Tuesday 15 November 2011

Travelling music

As most readers of this blog will probably know Manuel Gottsching graces the cover of this month's copy of The Wire magazine and the issue includes a fairly lengthy piece about the classic E2-E4 album. One of Manuel's quotes from the article really struck a chord with me. "I once was asked what's your favourite album when you're in bed, when you're on a plane, when you're in your car," he says. "I thought about it and every answer for me was E2-E4. It fits in every situation."

For me E2-E4 is a particularly versatile piece of music because if you decide to tune into it there are dense, multiple layers of sound to examine. If, on the other hand, you elect to zone out and not focus on what unfolds as the recording progresses the effect is extremely meditative. Last weekend I travelled to Manchester and on both the outbound and return journey my first choice of listening was E2-E4. I've listened to the album dozens of times when in transit: on trains, on planes and also travelling to and from work and this is perhaps because there is something about the piece that conveys motion. When one considers that Manuel Gottsching originally recorded E2-E4 to play on his Walkman during a flight to Hamburg the following day I would say mission accomplished.

In other news: there are ongoing developments with the book but I can't say what they are yet. Watch this space.

1 comment:

  1. A mostly very good article, although I didn't agree with everything, and probably shouted BULLSHIT! several times. Better than most though

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