Monday's Long Song

Today's long song, one of the longest ever presented in this long running series, came to me via a friend whose taste I trust implicitly and who listened to this in one sitting- the best way to do it I think so set aside forty three minutes for it- and declared himself shell-shocked. The track is called ONE, a single album length track, by Noema. It is ambitious and widescreen, undeniably cosmic, wide eyed and life affirming, an interstellar journey. Noema describes it as a happening from the 1970s, a juncture where Sun Ra, Larry Levan and Steve Reich meet. 

ONE is partly based on Terry Riley's In C, with the piece made up of 56 separate musical patterns- strings, shakers, drums, oboes, clarinets, vibraphones, voices- played from the start, repeated and played consecutively, with each player left to decide when to move on at their own pace. It could be chaos but it's a beautiful, entrancing, uplifting forty three minutes of music, just the sort of thing to lift any early December gloom you may be suffering from and the hell that is entering any retail establishment and being subjected to the horrors of festive music. ONE is where the joy is, a cosmic, expansive, nu- classical, outernational joy. Listen and buy (digitally, on vinyl or CD) here. 

There is a stage show as well, choreography, costumes, an orchestra and graphics and videos, the story of four interdimensional space beings who have lost their way and who need to reconnect. During the performance the five actors invite members of the audience to join in (which could be your worst nightmare). There are remixes too, by Kalabrese, Lauer and  Shubostar here. Lauer's remix is a mere six minutes forty one seconds if you're short of time, a more sci fi/ house version.