For Alto - Anthony Braxton

This morning, one of the emails caught in my spam trap had the following Dadaist poetry subject line:

doubtful barnyard helga hundredth fulsome origin folly servile exculpatory celsius optoelectronic applause criteria devisee artful melissa sickle feldman

Now, isn't that a mouthfull? I especially like the "doubful barnyard helga" part. Could be a band name, or maybe a new gymnastics move, or something.

Anyway, the disconnected nature of this stuff inspired me to listen to some music with a certain amount of randomness...and this Braxton solo disc fits the bill. If you've never listened to Anthony Braxton before, well, I wouldn't recommend starting here. It's difficult listening. He's an interesting guy though. Most of his compositions are named by number ("Composition 187"), combinations of numbers ("1. Composition N. 169 + (186 + 206 + 214)"), or pictogram describing the relationships between song structures:

If you want to find out more about Anthony Braxton, try to find a used copy of Graham Lock's Forces In Motion, in which you will discover that Braxton may have too many brain cells in that head of his.

(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)