Browse by Artist: TOOP, DAVID

Artist:	TOOP, DAVID
Title:	Sound Body
Label:	SAMADHISOUND
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	SAMAD 009CD

"David Toop's Sound Body hums and glows with life, five gorgeous morphing electronic tracks that continue Samadhisound's exploration of quiet, minimal, melodic music worlds created by the likes of Harold Budd, Akira Rabelais, Fennesz, Derek Bailey, David Sylvian and others. These remarkable soundscapes have only become possible in the twenty-first century, when improvisation, digital composing and mixing, and traditional music forms from around the globe all mutate and fuse in ways that surprise and delight. Journalist, musician and author, Toop has also recorded shamanistic ceremonies in Amazonas, appeared on Top Of The Pops with the Flying Lizards, worked with musicians including Brian Eno, John Zorn, Prince Far I, Jon Hassell, Derek Bailey, Talvin Singh, Evan Parker, Scanner, Ivor Cutler, Akio Suzuki and Jin Hi Kim, and collaborated with artists such as theatre director/actor Steven Berkoff. In 1998, he composed the soundtrack for Acqua Matrix, the outdoor spectacular that closed every night of Lisbon Expo '98. His first album, New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments, was released on Brian Eno's Obscure label in 1975; since 1995 he has released seven solo albums, including Screen Ceremonies, Pink Noir, and Black Chamber. He has also written four groundbreaking books on music, currently translated into seven languages including Ocean of Sound, Exotica and Haunted Weather. Sound Body is presented in a digipak with artwork and design by Chris Bigg, continuing Samadhisound's commitment to creating beautifully packaged, stunning music."

Artist:	TOOP, DAVID
Title:	I Never Promised You A Rose Garden
Label:	SUB ROSA (BELGIUM)
Format:	DVD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	OME 010DVD

...A Portrait Of David Toop Through His Records Collection. In his home in the northern part of London, David Toop plays us records for several days and asks: does music have any limits? Is the collective vomiting of Amazonian shamans on a vision quest music, or not? What about the funeral dirges of the Potu people? How did New Orleans jazz-bassist John Levy's recordings radically change our perceptions? How did improvised music and electronica redefine some secular frontiers? What influence did solitary rockabilly singer Hasil Adkins have on Finnish electronic group Panasonic? Sub Rosa presents a 90-minute film of these questions and more in a 96-minute film, directed by Guy-Marc Hinant and Dominique Lohlé. However, this film is not only about music, it is about speech patterns, and the moments where speech progresses towards exhaustion, where at any moment, words are lost, the body's limits take hold, and the film is over. Toop's record collection is endless, but after a while, the man gets tired, as if envisioning himself commenting on tens of thousands of records, one by one. Could that be done? At one point, the tone switches from the desire to continue to the desire to see it all stop. A type of despondency and hidden sadness is revealed. 96 minutes; double-sided DVD in both NTSC & PAL formats; region-free; in English with French subtitles.

Artist:	TOOP, DAVID
Title:	37th Floor at Sunset
Label:	SUB ROSA (BELGIUM)
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	SR 163CD

"David Toop is a musician, composer, writer and sound curator. He published three books: Rap Attack, Ocean of Sound and Exotica. He has also released five solo albums since 1995: (Screen Ceremonies, Pink Noir, Spirit World, Museum of Fruit and Hot Pants Idol). He worked with musicians such as Brian Eno, John Zorn, Prince Far I, Jon Hassell, Derrek Bailey, Talvin Singh, Evan Parker, Max Eastley, Scanner, Ivor Cutler and Witchman. 'I wanted to create atmospheres suggestive of buildings as living organisms, creatures with nervous systems, without reducing the soundtrack to a catalogue of sound effects. In his novel, High Rise, J.G. Ballard described the subtle relationship of an apartment block's nervous system to the disintegrating ecology of the mini-society of its inhabitants. Apartment blocks look much the same, whether in China or the suburbs of Paris, yet the lives within them are very different. The sounds of lift shafts, ventilation and heating systems, the murmurs of human activity, radio and television, have a universality that becomes specific only in the finest details, a moment in time at the right place, maybe through the walls of the 37th floor at sunset.' -- David Toop"

Artist:	TOOP, DAVID
Title:	Black Chamber
Label:	SUB ROSA (BELGIUM)
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	SR 205CD

"'The Black Chamber (Kurodo) is a room where the emperor from Komatsu after his accession to the throne always cooked for himself, still remembering how in the past, when he was a private person, he had dabbled in cookery. They say it is called the Black Chamber because it has become sooty from kindling smoke.' Essays In Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko (c. 1330-1332). Recorded, played and produced by David Toop at the mythic The Bathosphere in autumn 2002, this record is an important landmark in his work because it's an accomplishment and a synthesis of many preoccupations from his whole artistic live. Presents in these sessions: Tom Recchion, Terry Day (Alterartion), Paul Burwell, Watanabe, Lol Coxhill...many of these musicians were the main protagonists of the London improvisation scene in the seventies. It included too some surprising field recordings in China and in his own garden in London. The tonality, the general key, is very diverse with something Japanese in the air, an important part of 'real instruments' on a complex electronic organization Soft Cavities, Raw Mouth Shape, The Slapping Gun and Plume (inspired by the Belgian Henri Michaux) are successful mix up of electronic devices and Coxhill's sax improvisations. 'Waxed Skin' and 'Poison Incense' are very delicate micro-sound exercises (including time to time some acoustic instruments). 'Apartment Thunder' and 'Ill-Faced Doll' are a short erotic Japanese movies. 'Silver Birds' and 'Life In the Folds' are field recordings in China and to be true it's hard to admit that 'Gored Fig Sacs' was recorded in his own garden (but it was). The very soft 'Blind Eel Priestess' involved electronics and beautiful electric guitars. At least, 'Black Chamber' is an amazing Lynchian piece with his compelling part of guitar arpeggio. a splendor. Black Chamber is his maturity masterpiece."

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