Free interesting album on Google Play
3A bit of background:
As part of its "Be Together. Not the Same" ad campaign, Google released a
video earlier this month involving Beethoven's piano sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor (Moonlight).
As you can see, a song played in monotone is interesting.
However, that's not the end of it. The people who did this video have released a few album to Google Play.
The album is appropriately named.
Enjoy.
- 4 comments, 12 replies
- Comment
The soundtrack to Footloose (new version) is also free. And the Dazed and Confused soundtrack is $.99.
@sammydog01
You mean this?
Enjoy? That is quite possibly the least enjoyable music I've ever heard. While I get the gist of the campaign, listening to those songs without any tonal variation is downright painful.
@cinoclav
As Google employee Paul Wilcox said when sharing the album to Google+, enjoy it, if you can.
@cinoclav
And if you really want to hear really unenjoyable music, I could share an audio file of my attempting to sing.
Although it would be cruel, and i know that no meh-mbers would have any interest in it.
@FroodyFrog
I can't.
While I wouldn't go as far as @cinoclav, I'm not really sure I see the value here beyond pure novelty. Sure, we often forget to acknowledge that the piano is a percussion instrument, and removing the pitch from pitched percussion emphasizes that. Sure, there's a tendency to appreciate music that emphasizes the trinity of rhythm, dynamics, and tonality — and isolating two out of the three (or one? I'm not listening again to figure out if he attempted to harpsichord that piano or not) makes for an interesting study on the isolated elements. But it's not great listening, and it sure isn't as good as op. 27 no. 2 in its unadulterated glory. And if I wanted to listen to op. 27 no. 2, it's been recorded enough times by folks with enough talent that they don't have to play it at breakneck speed just to come off as impressive. Give me Kaneko, Gilels, Grinberg, Nagai… anyone else…
@brhfl
It's not supposed to be "great listening". It's mostly just for the novelty of it.
That being said, i just removed it from my watch.
@FroodyFrog Fair enough. Let me try to expand that thought…
Take something like Tom Johnson's Music For 88. Also very much a novelty. Also very much not the sort of thing I would put on in the background for a romantic dinner. Not imminently listenable, one might say. But the premise, the accompanying notes, they give one a better understanding of how music relates to math, how math relates to music. There's something to be discovered there, and the artist knows that and opens it up to the listener.
Likewise, there's something to be discovered in removing the tonal aspect from a piece of music that absolutely demands its tonality be recognized. If this was intended by the artist to be part of a greater discussion on the temporal aspects of music, that could be great, even if it didn't sound great. But this just feels so… half-assed. I like the idea behind it, but I wish it led me somewhere. I wish there was some greater understanding. But as it stands, it just feels like this dude likes to play incredibly fast, realized that H.J. Lim already caught enough flack for doing that schtick better, and thought 'eh, okay, let's just make all the strings the same.'
There's something to be learned and explored here. But it just hasn't happened.
@brhfl "There's something to be learned and explored here. But it just hasn't happened." -- I completely agree with that part. I see some good potential.
There are some good jazzers out there that have done more with the tune One Note Samba than this guy did by playing that song really fast.
It could be interesting to give each string a different tambre or something, not quite to the extent of a prepared piano. Or tune each key microscopically higher than the previous so the entire piano's range only extends a half or whole step.
Good could come out of this...
@brhfl
Last time i was a "musician" trying to play serious and incredible stuff was a few centuries back, and have no formal musical edu save that i was ok on cello and violin and piano (for a young person) and didnt suck on guitar (tiny hands).
But i enjoyed this piece as a one timer or novelty. If i had perspective (poss not capable of that given ignorance) i might try to understand more and say more.
Thought it was fun, if taken as experiment or tv commercial. Has possibilities for ring-tone, tho i'm too lazy.
When i wanna do music, since i lack the skill of thinking about music, i put on my awesome-cant-believe senns and just melt.
Will have to settle for that until my brain re-grows. (shhhh, not happening...)
Judging by their tweets, etc., Google seems to think this ad campaign is a lot cleverer than it actually is.
@awk I don't even understand what 'Be together. Not the same.' is supposed to mean. Those things are not in opposition with one another.
@brhfl I saw it as a poke at Apple since Android gives you more options of customizations?
@luvche21 @brhfl
Well of course that's the meaning behind the campaign/slogan.
I believe the problem @brhfl has with the slogan is how it's phrased.
@brhfl dang good ads tho...