~ Stella

O Dono Do Mundo ~ Milionario & Jose Rico

Batucada ~ Walter Wanderley

Drums of the World ~ Various Artists