Week 5 Forum - Pierre Heny
[1]
kudos Henry!
Before today I had only heard Henry's music. After watching his work and lifestyle I've come to a few conclusions.
Henry's art work is very erratic. He makes art out of almost anything. It is as if he sees all objects different to the average person. "Outside the square" seems to be his life.
In his home, everything is so disorganized and random. I think his mind is muddled, chaotic and in disarray. I feel he has just expressed his art and lifestyle in a sonic form. I don't consider it "music" as such, but I feel the sonic outcome reflects him as a person. I suppose in many ways this is what music is meant to do, but I especially noticed this with Henry. His personal expressions don't change much at all, so he expresses most of his thoughts through his physical and sonic art.
I enjoyed Heny's sound-scapes. They sounded very full and warm and were original. But, I do feel Henry was overrated though. It is not very hard to create "music" by sampling anything and putting it together. If you approached a punter and played them a piece by Henry and then after played a musique concrete piece by a first year Music Technology student, do you really think they could tell the difference?
I am interested to see if anyone agrees with me.
[1] Futurama. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurama (Accessed 7/4/8)
[2] Steven Whittington "Music Technology Forum: Semester 1 - Week 5 - Pierre Heny". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 3rd April 2008.
Monday, April 07, 2008
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9 comments:
Matt... I agree with you :-)
I think the reason for his appeal has much to do with the fact that he was a pioneer of that art-form. In much the same way, Jimi Hendrix receives continual accolades, while there have been many far superior guitar players since. However he started the ball rolling with a certain style therefore he gets the kudos. Same for Henry. There I said it.
yehhh ur riteee....i guess he did start it....i do think some of his sound scapes sound niceeee....but some other stuff just sounds like noise...at least his pieces range from different ideas
Matt, I don't think you're 'average punter' argument holds up. It's just another cliche with about as much validity as 'a child of 6 could do that.' The uneducated palate can't discriminate between plonk and fine wine, the uneducated eye can't appreciate the difference between Jackson Pollock and a paint spill etc One of the points education is to learn to discriminate quality. Quality, incidentally, is independent of genre/commercial success or anything else. It's inherent.
Henry was a visionary. You wouldn't be doing what you are doing today without his pioneering exploits. All the leading figures I know of in electronic music, including the most commercially successful artists, acknowledge that. Don't let Henry's Gallic eccentricity deceive you into thinking he is in a muddle; he knows exactly what he's doing.
The uneducated palate can't discriminate between plonk and fine wine, the uneducated eye can't appreciate the difference between Jackson Pollock and a paint spill etc
You're going to think I'm stalking you. lol. If we like musique concrete, Bach, Joy Division or Metallica does it really matter? Yes, they have used electronic music techniques (well maybe not Bach) and we realise that, but they have used it in 'harmonically related' musical textures. It is the music VS art debate again. If we like it great, if we don't then that is still great. We can all, I hope, appreciate our musical differences and learn something from each other. We cannot be expected to like everything or abandon our favourite styles at the same time. Maybe that is a paradoxical expectation of Uni. Maybe I have a lot to learn, but I do know what I like and I happen to like a nice merlot from time to time. I do not see what being educated has to do with appreciating wine. I am not an educated wine expert but I guarantee I would pick the $100 bottle over the $5 in a blind sample. It is about taste. The same too with music. People are led by their taste. There are hundreds of trashy acts in all types of genres, but amongst all the rubbish there are gems. I would have hoped that we were educated enough at this point to at least be able to pick the gems for ourselves and not be told what the gems are and are not. No offence intended and I hope none is taken. I am just stating my opinion.
i do think some of his sound scapes sound niceeee....but some other stuff just sounds like noise...
Also, with the point of education, I think it also has to do confidence. Confidence in knowing what he has created is music, in his mind anyway. It is like a record producer. If a producer cannot tell the instance when a take is recorded whether it is a killer take or not then he's not a producer. Henry would have spent umpteen hours playing about and wandering around recording, no doubt ignoring the majority of sounds until he heard something he knew was going to be a part of his music. It is this confidence in his ability that inspires confidence and belief in others. Others that now believe and hear the music too.
It is all a matter of opinion and my opinion is you should do the same as me. Inspire the same confidence in your own work so people can hear the music within.
Jimi Hendrix receives continual accolades, while there have been many far superior guitar players since.
Grr, how...very...dare..you!!
This blog entry has received record commentary! hahaha
All the leading figures I know of in electronic music, including the most commercially successful artists, acknowledge that.
You're probably right, but I've never seen this anywhere.
At the end of the day I think any of this debate is a matter of opinion and the view from different people will depend on their musical and personal experience. Also the opinions will be dependent on their career.
I'm not saying Henry had no talent. I'm just saying that I can produce music with very similar outcomes. I'm not talking about my "commercial rubbish".
I'm saying that my skills and knowledge in music technology and the time I've spent learning new software has given me the ability to create what I think doesn't sound any better or worse than what I've heard from Henry.
I agree with John. He did it first, therefore he's famous for it.
I just hope I can think of something new that no one else has done so I can get some credit for what I'm doing.
So anyhow, when are you going to update your blog? Talk about unprofessional.
mmmmmmm.......when I hav a spare second i guess. These "holidays" have been crazy
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